A 3.3 lb (1.5 kg) pack of oxtail is mostly bone, cartilage and connective tissue, which makes it a poor roast and a great soup cut. In Colombia and Venezuela it goes into sopa de rabo (SOH-pah deh RAH-boh), also called sopa or sancocho de cola: oxtail simmered for about three hours until it slides off the bone, then finished with yuca, potatoes, corn and carrots and a fistful of cilantro. The broth sets to a soft jelly in the fridge, and that is how you know it was done right. If you have only had Jamaican or Korean oxtail, this one is plainer and brothier, a one-pot Sunday lunch rather than a stew over rice.
What is sopa de rabo, and who is it for?
How do you make Latin oxtail soup? Simmer 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) of oxtail in 4 liters (17 cups) of cold water, skimming for the first 15 minutes, then cook it for 135 minutes on low with scallions, garlic and cilantro stems until the meat starts to leave the bone. Add yuca, then potatoes, carrots and corn, and finish with chopped cilantro. Ready in 205 minutes for 6 servings.
It is worth making if you have a slow weekend morning, or a day before a gathering. One pot feeds six as a full meal: meat, four vegetables and a broth rich enough to make your lips sticky.
When it shines. A cold Sunday, a family lunch, a make-ahead meal for guests, because it tastes better the next day.
When to skip it. Weeknights, unless you own a pressure cooker. People who don’t want to deal with bones in the bowl. And anyone after a light soup: even skimmed, a bowl comes to about 645 kcal.
Real time. 205 minutes on the clock, about 55 of them hands-on. About 145 in an Instant Pot, and around 60 on the day if you cook the oxtail the day before.
Honest difficulty: medium. Nothing is technically hard. It goes wrong in three ways: a rolling boil that clouds the broth, vegetables added before the oxtail is tender, and fat left in the pot.
How Colombians and Venezuelans make it
The two countries make it differently, and there is no single official version in either. In Colombia, cola de res goes into the pot raw with scallions, garlic and cilantro, then potatoes, yuca and corn; add green plantain and squash and it becomes sancocho de cola. In many Venezuelan homes the oxtail is dusted in flour and browned, then simmered with a sofrito of onion, leek, sweet peppers and tomato, and finished with potatoes, carrots, corn and celery. I cook the Colombian clear-broth style with Venezuelan carrots in it; the sofrito version is further down.
Buying oxtail, how much you need and what it costs
Buy 250 g (just over ½ lb) of bone-in oxtail per person when the soup is the main course, and 150 g (5 oz) if it’s a starter. That sounds like a lot until you remember that much of the weight is bone. Ask for it cut at the joints, and get a mix of thick pieces from the base, which carry the meat, and thin ones from the tip, which carry the gelatin.
What it costs in the US. Oxtail is no longer a cheap cut: supermarkets charge roughly $10 to $14 a pound, so 3.3 lb runs $33 to $46. The potatoes, carrots, corn, scallions and cilantro came to about $5.74 at mid-October 2026 prices, not counting the yuca. That puts a bowl at roughly $6.50 to $8.70. Oxtail is 85 % or more of the bill. In the UK, a butcher will usually cut it to order; I don’t have a reliable price to give you.
Why it’s expensive. Each animal has one tail, and you pay for the bone along with the meat.
Yield. 6 deep bowls with 2 or 3 pieces of oxtail each. Served as a starter with 150 g (5 oz) of oxtail a head, the same pot feeds 10.
Ingredients and US and UK swaps
Everything is in the recipe card. Only one ingredient needs a special shop, and it has an easy way round.
- Yuca (cassava). A starchy root that cooks firm and slightly sticky, then splits open like a flower when done. Frozen peeled yuca from the Latin freezer aisle goes straight into the pot, no thawing. Fresh, it needs peeling and the woody core removed. No yuca at all? Use 500 g (1.1 lb) more potatoes; the soup loses some body.
- Potatoes. Colombian papa pastusa is floury and its edges soften into the broth. Russet (US) or Maris Piper (UK) does the same job. Yukon Gold keeps the broth clearer and stays whole.
- Corn. Colombian mazorca is starchier and chewier than American sweet corn and needs 40 minutes. Supermarket corn on the cob only needs the last 15 minutes, or it goes mushy.
- Scallions. They stand in for Colombian cebolla larga, which is bigger and stronger, so use about 2 bunches.
Equipment. An 8-liter (8-quart) pot with a lid, a ladle, a fork and a heavy knife for the yuca. With a 6-liter pot, start with 3 liters (12½ cups) of water and add 1 liter (4 cups) of hot water with the vegetables.
Stovetop, Instant Pot or two days, and how to plan it
On the stove the oxtail sits in the pot for 190 minutes: 15 of skimming, 135 of bare simmer, then 40 more with the vegetables. The only time you need to stand there is the skimming and the fork test.
