These shortribs are magic. You stuff your crockpot full of shortribs and cabbage in the morning, and by evening, *POOF*, you have a big pot of tasty goodness. Then all you have to do is thicken the sauce, make some mock rice (or real rice for your family), and dinner is served.

Ingredients

1/2 c. soy sauce

8 packets Splenda, or the equivalent to 1/3 C. Sugar

1/4 C. rice vinegar

2 T. minced garlic

1 T. grated fresh ginger

1/2 tsp. chili powder

4 lbs beef short ribs

1 medium cabbage, quartered

1/2 tsp xanthan gum 

1 TBS sesame oil

4 green onions, thinly sliced

Get your 4-6 qt crock pot set up. If you have a smaller crockpot, cut the recipe in half.

Combine the soy sauce, sweetener, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, and chili powder in the crock pot. Add the ribs to the crockpot, getting them in as tight as you can.

Put as much cabbage as you can on top of the ribs. Depending on how everything fits, you may not be able get an entire head of cabbage in there and still get the lid on. It’s not a big deal. In the photo, I got 1/4 of a large head of green cabbage and an small head of purple cabbage.

Lid your crockpot and cook on low for 8-9 hours. If you get a late start, you can cook it on high for 5-6 hours.

When it’s cooked, move the meat and cabbage to a serving plate. The meat will fall off the bones and start to come apart on its own. You’ll probably find that there’s a lot of removable fat in the meat, so just go ahead and discard it, and break the meat up into pieces. The beauty of ribs is that all the connective tissue that is normally inedible will turn gelatinous and soft after the long and slow cook time, so there’s no need to discard anything but the excess fat.

Skim as much fat as you can from the remaining sauce. Add the sesame oil and green onions to the skimmed sauce, and sprinkle a little xanthan gum over the surface. Whisk it until it’s completely combined, then sprinkle a little bit more. Only add as much as you need to get it to a sauce consistency.

Serve the meat and cabbage with the rice of your choice. The thickened sauce can go over everything, to taste.