Jamaican Oxtail Stew
Jamaican oxtail stew is fork-tender beef and satisfyingly creamy butter beans in a spicy gravy. This humble dish with Jamaican curry spices and pleasant heat will spice up your life and widen your horizons.
The last time I visited Jamaica, I made it a point to try all the recipes I could fit in. We also took as many cooking classes as we could to learn tricks from the locals.
And this dish was at the top of my list because I used to work not too far from a Jamaican restaurant in LA, and ate oxtail stew there regularly. It wasn’t good for my wallet or my waistline, but my belly was purring with pure joy!
Why Oxtails Make Great Stew
Oxtails don’t get as much love in the States as other beef cuts, but they should. Being a well-used muscle means it has plenty of collagen and benefits greatly from simmering low and slow in a braising liquid. The flavor is also more intense, making a wonderful broth perfect for smothering your rice and peas.
Oxtail used to be a cheap cut due to its high fat content and longer cooking time. But now it has become a gourmet dish, and the price has skyrocketed. So we enjoy this recipe on special occasions when our local butcher has them available.
How to Make Jamaican Oxtail Stew
- Season the oxtails, sear them, and add the aromatics and the rest of the seasonings.
- Toss in the green onions, add water, cover, and simmer until tender. Pour in the butter beans, add the hot pepper, heat through, and enjoy.
Recipe Tips and Twists
- I love nibbling the bones – a cultural thing. However, you can let the stew cool, and then remove the meat from the bones. Save the bones for bone broth, put the boneless beef back in the pot, reheat, and serve.
- For extra veggies, some wonderful readers have added carrots, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, mushrooms, mustard greens (during the last 20 minutes of cooking), and stewed tomatoes (added with the broad beans). Keep sharing your tweaks, please.
- Oxtail needs low heat and lots of time to break down the collagen and tough muscle fibers. If they still seem a little tough after 3 hours (5 hours at high altitude), just give them more time, and perhaps more liquid. The meat should be practically falling off the bone.
Using the Instant Pot
Although I haven’t personally made this recipe in my Instant Pot, our beautiful readers took the time to leave some instructions.
- Start with the “Sauté” setting for the first three steps and carefully brown the oxtail pieces on both sides – 2-3 minutes per side.
- Remove the oxtail and sauté the onions, green onions, garlic, thyme, allspice, Worcestershire, and smoked paprika, stirring for about a minute.
- Next, throw in the scotch bonnet pepper, tomato paste, bouillon, and curry powder, and stir for another minute.
- Return the browned oxtails, deglaze your pressure cooker with water or stock, and switch to pressure cook for 40-45 minutes, depending on the size of the oxtails.
- After the pressure releases, add the beans and simmer them for 5-10 minutes or until the sauce thickens and the butter beans are heated.
Make-Ahead and Storage Instructions
Stews are great for making ahead. After the stew has cooked, let it cool and store it in the fridge for a day or two. Or you can freeze it for 3-4 months.
Store leftovers for 3-4 days in an airtight container in the fridge or 3-4 months in the freezer. Thaw the oxtail stew overnight in the refrigerator if frozen, then reheat in a saucepan on low until heated through.
What to Serve With Jamaican Oxtail Stew
This amazing stew is perfect with rice and beans, fried plantains, and fried cabbage as traditional sides. Then wash it down with a sorrel drink and serve a slice of rum cake for the grand finale.
More Fabulous Jamaican Recipes You’ll Love
- Jamaican Jerk Chicken
- Cornmeal Porridge
- Easy Jamaican Curry Chicken
- Easter Spice Bun
- Jamaican Beef Patty or Meat Pies
This post was first published in November 2015 and has been updated with a video, new tips, and fresh photos.
[adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”qRCsS2QU” upload-date=”2018-08-06T19:57:54.000Z” name=”Jamaican Oxtail Stew” description=”Jamaican Oxtail Stew- This braised oxtail with butter beans not only have a complex note from allspice but also that familiar garlic, thyme, scotch bonnet and onion medley. Fall of the bone tender.” player-type=”collapse” override-embed=”false”]
Jamaican Oxtail Stew
Ingredients
Oxtail Marinade
- 2-4 pounds (1-2kg) oxtail, cut up into medium pieces
- salt as desired (¾-1 teaspoon per pound is average)
- 1-2 teaspoons (2-4g) white pepper or black pepper
- ½ teaspoon (3g) minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons (2g) fresh thyme
- 1-2 teaspoons (2-4g) bouillon powder
The Stew
- 2-3 tablespoons (28-42ml) cooking oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 tablespoon (8g) minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons (2g) minced thyme
- 5-6 whole allspice berries (optional)
- 1 tablespoon (15ml) Worcestershire sauce
- 1-2 teaspoons (5-10g) browning sauce (optional)
- 2 tablespoons (30g) tomato paste or ketchup
- 1 tablespoon (8g) beef bouillon powder or a cube (optional)
- 1 teaspoon (2g) curry powder (more to taste)
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 4-6 cups (960-1450ml) water
- 1 15-ounce can butter beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 whole scotch bonnet or habanero
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Rub the oxtail pieces with salt, pepper, minced garlic, thyme, and bouillon powder. Tightly cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. When ready to cook, remove from the fridge (see notes).
- In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat until hot, and then sear the meat, frequently stirring while scraping any browned bits off the bottom until browned.
- Add the onions, garlic, thyme, and allspice, then stir for about a minute. Follow with the Worcestershire sauce, browning sauce, tomato paste, bouillon, curry powder, and green onions, and stir for another minute.
- Then add 4-6 cups of water (start with 4 cups, adding more if needed).
- Bring to a boil and simmer until tender (depending on the oxtail size) for 2-3 hours (4-5 hours at high altitude), occasionally stirring so it doesn't stick to the pan.
- About 20-30 minutes before removing it from the heat, add the broad beans and scotch bonnet pepper. Adjust the thickness of the soup with water or stock.
- Simmer for 20-30 minutes and adjust salt to taste. Garnish with sliced green onions and enjoy.
Tips & Notes:
- A lot of bouillon powders have MSG, so if you prefer to avoid it, replace the water with beef broth and leave the bouillon out.
- If you need this to come together quicker, you can skip the marinating time.
- Feel free to add ½ teaspoon of smoked paprika for more flavor.
- To thicken the gravy, add a few slices of potatoes and let it cook longer. It usually just thickens up if you cook it longer. That said, one reader uses a cornstarch slurry towards the end with good results.
- Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on the products used.
My first time making oxtails and they were off the CHAIN!!! Thank you Imma, You are the BESt!!!
Tried this recipe for the first time tonight. Used the prescribed amount of ingredients and started with 4 cups of water. Although the flavours are there which are excellent I found the recipe to be too soupy.
Awesome! Made previously, but not in a while. Used canned Lima beans at the end. Put a cup of burgundy vino rinsing a bottle of Heinz Ketchup in as well as more curry (you can’t even taste it) and Tobasco sauce (10 “hits”) lol Also celery, carrots and small red potatoes, one extra onion! Thank you for being my guide this time!
This is one of my favorite dishes and I can’t wait to try this recipe this weekend! Would it be too much to alter the recipe a bit and add potatoes and carrots?
Feel free to add extra veggies. Enjoy!
I believe you saved my marriage with this recipe! Tried it for the first time and then again a few days ago. Needless to say it was a complete success and loved by my family! Thank you ever so much!
Just made this soooo delicious. Put two scotch bonnets because I love the heat and flavour.
Do I have to put the beans in the recipe??
Yes, please. About 20-30 minutes before you remove from the stove add broad beans. Please see step #5
I make this recipe all the time, but I don’t add the beans because my daughter doesn’t eat them. Still a great dish either way. I cook mines on the side and use juice soup from the oxtail.
I added canned potatoes once when I’d forgottened to get beans. I was very happy with the result. So was my husband who loves this dish.
This has become one of our go-to meals if we are looking for some rewarding comfort food. So good. 🙂
Awesome! Thanks for the feedback!
I’m cooking this right now. It should be ready for the beans to be added in 2 hours! Smells amazing! Can’t wait to taste. I’m planning to add corn and mushrooms as well.
Hello Imma,
Can I cook this in a pressure cooker? If so for how long? I can’t wait to try this!