Browned or not, and what changes
Both are right; they make different soups. Unbrowned, the oxtail goes raw into cold water and is skimmed, and the broth comes out clear and golden, the Colombian way. Browned in batches in a tablespoon of oil until colored on all sides, the broth turns darker and roasted, the base for the Venezuelan sofrito version. Flour the pieces first, as many Venezuelan cooks do, and the broth thickens a little, but it’s no longer gluten-free. I skip browning for everyday soup: it adds about 20 minutes at the stove and spatters fat everywhere.
When each vegetable goes in
Count backward from the end, hardest first. Yuca needs about 40 minutes to split open, so it goes in first. Potatoes and carrots need 25 minutes and go in 15 minutes later. Sweet corn needs 15. Cilantro leaves go in at the end. None of it goes in until the oxtail passes the fork test.
How to tell each stage is right.
- Skimming → after 15 minutes the gray foam stops and the water looks clear, still short of a hard boil.
- Simmer → small bubbles rising on one side of the pot, never a rolling boil.
- Oxtail → 150 minutes after it went into the water, a fork goes into a thick piece and the meat starts to pull from the bone.
- Yuca → split open in the middle. If it is still closed and hard after 40 minutes, it’s old yuca and it won’t soften.
- Salt → at the end, because the broth reduces and concentrates over three hours.
Skimming the fat, the overnight way
Oxtail renders a lot of fat, and a ladle only gets part of it. The cold gets the rest. Cook the oxtail through step 4 without vegetables, lift out the scallions and stems, and divide the broth and meat into shallow containers so they cool fast. They must be in the fridge within 2 hours of coming off the heat; a whole hot stockpot takes too long to cool in the center.
Next day the fat sits on top as a hard white sheet you can lift off with a spoon, and the broth underneath is set like jelly. That’s the gelatin from the oxtail, and it melts back as soon as it’s warm. On the day: lift the fat, bring to a gentle simmer for about 10 minutes and carry on with the vegetables, about 60 minutes in all.
Instant Pot and pressure cooker timing
In an 8-quart Instant Pot or a stovetop pressure cooker, put the oxtail in 2.5 liters (10½ cups) of cold water, never more than two-thirds full. Bring it up on Sauté with the lid off and skim for 15 minutes, add the aromatics, lock the lid and cook 50 minutes at high pressure. Let the pressure drop on its own, about 15 minutes: a quick release makes the broth boil hard inside and turn cloudy. Open, test the oxtail, add 1.5 liters (6⅓ cups) of hot water and cook the vegetables with the lid off, on Sauté or on the stove, with the same timings. Never pressure-cook the vegetables; the potatoes fall apart in 5 minutes. In a 6-quart pot, use 2 liters (8½ cups) of water and add 2 liters after opening.
Scaling it for 12 or 20
| Serves | Oxtail | Water | Yuca | Potatoes | Corn | Pot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) | 4 L (17 cups) | 500 g (1.1 lb) | 600 g (1.3 lb) | 2 ears | 8 L (8 qt) |
| 12 | 3 kg (6.6 lb) | 8 L (8½ qt) | 1 kg (2.2 lb) | 1.2 kg (2.6 lb) | 4 ears | 15 L (16 qt) |
| 20 | 5 kg (11 lb) | 13 L (13¾ qt) | 1.7 kg (3¾ lb) | 2 kg (4.4 lb) | 7 ears | two 10 L (10 qt) |
Cooking times barely change, though a big pot takes longer to reach the simmer and the oxtail may want 15 to 20 minutes extra. Start with half the salt and adjust at the end. For 12 or more, cook the oxtail the day before; it’s the only practical way to degrease that much soup.
Before you cook, mistakes, spice, kids and allergens
The two things that matter. The oxtail goes in alone and gets tender before any vegetable, and the potatoes go in 15 minutes after the yuca.
Mistakes and fixes.
- Cloudy broth → it boiled hard or wasn’t skimmed early. Rest it off the heat for 10 minutes and ladle the fat off the top; the flavor is fine.
- Greasy broth → the outer fat wasn’t trimmed, or the pot wasn’t chilled. Trim before cooking and chill overnight if you can.
- Tough oxtail, vegetables already done → the vegetables went in too soon. Lift them out with a little broth, give the oxtail 20 more minutes, then put them back.
- Potatoes dissolved → they went in with the yuca or were cut small. Halves, 15 minutes later.
- Weak broth → too much water for the oxtail. Keep it at 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) per 4 liters (17 cups) and top up with hot water only.
Heat level, 0 out of 5. Nothing in the pot is spicy. Colombians put ají picante on the table for whoever wants it.
Kids. Usually a hit, thanks to the corn and potatoes. Take the meat off the bone for them: oxtail has small bones between the joints.
Allergens. As written it has no gluten, dairy, egg, nuts or fish. Flouring the oxtail for browning adds gluten, and the Venezuelan version adds celery, a declarable allergen in the UK and EU.
Which version should you make?
- Short on time → Instant Pot, 50 minutes at high pressure plus a 15-minute natural release; about 145 minutes in all.
- For a crowd → the scaling table, oxtail cooked the day before and degreased cold.
