These slow cooked Beef Cheeks are braised in a beautiful red wine sauce until they are so meltingly tender, you can eat it with a spoon! The braising liquid in this Beef Cheeks recipe is infused with incredible flavour and when pureed, transforms into a thick, luscious gravy-like sauce.
Perfectly accompanied with creamy mashed potatoes, this is a very easy dish that is suited to an elegant dinner party or a hearty midweek meal. Make this in your slow cooker, pressure cooker or on the stove!
Slow Cooked Beef Cheeks
This is a magnificent dish that takes a budget cut of beef and transforms it with little effort into a dish that you’ll find on the menu of fine dining restaurants.
Except it’s 80% cheaper. 🙂 I had lunch at an upscale bistro on the weekend where Beef Cheeks were on the menu for $35 a serving!
Little known fact: Beef cheeks are the KING of all slow cooking cuts of beef!
What are beef cheeks?
Beef Cheeks are the cheek muscle of cows and they are a very tough cut of meat that needs to be cooked long and slow to make it tender. It absorbs the flavours of braising liquid well and when you cut into it, it is stringy, almost like pulled pork.
But unlike beef chuck (used for Beef Stew and Pot Roast), Brisket and even Beef Short Ribs which have patches of really juicy sections and also some that can (sometimes) be a bit dry, not a single part of the beef cheek is dry. Every mouthful is juicy and luscious and even just typing up this post is making my mouth water!
And THAT is what makes them so special!!
What you need for this Beef Cheeks recipe
We’re making a fine dining quality dish here, but it just calls for a trip to your local grocery store! Here’s what you need:
Beef Cheeks
5 years ago, they were cheaper and weren’t always available in the large supermarkets here in Australia. But nowadays, thanks to shows like Masterchef and My Kitchen Rules, the price has been driven up but on the plus side, they are now regulars at mainstream stores like Coles and Woolies!
If you can’t find Beef Cheeks, other slow cooking beef cuts will work fine – Beef Short Ribs would be an ideal substitute. Cut them into 250g/8oz chunks so the same cooking times and liquid quantities in this recipe will apply.
This is a magnificent dish that takes a budget cut of beef and transforms it with little effort into a fine dining restaurant dish!
Red Wine for cooking
My Slow Cooked Beef Cheeks recipe is made with a classic Italian red wine braising liquid. The deep, warm, complex flavours of red wine are perfect for using as the stock base for slow cooked beef dishes.
Go to your local liquor outlet and look for end of bin specials and pick up a bottle of a full bodied red wine like Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon.
A pet peeve of mine are recipes that tell you that you must use good quality drinking wine for slow cooking recipes. I do not believe that at all for slow cooked dishes – and the New York Times agrees.
For quick sauces, yes, absolutely. But not for a braising liquid. I bet not even the greatest food critic in the world would be able to tell if it was a discounted $5 end of bin special or a $40 reserve Cab Sav. (Seriously. Who would make a slow cooked beef recipe using a $40 bottle of wine??).
You won’t use the whole bottle. If the wine is not to your standard for drinking, measure out cups and pour them into ziplock bags and freeze them. Handy to have when you need wine for other recipes!
How to make this Beef Cheeks Recipe
Though it does take time to slow cook, it’s an incredibly straightforward recipe:
Brown beef cheeks aggressively – this is key for flavour!
Saute garlic, onion, carrots and celery – our soffrito, the flavour base for the sauce;
Add braising liquid ingredients;
Slow cook the beef cheeks until they are fall apart tender – stove 2.5 hrs, oven 3.5 hrs, slow cooker 8 hrs, pressure cooker / Instant Pot 1 hr;
Puree sauce to thicken into a gravy-like consistency;
Serve beef cheeks with sauce over creamy mashed potato (go all out with Paris Mash!) or for a low carb option, Mashed Cauliflower.
Don’t let the length of the recipe directions fool you, this really is a simple recipe. It’s just long because I’ve provided directions for 3 different cooking methods.
This Slow Cooked Beef Cheeks is a recipe that is elegant enough for a dinner party and if made using a slow cooker, easy enough for mid week.
The other great thing about these Slow Cooked Beef Cheeks is that the leftovers freeze 100% perfectly, OR can be transformed into two other incredible dishes that I’ve shared:
Beef Cheek Ragu Pasta – the rich braising liquid was made for tossing through pasta!
