17 Soul-Satisfying Braising Recipes

These braising recipes are sustenance at its finest. Simple or sophisticated or sometimes both, they require just basic everyday ingredients and a little technique called braising that we like to rely on throughout winter.

A pot roast with potatoes and vegetables on a decorative platter with a serving fork on the platter and a napkin on the side.
This easy pot roast with potatoes and vegetables is quick to assemble and then made in the slow cooker or crock pot or simply slid into the oven. A simple classic with beef, carrots, potatoes, and red wine. Perhaps our best—and most comforting—Sunday supper.
Recipe
A red Dutch oven filled with beer-braised chicken with root vegetables on a wooden surface.
This beer braised chicken is made from chicken thighs and root vegetables–onion, carrots, potatoes, and celery root–simmered in porter along with brown sugar, Dijon mustard, tomato paste, and thyme to create a luscious, rich, satisfying stew with some of the most flavorful chicken thighs we’ve ever experienced.
Recipe
Assorted colors of braised carrots with orange and rosemary in a dish.
These braised carrots are a showstopping side dish that’s gently cooked with orange and rosemary until the carrots are tender, buttery, and fragrant.
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A ladle of braised cranberry beans with chorizo being held above a bowl.
These braised cranberry beans with chorizo are a comforting one-pot meal that can be made in your Instant Pot.
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A sliced piece of braised brisket with red wine and honey laying on a cutting board with a large knife and covered with braised onions.
This braised brisket with red wine and honey is sweet and tangy and fall-apart tender and so perfect it makes us go weak in the knees. And it’s a hunk of beef large enough to feed a crowd so it has that going for it, too.
Recipe
A beer braised lamb shank in a red Dutch oven, and another shank on a surface next to tortillas, sliced avocado, and an open beer.
Although this beer braised lamb shank does require a fair bit of patience, the end result is well worth the wait.
Recipe
A whole chicken in a pot surrounded by vegetables including carrots, baby turnips, and spinach.
This chicken in a pot is like an easy French pot au feu made with a whole chicken and vegetables, such as carrots, leeks, and turnips in broth. Healthy, quick, frugal, comforting, and simple. Here’s how to cook it.
Recipe
Braised beef with red wine pasta and carrots in a skillet.
This braised beef with red wine pasta is versatile. You can use oxtails, short ribs, or stew meat to make the ragú. And the homemade red wine pasta? You have to experience it to truly understand its loveliness…though you could swap in store-bought pasta instead. The beef ragu is even better the next day.
Recipe
Four lamb shanks with coffee and ancho chile on a rectangular white plate on a white and grey marble surface.
This lamb shanks with coffee and ancho chile recipe uses smoky coffee and slightly sweet and peppery ancho chiles instead of broth or tomato sauce.
Recipe
White oval dish with four chicken drumsticks, chopped green tomatillos, cilantro, onion, sliced chiles.
This braised chicken with tomatillos has a slightly tart green sauce made from tomatillos, onions, peppers, garlic, lime, and cilantro that’s perfect with chicken cooked until falling apart tender, whether on the stovetop or in the slow cooker.
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A white bowl of braised radishes on a marble countertop.
Braised radishes are a relatively unknown novelty, or shall we say art form, that rely on a French cooking technique, chicken stock, and butter to turn the everyday into the elegant.
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Braised pork with red wine sauce in a Staub Dutch oven.
This braised pork with red wine is an easy, set-it-and-forget-it one-pot meal. Made with meltingly tender shredded pork shoulder, red onions, and a rich red wine and herb sauce, it boasts French overtones but without any fussiness.
Recipe
Cast iron pot with braised new potatoes inside.
These braised new potatoes basically take a bath in butter. French style. What results is the exact same rich taste and creamy texture of potatoes roasted with your favorite hunk of meat—but in only 30 minutes and on the stovetop.
Recipe
An oval bowl filled with braised pork in red chile sauce with a spoon resting on the side and a stack of tortillas and dried peppers on the side.
This braised pork in red chile sauce is made by slowly cooking pork butt in a smoky, spicy homemade ancho chile sauce. You’ll want to have plenty of tortillas on hand to soak up that sauce.
Recipe
A braised lamb shank in pinot noir, and exposed bone, on mash potatoes, all on a white plate sitting on planks of wood
Braised lamb shanks are left to slowly burble in a lovely Pinot Noir with fennel, ginger, cinnamon, coriander, and more until the meat is literally falling-off-the-bone tender. One of our favorite winter pastimes is making this.
Recipe
A grey platter of Italian-style chicken braised in wine with a spoon resting on top
This Italian-style braised chicken in wine is made by gently simmering chicken pieces in a sauce of wine, peperoncino, and tomatoes until tender. Fancy enough for company yet completely doable on a weeknight.
Recipe

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