- Venezuelan, with sofrito → dust the oxtail in 3 tbsp flour, brown it in batches and simmer it in the 4 liters (17 cups) of water. Separately, soften 1 onion, 1 leek, 1 bell pepper, 3 sweet peppers and the garlic, add 2 grated tomatoes, cook 10 minutes and tip it into the pot with 2 bay leaves and a celery stalk. The vegetables go in the same way; yuca is optional. The broth comes out reddish, thicker and sweeter.
- Sancocho de cola → add 2 green plantains, broken into chunks by hand, and 500 g (1.1 lb) of winter squash with the yuca. The plantain thickens the broth and the squash turns it orange.
- Lighter → chill and degrease overnight, and serve more broth and vegetables than meat.
- Cheaper → half oxtail, half bone-in short ribs. The short ribs go in 45 minutes after the oxtail, since they soften sooner.
How it compares with its neighbors. Caldo de costilla is the Bogotá breakfast version, short ribs and potato in 120 minutes. The Venezuelan beef hervido mixes short ribs and shank with seven vegetables in 170 minutes. The Colombian three-meat sancocho combines beef, pork and chicken, and the Colombian chicken sancocho swaps the beef for a stewing hen. Oxtail soup is the single-cut one, the longest-cooking of the five and, in my kitchen, the one whose broth sets firmest in the fridge.
What to expect, how to serve it and how to store it
Taste and texture. A golden, savory broth with real body. The oxtail is soft and sticky, fat and cartilage melted, and comes off the bone with a spoon. Yuca stays firm, potato edges soften into the broth, and the corn adds sweetness. Raw scallion and cilantro at the end keep it fresh.
How it’s served. In a deep bowl: 2 or 3 pieces of oxtail, a piece of each vegetable and broth to cover. In Colombia, with white rice on the side, avocado and ají; in Venezuela, with avocado and arepas. It’s a whole meal in one bowl.
Fridge. 3 to 4 days at 40°F (4°C) or below, as long as it goes in within 2 hours of cooking. It will be jellied with fat on top the next day; lift the fat before reheating.
Freezer. 2 to 3 months for best quality; at 0°F (−18°C) it stays safe indefinitely. Potatoes go grainy when frozen, so freeze the broth with the oxtail, yuca and corn, and cook fresh potatoes for 25 minutes when you reheat.
Reheating. Covered, over medium-low heat, until it simmers and reaches 165°F (74°C) in the middle. High heat breaks the potato and yuca against the bottom of the pot. In the microwave, bowl by bowl, 1 to 2 minutes at a time, stirring in between.
Frequently asked questions
How long does oxtail take to get tender for soup? On the stove, about 150 minutes on a bare simmer before the vegetables and 40 more with them, roughly 3 hours. In a pressure cooker, 50 minutes at high pressure plus a 15-minute natural release.
Do you have to brown oxtail before making soup? No. Unbrowned gives a clear, golden broth; browned gives a darker, roasted one. Colombians usually skip it; Venezuelan cooks often brown it.
How much oxtail do I need per person? 250 g (just over ½ lb) bone-in for a main course, 150 g (5 oz) for a starter. For 6 people, 1.5 kg (3.3 lb).
How do you get the fat out of oxtail soup? Trim the outer fat before cooking, then chill the broth and meat overnight. The fat sets on top and lifts off in one piece.
Can I make oxtail soup in an Instant Pot? Yes: 50 minutes at high pressure with 2.5 liters (10½ cups) of water and a natural release. Cook the vegetables afterward with the lid off.
What’s the difference between sopa de rabo and Jamaican oxtail? Jamaican oxtail is a thick, spiced braise with butter beans, served over rice. Sopa de rabo is a broth soup with root vegetables and corn, eaten from a bowl.
Is sopa de rabo the same as sancocho de cola? Nearly. In Colombia it’s called sancocho de cola when green plantain and squash go in; without them it’s sopa de cola or sopa de rabo.
Can you freeze oxtail soup? Yes, for 2 to 3 months. Leave out the potatoes, which turn grainy, and add fresh ones when you reheat.
Nutrition
Per bowl (one-sixth of the pot), calculated ingredient by ingredient from the quantities above. I count 846 g (1.9 lb) of edible meat and fat in the 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) of bone-in oxtail, using values for cooked beef with its fat, and the 12 g of salt:
- Calories: 645 kcal
- Protein: 43 g
- Carbohydrates: 65 g
- Fat: 25 g, 10 g of it saturated
- Fiber: 6 g
- Sugars: 8 g
- Sodium: 900 mg
The fat figure moves with how well you degrease: lifting the chilled layer brings it down noticeably, though I can’t give you an exact number because it depends on how much you remove. About 775 mg of the sodium comes from the salt in the pot. Rice and avocado aren’t counted.
I grew up with oxtail as a hervido meat in Venezuela, and the first time I made this soup in Colombia I threw everything in at once, the way I made sancocho, and fished out dissolved potatoes and tough meat three hours later. Now the oxtail cooks alone on Saturday, the fat comes off cold on Sunday morning, and the vegetables go in an hour before lunch. Josnaisis.