Oxtail soup is a rich, slow-cooked beef soup made from meaty oxtail bones and root vegetables. This version is based on the classic English style - thick, hearty and full of depth, with added spices like star anise and cloves for extra punch. We use a pressure cooker to speed things up without losing that slow-cooked flavour.
Category
Dinner
Servings
4
Prep time
20 minutes
Cook time
1 minute
Oxtail soup is one of my all time favourites. It was the soup my mum used to make for us in the middle of winter in Wellington, New Zealand, when it was cold and wet. It's savoury, rich, and full of beefy goodness.
Traditionally slow-cooked for hours, it's made by simmering oxtail with vegetables, stock, and aromatics until the meat falls off the bone and the broth thickens into a deeply savoury soup. I’ve stuck close to the English-style version (thick and gravy-like) but added a few extras like star anise and cloves for more lift. Pressure cooking gets you the same result in a fraction of the time.
The oxtail gets browned hard in beef tallow first to build a deep fond, then braised in red wine, beef stock, and chicken stock with the vegetables and aromatics. The pressure cooker cuts what would otherwise be a 3-hour braise down to about an hour. If you don’t have one, a heavy-based saucepan with a lid on low heat for 3 hours gives you the same result. At the end the meat is stripped off the bones and returned to the broth, which by that point should be thick, deeply savoury, and rich enough to serve as is with good crusty bread.
Ingredient Notes
Oxtail: Oxtail is the tail of the cow, cross-cut into sections. The bones and cartilage are extremely collagen-rich, which is why the broth thickens so well during a long braise. Most butchers stock it, though you may need to order in advance for a larger quantity like this. If you buy a whole tail rather than pre-portioned pieces, a cleaver or heavy chef’s knife is needed to cut through the joints.
Beef tallow: Rendered beef fat with a high smoke point, which makes it ideal for browning the oxtail at high heat without burning. I use it in two stages here: the first batch to brown the oxtail (which gets discarded because it picks up flour from the coating), and a fresh amount for the vegetable base. Lard or a neutral high-smoke oil works if you can’t find tallow.
Star anise and cloves: These whole spices add a layer of warmth to the broth that you don’t get from just thyme and bay leaves alone. They’re subtle at the quantities used here. Both need to be removed before serving along with the other whole aromatics. If you’re worried about missing a clove in the finished soup, tie them in a small piece of muslin cloth or a spice bag before adding them to the pot.
Equipment
- Chopping board
- Chef’s knife
- Pressure cooker pot or heavy-based saucepan with lid
- Large bowl (for flouring the oxtail)
- Tongs
- Wire rack and tray
- Ladle
Ingredients
- 1.5kg (3.3 lbs) oxtail, sliced into pieces
- ⅓ cup (50g) plain flour
- sea salt and black pepper
- 40g beef tallow
- 2 brown onions, diced
- 2 sticks celery, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 1 turnip, diced
- 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 star anise
- 4 whole cloves
- 250ml (1 cup) red wine
- 500ml (2 cups) beef stock
- 1L chicken stock
- 2 stalks parsley
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- crusty bread, to serve
Directions
Brown oxtail
Portion the oxtail (if you bought it whole). Add the flour, 2 large pinches of salt and about 3 grinds of pepper in a bowl. Toss the oxtail pieces in the flour mix.
- Heat half the tallow in a pressure cooker pot on medium-high heat. Brown the oxtail in batches, turning to get a good colour on all sides.
- Dice your veggies while you’re waiting for the oxtail to brown.
- Once all the oxtail pieces are well browned on all sides, set them aside.
Cook the veg base
Pour off the fat from the pot, then add the remaining tallow. Add the onion and a large pinch of salt and cook for 5 minutes until softened.
- Add the celery, carrot and turnip and cook for another 3 minutes.
- Stir in the garlic, thyme, bay leaves, tomato paste, cloves and star anise. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute to bring out the aromatics.
Cook
Pour in the red wine and bring to a simmer. Let it reduce by half.
- Return the oxtails back to the pot.
- Add the beef and chicken stocks along with the parsley stalks. Bring to a simmer, then secure the pressure cooker lid on. Set to high pressure and cook for 60 mins.
- Release the pressure and wait for all the steam to release before opening.
Finish and serve
Transfer oxtail to a wire rack over a tray and discard the parsley stalks, thyme stalks, cloves, bay leaves and star anise.
- Shred the meat off the bones and return it to the soup, discarding the bones. Give it a stir. Check for seasoning and stir in vinegar.
- Ladle into serving bowls and serve with crusty bread for dipping.
Recipe video
Recipe notes
Chef Tips
Brown the oxtail in batches
Crowding the pan drops the temperature and steams the meat instead of searing it. You want each piece to have direct contact with the hot tallow and enough space around it for the moisture to evaporate. Work in batches of 3 or 4 pieces at a time and don’t move them until a proper crust has formed on each side. The colour you build here directly affects the depth of flavour in the finished broth.
Cooking method
If you don’t have a pressure cooker, cook as per the above method in a heavy based saucepan with a lid. Once the stock has come to a simmer, cover with a tight fitting lid and simmer soup on low for 3 hours, until meat is fall-apart tender.
Cook support
Why don’t I reuse the first lot of tallow? As we cooked the oxtail in flour, there will be lots of flour now in the tallow. If we use this in the soup, it will change the texture.
Sourcing
Whole oxtail can be sourced from your local butcher or ask them to portion it for you if you are not confident with the cleaver method.
Substitutions
You can use lard or oil if you do not have beef tallow on hand. If you want to make this dish gluten free, just toss the oxtail in cornflour (cornstarch) instead of plain flour for a gluten free version, just double check that your stocks are GF and swap the bread out for GF bread.
Storage
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to several days, or frozen for several months.
Serving ideas
For some extra flavour when serving you could melt some Cheddar or Gruyere cheese on thick sliced toasted bread to serve with the soup.