Hello JJ.Sorry I don’t have exact measurements or timing for this . I usually just boil oxtail for about 14 minutes , in my pressure cook before adding to any recipe that calls for cooking before adding to the sauce.
Loved this recipe, first time making oxtails!
Wow, wow, wow. This recipe worked perfect . My first oxtail dish came out soooo delicious and the meat was just falling off the bone. My neighbor tried it and couldn’t believe this was the first time I made this meal. I used 4 cups of vegetable stock instead of water and added water when needed. Thank you so much!!!
Wohooo! This is a great dish especially this colder season. Thank you for dropping by.
Going to try this today and cant wait! Was wondering if the recipe calls for curry powder or paste?
Hi Cristina,
It’s curry powder not paste. Happy Cooking!!!!
This is sooooooo good! It will be a permanent favorite in my recipe book! I also added some mustard greens during the last 20 minutes or so of cooking 😀
Imma, thank you so much for your blog. I’ve cooked a handful of your recipes and really enjoyed them. I’m trying this one, modifying with what I have on hand. Thank you again.
Hi John,
So happy to hear your family enjoys them as much as we do. Happy you would take time out to share this with us.
I buy random cuts of meat just see what i can do with it. I happen to have ox tails. Cooking this right now!!! The whole house smells wonderful! Can’t wait to eat tonight.
Yaaay! Can’t wait how it all turned out for you. Enjoy!
All I have is ground allspice on hand, how can that be measured in place of the whole berries?
Yes, that would work.
How can you measure it?
You mean measure the ingredients or calories?
Hello, how many hours should I slow cook my oxtail
Hello there , about 2 hours. Start checking after an hour and a half.
All I have on hand is ground allspice. How does this equal to whole pimento berries?
All spice would work nicely in this recipe . It is a single spice that is said to combine the taste and aroma of many other spices such as pepper, cloves, nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon.
SO,SO GOOD! I ended up using 4 cups of water and 2 cups of beef stock and omitted the thyme and green onion. I also left it to simmer longer, about 5 hours but it was totally worth it. The oxtail was very tender and was falling off the bone. Thank you for the amazing recipe!
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment, Amber! Glad you like it.
Hi Imma
This recipe is absolutely amazing! Thanks to you I’ve made some of the tastiest and flavourful oxtail I’ve ever tasted on the very first try! I’m Jamaican-Canadian in heritage and I’ve only ever had it when my mother made it, however I decided to try it on my own and it turned out fabulous thanks to you!
I added a 1/2 teaspoon of curry to the oil during the browning process and added browning sauce to give it a darker colour, and also diced an Irish potato and added it in with the beans. Also During the simmering time I sprinkled in 1 teaspoon (total) of oxtail seasoning powder to keep the flavour in the gravy after several cups of water had been added.
The hardest part was waiting the full time hours for it to cook, but it was worth it! I had it on a bed of of couscous w butter beans as a rice alternative…Glorious 🙂 You’ve made a cooking dream come true for me, as I look to learn all the dishes of my heritage.
Thank you so much!
Wooow! That sounds really awesome, Steve! Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. 🙂
Hello! This recipe look scrumptious and I am excited to give it a go. I am wonder about substituting ground allspice for the pimento seeds. Do you have a recommendation on the amount?
Hello Jessica,
1 teaspoon would do just fine
I tried other oxtail stew recipes, but this one was the BEST!! So flavorful and comforting! Like a hug. My husband and I absolutely loved it! Thanks for sharing!
Awww. I just wanna give you a hug now. 🙂 Thank you and glad you guys love it!
Can’t wait to try to make this!
Is there a specific type of curry powder you use? If I add carrots would it alter the taste? Love having extra veggies in my stews!
I make my own curry. Check it out here https://www.africanbites.com/jamaican-curry-powder/. Feel free to add extra veggies . I do it all the time.
Made this today and my tastebuds are purring with joy!
Glad you love it, Myra as much as I do!
THIS RECIPE IS VERY HEALTHY, AND NOT FATTENING AT ALL. I can’t wait to make it. It fits right in with my low carb diet. Thank You! I would recommend this recipe for somebody under the weather, it will bring you back to life!!!
Hi Lori, so happy to hear this. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.