Perfect Instant Pot Oxtails

Prep time: 5 mins      Cook time: 1 hr      Rest time: 10 mins     Total time: 1 hr 15 mins

Macronutrients per serving: 80g fat | 10g protein | 0g carbohydrates

Servings: 4

Make it AIP or Dairy-Free: Use animal fat other than ghee or butter

With slightly charred tops, fall-off-the-bone-meat, and extra ghee to make the broth slightly sweet and buttery, these oxtails are wonderful – the perfect base for a hearty, fatty soup.

What you need to make Perfect Instant Pot Oxtails

Ingredients:

• Beef oxtails
• Grass-fed ghee (or butter)
• Sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off)
• Water

Equipment:

• Pressure Cooker (Instant Pot, preferably)

Substitutions

You can substitute the ghee for your animal fat of choice, although I do highly recommend ghee with this recipe due to its sweet and buttery flavor.

How to make Perfect Instant Pot Oxtails

To start – begin by prepping the oxtails. Salt both sides liberally with sea salt. I salt the hell out of mine. I’ve made this plenty of times and I haven’t oversalted yet, although I do trend toward salty when it comes to my palette.

Next, char the oxtails. Press Saute on your Instant Pot for 30 minutes. (Note: for older versions, press the ‘Saute’ button then the ‘Adjust’ button; for newer versions, press the ‘Saute’ button twice.)

While the Instant Pot is warming up, place 2 tbsp of ghee (or fat of choice, although I do highly recommend ghee with this due to its buttery flavor) inside of the Instant Pot.

Once the unit displays “HOT” on the LED screen, swish around the melted ghee to get an even layer on the floor of the Instant Pot. Place the oxtails inside in an even layer. All bottoms should be touching the floor.

Saute the oxtails on one side for 5 minutes. To get an even char, rotate the oxtails 180 degrees about halfway through.

Flip the oxtails and repeat on the other side: saute for five minutes and rotate 180 degrees about halfway through.

Unplug the Instant Pot (I do this to reset it and change function – I haven’t figured out how to change function midway through without unplugging it).

Set it to Manual/High Pressure for 50 minutes. Add 3/4 cup of water. Close and allow to cook.

When the Instant Pot turns off, let it slow release for 10 minutes. Once slow release is complete, vent the pressure cooker. The oxtails are done!

Divide the oxtails and broth in two, and place in bowls. Eat alone, or pair with my Crispy Sauteed Purple Sweet Potatoes and make my Simple Oxtail Soup.

Serve, savor, and enjoy!

Tips to make the best Instant Pot Oxtails

• Make sure to saute the oxtails before pressure cooking them. Don’t skip this step. It gives them their charred/crispy tops and edges which provides for a great texture with the fall-off-the-bone feature the meat gets from pressure cooking.
• Do not salt the oxtails inside of the pressure cooker. If you salt them on the inside, the salt residue that misses the oxtail will go into your broth, and the broth will likely come out way too salty. I have made this mistake more than once. Salt both sides of the oxtail outside of the pressure cooker, then saute them inside the pressure cooker.
• Rotate the oxtails horizontally (spin them around, basically) while sauteing. The pressure cooker doesn’t saute evenly (mine is hotter in the center). If you rotate the oxtails, this will give them an even char.

A word about macronutrients

Considering bone makes up a large part of oxtails, it was a challenge to calculate macronutrients precisely. I found a resource online that said every 2 kg of oxtail yields 1 kg of meat, so for this recipe, if using 2 lbs of oxtails, I calculate macronutrients based on 1 lb of meat. Rough at best, but oxtails are quite fatty, so you shouldn’t have to worry about meeting a 2:1 fat:protein ratio with this meal, especially with the added ghee or animal fat.

A few of my other hearty & savory recipes:

Roasted Bone Marrow with Carnivore Baguette and Honey Butter

Serve with my Crispy Sauteed Purple Sweet Potatoes and Carnivore Baguettes

Or, make my Simple Oxtail Soup!

Perfect Instant Pot Oxtails

What I used for this recipe:

Looking for some more recipes with oxtails? Try this:

Make my Simple Oxtail Soup!

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