The recipe is generally credited to Mississippi home cook Robin Chapman, who adapted a family roast recipe in the 1990s. It eventually made its way from one kitchen to another and then across the internet, becoming the slow-cooker sensation we know today.
OK! So this is a little non-conventional, and a lot of my professional chef friends would probably question my methodology, but I am also going to push forward in sharing with you my technique, because it works every time and results in a silky, velvety and ridiculously delicious sauce that I hesitate to call gravy, because it truly is a refined tasting sauce!
Secondly, as a classically trained chef, there’s something about roasting a turkey, and then yielding from that, the most amazing drippings and broth to make what we know as gravy, but finishes out to be a beautiful sauce. When you deep fry or smoke a turkey, it doesn’t yield the same style of drippings to make a fabulous gravy so that’s where I dig deep into my traditional roots and stick with what I know and look forward to every year.
Because BJ and Stephanie Robinson of Robinson Ranch are located deep in the Midwest, it was abundantly clear the recipe I needed to create would be in honor of a regional culinary specialty, with a few twists to make it Robinson Ranch's very own. So let's enjoy some runza!
Oxtails! For this particular recipe, I had the amazing opportunity to collaborate with a 1st Generation family cattle ranch out of Newcastle, Nebraska, the Robinson Ranch. Their cattle are raised using sustainable, low-stress practices and you can truly taste the quality in the finished beef.