The Best Beef Brisket Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
• On a cutting board, mash the garlic and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt together with the flat-side of a knife into a paste. Add the rosemary and continue to mash until incorporated. Put the garlic-rosemary paste in a small bowl and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil; stir to combine.
• Season both sides of the brisket with a fair amount of kosher salt and ground black pepper. Place a large roasting pan or Dutch oven over medium-high flame and coat with the remaining olive oil. Put the brisket in the roasting pan and sear to form a nice brown crust on both sides. Lay the vegetables all around the brisket and pour the rosemary paste over the whole thing. Add the wine and tomatoes; toss in the parsley and bay leaves. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and transfer to the oven. Bake for about 3 to 4 hours, basting every 30 minutes with the pan juices, until the beef is fork tender.
• Remove the brisket to a cutting board and let it rest for 15 minutes. Scoop the vegetables out of the roasting pan and onto a platter, cover to keep warm. Pour out some of the excess fat, and put the roasting pan with the pan juices on the stove over medium-high heat. Boil and stir for 5 minutes until the sauce is reduced by 1/2. (If you want a thicker sauce, mix 1 tablespoon of flour with 2 tablespoons of wine or water and blend into the gravy).
• Slice the brisket across the grain (the muscle lines) at a slight diagonal. Serve with potato pancakes.
• Using a box grater or food processor, coarsely grate the potatoes and onions. Put the grated potatoes and onions together in cheesecloth or a tea towel and twist it to squeeze out the excess liquid. Put the dry potatoes and onions in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Fold in the egg whites and chives to bind the mixture together.
• Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat and coat with 1/4-inch of oil. For each pancake, take about 2 tablespoons of the potato mixture and drop into the hot oil; gently flatten with a spatula so they fry up thin and crispy. Fry for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, until golden. Remove to paper towels to drain; season with salt while the potato pancakes are still hot. Continue frying, adding more oil as needed, until all of the mixture is used up. Serve immediately with apple sauce, if desired.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
• Season the brisket on all sides with salt and pepper, and place in a glass baking dish. Cover with a layer of sliced onions. In a medium bowl, mix together the beer, chili sauce, and brown sugar. Pour over the roast. Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil.
• Bake for 3 hours in the preheated oven. Remove the aluminum foil, and bake for an additional 30 minutes. Let the brisket rest and cool slightly before slicing and returning to the dish. Reheat in the oven with the sauce spooned over the sliced meat.

Steps:

• Trim fat on briskett.
• Soak brisket for 30 minutes in water.
• Drain.
• Sprinkle meat with kosher salt and let sit 30 minutes.
• Rinse meat well.
• Braise meat in olive oil until brown, approximately 8 minutes per side.
• Reduce heat and add onions.
• Brown.
• Add garlic.
• Remove meat.
• Add all ingredients for sauce.
• Stir well.
• Put meat back in pan and simmer covered for approximately 3 hours.
• Remove meat and reduce sauce.

Steps:

• Season both sides of the brisket generously with salt, pepper, and cayenne. For best results, place brisket over an aluminum foil "rack" set over a plate and refrigerate, uncovered, 8 to 12 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
• Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and salt. Cook and stir until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, rosemary, and apple juice. Increase heat to high and boil until liquid is reduced by about half, about 3 minutes.
• Transfer half of the apple-onion mixture into a baking dish. Place brisket fat-side up on top; cover with remaining apple-onion mixture. Cover baking dish tightly with foil.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 250 degrees F (121 degrees C) and bake until fork-tender, about 2 hours 15 minutes. Check for doneness after 2 hours.
• Transfer brisket to a plate and tent with foil.
• Pour the onions and braising liquid into a large measuring cup or bowl. Skim some fat off the top. Puree with a stick blender to create a gravy.
• Slice brisket across the grain and serve with the gravy.

