Jarret de Boeuf

Medium·40 min active + 3 hours 20 min resting

Chadian beef-shank stew — bone-in beef shank slow-cooked for 3+ hours with onion, garlic, tomato, root vegetables, and herbs into a rich, gelatinous broth. A French-influenced Chadian special-occasion meal.

Jarret de boeuf comes out of French-colonial Chadian cooking — slow-cooked like a French pot-au-feu but with Sahelian spices and ingredients. Beef shank's collagen gives the dish its characteristic broth body.

Lift a piece of beef shank from the pot — meat falling from the bone, glossy with gelatin, vegetables tumbled around. Bite: the meat is collapsing-tender, the broth deeply savory and rich from collagen, the vegetables sweet from long cooking, thyme and bay perfuming everything. With crusty bread to sop up the broth, this is the French-Chadian special-occasion plate.

Long simmering converts shank collagen to gelatin, producing the rich broth body. Browning before braising builds Maillard depth.

Variations

With ox tail. With lamb shank. With more vegetables. With added rosemary. Modern with white wine. Without tomato (purer broth).

On the Palate

Where Jarret de Boeuf sits in the Chadian flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 6

1.5 kg shankBeef

2Onion

4 clovesGarlic

3 + 2 tbsp pasteTomato

How it's made

9 steps · 40 min active + 3 hours 20 min waiting

1
4 min
Cut 1.5 kg beef shank into thick slices.
2
14 min
Heat 3 tbsp oil in heavy pot. Brown shanks 5 min per side; remove.
Watch out
Wait until each side is deep mahogany brown with a crust before turning — that browning is where the broth's depth comes from; a pale grey shank makes a thin stew.
3
8 min
Sauté 2 sliced onions + 4 minced garlic 6 min.
4
6 min
Add 3 chopped tomatoes, 2 tbsp tomato paste, 1 tbsp paprika; cook 5 min.
Watch out
Cook the tomato and paste until they darken from bright red to brick and the raw sour smell turns rich and sweet — that's when the base is ready for the meat.
5
4 min
Return shanks; add 2 L beef stock, 4 bay leaves, 4 sprigs thyme, 1 tbsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper.
6
152 min
Cover; simmer 2.5 hours.
Watch out
Keep it at a lazy bubble, not a rolling boil — a hard boil toughens the shank and clouds the broth; you want the meat pulling loose from the bone by the end.
7
32 min
Add 400 g cubed carrot, 400 g cubed potato, 200 g sliced leek in last 30 min.
Watch out
Add the vegetables only in the last half hour so they cook tender but hold their shape instead of dissolving into the broth.
8
1 min
Stir in 2 tbsp chopped parsley.
9
1 min
Serve hot with boule, rice, or crusty bread.