This Jamaican Oxtails Recipe is fall off the bone tender and full of amazing flavor. It can be made in about an hour with your pressure cooker or cook it low and slow in a slow cooker.
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Full Recipe Ingredients/Instructions are available in the
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If you ever ask me what my favorite Jamaican dish is, I’ll probably say oxtail. It’s a recipe that my mom would make for special occasions. I wish we could have eaten it weekly, but oxtail can be so darn expensive. So it became one of those special Sunday dinners or “let’s celebrate something” dinners.
Oxtails usually take hours to cook. But wow, the flavor and the tenderness the oxtail brings are worth it. Lucky for me, I’m a pressure cooking fanatic and found that using a pressure cooker cuts the time of cooking oxtail by a ton. For this recipe, you can use a pressure cooker or even a slow cooker.
Ingredients Needed
Ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions are on the printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.
- Oxtail - Choose beef oxtail that is medium in size and of similar size. Try and choose oxtail pieces that do not have too much fat on them.
- Marinade Ingredients - Brown sugar, soy sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, salt, garlic powder, black pepper, allspice.
- Other Ingredients - vegetable oil, yellow onion, green onion, garlic, carrots, scotch bonnet pepper (or habanero), beef broth, thyme, cornstarch, water, butterbeans
How to Make Jamaican Oxtails and Gravy
First, I mise en place my ingredients by chopping my onions, garlic, and scotch bonnet or habanero pepper. Make sure to remove the seeds and membrane from the hot pepper, or your oxtail will be too spicy.
Then prepare your oxtails by cleaning them with a little bit of water and vinegar, and then dry them off with some paper towels. I know I know, they say not to wash your meat but my mom would literally cuss me out if I didn’t. So I do.
Next, season your oxtails with brown sugar, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, allspice, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and browning. Use your hands and mix, ensuring that your oxtail pieces are fully covered.
Now you can decide at this point if you feel like marinating or not. If I’m pressure cooking or slow cooking, I usually skip this step, and the flavor is still pretty amazing. If you choose to marinate, marinate in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight.
Pressure Cooking Instructions
Turn the pressure cooker on the “high sauté” setting. If using an Instant Pot, select “Sauté and press the “+” button until it is the “more” setting. Once your Pressure Cooker is “Hot”, add your vegetable oil to the pot.
Next, add your larger oxtail pieces to the pot, flat side down about ¼ inch apart, and brown on each side for about 2 minutes. Make sure you’re watching the oxtails at this browning stage, as you don’t want to burn the oxtail. If you do, your oxtail gravy will taste bitter later on.
You can choose to brown all your pieces of oxtails but I usually only brown the larger pieces of the oxtail. The smaller pieces usually don’t need browning.
Once you’ve browned your oxtail, deglaze your pressure cooker by adding about 2 Tablespoons of beef broth to the insert. Take a wooden spoon and deglaze your pot by removing the brown bits at the bottom. Then add your yellow onions, green onions, carrots, garlic, and scotch bonnet pepper. Stir and sauté for about 5 minutes or until the onions have softened.
Add dried thyme, oxtails (and the liquid from the marinade), remaining beef broth, and ketchup to the pressure cooker insert. All the broth will not cover the oxtail. You don’t need it to.
Press “Cancel” on your pressure cooker. Cover with lid, making sure the valve is set to “Seal.” Set your pressure cooker to cook on High Pressure for 45 minutes.
Once your timer goes off, allow the pressure cooker to naturally release. All this means is that you don’t touch it. If you’re like me, you may anxiously stare at the pressure cooker waiting for your oxtail goodness. After about 25 minutes, all of your pressure should have been released. Double-check by making sure that the pin button has dropped or switch the valve to “Venting” to ensure all the pressure has been released. Press “Cancel” on the pressure cooker and then open the lid.
Remove the oxtail pieces and vegetables from the Pressure Cooker and place in a bowl and set aside. I use a spider strainer for this step.
Then press the “Sauté button on your pressure cooker.
Once your liquid starts to boil, make a cornstarch slurry by whisking the cornstarch with water in a separate bowl. Slowly stir in the slurry into the pressure cooker. Add drained butter beans to the pressure cooker as well and stir them in. Cook for about 5 minutes until the sauce has thickened a little and the butter beans are warmed.
Return oxtails and vegetables to the pressure cooker. Serve and enjoy.
