How To Make a Terrific Tomatoey Oxtail Stew

October 29, 2022 by soLing

Cooking with oxtail connected me to Zimbabwean cuisine. The result was a delicious oxtail stew that reminded me of Italian flavors!

Below are some links to more details, including photos:

My Story
Inspiring Recipe
- First Try
- Second Try
Continuous Improvement
Lesson for Dumber Self
Next Step for You

My Story

With oxtail at home, I wanted a new recipe to pair with it that didn’t have celery as an ingredient. (I was avoiding recipes with celery, since the ones I saw only needed a portion of the bunch and I didn’t have another use for the leftovers.)

What I found online led me to add a new spice to my collection, which was so exciting!

Inspiring Recipe

The recipe, Oxtail Stew, from Princess Tafadzwa’s blog, not only assisted me in another adventure of cooking with oxtail, but also introduced me to cooking with thyme.

First Try

Before I started cooking this stew, I had to shop for about half of the ingredients on the recipe, most of which I found at the places I regularly visited. However, I had to make a detour to get crushed tomatoes at a supermarket that I occasionally shopped at.

Ingredients to Use

Starting with 4.14 pounds of oxtail, I approximately doubled the rest of the ingredients on the recipe, as shown below:

2 onions
2 cloves of garlic
8 ounces of crushed tomatoes
4 ounces tomato paste
2 1/8 teaspoons of thyme
2 1/8 teaspoons of curry powder
2 1/8 teaspoons of red pepper flakes
49 ounces of beef bone broth

The only ingredient that I substituted in the recipe was beef bone broth for the beef stock, so I could avoid the extra flavoring, oil, and color.

Beef bone broth, salt, crushed tomatoes, thyme, garlic, curry powder, tomato paste, onion, oxtail, red pepper, and pepper — Beef bone broth, salt, crushed tomatoes, thyme, garlic, curry powder, tomato paste, onion, oxtail, red pepper flakes, and pepper

Steps to Prepare

For the process, I adjusted two out of three of the steps.

In step 1, I started with the stove on high heat, so the oxtail would begin the browning process sooner. When the meat was sizzling, I turn the stove down to medium. Also, I kept the fat in the pot, so I could use it to cook the items in step 2.

When I got to step 3, I ended up simmering the oxtail for a little over 2 1/2 hours before the meat was falling off the bones. Also, though I started skimming some fat off, I decided to leave the rest, since the rice that I was going to eat with this dish would soak it up.

Chopped onions and crushed garlic in a bowl — Chopped onions and crushed garlic

Browning oxtail in a pot — Browning oxtail

Oxtail sautéed with onion and garlic in a pot — Oxtail sautéed with onion and garlic

Tomatoes, tomato paste, thyme, curry powder and red pepper flakes added to the pot — Tomatoes, tomato paste, thyme, curry powder and red pepper flakes added

Tomatoes, tomato paste, thyme, curry powder and red pepper flakes cooked in the pot — Tomatoes, tomato paste, thyme, curry powder and red pepper flakes cooked

Beef bone broth boiling in the pot — Beef bone broth boiling

Time to Eat

After adding two teaspoons of salt and pepper sparingly across the top of the pot, I stirred the stew and transferred it to a bowl for dinner.

Recipe Rating

Below were the results of the recipe after the first try:

Number of Ingredients	Effort (Low🤏, Medium🤏🤏, High🤏🤏🤏)	Cost per Serving (<$2💰, $2-5💰💰, >$5💰💰💰)	Taste (Not for me🤔, Trying Again🙂, Eating Regularly😋)
1️⃣1️⃣	🤏	💰💰	😋

Though the oxtail stew required little effort to make, I was impressed with the soft meat in the tasty sauce where the tomatoes, onions, and spices came through. One of my family members even enjoyed it with extra rice and sauce!