Brisket. It’s such a delicious, bountiful, flavorful cut of meat that your family can eat on for days! There are a lot of different ways to eat it so that it doesn’t feel like you’re having leftovers night after night. It’s a great way to stretch a good cut of meat, cook once and eat all week. But don’t take my word for it, peep that video right under here and see for yourself! It’s only just over a minute and the possibilities will blow your mind!

There are also several ways to cook it; ie in a dutch oven, crock pot, instant pot etc. I personally use an Instant pot because it’s the method I like the best, but I try to give instructions for all of the different ways to cook it. The method and ingredients are  essentially the same for all of the different ways to cook it. You want to season it well, then sear it, build your flavor profile and then let it cook low and slow.

This recipe makes a “wet” brisket. A “dry” brisket refers to a piece of brisket that has been seasoned and then smoked for a long time. Same kind of low and slow heat as the cooking method, it just doesn’t braise in its own juices when you have a dry brisket. Both are delicious, but I don’t have a smoker, so this is how we eat it!

Here is the recipe for just the brisket. Below are all of the different recipes/way to eat the beef once you’ve cooked it❤️

Ingredients:

• 1 4-7# piece beef brisket, trimmed (it will be heavier if it is not trimmed and still has its deckle fat- if that’s the case, no big deal, just cook and trim it)
• About 2Tbsp Olive Oil
• Seasoning Salt to taste
• ¼ Cup Tamari or Soy Sauce
• Juice from 1 lemon
• ⅓ C Whiskey
• 2C stock of choice (I try for beef bone broth, but have used chicken stock and it comes out fine)

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil a skillet, dutch oven or use an Instant Pot and put your setting on “saute.”
2. Salt and pepper both sides of your brisket very generously with a seasoning salt of choice.
3. Sear both sides of your brisket either in the instant pot, dutch oven or skillet. 
4. Transfer brisket to a slow cooker of choice if using a skillet to sear, or switch your instant pot setting to “slow cook” for 6-8 hours or transfer your dutch oven into a 250* oven for 6-8 hours.
5. After 6-8 hours, remove your brisket from the juices that have collected and set it on a plate to rest for 5-10 minutes. Shred with 2 forks when ready. This should be pretty easy to do and the meat should offer little resistance.

Now for the fun part. Here are 5 different meals and ways you can eat this brisket!

Meal 1: Sunday Dinner

For this meal, all you need to do is make some mashed potatoes, grab a veggie to cook (we like green beans or peas), and make some gravy out of the amazing juices the brisket is cooking in. Plate it all and bam. It’s Brisket, Sunday Supper style.

Ok. For the mashed potatoes. I won’t insult you, because I feel like everyone has a decent mashed tater recipe, but I’ll give you a brief run down of ours. First grab some potatoes. Russet, red, golden- doesnt matter. Peel them. Slice them. Toss them into some rapidly boiling salted water. Boil the potatoes until they are fork tender, about 15-20 minutes depending on how big you cut your chunks. Drain your water. Add your milk (or heavy cream), butter and sour cream. Start mashing away. Taste as you go so you know if you need to add more salt, butter or sour cream. Once it’s to your liking, well done. You’ve nailed it.

For the veggie bit, I’m going to let you do you. Bake them, fry them, boil them, dump them out of a can, use a frozen bag, just make sure you like them.

Now. For the gravy. It seems intimidating, but it’s really not that bad. Take about 2C of your braising liquid (the liquid that is in the pot with the meat after you take it out). Now grab a sauce pan. Melt about 2 tbsp butter. Add about 2 tbsp flour. Mix that well until a bit of a paste forms. Then slowly add your cooking liquid about a cup at a time, whisking pretty vigorously until the liquid has been incorporated. Bring the mixture to a simmer, whisking the entire time to ensure there are no lumps in the gravy. If there are, that’s fine, but I mean most folks want a gravy with no lumps and I’m just trying to help here. Cuz I like you and I want your food to be yummy! You can adjust your butter/flour mixture to change the texture of your gravy. You can also add less liquid or add flour to thicken it up. These are just the basic principles I follow for my gravy! 

Now all you need to do is plate, pour some wine and enjoy! I usually put a good serving of meat, mashed taters and veggies on my plate. Then I load it up with gravy and call it a day.

Meal 2: French Dip with Au Jus

French Dip sandwiches are hands down my favorite sandwich. I know it’s traditionally made with that thin sliced beef, but lets be honest, I loved it because of the juice you could dip it in. Oh my gosh I could never get enough. I loved my bread and beef just absolutely sopping wet and dripping with the stuff. This brisket will give you more yummy au jus than you know what to do with, so the fact that the beef is shredded and not thinly sliced, doesn’t really matter to me as long as I have enough Au Jus and a really yummy crusty bread.

This meal is a bit of an indulgence, but indulgences are good every once in a while! And everything in moderation is good in my book. If it feels heavy, halve your sandwich, or omit the bread. Do you and be happy. My husband likes his with sauteed pepper and provolone cheese. Not my jam, but go ahead and philly cheese steak it if you like! It’s yummy. I promise.

First, I’d go ahead and grab some frozen french fries and stick those in the oven real quick. It just makes the combo 100 (as the youngsters say).

Ok. So for this you’ll need some crusty rolls from the bakery. You know the ones I’m talking about- those long ones sandwich shops use for subs and Portillos uses for their beef sandwiches. It’s crusty on the outside and literally makes a rip sound when you try and tear it. Ah. So good. 

Ok. Once you have your bread of choice, go ahead and load it up with the desired amount of beef. Saute and top with onions, peppers and provolone if you want. Then take a little bowl and pour some of the liquid the meat cooked in and heat it up. Plate and enjoy.

Meal 3: Street Tacos

Man I love a good street taco. Tortillas and brisket is already a good start and you can literally build whatever flavor profiles on top of that that you want! Grab your favorite salsa, cheese, sour cream, lettuce or slaw, hot sauce, all of the above. Whip up some rice and beans and bam. It’s taco tuesday.

Meal 4: BBQ Flatbread Pizza

Sweet mercy there are a zillion things you can do with brisket! And they’re all so delicious. I promise. This one is really fun because the BQ sauce and cheese almost completely change the flavor profile of the brisket- in a good way. It gives it a sweet, spicy, cheesy, pizza-y tang that you wouldn’t even know you were eating a “leftover.”

First, preheat your oven to 425. For this one, start with a flatbread (or pizza crust of choice). Out favorite is flatbread- it just has a great flavor that lends itself well to this pizza. Ok. So take your flatbread and sauce it with your BBQ of choice. Then place your desired amount of brisket on there along with some sliced onions. Trust me- it works. Then top with your shredded cheese(s) of choice. We like to use mozzarella and cheddar jack. Pop that bad boy in the oven for 10-15minutes and dinner is ready. If you’re feeling healthy or wanting to cut back on pizza consumption, make a little side salad. I usually do.

Meal 5: Pulled Brisket BBQ sandwiches

I probably should have made this meal 2 or something so that I didn’t have 2 BBQ recipes in a row 🤣. Oh well. You can choose your meal order. It’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure Book but with food. I loved those as a kid… but I’m obviously digressing. Back to cooking.

This one also changes the flavor profile up a bit to keep your taste buds dancing to the tune of sweet, spicy and savory. This “recipe”‘is super easy. Just grab a potato bun (or bun of choice) and add your brisket. Drench that bad boy with BBQ and top it with your bun. Add some coke slaw, corn, baked beans and bam. Dinner, backyard BBQ style, is served.