Notes on Pressure Cooker Oxtails
- It’s best if all your oxtails are medium sized oxtails that are similar in size. If you can’t get them the same size, no worries. It’ll still work.
- Oxtail that is too fatty will lead to fatty gravy. You want some fat, just not too much fat. If your oxtail is extremely fatty, use a paring knife to remove some of the excess fat.
- Scotch Bonnet is typically used for this recipe. If you can’t find a scotch bonnet, a habanero can be substituted. You could also use about 1-2 teaspoons of this scotch bonnet pepper sauce.
Looking for recipes to serve this Jamaican Oxtails with? Try these out:
- Jamaican Rice and Peas (Pressure Cooker Recipe)
- Jamaican Rum Punch
- Sauteéd Jamaican Cabbage
Other popular Jamaican recipes:
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If you've made this oxtail recipe or any other recipe on the blog, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Please leave a comment below. Your feedback is always appreciated!
The BEST Jamaican Oxtail Recipe
Ingredients
- 2.5 lbs oxtails
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon salt
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon browning
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 yellow onion chopped
- 4 green onions chopped
- 1 Tablespoon garlic chopped
- 2 whole carrots chopped
- 1 scotch bonnet or habanero pepper seeds and membrane removed and chopped
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1 Tablespoon ketchup
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 Tablespoons water
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 16 oz can Butter Beans drained
Instructions
- Rinse oxtails with water and vinegar and pat dry. Cover oxtails with brown sugar, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt, garlic powder, black pepper, all-spice, and browning and rub into oxtails.
- Set Pressure Cooker on High Sauté and once hot, add vegetable oil. Next, add your larger oxtail pieces to the pot, flat side down about ¼ inch apart, and brown on each side.
- Remove oxtail after browning and place in bowl.
- Deglaze your pressure cooker by adding about 2 tablespoon of beef broth to the insert. Take a wooden spoon and deglaze your pot by removing the brown bits at the bottom. Then add your yellow onions, green onions, carrots, garlic, and scotch bonnet pepper. Stir and sauté for about 5 minutes or until the onions have softened.
- Add dried thyme, oxtails (and the liquid from the marinade), remaining beef broth, and ketchup to the pressure cooker insert.
- Press “Cancel” on your Instant Pot. Cover and cook on high pressure for 45 minutes. Once timer is done, allow pressure cooker to naturally release.
- Once all pressure has released, open lid and remove oxtails and vegetables, leaving liquid behind. Turn Pressure Cooker on sauté. Once liquid begins to simmer, create a corn starch slurry by combining corn starch and water to a separate bowl. Stir into simmering liquid. Add drained butter beans into pressure cooker and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes, until liquid is slightly thickened and butterbeans are warmed.
- Add oxtails and vegetables back to the pressure cooker. Serve and enjoy 🙂
Slow Cooker Instructions
- Prepare the recipe as instructed up until the oxtails need to be browned. Brown oxtail over medium-high heat on the stovetop in a skillet. Once oxtail are browned, deglaze skillet by adding 2 tablespoon of beef broth. Add onions and carrots to skillet and stir until onions have softened. Add these ingredients to the slow cooker as well as all remaining ingredients, except the butter beans. Cook on low heat for 8-10 hours or until oxtail is tender. 30 minutes before serving, create a cornstarch slurry by combining corn starch and water to a separate bowl. Stir into slow cooker along with the drained butter beans.
Stove Top Instructions
- Follow the instructions above and then rather than placing in a slow cooker or pressure cooker, cook it on the stove on medium low heat for about 3 hours, stirring occasionaly or until oxtails are tender. Add the butter beans when there is about 30 minutes left on the cook time.
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Notes
- It’s best if all your oxtails are medium sized oxtails that are similar in size. If you can’t get them the same size, no worries. It’ll still work.
- Oxtail that is too fatty will lead to fatty gravy. You want some fat, just not too much fat. If your oxtail is extremely fatty, use a paring knife to remove some of the excess fat.
- Scotch Bonnet is typically used for this recipe. If you can’t find a scotch bonnet, a habanero can be substituted. You could also use about 1-2 teaspoon of this scotch bonnet pepper sauce.
