deconstructed oxtail meatloaf

I think I talked about the oxtail I was going to make in my Calamari Meatloaf post. Well here it is. You might be wondering what i mean by "Deconstructed Meatloaf". Basically it means it is a recipe with the components of a traditional meatloaf(breadcrumbs, spices, meat) but the final product looks like something else. Chefs use the term "deconstructed" all the time when they make a dish that most of the time sucks on one of those ubiquitous Food Network cooking competitions.

However, this dish doesn't suck! It tasted like the hybrid of baby back ribs(because there is meat you eat off some bone), chicken wings(not the boneless type; I'm talking about the type my mom used to make me when I was a kid- roasted in some sort of cooking device that's not an oven), and of course, meatloaf. It doesn't make sense for me to be posting a video of a meat dish that isn't meatloaf.

Technically, if I wanted to make an actual oxtail meatloaf, I would need way more than the 1.25 pounds of oxtail I used. It turns out 20 ounces of oxtails only gives you 5 ounces of edible meat. I would need 3-4 pounds of oxtails to make a bona fide oxtail meatloaf. Yet I only have 2 loaf pans, so it would take me twice the amount of time just to get the meat off the bones and then form what ever meat I can harvest into a loaf shape. It's not worth the time and money, in my opinion, at this time.

You may be thinking, "What do i do with the bones once I eat all the meat I can off the oxtail?" I don't know what to tell you, maybe make some sort of oxtail broth out of the bones maybe? But I don't recommend feeding cooked oxtail bones to your dog. I read that dogs can chew through cooked oxtail bones and end up choking on them. Full disclosure: I don't have any dogs. I'm pretty certain my cats can't chew through oxtail bones, not even Jordan, even though he thinks daily that he can fit my fist in his tiny mouth.

One recommendation: use dental floss after eating oxtails. If you're like me, you want to get as much meat as you can off the oxtails. But then they stick between your teeth. Yuck! I don't even use floss regularly!

This was the longest meatloaf dish to make thus far(excluding the Meatloaf Cheesecake I made a couple of months ago). Oxtail takes a while to fully cook.

You will need:

For the cooking vessels:

A frying pan
A loaf pan or roasting pan
Aluminum foil
A sharp knife

For the actual "meatloaf":

1-1.25 pounds of oxtails
Olive oil
1-1.25 cups of cooking wine or broth
Pinch of paprika
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Pinch of cinnamon
Pinch of allspice
Pinch of salt
Pinch of black pepper
9 boiled baby carrots
1/2 cup of butter beans
Breadcrumbs to taste
Onion powder to taste

1. Thaw the oxtails in a refrigerator overnight.
2. Remove any excess fat off the oxtails using a sharp knife.
3. Pour olive oil in a frying pan. Heat up the oil.
4. Put oxtails in the frying pan.
5. Brown oxtails for 5-7 minutes, while repeatedly turning the oxtails over using tongs to brown all of the oxtail.
6. Put oxtails in a loaf pan or roasting pan.
7. Pour cooking wine or broth in the pan where the oxtails are now sitting.
8. Season the cooking wine and oxtails with paprika, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, allspice, salt, and black pepper.
9. Cover loaf pan or roasting pan with foil.
10. Braise in a 325 degree Fahrenheit preheated oven for 2 hours or until the meat is fully cooked.
11. Discard the cooking wine and put the oxtails on a plate.
12. Pour breadcrumbs and onion powder on the oxtails.
13. Serve with carrots and butter beans. To get more flavor, season the butter beans with onion powder.
14. Bon appetit!