Cook once, eat thrice!! – Nagi x
Try these on the side
Paris Mash (ultimate creamy mashed potato!) or Creamy Mashed Cauliflower
Crisp salad with tangy Balsamic Dressing or French Vinaigrette
Watch how to make it
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Slow Cooked Beef Cheeks
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp olive oil , separated
- 1.5 kg/3lb beef cheeks , (4 large or 6 small beef cheeks)
- 1 onion (white, brown or yellow), roughly diced (about 1 cup)
- 1 celery stalk , roughly diced (about 1 cup)
- 1 carrot , roughly diced (about 3/4 cup)
- 4 garlic cloves , minced
- 6 stems of fresh thyme or 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
- 4 dried bay leaves (or 3 fresh bay leaves)
- 1 cup (250 ml) beef stock (broth)
- 2 cups (500 ml) red wine (full bodied eg. cabernet sauvignon or merlot)
- 2 – 3 tsp salt , separated
- Black pepper
Instructions
- Prepare the beef cheeks: cut off any large, fatty membrane. Pat dry then use 1 tsp of salt and black pepper to season the beef all over.
- Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large heavy based pot over high heat. Sear half the beef cheeks on each side until nicely browned. Remove beef cheeks onto a plate, repeat with remaining cheeks.
- Turn down the heat to medium high and heat the remaining 1 tbsp of olive oil. Add garlic and onion. Sauté for 3 minutes until onion is becoming translucent.
- Add the celery and carrot,s sauté for a further 3 minutes.
- Follow directions for your chosen cooking method below.
Slow Cooker Directions
- Pour the onion mixture into the slow cooker and place the beef cheeks on top.
- Pour the wine into the pot and return to heat. Turn the heat up to high, bring to simmer and let it simmer for 1 minute (to cook out the wine a bit). Scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan so it mixes in with the wine.
- Pour the wine into the slow cooker, then all the remaining ingredients, starting with a pinch of salt and pepper (add more to taste later).
- Cook in the slow cooker on Low for 8 hours or High for 6 hours for 250g/8oz size beef cheeks or Low for 10 – 12 hours or High for 8 hours for 350g/12oz beef cheeks.
- Open the slow cooker and remove the beef cheeks. Discard the thyme stems and bay leaves.
- Use a handheld stick blender to puree the braising liquid into a smooth Sauce – it will change from a dark brown to a lighter brown colour.
- Transfer liquid into saucepan, simmer on stove on medium high until the Sauce turns a darker brown colour and reduces by about 1/4 to 1/3, to a gravy consistency – about 10 minutes.
- Do a taste test and adjust the seasoning (salt and pepper) to your taste.
- Remove from heat, return beef cheeks to the Sauce, cover and keep warm until ready to serve.
Pressure Cooker Directions
- Follow the Slow Cooker directions but cook on high in your pressure cooker for 1 hour on high for small cheeks (around 250g/8oz each).
Stovetop and Oven Directions
- Pour the wine into the pot / casserole dish (with the onion mixture) and stir to scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pot. Bring wine to simmer for 1 minute.
- Add remaining ingredients, starting with a pinch of salt and pepper (add more to taste later), the place lid on.
- Stove: Simmer on medium low for 2 to 2 1/2 hours until the cheeks are very tender, turn at least once during cooking.
- Oven: 160C/320F for 3 to 3 1/2 hours .
- Remove the beef cheeks from sauce. Discard the thyme stems and bay leaves.
- Use a handheld stick blender to puree the braising liquid into a smooth Sauce – it will change from a dark brown to a lighter brown colour.
- Bring the Sauce to simmer over medium heat and simmer until it turns a darker brown colour and reduces by about 1/4 to 1/3, to a gravy consistency – about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Do a taste test and adjust the seasoning (salt and pepper) to your taste.
- Remove from heat, return beef cheeks to the Sauce, cover and keep warm until ready to serve.
To Serve
- Serve beef cheeks on Paris Mash (ultimate creamy mashed potato!) or Creamy Mashed Cauliflower, drizzled with a generous amount of Sauce. Garnish with finely chopped parsley if desired.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published August 2014. Updated August 2019 with new photos, new process photos, new video, new writing. No change to recipe. I wouldn’t dare touch it, readers love it as it is!
Life of Dozer
His bib was soaked by the time the beef cheeks were in the pot…..
