Copycat Alley Restaurant Oxtail Soup is a soup made with oxtails simmered slowly with orange peel, ginger, shiitake, dried dates and star anise.
Back from my trip in Hawaii I saw this video Righteous Bites Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives hosted by Guy Fieri and one of the dishes he featured was this Oxtail Soup from the Alley Restaurant in Aeia, Hawaii. His description was it was one of the best soups he ever tried and I totally agree with him, even though I haven’t tried it in the restaurant I made it at home and try to recreate it as much as I can base on the show.
It is a simple soup of boiled oxtails simmered in Asian spices, ginger, dried shiitake mushrooms and peanuts, definitely you won’t go wrong on this one it’s just the blend of spiced and preparation that makes this dish awesome. Oxtail alone gives a lot of flavour, the amount of collagen you can get on this cut is amazing, giving a nice thick texture and volume to the soup. The shiitake also plays a big part on the dish giving it an earthy mellow flavour combine that with spices that blend well with each other the result is this umami filled soup dish that is out of this world.
I have been to Hawaii a couple of times and still plan to go back in the future, hopefully that next time I will have the chance to dine in The Alley Restaurant to see if what I recreated is at par as what they serve. How about you have you tried the original dish? If yes what are your thoughts on it? Is my dish comparable to what they serve? I am glad to find out and perfect this as much as I can.
Boil oxtail in water for 15 minutes. Drain and rinse well to remove the scum.
Place the oxtails back into a clean pot, pour the beef stock then add just enough water to cover the oxtails. Also add the orange peel, star anise, ginger and salt. Bring to a boil then simmer in low heat for one hour.
Add the shiitake mushrooms, dried dates, raw peanuts and whiskey then continue to boil for one more hour in low heat.
Season with salt then add the baby bok choy, cook for 2 more minutes.
Prepare your dipping sauce by combining all dipping sauce ingredients.
Place soup in a bowl garnish with chopped spring onions and chopped coriander then serve with dipping sauce.
FYI, on the show, the chef uses a blend of beef and chicken stock (I found this out after getting everything ready from memory, making beef stock, and then watching the video and realizing I had to go back to the store for chicken)
Two hours for oxtails is enough, that will be tender already (but still dependent on the cow breed you are using). If you want fall off the bone meat then feel free to add one to two more hours.
Have you tried this without whisky?
Yes, there is a slight difference but nothing major
FYI, on the show, the chef uses a blend of beef and chicken stock (I found this out after getting everything ready from memory, making beef stock, and then watching the video and realizing I had to go back to the store for chicken)
Thanks for the tip. Got to add that next time I make it, but as it stands I got a great result already, will update this page once I tried them.
I would think that this method would result in really tough meat. Didn’t they say they cooked the soup for like 6 hours on the show?
Two hours for oxtails is enough, that will be tender already (but still dependent on the cow breed you are using). If you want fall off the bone meat then feel free to add one to two more hours.
Do you use dried orange peel or fresh orange peel?
Either, dried ones would yield more flavour
I cooked it in the iPot for 25 minutes, Meat was juicy and almost “fall off the bone.”