Steps:

• 1. Trim the fat cap on the brisket down to about 1/4-inch.
• 2. Chef's Note: What's a Fat Cap? Untrimmed beef brisket, is referred to as a full packer brisket, and is made of at least two muscles. The flatter leaner portion is defined as the flat. Whereas the thicker more marbled portion is referred to as the point or the deckle. One side of the brisket is covered in a layer of fat called the fat cap.
• 3. Using a nice sharp knife cut a crosshatch pattern into the fat cap.
• 4. Rub about a tablespoon of kosher salt into the cuts in the fat cap.
• 5. Chef's Note: My dry rub does not include any salt; however, most commercial dry rubs do. So, if you are not using my rub, skip this step. I choose to add the salt separately for two reasons: One, it allows me to control the amount of salt. Two, by applying the salt separately, it gives the salt first crack at the beef.
• 6. Apply a generous portion of the dry rub, and rub it into the cuts.
• 7. Chef's Tip: The rub should look like sand on wet skin: Evenly distributed, but not clumped.
• 8. Wrap tightly in foil, and allow to rest in the refrigerator overnight. This gives the ingredients a chance to know each other.
• 9. In the morning (real early) remove the brisket from the fridge, and allow it to sit on your counter for about an hour. This will take the chill off the beef before placing it in the heat source.
• 10. Gas Grill: You don't want the brisket to be over a direct flame, so I usually turn off two of the three burners on the grill, and just heat the box with one burner. I'll then place the brisket over the unlit burners.
• 11. Electric Smoker: All electric smokers have their own set of instructions. Follow them, and keep the temp to 225f (107c).
• 12. Oven: Set the temp, and place the brisket in a baking tray, fitted with a wire rack. This will allow the rendered fat to drip into the bottom of the tray.
• 13. Chef's Tip: If you're using a charcoal or gas grill, and you want some of that smokey taste, simply soak some apple wood, or similar wood chips in water overnight. Then wrap in some aluminum foil, poke some hole in the foil and place over the hot portion of the grill. The chips will smoke and infuse the meat with their flavor.
• 14. Chef's Note: Fat cap up or down? Now that's a question that can start a bar fight, double quick. I've cooked briskets both ways; however, for this method, let's not argue and keep the fat cap up.
• 15. Chef's Note: You have two things to keep track of: The temperature of the box, and the temperature of the brisket. If you're using an electric smoker or an oven, the automatic settings should take care of the box temperature. If you're using a gas or charcoal grill, you'll need to keep a steady eye (both eyes when possible), on the temp. It will vary up and down, but try to keep it between 220f/230f (104c/110c).
• 16. For the first three hours, leave the brisket alone, and just make sure the temperature stays pretty much steady.
• 17. In the fourth hour begin taking the temperature of the brisket with a digital probe. We're looking for a temp of 150f (66c).
• 18. Chef's Note: The dreaded STALL: When the brisket hits about 150f (66c) moisture rises to the surface of the beef and cools it by the process of evaporation. What happens is that the temperature doesn't rise for hours, and this confuses a lot of novice cooks, who will panic, and begin trying to compensate by raising the temperature in the box. WRONG THING TO DO.
• 19. By the time the brisket's internal temperature hits 150f (66c), it should look something like this.
• 20. Chef's Tip: The Texas Crutch: When the brisket hits that magic number of 150f (66c), remove from the box, and tightly wrap in a double-layer of foil, along with a half a cup of liquid (beer, wine, broth), and then place back into the box.
• 21. Chef's Note: The Texas Crutch prevents the cooling of the brisket by evaporation, and speeds up the process quite a bit.
• 22. Watch the temperature of the brisket over the next few hours (about four hours), and when the temperature hits 200f/205f (93c/96c), remove from the heat.
• 23. Chef's Note: The final step: A faux Cambro.
• 24. Leave the brisket tightly wrapped, and place in an insulated box (like a Colman cooler), or you could leave it in an oven (wrapped) at about 175f (80c). For an hour or so (no more than 4 hours). The faux cambro, or holding helps tenderize the brisket by allowing carryover cooking which helps melt tough connective tissue.
• 25. Chef's Note: Using the faux cambro, or holding method allows you to remove the brisket from the box, and "hold" it until your guests are ready to eat.
• 26. Chef's Tip: When you're checking the internal temperature of the brisket after it's been wrapped in foil, choose a point near the top to insert the probe, and use that same hole each time you check. Putting the hole high up prevents the juices from leaking out, and maintains the integrity of the wrap throughout the cooking process.
• 27. When the guests are ready, remove from the cambro, unwrap, and cut nice thick slabs, always against the grain.
• 28. Chef's Tip: Serve with coleslaw, potatoes, or whatever sides you want. Plus you can use the accumulated juices from the foil wrap as an au jus. Enjoy.
• 29. Keep the faith, and keep cooking.