Grilled Beef Short Ribs with Quick Pickles

This easy grilled beef short ribs recipe with a lemongrass-chile sauce and quick pickles will have dinner on the table in less than an hour.

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Yes! You can grill beef short ribs! Aren’t you excited? I’m excited. Well, why wouldn’t I be? Having a new idea for something to throw on the grill is always a good thing.

And the word “throw” here applies to everything in this recipe. Yes, you are making three components, but for the sauce/marinade, you’re just throwing everything into the blender, for the pickles, you’re just throwing them into a bowl of vinegar on the counter for a few minutes. Throw the marinade on the meat and throw the meat on the grill. Then just throw down, because these grilled beef short ribs are outta sight!

This is the perfect summer grilling recipe – it’s easy, it’s fast, it’s spicy, it’s beefy – what more do you want from me, here?

For this grilled short ribs recipe, I ordered the meat from Snake River Farms. It’s important to me that the meat I buy is high quality and sustainably raised. I want to feel good about it. And I feel good about Snake River Farms. I am an affiliate for the company, and if you purchase through my links, I may make a small commission. Read on to find out why I love this purveyor so much, and why I personally cook with their products.

The beef from Snake River Farms just tastes so much better! I’m not kidding you, when I first tried it, I really could not believe how good it was. Sooooo good. The flavor is just better. It’s so beefy. It’s beefier than anything you can get in the grocery store.

Is beefier a word? It is now. The one you didn’t know you needed until you met this meat.

Secondly, you can feel good buying it, knowing that they practice sustainable farming and responsible animal handling, and they even donate meat to hungry families in their community. Find out more about their sustainable practices and commitment to quality on their website.

Do you crave spicy in the summer? It makes you sweat, which cools you down. Or so they say. I crave spicy pretty much all the time. Am I always hot? Maybe. This easy, spicy marinade has just enough heat, balanced with bright ginger and lemongrass. Just thinking about it has cooled me off already.

And pickles! I can never get enough pickles. You can make these in about 5 minutes, and they are the perfect thing to cut through the richness of the grilled short ribs. Sprinkle a few on top, or maybe you’ll just go ahead and eat all of them. I would.

Grilled Beef Short Ribs Recipe with Lemongrass-Chile Sauce and Quick Pickles

Adapted from Bon Appétit

For this recipe, you’ll need beef short ribs cut “flanken style”. You can find them in your butcher’s case or order them from Snake River Farms like I did.

Is flanken the same as short ribs?

Short ribs can be cut two different ways: English which are cut between the bones, or flanken. Flanken means they are cut across the bone, so instead of having short, thick pieces of meat with one bone, you have a longer, flatter piece of meat with a row of small bones on one side. Flanken means the short rib looks more like a steak.

Prep the short ribs:

Place the beef short ribs in a glass casserole dish. Season with salt. Leave them out of the fridge to come to room temperature, at least 15 minutes, and up to two hours.

Typically when you’re cooking red meat, you’re salting it generously, to allow the salt to get in there and do its thing. But I’ve found that I use a lot less on the meat from Snake River Farms. All of the gorgeous marbling means it already has loads of flavor, and only needs a kiss of salt compared to the meat you get at the grocery store.

How to make quick pickles

Whisk together the vinegar, salt and sugar.

Thinly slice about 3 Persian cucumbers to equal about 1 cup.

Add cucumbers to the vinegar mixture and stir. Let sit for 10-15 minutes to take on the flavor of the vinegar. You can gently squeeze them with your hands to speed up the process if you want, but don’t crush or mangle them!

How to make lemongrass-chile sauce

Trim the tops off the lemongrass down to the tender part toward the bottom of the stem.

Remove the tough outer layers, and roughly chop it.

Slice the chiles in half and remove the seeds and ribs.

Peel the ginger, and slice it into rounds.

I used my Cuisinart mini food processor to make the sauce in this photo, but doing it in the blender will make it smoother. Either works fine, just a difference in texture.

Coat the short ribs with the chile sauce and allow to marinate for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat your grill to medium high. Short ribs have a lot of fat, so make sure you don’t get the heat too high or you’ll get flare ups.

Place the short ribs on the grill and cook to medium-rare. If you are using flanken short ribs from the grocery store, they are likely very thin. These may only need 2 -3 minutes per side.

The beef short ribs that I ordered from Snake River Farms are about an inch thick, so I cooked them about 4 – 5 minutes per side to get to medium-rare.

What temperature should grilled beef short ribs be cooked to?

You can grill short ribs just like a steak. Cook to 130 degrees F for medium rare. Don’t over cook or this cut will get tough.

Just look at these! You can see why Snake River Farms products are served in Michelin-starred restaurants. All of that marbling turns in to crispy, rendered fat and loads of flavor. I worked in restaurants for 20 years, and they really do get better ingredients than what you typically find in the grocery store. It’s truly a rare opportunity for home cooks to have access to such high quality products, that are on par with those that professional chefs are using.

Do you need to oil grill grates?

This is a heated topic!! It seems like every recipe you read lately, they say to oil the grates. Here’s what I think: NO.

From my personal experience, that oil is just gonna burn right up the second it hits the grates, and do you no good whatsoever. If there is any oil in the marinade, this might help keep food from sticking, but there’s no guarantee – turkey burgers gonna do what turkey burgers gonna do…stick.

What can you do to keep food from sticking to the grill?

The number one rule is: let it sit until it releases!! Generally, when any food – veggies, meat, etc., is ready to flip, it will “release” from the grill grates. If you try to flip and it’s still sticking, don’t force it, just give it another minute or two and check again.

And be sure to start with grill grates that are clean.

More grilling recipes

• Italian Steak Sandwich with Grilled Radicchio
• Grilled Halibut with Almond-Orange Mole
• Firecracker Turkey Burgers
• Roasted Vegetable Salad with Charred Lemon Vinaigrette

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Read my full disclosure policy here.