Ingredients
Equipment
Method
Season and Smoke
- Pat the oxtails dry and season them generously on all sides with your favorite BBQ seasoning. Salt, pepper and garlic works too.
- Get your smoker running at 250°F and place the seasoned oxtails directly on the grate.
- Smoke until they reach about 175°F internal and have developed the color and bark you are looking for. Roughly 2.5 to 3 hours depending on the size of the oxtails and how your smoker runs.
Brown Sugar Bourbon Braise
- Move the oxtails into a Dutch oven. Add the bourbon, brown sugar, BBQ sauce, beef broth, Worcestershire, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, onion, garlic, tomato paste and bay leaves.
- Top off with additional beef broth as needed to keep the oxtails covered, then put the lid on the Dutch oven.
- Place it back on the smoker and continue cooking until the oxtails are fork tender and falling off the bone. Usually another 2 to 3 hours. Go by the fork here, not by a temperature. A fork should slide in with no resistance and the meat should pull off the bone.
Serve
- Pull them off the smoker and remove the bay leaves. Serve with mashed potatoes or mac and cheese, and save the braising liquid.
Notes
Smoke first, then braise: Once anything is submerged it cannot brown or take on smoke. The bark has to be built while the surface is still dry, then the braise breaks down the collagen.
Fork, not thermometer: The 175°F reading tells you when to pull them off the smoke. Nothing but a fork tells you when the braise is finished. If the meat still grips the bone, give it more time.
Keep them covered: Top off with beef broth if the level drops during the braise.
Better the next day: Store them in the braising liquid. Pull the meat off the bone and it is taco or burrito filling that needs nothing else done to it.
Timing: Miguel gives 5 to 6 hours across both cooks. The 2.5 to 3 hour and 2 to 3 hour splits are estimates and will vary with the size of your oxtails.