Beautiful barbecue brisket
Having a six month old baby and two working parents usually means a hastily-prepared dinner. Melissa and I have been actively trying to avert this by cooking large batches of food on the weekend to eat during the week. I figured that we could also make use of the crock pot, because why not? I stopped at the butcher on the way home from work this week and picked up a beef brisket.
I had searched around for a good starting point for a brisket recipe and found one that used both a dry rub and a sauce. Not having all of the ingredients for either, I ad libbed a bit. This preparation method does involve a bit of pre-work the night before, but the no-touch cooking method more than makes up for it. Giving both the meat time to marinate and the sauce time to set up really makes a difference here. (A side note: I didn’t have enough liquid to make the recommended sauce, so I just supplemented with bottle barbecue sauce. Your sauce may vary, depending on the brand of sauce used. Or you can make your own sauce.)
When we came home the next day, after the brisket had been cooking all day, the house was filled with the most wonderful smells. The brisket essentially fell apart when I tried to get it out of the pot. All that I had to do was whip up some cornbread and heat up some frozen mac and cheese (recipe forthcoming) that we had made a few weeks back and we had a great meal.
Crock Pot Barbecue Brisket
Ingredients:
- beef brisket - 4 lb.
- Dry Rub
- chili powder - 2 Tbsp
- onion powder - 2 tsp
- garlic salt - 2 tsp
- celery salt - 1 tsp
- ground black pepper - 1 tsp
- ground mustard - 1/2 tsp
- Sauce
- ketchup - 1/2 cup
- chili sauce - 1/2 cup
- barbecue sauce - 1/2 cup
- brown sugar - 1/3 cup
- red wine vinegar - 2 Tbsp
- Worcestershire sauce - 2 Tbsp
- minced garlic - 1 Tbsp
- chili powder - 1 Tbsp
- ground black pepper - 2 tsp
- ground mustard - 1/2 tsp
Instructions:
- Trim the brisket, leaving very little fat. (You can ask the butcher to do this for you.)
- Mix the ingredients for the rub together and rub on both sides of the meat.
- Place the rubbed meat in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight. (If your crock pot has a removable pot, you can also put the meat in there overnight.)
- Mix the ketchup, chili sauce, and barbecue sauce in a small bowl.
- Add the brown sugar, vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce and mix until well integrated. Add the remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
- The next day, place the meat in the crock pot, fat side up. Cover with the sauce. Cook on low heat for 9 hours.
- When ready to serve, remove the meat from the pot and cut against the grain to make slices. If desired, add some of the liquid from the pot before serving.
