My Big-Ass Brisket recipe serves four people. Twice. That’s like eight servings I’m talking about. So, for my family of 2.5, I’m getting around three dinners from this meal (you gotta make the vegetable side dish though).
It’s seriously delicious and mega healthy comfort food. You just want to put your head in the bowl (provided you serve it with seriously buttered and fluffy mashed potatoes, as seen above), and take a nap in it.
I like naps.
That’s the kind of meal I like to make in 2015 since I’m taking it easy this year. It was easy to put together and it fed my family for three nights. Wow. Imagine everything you can do with the free time because your dinner is basically already made for three dinners! I’m thinking reading a book, taking a nap (did I mention I like naps? When will Kamea like naps?), watching an episode of Suits. Oh the options are endless.
You need to make this.
Recipe: Big-Ass Brisket
Clearly, you need a big-ass brisket, and do yourself, your family, the animal, and the environment a favor by buying grass-fed brisket. I bought mine, which came in at about 80-ounces (in the package), from Alderspring Ranch. I gotta check my calculator… one moment and I’ll be back…
Ok I’m back. That’s about five pounds. Wowza. I did say it’s big.
You need a big-ass slow cooker for the brisket. Get your 8-quart. (If you’re going smaller cuz you can’t hang, then just make adjustments as needed to the recipe. This isn’t rocket science. It’ll be good pretty much no matter what you do. Slow cookers are very forgiving.
Here we go: I’m going to feature this post with pictures first and read to the bottom for a more complete list of ingredients and directions.
Grab your big slow cooker and put the sauce ingredients in it: bone broth, (good) ketchup, fresh thyme, bay leaves, instant shiitake mushrooms and maitake mushrooms. Stir it up and set the slow cooker on LOW.
Time to mix up the seasoning rub for the big-ass brisket. (I’ll stop with the big-ass already. I think I’ve made my point.)
The rub mix is sea salt, smoked salt, chili powder, onion powder, coriander and black pepper. Easy enough.
It’s time for the brisket to make an appearance.
Rub that big brisket. :)
Add red onion on top.
Let it cook for 7 hours on LOW and fill your home with aromas that will bring your neighbors knocking on your door. Good thing it’s a big-ass brisket. Whoops, I did it again.
Come back after 7 hours and take some of the sauce out. Put it in the fridge to chill for a couple of hours, while the brisket continues to cook.
Warm and reduce the sauce you had from the refrigerator. Strain the rest of the sauce (from the slow cooker), and set aside in a smaller glass baking dish. It’ll all make sense in a minute.
It’s time for the brisket. Cut off what you are eating at this time. Add it to the warming sauce.
Remember that extra sauce you set aside? Add the remainder of the brisket you’re not eating at this meal to that sauce. Cover it and put in the fridge for tomorrow’s dinner (and the next night’s too if you’re stretching it three meals).
The fat will come to the surface and I’ll skim it off tomorrow. Then, I’ll reheat the sauce, cut the brisket and add it to the pan with the sauce like I did today. If your family is smaller, then you’ll just take some of the sauce and some of the brisket, leaving the rest for yet the following day.
It’s time to serve. I opt for really buttered mashed potatoes.
Ok, here’s that list of ingredients and instructions.
- 1 quart bone broth (learn how to make it here)
- 10 oz quality (i.e. not crappy) ketchup (I used Katchkie Farm )
- 1 bunch fresh thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 packages instant shiitake mushrooms (optional but recommended)
- 2 packages instant maitake mushrooms (optional but recommended)
Put the sauce ingredients in the slow cooker and stir it up. Turn the slow cooker on LOW.
Ingredients for the Rub & the brisket itself.
- Like 80-ounces grass-fed brisket (so go for 4 to 5 pounds)
- 1 tablespoon sea salt
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 2 teaspoons smoked sea salt
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- Black pepper
Stir together the seasonings and rub it onto both sides of the brisket.
Further instructions…
- Place the brisket in the slow cooker. Man handle it if you need to, or try some origami… whatever you need to do to get it in.
- Oh, you’ll need 1/2 red onion … slice it and place the red onion on top of brisket
- Cook on LOW for 7 hours.
- Take some sauce out with a ladle and strain it into a bowl. Try to get about a 1/3 of the sauce is my estimate. You probably need to keep the brisket cooking, like I did since mine wasn’t fork tender after 7 hours, so keeping some sauce in the slow cooker is helpful – that’s why you’re not taking it all. Put the strained sauce in the refrigerator with the goal to separate out some of the fat from it cooling.
- Continue cooking the brisket and the remainder of the sauce another two hours, if needed, to get it fork tender (i.e., a fork should easily go in and out of it).
- When it gets close to the two hours being up, I recommend making some seriously (grass-fed) buttered mashed potatoes to serve with the brisket – and now would be a good time to start those.
- Take the brisket out to rest and place it in a glass baking dish.
- Take the sauce that’s in the refrigerator and throw away the fat that rose to the surface. Put the pretty sauce in a pan to heat and reduce a bit.
- Strain the remaining sauce from the slow cooker, and set aside to store for the leftovers you’ll have. I did promise multiple meals from this, didn’t I? (If you plan on feeding a party of eight in one go with this, then I recommend you make it the day before so you can strain the sauce and get most of the fat off – besides brisket is always better the next day anyway.)
- Cut some slices of brisket, against the grain I think is the rule. It’s so tender it basically just falls apart anyway, so who cares?
- Set these slices in the sauce that’s cooking and reducing on the stove.
- Cut it up with kitchen shears, if desired. I desire. Kamea desires, too.
- Put the rest of the brisket in a smaller glass baking dish with the left over sauce and put it in the refrigerator for tomorrow. It bears repeating that brisket is even better the next day.
- Serve.
Here is a picture of day two’s dinner of brisket (the next day). This night I made it with seriously buttered purple cabbage.
And, may I present day 3 dinner. This thing fed my family of three for three dinners. I’ll share how I made the roasted asparagus tomorrow.