I wanted to let you know, we thought this recipe was FABULOUS! Never had beef cheeks before, but they are now high on our list of YUM factor, thanks to this recipe! I actually cooked it in the pressure cooker, due to time constraints. It was melt in the mouth delishousness! I can’t say enough! Thank you!
Great to hear Karen! So pleased you enjoyed it – N x
Hi I made this today in the slow cooker as per instructions, however half came out really dry and the other half is ok but not as easy to shred as I expected it would be. What could have gone wrong so you think? Bad meat or …..????
Wondering if I could put meat and sauce back in on pressure cook for 15 to get it softer or if this would just dry out even more?
Thanks
Woah, that’s extremely unusual to hear about beef cheeks. All I can think is that the cut was strange! Beef cheeks is one of the MOST juicy cuts of beef ever, it has so much gelatinous veins running through it, I dare to say it’s almost impossible to come out dry even over cooking it. If it was not easy to shred as expected, all I can think is that it was a bit undercooked, but to be dry is weird. Yes try cooking it longer and see how it goes. So strange!
Hi Nagi
Your recipe has me watering at the mouth and can’t wait to try it!
As I can’t have wine is there anything else I could substitute the red wine with?
Thanks, Jenny.
Hi Jenny! Just use more stock – N xx
Hi Nagi,
I will cook the wagyu beef cheek for Father’s day on 18 June 2017 in Hong Kong, this is my first time to cook Wagyu beef cheek, so I search a lot of recipe and finally see your amazing one, I think I will follow the way cooking in the oven but just want to ask can this cook with sous vide machine like Anova? if yes , how and what temperature and cooking time you will suggest? Thank you…
Wagyu! Wow! I’m sorry I haven’t tried sous vide for this! 🙂 N x
Best. Beef. Cheeks. Ever. Thank you for the divine recipe Nagi – I’ve made several times and shared your recipe with friends. Gorgeous mid-week slow cooked dish and also love your naughty Port Braised Lamb Shanks for weekend entertaining! Love your personable narrative and fab foodie recipes.
I’m so pleased to hear that Caroline! Thanks for sharing your feedback! And I love your description of the shanks – Naughty! Could you just rename ALL my recipes please? 😉 N xx
Five star rave. See: pie. Also see: ragu. While I didn’t eat the beef cheeks ‘as is’, they were absolutely perfect and I’m salivating at my keyboard just thinking about them. Total winner!
WHOOT!!! I am so SO HAPPY to hear you enjoyed this Beck! N xx
This was as beautiful and easy as you can get. Followed the recipe, easy peasy and we DID NOT NEED KNIVES! My daughter set the table with spoons because of the sauce but that’s all we could’ve used for the meat. Scrumptious. My husband said it tasted exactly the same as the Beef Cheeks we had at The Grill by Sean Connolly!!
I LOVE HEARING THAT!!!! Thank you for letting me know Iris! N xx
Hi Nagi, I am cooking for one, so I used 250g beef cheek, but one third of the sauce ingredients instead. After following the instructions and placing everything in the slow cooker, the sauce only covered half the meat I.e meat was not fully submerged in sauce. I proceeded to cook on low but for 8 hours, and although the meat was not hard, it was def not “falling apart” as it should. What do you think I could have done wrong? I did open the lid a few times throughout the 8 hours to check on it. Could that be it? Or must the cheek be fully submerged? Will marinating it in red wine the night before help? *help!*
Sorry I’m late for this Jane! Sorry to say opening the lid will probably have affected it, 8 hours should have been perfect. Not being fully submerged is fine, you can cook meat to fall apart with barely any liquid in the slow cooker! N xx
Amazing!! loved this recipe! I actually ended up using oyster steak because I didn’t realise how expensive beef cheek now because of masterchef and my kitchen rules! turned out amazing plus I didn’t have 8 hours to cook it so this type of steak took 3.5 hours in the slow cooker. I also didn’t have any thyme in the house but luckily i had bay leaves 🙂 thank you for making this amazing recipe available for all to enjoy!
I actually giggled out loud when I read this – it is SO true, I blame MasterChef and MKR for bringing up the price of secondary cuts like beef cheeks!!!! So pleased you enjoyed this Andrea, thanks for letting me know! N xx Oh PS – little tip for you, try local butchers and Asian stores. Some local butchers aren’t on the beef cheek trend-train yet and are still selling them for super cheap – like $12/kg. And most Asian butchers haven’t figure it out either. 😉
We have just tried your beef cheek recipe and it was delicious the only things we changed was we didn’t have red wine so I used very flavourful white and we added a few juniper berries. Anyway I will most certainly be buying beef cheeks again I absolutely love it. Thank you thank you.
