Braised Beef Brisket
By Kath Dedon
Braised Beef Brisket is perfect for a rainy Sunday afternoon. Once you get the brisket in the oven, you can settle down with a good book while it braises for three hours. You do have to get up about every half hour to turn the brisket, but how hard is that?
The recipe in Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything calls for a whole 5-pound brisket, but I chose a smaller one which was about 2¼ pounds. I didn’t reduce the quantity of the other ingredients because I wanted plenty of sauce. That was a great decision!
Mark says browning the brisket is optional, but I chose to do it because it’s almost always a good first step and it only adds about 10 minutes to the prep time.
I loved the simplicity of his recipe and it all came together beautifully. The onions pretty much melted into the flavorful sauce. I could just eat the sauce by the spoonful!
Braised Beef Brisket is a great dish for fall. We thoroughly enjoyed it with our Yukon gold potatoes and Swiss chard fresh from the garden!
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Braised Beef Brisket
(Adapted from Mark Bittman’s recipe in How to Cook Everything)
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Serves 4 – 6
(I used a half brisket. You can follow the recipe exactly as it is written using a whole 5-pound brisket to serve 10 or more people.)
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1 tablespoon oil
Beef brisket (about 2¼ – 2½ pounds)
Salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons butter
2 cups chopped onion
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3 cups chicken broth or water (I used homemade chicken broth)
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1. Heat the oven to 325˚.
2. Heat a large oven-proof Dutch oven with a lid over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add the oil and swirl it around the bottom.
3. Sear the brisket for about 5 minutes; turn it over and sear the other side for 5 minutes.
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4. Remove the brisket from the pan. Salt and pepper both sides.
5. Using a paper towel, wipe the oil out of the pan.
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6. Reduce the heat on the stove to medium and add the butter to the pan.
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7. When the butter is foaming, add the onions to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 – 15 minutes, or until softened.
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8. Sprinkle in some salt and pepper and add the tomato paste and garlic to the pan.
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9. Stir in the chicken broth.
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10. Add the brisket to the pan. Cover and put the pan in the preheated oven.
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11. Cook the brisket for 3 hours, turning it every 30 minutes or so. It should be very tender after 3 hours.
12. Remove the brisket from the pan and put it on a cutting board or platter. Cover with foil and let it rest about 10 minutes.
13. While the brisket is resting, boil the sauce without a lid for a few minutes to boil it down and thicken it a bit.
14. Slice the brisket against the grain and serve it with the sauce.
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