Beef Brisket cooked as a pot roast couldn’t be easier. Just sear and then cook it in the oven with onions and garlic all afternoon until it becomes fall-apart tender. The leftovers freeze beautifully, too!
Beef brisket is a fabulous cut of meat. The brisket is located between the shoulders and the forelegs of the steer. These muscles get a workout, which results in more flavor in the meat, and they are also well marbled with fat, adding even more flavor.
So they are highly flavorful and perfect for slow braises. Long cooking time is needed to melt the connective tissue.
Upon serving, the meat is cut across the grain, helping it become fall-apart tender.
Flat Cut versus Point Cut Brisket
A whole brisket has two parts, the “flat cut” and the “point cut.” The flat cut is flatter and leaner than the point cut and is more readily available at grocery stores. It still has a fat cap on one side, but the meat itself is leaner. This cut is most often used for roasts you intend to slice.
The point cut of the brisket is a fattier cut, with more fat marbling throughout the meat, making it more flavorful and more shreddable.
You can use either cut for this beef brisket recipe, just know that a point cut will be richer and fattier, the flat cut, more lean.
How to Cook Beef Brisket
This brisket recipe is fairly classic. It’s essentially a pot roast—a slow braise with lots and lots of onions.
First, you score the fat side of the roast to help it render while cooking. Then you sear the brisket on all sides in a hot pan.
Once the brisket is well browned, you brown a bunch of sliced onions in the same pan, add back the roast, add some herbs and stock, cover the pot and cook it in the oven for several hours, adding carrots near the end, until the beef brisket it falling-apart tender. Easy!
How to Make this Brisket in the Slow Cooker
You can adapt this recipe to the slow cooker. Prepare the recipe as directed through step 3 (searing the brisket and sautéing the onions), then transfer everything to a 6-quart or larger slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 to 9 hours.
An Easy Beef Brisket Recipe to Adjust
You can do so many things with brisket. One of my favorite beef brisket recipes is just simply slathering it with a BBQ sauce mixture and cooking it forever in the oven. There are versions with ketchup, onion soup, or even cocktail sauce with horseradish.
With this beef brisket recipe, feel free to mix it up a bit. You could easily use other root vegetables such as parsnips, turnips, or rutabagas.
You could use wine or beer instead of the beef stock. Think of this recipe as a starting point for experimentation, or just a good, basic pot roast brisket.
What to Serve with Brisket
Serve the brisket pot roast with a side of potatoes (mashed, roasted or boiled), buttered egg noodles, polenta, or simply some crusty bread like an Italian or French rustic loaf. For a green, serve with some boiled green beans on the side, or a lightly dressed green salad.
How to Keep and Reheat Brisket
This will keep in the fridge, easily, for about 5 days. Reheat it in a low oven, wrapped in aluminum foil, for 20-25 minutes or so. You can also freeze it for up to 3 months.
Do you have a favorite beef brisket recipe? Please let us know about it in the comments.
Looking for More Brisket and Pot Roast Recipes?
How to make beef brisket pot roast (video)
Beef Brisket Pot Roast Recipe
- Prep time: 35 minutes
- Cook time: 4 hours, 15 minutes
- Yield: Serves 8-12
Ingredients
- 4 to 5 pound (about 2 kg) beef brisket, flat cut or point cut
- Salt
- 1 to 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 large onions, sliced
- 5 to 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 sprig thyme
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 3 to 4 bay leaves
- 2 cups beef stock
- 2 to 3 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon mustard (optional)
Method
1 Prepare the brisket: On one side of the brisket there should be a layer of fat, which you want. If there are any large chunks of fat, cut them off and discard them. Large pieces of fat will not be able to render out completely.
Using a sharp knife, score the fat in parallel lines, about 3/4-inch apart. Slice through the fat, not the beef. Repeat in the opposite direction to make a cross-hatch pattern.
Salt the brisket well and let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2 Sear the brisket: You’ll need an ovenproof, thick-bottomed pot with a cover, or Dutch oven, that is just wide enough to hold the brisket roast with a little room for the onions.
Pat the brisket dry and place it, fatty side down, into the pot and place it on medium high heat. Cook for 5 to 8 minutes, lightly sizzling, until the fat side is nicely browned. (If the roast seems to be cooking too fast, turn the heat down to medium. You want a steady sizzle, not a raging sear.)
Turn the brisket over and cook for a few minutes more to brown the other side.
3 Sauté the onions and garlic: When the brisket has browned, remove it from the pot and set aside. There should be a couple tablespoons of fat rendered in the pot. If not, add some olive oil.
Add the chopped onions and increase the heat to high. Sprinkle a little salt on the onions. Sauté, stirring often, until the onions are lightly browned, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook 1 to 2 more minutes.
4 Simmer the brisket and roast it: Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C). Use kitchen twine to tie together the bay leaves, rosemary and thyme.
Move the onions and garlic to the sides of the pot and nestle the brisket inside. Add the beef stock and the tied-up herbs. Bring the stock to a boil on the stovetop.Cover the pot, then place in the 300°F (150°C) oven. Cook for 3 hours. Carefully flip the brisket every hour so it cooks evenly.
5 Add carrots, continue to cook: After 3 hours, add the carrots. Cover the pot and cook for 1 hour more, or until the carrots are cooked through and the brisket is falling-apart tender.
6 Remove brisket: When the brisket is falling-apart tender, take the pot out of the oven and remove the brisket to a cutting board. Cover it with foil. Pull out and discard the herbs.
7 Make sauce (optional): At this point you have two options. You can serve as is, or you can make a sauce with the drippings and some of the onions. If you serve as is, skip this step.
To make a sauce, remove the carrots and half of the onions, set aside and cover them with foil. Pour the ingredients that are remaining into a blender, and purée until smooth. If you want, add 1 tablespoon of mustard to the mix. Put into a small pot and keep warm.
8 Slice and serve: Notice the lines of the muscle fibers of the roast. This is the « grain » of the meat. Slice the meat perpendicular to these lines, or across the grain (cutting this way further tenderizes the meat), in 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch slices. (A sturdy bread knife works great for slicing roasts.)
Serve with the onions, carrots and gravy. Serve with mashed, roasted or boiled potatoes, egg noodles, or polenta.
