Recipe: Caribbean Trinidad Stewed Oxtail

A heavy-based saucepan or non-stick pan with a lid (e.g. see notes)
A blender, hand blender or food processor
1 cook’s knife (I use global knives)
1 chopping board
A strong wooden spoon
A large mixing bowl
Cooking tongs (optional but recommended)

Method: Trinidad Stewed Oxtail and Green Seasoning

Step One: Prepare the Green Seasoning

This is very easy. Grab all the ingredients (save for the water), place them in your food processor or blender and blend them all into a paste-like texture. You should start at a slow speed or pulse and then progress to a faster speed gradually. Use the water to thin out the mixture and allow the blades on the food processor or blender to turn the ingredients around. You will want to rub the Green Seasoning into the oxtail. Consequently, you want a texture that allows you to coat and rub the oxtail.

You should see the notes for storage advice on any surplus green seasoning.

Step Two: Marinade the Oxtail

Place all your oxtail in a large mixing bowl. The bowl should be large enough to hold all the oxtail, the marinade and room to move and coat the marinade on the oxtail. Coat your oxtail in Green Seasoning and the allspice powder. I recommend a minimum of 4 tablespoons or 60g of Green Seasoning for the recipe volume of oxtail.

You want to marinade the oxtail for at least four hours or ideally overnight, covered and in the fridge.

Step Three: Searing the Oxtail in Demerara Sugar

Prepare your carrots and white onion if you have not done so already. Grab your marinade oxtail bowl and keep it near the saucepan and you. This step of the cooking requires concentration so you cannot focus on anything else.

Bring your saucepan to a medium-high heat until the dish is hot. Pour in your vegetable oil and allow it to warm up. Scoop your brown sugar onto your cooking spoon and gently sprinkle the sugar into the hot oil. You want an even coat of the sugar across the bottom of the saucepan.



Watch the sugar turn from light brown to amber and it will start to become darker. Allow it to bubble for a few seconds and then introduce the oxtail one at a time. You may want to use the tongs placing the oxtail. Be careful not to burn the sugar and be careful not to burn your fingers: hot oil and hot sugar will create a NASTY burn.

Allow the oxtail to stew on each side for 3-5 minutes and then turn. The oxtail should reveal a dark caramelised colour. You can introduce the black peppercorns, chopped onions and carrots once all the oxtail pieces are caramelized on both sides.

Step Four: Stewing the Oxtail

Reduce the heat to low-medium and place a lid on the saucepan. You should stir the oxtail occasionally and add water if you see the oxtail sticking to the bottom of the pan. You can leave the oxtail to cook for 3-4 hours checking on it periodically adding water as needed.

Step Five: Serving

The oxtail beef should be tender and collapses with pressure from a spoon. Remove the oxtail from the saucepan. Oxtail releases a lot of beef fat so you may need to drain the oxtail pieces against the walls of the saucepan.



You can serve the oxtail hot with your favourite side dishes like rice, beans, macaroni pie, macaroni cheese or my perfect potato puree recipe.

Notes and Rationale: Trinidad Stewed Oxtail

Is this an authentic Trinidadian dish?

West Indian food (aka Caribbean food) is not a monolith. A collection of islands with their own agriculture, cultural mix and colonial history means the food between small, proximate islands can vary wildly. Why mention this? Different islands will have their own version of oxtail. Families have their own version. Trini people do not come for me! This recipe is as close as I could get to a Trinidadian Stewed Oxtail dish.

The key missing ingredient is green pimento in the green seasoning. You should add pimento to the green seasoning marinade if you can. You will also find variations online to Green Seasoning that includes celery, ginger or other ingredients. This is a very popular ready-made brand in Trinidad.

Why did I pick this dish?

Comfort food rises to the occasion as we hurtle through another week “WFH” and “self-isolating”. This causes me to search out for childhood favourites including the Trinidadian / West Indian food that I grew up eating at home, in school and everywhere in between.

Why does the thickness of the oxtail matter?

Oxtail is almost equal parts of bone, meat and fat. The oxtail will reduce in size through the slow cooking as the fat is rendered shrinking the oxtail. The bone and meat will be left. A large oxtail chunk also looks great in the final presentation. Using a thicker cut of oxtail leaves a larger final portion and looks good doing it.

Why do you recommend vegetable oil?

You want a neutral-tasting oil with a high burning temperature. Corn oil, canola oil, sunflower oil or clean vegetable oil would all work wonders. You do not want to use olive oil because it would burn too quickly leaving an unpleasant flavour. Olive oil is also a flavoured oil. You should not use butter or beef fat when searing the oxtail because the burning point is too low for caramelising the brown sugar. You could use butter as a finishing glossy touch before serving.

Why does the saucepan matter?

You want a heavy-based saucepan to evenly distribute the heat, especially for the sugar caramelisation. I use a large Le Creuset cast iron enamel pot that I use for making this dish. It is durable, preventing sugar from sticking to the pan. You could also use a non-stick saucepan too with a lid.

What do I do with extra Green Seasoning?

This does not last well so I would normally freeze the remaining amount that can be used in soups, stews or defrosted as a marinade. A handy tip is to pour the remaining marinade into a plastic ice cube tray and freeze into individual portions.

What to do with extra oxtail?

There are many options: you could freeze oxtail in resealable bags in portion sizes dating each bag (this is what I do). You can pick the meat from the oxtail and use it in stews, tacos or other dishes with flaked beef. It would be a great flavouring to a rice and beans dish. If you are looking for another Trinidadian dish, the oxtail could be used for a stewed oxtail pelau.

Why do you recommend the tools you use?

Cook’s knife / Global knives: I like the weight of a cook’s knife and it is versatile enough to do fine dicing, medium dicing as well as the rest of the chopping techniques in this recipe. I like the Global knives because they are excellent, sharp and you do not need to worry about the handle breaking from the blade after many years. They do not slip in the hand even when wet.

Wooden chopping board: wooden chopping boards are durable and they are better on your knife’s longevity. Never buy a glass chopping board. They look nice but they will dull your knife very easily. The alternative would be to buy plastic but there are many articles about wood vs plastic, which is more sanitary etc. Wooden chopping boards require washing by hand and drying thoroughly. Plastic boards can go in the dishwasher in an appropriate setting so there are points for convenience.

I personally buy wooden boards. You do not need to go buy expensive boards. I have a GIANT wooden board about 5 feet wide and just under two foot tall and about 3 inches thick. It is made from recycled wood bought in a hardware store. The store’s carpenter made and treated it for me. It is brilliant as you can cook a whole meal on the same board without washing, drying or flipping over between prepping items.