Delicious Oxtail Soup Recipe (with Instant Pot and Slow Cooker Options)

This delicious oxtail soup recipe is the full of the warm, hearty, filling flavors that are perfect on chilly nights.

We love making this oxtail soup in the fall or winter, and serving it with homemade gluten-free cornbread. It’s very similar to traditional beef stew in flavor and composition, with the added goodness of nutrients from the bones, making the broth extra rich.

While we always save our beef bones for making broth, oxtail really makes the best bone broth. It’s small, and easy to work with, plus has meat on it for your soup! So you get the goodness of bone marrow along with the meat.

Why Oxtail Soup

Using every part of the cow is a step toward sustainability and ethical meat processing.

When you live on a farm that produces beef, you get pretty familiar with all the beef parts. You also understand the principal of not letting anything go to waste. If there’s a part that’s edible, you use it. Our of respect for the animal, and in the interest of not wasting your own time and resources.

I feel like this is something that gets forgotten when we’re used to running to the store and loading up on the common cuts of beef and chicken. There’s disconnect.

And also, most steers only have one tail, so compared to ground beef, oxtail is fairly rare. As a family, if you process one beef per year, it’s a soup you get once a year.

We got our first beef in quite a while back from the processor a few days ago, and immediately put oxtail stew on the menu.

Ingredients for Oxtail Soup

• First is the oxtail. You can usually source this at major grocery stores such as Kroger or HEB, or at your local meat processor.
• Oil. This is for browning your oxtail, and later, sautéing vegetables as part of your soup base. I usually use light olive oil.
• Onion. We all know that soup isn’t complete without an onion!
• Celery. Celery adds a lot of flavor to your soup, and is a nice additional vegetable.
• Carrots. Another flavorful veggies, and a pop of color.
• Garlic. Everyone knows you measure garlic cloves with the heart.
• Potatoes. Adding heartiness to your soup, and making it the world’s best comfort food.
• Tomato sauce. This adds more flavor to the broth. Many people use tomato paste, but I find it easier, and the taste just as delicious to use sauce. 
• Worcestershire sauce. Another delicious flavor addition.
• Salt and pepper. Essential for flavor
• Thyme. One of my favorite herbs for this soup. Fresh thyme is easy to add, and then remove before serving, or dried thyme can be added and stirred in.
• Beef Broth. While the oxtails will technically make beef/bone broth of your soup, using beef broth instead of water will make a rich broth. You can also use the equivalent amount of beef bouillon. 

How to make this oxtail soup

1. Heat oil in your dutch oven over medium-high heat and quickly brown the oxtail pieces on each side
2. Remove the oxtail from the pot, set aside, and turn your stove down to medium heat
3. Add your diced onion, celery, and carrots to the pot, and sauté until soft
4. Add garlic, salt, and pepper, and sauce for another minute
   
5. Add in tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, potatoes, and beef broth, and stir together
6. Add oxtail back to pot, and top with 2-3 sprigs of thyme
   
7. Cover and bring to a simmer
8. Simmer until vegetables are tender
9. Remove from heat, and serve

Store leftovers in airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Oxtail stew variations and tips

There are quite a few different variations on oxtail soup out there. This one is designed to be simple and easy, much like our home-canned beef stew. HOWEVER, don’t be afraid to play around with flavors.

One common variation is adding sherry. This is a good one! For the most part, it’s not for me, simply because I’m someone who drinks alcohol often, so buying a bottle of sherry just to use a half cup in a recipe doesn’t make sense for me. But if you do, here’s how:

After sautéing the vegetables, stir in 1/2 cup of sherry or dry white wine, to deglaze the pan, then proceed with the rest of the recipe. This helps get the flavorful bits that may have stuck to the bottom up and into the soup, as well as adding the flavor of the wine.

Use different herbs. I really love the thyme in this, and like for it to stand out. Some other additions can be rosemary, oregano, or basil. You’ll find many recipes also use bay leaves which add a very light flavor.

Use different vegetables. There’s no rule that oxtail stew can only have potatoes, carrots, and celery in it. Feel free to throw in a bag of mixed veggies when you add the potatoes. Or add some cabbage (canned cabbage is great for this), frozen or canned corn, or peas.

Beans are also a great addition, especially in winter, and help boost the protein content.

Another great addition is chopped spinach or cake about a minute before serving.

Make oxtail soup in your slow cooker

For a faster weeknight dinner, the stovetop method works great, but a real workhorse for busy moms is the slow cooker. This is great for creating tender meat that will fall right off the bones.

I would Add all the ingredients except potatoes and carrots to the slow cooker and cook for 4-6 hours on high, or 8-10 hours on low, then add the potatoes and carrots to the pot, and resume cooking for about 2 hours until the potatoes are tender.

When you open the pot to put the potatoes in, you can also remove the oxtail, debone the meat, and add it back.

To make oxtail soup in the Instant Pot

Follow the recipe instructions up to putting the lid on the pot. Instead, lock the pressure lid on, close the valve, and select “soup”, and cook for 25 minutes. When the time is up, release pressure and serve. I would also suggest reducing the volume of beef broth to about 5 cups since you won’t lose as much moisture from the pot.

How to serve oxtail soup

Many people like to serve their oxtail soup  in a dish over rice. I tend to serve it as a soup with cornbread on the side because that’s the way my kids and husband like it. It’s a southern thing maybe.

You can see in my photos that the pieces of oxtail were cut rather long. I considered cutting them down to a more “normal” presentation, but decided to just roll with what I had. Regardless, you’ll want to make sure each bowl has at least one piece of oxtail in it. 

Other soup and stew recipes to try

• Italian Peasant Soup
• Stuffed Cabbage Soup
• How to Can Vegetable Soup
• Roasted butternut squash soup
• Cream of Asparagus soup
• Quick and easy chicken soup (Instant Pot)
• Summer Italian Zucchini  Soup

 

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