The Secret To Super Tender Oxtail According To Kwame Onwuachi

Oxtail is one of the most delicious cuts of beef, offering a rich, savory flavor on par with short ribs, but at a more affordable price. It also happens to be one of the most underrated cuts of beef. This is partly due to the fact that it's difficult to find oxtail at supermarkets and butcher shops, largely because each cow yields very little of it. Unfortunately, oxtail also suffers from its reputation as a tough cut riddled with chewy connective tissue. This isn't nearly as big of an issue as some might think, though. To prove it, Chowhound sought advice from James Beard Award-winning chef Kwame Onwuachi, who is hosting a block party with Guinness on August 24 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn's Domino Park.

Onwuachi is the chef and owner of the celebrated Afro-Caribbean restaurant Tatiana in New York City, as well as a former "Top Chef" contestant and judge, and also the author of "Notes from a Young Black Chef." Much of his cooking draws on his family's roots in Nigeria and the Caribbean, both regions where oxtail is prominently featured in the cuisine, and he currently features the cut in multiple dishes on Tatiana's menu. According to Onwuachi, if you're struggling to achieve tender oxtail in your dishes, it probably comes down to two issues. "It's not cooked long enough, or it's cooked at the wrong temperature," he says. Fixing these issues requires careful attention to your recipe.

One of the defining traits of oxtail is the large amount of collagen found in the cut. Collagen is a type of connective tissue that can be incredibly tough to chew through if you don't cook the meat properly. However, it's a great thing if you know how to treat the meat right. By slow-cooking oxtails over low heat, the collagen will break down and transform into gelatin, which is tender and moist. The result is amazingly rich and tender meat, which is why oxtail is popular for soups and stews. At Tatiana, Chef Kwame Onwuachi, who is a fan of cooking with beer, spends four days in total preparing his oxtails, between marinating them for a full 24 hours and braising them until fork tender (via Esquire). They're served with dainty Thumbelina carrots, coconut milk-infused rice and peas, and chayote squash.

Onwuachi's advice for those learning to cook oxtail is, "Definitely make sure you're cooking it long enough as the recipe you're following suggests." Depending on which one you're cooking from, the amount of time can vary, but you should expect a few hours in most cases. As tempting as it can be to speed through things, oxtail is a cut that you shouldn't take shortcuts with, and Onwuachi admits that you may even need to cook oxtail a little longer than suggested to get the perfect texture. The best way to determine when you're done, according to him, is to taste as you go.