Richard Blais's Beef Ribs Confit Recipe (2024)

This football season, we’ve partnered with Taste of the NFL and their favorite tailgating experts to share great game-day recipes for an even greater cause. Join these chefs in raising awareness and funds for hunger relief across the country by taking the Kick Hunger Challenge with your favorite football team and making a donation to their local food bank. And be sure to check PEOPLE.com every Thursday for a new game day recipe from your favorite celebrity chefs. Here, celebrity chef, restauranteur, and Top Chef All-Stars winner Richard Blais shares a recipe for his beef ribs confit.

I’ve always been a sucker for ribs, and you can’t get much better than these. Plus, you can eat with one hand and hold a beer in the other while you tailgate, so it’s a win-win.

These ribs are so juicy and tasty, you won’t need to worry about taking home any leftovers (however I do recommend getting a head start the day before the big game). And trust me, you’ll be the MVP of the tailgate when you bring these finger-licking good ribs with you. Cheers!

Beef Ribs Confit

6 to 12 lb. brisket or beef rib
2 cups yellow mustard
2 cups dark brown sugar
1/2 cup Montreal seasoning or dry BBQ spices
5 tbsp. low sodium soy sauce
1 yellow onion, sliced
12 cloves garlic, smashed

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1. Pull the meat out of the fridge and let it settle to room temperature while the oven heats to 325 degrees. This is some classic technical stuff here, and I’m proud to include this step.

2. Season the meat liberally with the Montreal steak seasoning and sear the whole thing in a big roasting pan, or get it lightly charred on a grill just to brown it. (You also can omit this step, and finish it after cooking on the grill instead, or not.)

3. Layer a few sheets of foil out criss cross. You are going to need to wrap this bad boy up pretty tight so give yourself room here.

4. Mix all the other ingredients to the wet sandy paste that it will become. Have fun with it. Get it between your fingers and toes. Call your S.O. over and rub some on his or her ear lobe etc.

5. Place this pasty beefy mess on the foil and get all of that paste on their so it’s covered in it. Wrap it all up really well in the foil so no steam can escape. You are now cooking as close to sous vide as most humans will get. I didn’t call it bastardized sous vide cooking, that was you, not me.

6. Place the foil mummy on a rack and that rack on a sheet tray, just in case if you screwed it up and didn’t wrap it tight enough, when it renders it’s delicious meaty juice it doesn’t start a fire in your oven. I don’t need that email, so do a good job and follow instruction.

7. Cook the brisket at 300 to 325 degrees for like 9 to 10 hours.

8. Cook the short ribs at 300 to 325 degrees for like 6 to 7 hours.

9. In the last hour of cooking, open up the foil on top only. Be careful it will be steamy. Give it a poke with a small knife. The knife should be easy to pull back out. If so, you’re done. If not, give it another hour.

10. If you did this the night before, besides being smart, you also can separate the juices from the meat and chill both. In the morning you will have meat ready for a quick grill, or sear or fry. And a bucket of juices that’s now separated in fat and juices. Remove the fat cold and save it for a rainy day or rub it all over yourself. If it is a rainy day, go ahead and rub it all over self anyway.

11. The juices are sauce now on their own, but hey, I might swirl in some Richard Blais BBQ sauce, but only I have it because it’s still in prototype mode.