Italian Braised Beef and Potatoes | Food Wishes

This Italian braised beef and potatoes is one of my favorite comfort food dishes of all time. If you crave meat and potatoes, this is simple, slow-cooked, rustic recipe is the one for you. Crusty Italian bread for soaking up the amazing sauce sold separately. Enjoy!

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Hello this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with Italian bra beef and potatoes that’s right I’m going to show you how to make one of my favorite dishes of all time and while I do like vegetables and would serve some alongside this what I love and crave the

Most is meat and potatoes and this my friends is about as meat and potatoes as it gets and we will meet the potatoes in a few minutes but what we’ll do first is season up some nut nice thick slices of beef shake and we’re going with that

Because it’s one of the toughest Cuts with the most connective tissue not to mention includes a nice marrow bone in the middle and it’s these type of cuts that really do braze the V since as these cook all that connective tissue breaks down which is what produces all

That amazing Rich sticky goodness and what we’ll do after seasoning both sides with some salt freshly ground black pepper and cayenne is head over to the stove to sear this in a nice heavy bottom Dutch oven or something similar set over high heat in which we’ve drizzled a few tablespoons of olive oil

And what we’ll do is sear that for about 3 or 4 minutes per side and there’s lots of these rustic Italian inspired braze dishes where we do not brown the meat first but getting some nice caramelization on the surface first before we add our brazing liquids does

Help us achieve a little more flavor and the next person that complains about a dish like this having too much flavor will be the first so to me this step is definitely worth the extra couple minutes oh and speaking of connective tissue sometimes when you see your beef shank

Like this those membranes and connective tissue will contract and the meat will kind of curl up like this and if that happens all we have to do is take some scissors or a knife and just cut through the edge in a few spots and by the way

That’s not going to affect the brazing but it’s a proven scientific fact that flat things sear better than curled up things and sometimes I’ll actually make a few Cuts before I sear but anyway if yours curl don’t be afraid to give them a snip so they

Unfurl and then once we do have those nicely browned we’ll go ahead and remove those to a plate and we’ll reduce our heat to medium and toss in our chopped onions and celery along with a nice big pinch of salt well actually I tossed in that same seasoning mix to use for the

Beef but anyway we’ll toss in some salt and maybe a little bit of pepper and we will cook that stirring for a few minutes or until those onions go from bright white to sort of translucent and once our veggies do soften up a little bit and have taken on some nice golden

Brown color we can stop and toss in some tomato paste as well as a generous amount of minced garlic followed by some dried rosemary as well as some dried musroom although oregano is going to work out pretty much exactly the same and what we’ll do is

Give that a stir and cook that for a couple more minutes to sort of toast that tomato paste and by the way yes you can use fresh herbs in this although if you are going to use fresh Rosemary in maram Andor oregano you always have to

Use like three or four times the amount of the dry to get the same effect although it’s really not the same effect since dried herbs have a different flavor than fresh but in any event if we’re going to call this Italian braz beef and potatoes we are definitely

Going to need some kind of herb component in this and then once we’ve cooked that for a few minutes we can go ahead and toss in a little bit of wine and we’ll stir that in and cook it for a couple minutes or until the wine just about

Disappears and I prefer white cuz it’s a little warm mellow but red wine would also work so you decide I mean you are after all the Gino of which Veno but I really do think this needs a splash to something and speaking of splashes once that wine is pretty much disappeared we

Can go ahead and toss in some chicken broth plus one bay leaf at which point we’ll give this a stir and turn our heat up to high so we can bring this back to a simmer at which point we can transfer our beef back in and yes you can use

Beef broth if you want but I generally go with the easier to find more neutral flavored chicken broth since we are going to get a ton of beef flavor from those Shanks which reminds me if times are tough you could just add some water and this will still be very very

Delicious but either way once simmering like I said will transfer our beef back in along with of course any accumulated juices from the plate I mean you can’t throw those away that would be insane and then before we cover this and pop it in the oven I’m going to take a spoon

And base the tops a little bit which is completely and absolutely unnecessary but for me it’s part of the ritual part of the ceremony part of the meditation so if you don’t want to base don’t base but I’m a baster from way back so I basted and that’s it we’ll go

