How to Cook Beef Brisket
While anyone can wow dinner guests with filet mignon or another expensive cut of meat, a truer test of cooking skill is transforming a less choice cut, such as beef brisket, into a meal that is tantalizing and unforgettably scrumptious. Beef brisket is cut from the breast or chest portion of a cow or calf. It's a tougher, fattier cut of meat than what most of us might prefer, but slow-cooked and drenched in tangy barbecue sauce, beef brisket becomes extraordinary. Knowing how to cook beef brisket just right is a process that begins long before you heat your smoker, grill or oven.The first step is knowing what you're buying. While all brisket cuts are fatty, the "first-cut" section is less so than the "point cut" portion. So don't hesitate to ask your butcher which is which if you are unsure which brisket to choose. Once you have your brisket in hand, you're still a long way from eating it. The meat needs to tenderize for at least eight hours or overnight. And the cooking itself takes several hours, as well. But beef brisket is well worth the wait if you have the time to prepare it.
While the traditional method for cooking beef brisket is smoking, this oven-barbecued brisket is proof that it cooks up tasty indoors as well. This recipe uses a smoky barbecue dry rub. The meat is baked and basted slowly to perfection right in your kitchen.
Transcript
Hey, everyone, I'm Judith with Recipe.com, and today, I'm gonna
be showing you how to make an Oven Barbecued Brisket,
a great way to get that barbecue flavor right in
your oven. So what you're gonna need is one 14-ounce
can of diced tomatoes; a quarter cup of Worcester sauce;
a quarter cup of cider vinegar; 4 teaspoons of chili
powder;
4 teaspoons of paprika; 2 teaspoons of cinnamon; 2 shallots
which we've minced; 1 teaspoon of dried oregano; 1 teaspoon
of salt; 2 cloves of garlic which we've minced; and
a quarter cup of dark brown sugar. And over here,
we have our gorgeous brisket. This is a 4-pound flat
cut brisket, and we have trimmed all the fat off
there like you can see.
Now, brisket is kind of a-- it's a muscle, it's
fibrous and so it needs to be slow cooked, cooked
over a long time, and tenderized, so first of all,
we're gonna make up a kind of barbecue type of
rub to put all up on there and it's gonna
taste great. So, let's get all our nice dry ingredients.
We're gonna get our shallots in there...our garlic...our salt...
and our oregano, then we'll put in our...cinnamon, our lovely
paprika which is gonna give it a nice kick, and
that chili powder. Let's mix that all in. All right,
and that's just gonna be a great rub and it's
gonna all infuse in when we put it in the
refrigerator overnight. Now, it's the fun part and we're gonna
get our hands dirty and so this is gonna be
rubbed all over our brisket,
so let's move our brisket over here and just get
a nice amount and we'll just rub it in there
like so. Now, brisket is a fairly inexpensive cut of
meat, and it goes a long, long way and it
just tastes beautiful, so we're gonna rub both sides of
the brisket like so before we put it in the
fridge.
So now that's all done, we're gonna cover it with
saran wrap, put it in the fridge for at least
8 hours or overnight, if you can. So, we left
our brisket overnight and, today, we took it out of
the fridge. We've let it set for about 30 minutes
to room temperature and it's just looking great. Smells good
and looks beautiful. So now what we need to do
is pour over our Worcester sauce on top of our
meat. We're just gonna pour that all over there. Fantastic.
So, now we're gonna cover it, cover it with some
foil, and we've preheated our oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
and we're gonna cook that now for 2 hours. So,
while the beef is cooking, let's whip up a nice
little sauce to put on top of it when it
comes out, so we've got our tomato mixture here, so
to mix this sauce up, we are gonna use our
food processor. If you don't have one, you can use
a blender, works fine.
Our cider vinegar went in there, and our brown sugar.
About a minute to do it. Okay. So...we'll put that
in a bowl and we can set that aside now
until our beef comes out the oven and that's gonna
go right on top of it.
So we've taken our brisket out of the oven. It's
been in there for about 2 hours. Looking and smelling
really, really great, very flavorful, so now it's time to
put our tomato mixture on top, so we're just gonna
spoon that over, we can drizzle it all over, a
little, over the top, so as all of that is
on there, we're gonna cover it again, and we're gonna
put it back into the oven,
again at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, for an hour and a
half and we're gonna keep basting those pan juices every
30 minutes or so. So we've taken our brisket out
of the oven. We've removed the meat from its sauce
and now we have it here looking beautiful, smelling great.
We've put the remaining liquid into a measuring cup and
we've skimmed the fat from the top there, and that
is gonna be a great sauce to have with our
brisket. So, finally, last things last, we're just going to
cut our brisket, look at that,
against the grain, into thin slices like so. And last
but not least, we'll pour some of that sauce on
there, and there you go, a really delicious meat to
just share with friends at any party. This is your
Oven Barbecued Brisket. Well, thanks for watching, everyone. For more
great recipes and savings, go to Recipe.com.
What You'll Need
- 2 medium shallots, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 teaspoons chili powder
- 4 teaspoons smoked paprika or Hungarian paprika
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 pounds first-cut brisket, (or flat-cut), trimmed of fat
- 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
- 1 14-ounce can no-salt-added diced tomatoes
- 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup cider vinegar
Step By Step
1
Combine shallots, garlic, chili powder, paprika, cinnamon, oregano and salt in a small bowl. Rub into both sides of meat. Set the meat in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.
2
Pour Worcestershire sauce over the meat. Cover the pan with foil and set aside at room temperature while the oven heats to 350 degrees F.
3
Bake the brisket, covered, for 2 hours. Meanwhile, blend tomatoes, brown sugar and vinegar in a large blender or food processor until smooth.
4
After 2 hours, pour the tomato mixture over the meat; continue baking, covered, until fork-tender, basting with pan juices every 30 minutes, for about 1 1/2 hours more.
5
Remove the meat from the sauce. Let rest for 10 minutes, then slice against the grain. Skim the fat from the sauce in the pan; pour the sauce over the meat and serve (or follow make-ahead instructions).
6
MAKE AHEAD TIP: Bake, let the sliced brisket cool in the sauce for 1 hour, cover with foil and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 1 month. Reheat, covered, in a preheated 350 degrees F oven for 40 minutes; if frozen, defrost in the refrigerator overnight before reheating.
Of course, if you're a stickler for tradition, you can adapt this recipe for how to cook beef brisket for use in a smoker or grill, though you'll probably need to adapt cooking times. Whichever method you choose, you're in for a treat.
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