Some dishes come with a mystic reputation and frequently a pocket full of fear around making them for the first time. If cooking a brisket triggers an anxiety similar to the fear felt when talking yourself into asking your high school crush out to the prom, then I’ve got a no fail recipe for you this week.
As you continue your cooking journey there will be good days, not so good days, and flat out face plants. The size of the cut and infrequency which one would choose to make a brisket can make it feel a bit like your ass is on the line for this one and you better not mess it up, especially if it involves company coming over. I’m no stranger to this feeling either so I wanted to give you all a simple as possible method for producing a juicy, fork tender, smack you in the face with flavor brisket.
I can’t count the volume of flops I’ve had throughout my kitchen education. Like the time I left a tri-tip on the grill too long and turned it into an anvil, damn there burning the house down by leaving the burner on an empty pot, or the first time I called myself making hot water corn bread and thought that meant you dropped cornmeal patties into a pot of hot water :} Despite all that I lived to fight another day and never gave up on the idea that I could get better.
I’ve tried to take as much of the risk out of this recipe as possible to give you a fighting chance to get all smiles at dinner time. Let’s see how you do.
Save this recipe for the weekend or when you have plenty of time to focus on it. Salt the meat one day ahead. Lets cook
Braised Brisket
- 3 pound brisket (you might have to ask your butcher to cut a large one in 1/2)
- Salt
- Avocado oil
- 2 medium to large onions
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 1 Tbsp. Coconut aminos or Soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
- 2 Tbsp. sugar
- 1 tsp cumin
- Large frying pan or skillet
- 13×9 baking dish
- Parchment paper and tin foil
- Sauce pot
- Stick blender or counter blender
- Serving dish
Method
- Trim all but 1/4″ of fat off the meat. Heavily rub salt all over the brisket then wrap up tight and refrigerate for 12-24 hours.
- Heat 2 Tbsp. oil in large pan and brown the meat on all sides. About 8-10 min total. Flip each side before the meat starts to curl
- Remove from pan and let rest on a plate
- Add 2 more Tbsp. avocado oil to the pan
- Slice the onions and sauté them in the same pan, turning frequently until they start to brown
- Pre-heat your oven to 325
- While the onions are cooking mince the garlic. When the onions begin to brown add the garlic and cook for 1 minute
- Spread the onions and garlic over the bottom of the baking dish and set the brisket on top, fat side up
- Mix together in a bowl the water, Worcestershire, aminos or soy sauce, mustard, sugar, cumin, and a few pinches of salt
- Heat up the frying pan that you cooked the meat and onions in and pour in the sauce to deglaze the pan scaping up any brown bits off the bottom
- Pour the sauce over the brisket
- Cover with parchment paper then with foil to create a tight seal
- Cook on the middle rack for 3 1/2 hours or until you can slide a fork in and out of the thickest part of the meat
- Lift brisket out of the baking dish and rest on a plate for 30 minutes
- Pour the liquid from the pan into a bowl but save the left over onions. Let the fat rise to the top of the liquid then using a large spoon take as much of the fat off the top as possible
- Pour the defatted sauce into a sauce pan and boil it until it reduces by 1/3-1/2
- Add the onions to the reduced sauce and blend with a stick blender or pour the sauce and onions into a blender to make a thick sauce
- Slice the brisket across the grain into 1/4″ pieces
- Lay the sliced brisket out in serving dish then pour the sauce over the slices
- Serve it up with your favorite side dishes and watch the greasy smiles come across the lucky folks faces at the table