Ahead and turn off the heat and pop on the lid and then transfer this into the center of a 325 degree oven for 2 hours or till our meat is almost very close to but not quite quite fork tender which is probably going to look a little

Something like this and if we poke it with a fork the fork will slide in without a ton of effort but the meat is not yet super soft and easy to pull off the bone which is perfect because we still need to add our potatoes and then

Put this back in the oven to cook some more and for me the best choice here are some peeled and quar Yukon Gold potatoes which are roughly about 2 in in size and before we add those in I like to douse them with olive oil as well as sprinkle

In some of our seasoning mix or at the very least a nice big pinch of salt plus since we’re going to have it sitting right there I like to skim some of that super flavorful beef fat off the top and add a couple tablespoons of that in as

Well at which point we’ll give this a toss until evenly coated and once that’s been accomplished we can add those potatoes to the top and if you’re wondering if this will come out any differently if you just toss those potatoes right into the pot and mix them

With those cooking liquids well to to be honest I’m not sure but for me this just seems right plus since we’re not using a ton of liquid part of the potato is going to be sitting above the meat and I just feel a little bit better if those

Get baptized before they get braced which is a perfect segue to The Next Step since once those have been transferred in I’m going to go ahead and rinse out the bowl we tossed them in with about a half a cup of water and transfer that in as well since I want to

Make sure we have enough of those amazing brazing liquids to serve with the beef and potatoes once it’s done and that’s it we’ll go ahead and pop the lid back on and place that back in our 325° oven for about another hour or so or until our meat and potatoes are very

Soft tender and succulent and know we’re not going buy smell or appearance both of which are amazing we’re going to go ahead and test this with a knife or Fork which should slide in with zero effort and then in real life just go ahead and

Serve this up all right I have to take some pictures so I want to had basted the top and moved a few potatoes around and tried to make everything look extra enticing and then once I was finally finished fussing I finished off with a little sprinkling of chili flakes as

Well as a nice scattering of freshly chopped Italian parsley and that’s it my Italian bra beef and potatoes was ready to enjoy which I’m going to do in a nice big bowl with plenty of those amazing brazing liquids spooned over and I finished up with a little more Italian parsley and

Yes as you can see we definitely want to serve this alongside some sliced bread as well as one optional ingredient some freshly squeezed lemon which I will get to in a minute but for now I’m going to take a fork and a spoon and I’m going to

Start with a nice chunk of those potatoes which if I’m being honest is my favorite part well actually let’s call it a tie with the beef but they really truly are extraordinary and to double check that my memory is working properly I went ahead and took a bite of the beef next

And very verified yes that’s equally incredible oh when as fantastic as the beef and potato are my other favorite part of this is some nice crusty Italian bread used to soak up those juices I mean I would have no problem just eating a bowl of that and while it’s definitely

Optional since this is a sort of rich and unctious Dish I think a little squeeze of fresh lemon is a nice touch and helps cut through some of that richness and sure we could accomplish the same thing with a little sprinkling of vinegar and what I love so much about a dish

Like this is that on one hand it’s so simple and rustic and comforting yet at the same time very rich and decadent and complex in flavor and whenever I eat this I’m thinking this is exactly what I want to eat oh and I almost forgot about the fourth component tied for the best

Thing in this with the beef potatoes and the bread dipped in the juice and that would be that little bit of marrow we can dig out from the inside of the bone and eat on a piece of bread which is never not an incredibly special treat but anyway that’s it what I’m calling

Italian bra beef and potatoes right I’m not saying there’s actually a recipe over in Italy exactly like this but this was inspired by the very rustic very simple Italian food I grew up with plus it’s been my experience that if you call things Italian you get more views oh and

One last thing before we go if you can’t find beef shank for this it will work beautifully with some beef chuck roast but no matter what you use use if you love meat and potatoes as much as I love meat and potatoes I am very certain you

Are going to love this which is why I really do hope you give this a try soon so please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts a printable written recipe and much more info as usual and as always enjoy