Della McCarthy says
OMG... This receipe is AMAZING!!! I was born in England and my father is Jamaican. I grew up eating oxtails but I never tookthr time to learn how to cook them. My dad cooks his the Jamaican way and my mom does hers the British way. I love the way my parents cook them and I would always request them but I don't have to anymore. I cooked oxtails yesterday and it was a hit. There were none left. I tried to cook the rice and peas in the instapot and it was a complete failure. I don't know what I did wrong. It would preheat then it would say good burning. And it was burned at the bottom. I used zatarain's's parboiled rice. Do you think that was the problem? Thank you so much.
Mel says
@Della McCarthy,
I cooked the kidney beans first and added more water. I cooked it but not mushy. Then, I used some of that water to cook it with my basmati rice. I did 3 cups of rice with 3 cups of bean water (reddish color) and 3 cups of beef stock. When the rice is done then I added the beans to it. It was a great hit with my family.
Odell says
How long in a crock pot
COOKING TIME
Della McCarthy says
@Odell, I cooked mine for 8hrs
Thembi says
@Odell, At what temp - high or low? I have about 4lbs and intend to crock pot them for 8 hours on high. Yes?
Cc says
How long should cook them if I bake in the oven
Tanya says
2-3 hours on 325F.
Kat says
Hi I forgot to say I’m making mind in the slow cooker
Kat says
If I want to use potatoes instead of beans do I still wait for 30 minutes before it’s done before I put the potatoes in and should I cook the potatoes first
Tanya says
You can add chopped potatoes during the last hour of cooking if using a slow cooker.
Evan says
@Tanya, so if I want to add patatoes in a slow cooker for 8 hours, I only need 1 hour for the patAtoes? I was going to add them in right after I put everything in the slow cooker together and set it for 8 hours.
Kate Kraay says
Hi! Thanks for the recipe! If I opt to use dry beans should I change the cook time or anything else?
Tanya says
Hi Kate, I would cook the dry beans separately on the stove and add them near the end. Adding dry beans in the beginning may affect the taste of the oxtails.
Charity says
I'm making your oxtaik recipe right now and my kitchen is making
My house a happy Home Thank You sooo much for sharing!!! 💜💜
Deborah says
wow, best oxtails ever...the gravy is perfect and so flavorful! Thank you, will be making it again and again and again
Melisa says
Hi, I wanna make this to prove to my bf oxtail is good, do I have to use the slow mode on slow cooker or is medium and high an option too? and for how long if so?
Tanya says
Hi Melissa, you can use high in the slow cooker for 3-4 hours until the oxtails are tender.
Melisa says
@Tanya, Hi, thanks, one more question, In the slow cooker instructions it says to add the rest of the ingredients except the beans and cook, but I saw in one of the comments you said to add the cornstarch 20min before end of cooking time. Do you mind clearing it up for me please
Tanya says
Hi Melisa, sure. My apologies for the confusion, the cornstarch is meant to thicken the gravy. Make a cornstarch slurry and add it in 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time, the same time you add the beans. I'll update the recipe card to reflect that.
Marquise A. says
@Melisa, Hi, I’m making these for the first time. I wanted to know, how did the slow cooker on “high” work out for the dish? Were they tender?
Tanya says
Hi Marquise, I've had readers report back that 4 hours in the slow cooker worked great. Tender and delicious oxtails.
A spencer says
This my go to for oxtails. The first time I made was last year and they were amazing. The next batch is currently cooking in the slow cooker. This recipe is spot on with flavor. I had with cabbage the first time but this time I will be making a savory grit.
Elizabeth says
What can I use instead of browning sauce? Everything else I have and I can’t wait to try this recipe
Tanya says
Hi Elizabeth, just leave the browning out. It won't be as dark as pictured but it'll still be delicious.
Aneres says
@Tan5ya,
You can use gravy master in place of the Browning sauce, works just as well.
Nick T says
One of the best instant pot recipes I have used. The flavor from the spices and hint of heat from the habanero pepper come together beautifully. The flavorful meat peels off the bone and the collagen just gives way and melts in your mouth.
T. McNeal says
Absolutely fantastic. Better than my favorite Jamaican restaurant
Craig says
I don't have a pressure cooker but do have an aroma rice cooker. Can I still follow the pressure cooker instructions? If so what seeing should I use. I got confused and instead used the slow cooker setting. Instead of dinner I wound up making lunch for the next day.
Jermaine D Bennett says
Great recipe. I've made it several times