Even the most hands-off recipes can throw a wrench in your weekend plans. I bookmarked our new short ribs slow-roasted in coconut milk to make on a lazy Sunday at home, and then I realized I had a Broadway show smack in the middle of the day. That didn't leave 5–6 hours to stay home and babysit my oven.

So after some Googling around to figure out how to convert a recipe from oven-roasting to pressure cooking, I discovered that these pressure cooker short ribs could be tender and ready in about an hour. (You should cut to “about ⅓ of the standard cooking time,” according to Melissa Clark, New York Times columnist and author of Instant Pot cookbook Dinner in an Instant.)

Since the flanken-style short ribs I had were only about ¾" thick when the recipe called for 1½–2" thickness, I went for 1 hour at high pressure on my Crock Pot multi-cooker. (Looks and works just like an Instant Pot, but costs $30 less—$69.99 at Target.) I stood the ribs up so they were shingled across the bottom of the pot and nine ribs (3 lbs.) fit snugly. There was no searing needed—just 10 minutes of prep to blitz grated lemongrass and ginger and chopped red chile, shallot, and garlic with a can of coconut milk and 1 Tbsp. curry powder in a blender. I poured the coconut milk mix over the ribs, cooked for an hour, and then let the pressure release naturally so the meat didn’t toughen. I was nervous they’d need more time, but they were perfectly tender; when I lifted a piece of short rib out of the pot, it fell apart in my tongs and the bones fell out immediately.

You could make soy sauce-marinated short ribs in a pressure cooker too. Alex Lau

In the oven for so many hours, the liquid reduces and caramelizes into something that resembles a sticky, jammy glaze. The pressure cooker doesn’t do that without one quick extra step. While I shredded the meat, I let the sauce reduce on sauté mode in the pressure cooker for about 10 minutes and made some rice. After cooking down a bit, it resembled traditional Indonesian beef rendang that this recipe is based on: beef coated in thick, saucy, curry-spiced coconut milk with subtle sweetness and kick of spice.

Short ribs aren’t typically a weeknight meal, but this pressure cooker-adapted recipe makes it possible. And it holds up the next day—I packed shredded short ribs, sauce, and rice together in pint containers for way-above-average meal prep. It could also help take the pressure off while hosting a spontaneous dinner party, or save you if you forgot about an anniversary dinner until 2 hours before. Whoever you make it for, they’ll go coconuts.

Ready to make it? Get the recipe:

Short Ribs Slow-Roasted in Coconut Milk In this riff on Indonesian beef rendang, the meat is cooked in coconut milk until it breaks up into gloriously rich jammy solids and delicious fat. Our hands-off method delivers on two counts: It browns the beef, then cooks it until the meat is fall-apart tender. A low oven temp is crucial: It allows the coconut milk to gradually evaporate until it’s thick and saucy. View Recipe

Another way to eat short ribs—with pasta!