Sunday Dinner: Brisket

This weekend, when we were grocery shopping, we saw that our grocery store had some amazing-looking briskets. We had never made brisket before, but these were so pretty we just couldn't pass up the chance!

We came home, looked up a couple recipes online, and called Chris' grandma who is known to make one darn good brisket. We mixed all the recipes together, added some ingredients of our own, and the result was fantastic!

Brisket

3lbs Brisket

Dry Rub

2 T chili powder
1 T chipotle powder
1 T garlic powder
1 T dry mustard
1 T brown sugar
1 T cumin
2 t ground black pepper
1 t salt
2 t smoked sea salt
2 T smoked paprika

Completely cover the brisket with the dry rub and place on baking sheet. Put in the fridge for at least 1 hour, up to 6.





When you're ready to start cooking, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Get a baking dish that is big enough for the brisket out, and put a tablespoon or two of canola oil in it. Then place the dish in the 400 degree oven (without the brisket) for about 15 min.



Next, remove the dish and quickly lay the brisket down in it. The oil will be hot enough that it should sizzle to give a light sear to the meat. Then place dish, uncovered, in the oven for 10 min. After 10 min, flip the brisket and put back in for another 10 minutes.

Then remove the dish from the oven and pour 1 1/2 cups beef stock in the dish, and cover tightly with aluminum foil.



Put covered dish back in the oven, but turn the oven down to 300 degrees. Set the timer for 90 minutes.

Waiting...

Waiting...

Waiting...

Beep beep beep beep!

Now remove the dish, take off the foil, and flip the meat. Then re-cover, and stick back in for another loooong 90 minutes.

Now during this time, get your BBQ sauce ready. For this, we did a homemade BBQ sauce that was a mix of Chris' mom's BBQ sauce and his grandma's, but with a little of our own twist.

BBQ Sauce

1 cup Ketchup
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
4 T Rice Wine Vinegar
1 T Worchestire Sauce
2 T Tabasco brand Chipotle Sauce
1 T Soy Sauce
2 T Water
1/2 t Dry Mustard

Wisk it together in a small pot and bring to a light simmer.

The beauty of the sauce is the flexibility. Like a sweeter BBQ sauce? Add more brown sugar. Like a more tangy BBQ sauce? Add more rice wine vinegar. You get the drift.

Beep beep beep beep!

90 min is up!

Remove the dish from the oven, pull back the foil, and flip the meat again. Remove most of the liquid from the dish, leaving about a quarter inch in the bottom of the dish just to keep it from getting dry. Then slather the meat in BBQ sauce. You should be using less than half the sauce, there will be plenty believe me. But don't be too stingy with it! Now re-cover, and place back in oven, setting the timer for 30 minutes.

By now, your place should start to smell amazing.

After 30 min, remove the dish, take off the foil, flip the meat, and slather in BBQ sauce again. But this time, don't put the cover back on. Put it back in and let the delicious BBQ sauce get hot and slightly caramelized by leaving it uncovered for 30 minutes.

Now remove, and try not to drool.



Let it sit for about 10 min. Perfect time to stir fry a few veggies!



Then slice against the grain. If you don't slice against the grain, it will just fall apart, and you will have to pretend you intended to make chopped brisket. Which is also pretty amazing.



Now pour a little extra BBQ sauce on top and...



Amazing. Truly phenomenal. Absolutely falling apart, delicious, tangy, sweet, tender, crazy delicious.

Plate up!



Dig in!