I’m so pleased to hear you enjoyed this Derek! Thanks for letting me know – N xx ❤️
Hello,
Do the three different cooking methods yield similar results or have you found one to be better?
Hi Deesh! I use stove the most (just handy because it all stays on there), oven next then slow cooker 🙂 But I honestly cannot tell the difference!
Hi Nagi,
Your beef cheeks recipe is so delicious-thankyou so much! I did the oven method and wanted to check is it 160c for a fan forced oven? My liquid had reduced alot so I think I should perhaps reduce the heat a little. Might double the sauce quantities when I next cook beef cheeks for 8 to make sure there is enough delicious sauce for everyone.
Hi Beck! Yes I have a fan forced but for this recipe I find the same temp pretty much works the same for standard and oven. What did you bake it in? Just asking because I’m wondering if it let a lot of liquid evaporate. 🙂
Thanks for your reply Nagi. I used a cast iron casserole pot to cook it in. Had the Beef cheek ragu pasta last night with leftovers- so delicious too!
We have a wood fired oven outside and I have been searching for recipes to try in it. Your beef cheeks recipe was amazing !! Melt in your mouth meat and sauce so rich and delicious , thanks so much , will have to work my way through all your other recipes now.
WOW OH WOW! In a wood fired oven!!!🙌🏻
Hi Nagi,
I found beef cheeks at our local farmers market and never having bought/cooked/eaten them before was keen to check out recipes. There were so many times given for ‘slow’ cooking, anything from 2.5 to 10hrs.
Having read yours I liked the way it was written, and decided to go for that. When I saw the pressure cooker option even better.
Followed instructions for half quantity of large cheeks, was able to do the initial browning in the cooker so no extra washing up, and cooked it for around an hour at pressure.
Instead of mash we went for baked sweet potatoes, and broccoli.
Very very good indeed thank you. Now off to check out the Ragu recipe for the left overs!!
I’m so pleased to hear you enjoyed it Rowena! Thank you very much for your message – N xx
Have made this twice now and we LOVE this!! Will definitely be doing this again as it’s become my husband’s favourite! We will definitely also be having a browse through your other recipes; thank you!
I have struggled for years to cook slow cooked meats and I thought I would be forever unable to! Thankfully, I decided to have one last shot at attempting using the slow cooker and made these beef cheeks last night – they were absolutely perfect! Thanks so much for the recipe – I am slowly making my way through a lot of what you have on here! 🙂
Fantastic! So pleased to hear that Brittany, thank you for taking the time to come back and let me know! N xx
My goodness!! This was so good! I just purchased beef cheek last week, and I tried to make this tonight. Due to time crunch, I made it with pressure cooker (1 hour), since I only have 700+ gr of cheek, I halved the recipe. The beef is so succulent and literally melts in your mouth!! Thank you for the awesome recipe!
FANTASTIC to hear Steph! Thank you so much for letting me know. Hope you have a great weekend! – N xx
Hi Nagi
Just wondering if it is at all possible to make this the day before? Would it still have the ‘melt in your mouth’ effect when re-heated the next day? I’m thinking of making this the night before, letting it cool down and then refrigerating it before heating it up just before our guests arrive. Thanks for your help!
Absolutely! And I swear the flavour of the sauce just gets better and better!
Best. Recipe. Ever.
Beef and Ox cheeks are very readily available these days, even in normal UK supermarkets. Our Tesco usually has loads of them – instead of buying them off the counter, ask the butcher if they have any in vac packs in their fridge, they usually come in pairs.
One thing that’s worth noting is when reducing the sauce it will slightly darken, but the key is to watch consistency, it’ll start to look a bit grainy (i.e. surface liquid has boiled off) when it’s ready. We usually have ours with celeriac smash (Jamie Oliver has a good simple recipe) instead of mash and something green.
Hi Nagi this looks amaaazing I can’t wait to try! Just wondering if I cook a half the weight of beef cheek do you think I should reduce the beef stock/ wine by half as well or just 3/4 as it still needs liquid to cook in? Also can the left over meat be used to make the ragi recipe (and how?).
That’s a good question Ky! Yes if you use half the meat I would still use around 3/4 of the liquid. 🙂 There are links in the post to the ragu!