To-die-for Beef Brisket that really makes the most out of this cut of beef! This Slow Cooker brisket is cooked in a simple homemade BBQ sauce until it’s deliciously tender and infused with incredible flavour. Serve with a side of Coleslaw or Macaroni Salad and steamed corn. Or pile high onto rolls and make sliders!
This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!
Beef Brisket recipe!
I really am not a girls’ girl when it comes to food. I don’t gaze in wonder at stunningly decorated multi-tier cakes. I don’t ooh and aah over pretty little chocolates. I have no interest in learning how to make candy.
But I do go gah-gah over sights like this – a giant hunk of flavour loaded brisket.
I’m all class. All class. 😂
Cooking brisket – in brief
What is brisket? A cut of beef that needs to be cooked slowly to break down the connective tissues. The unique thing about this cut of beef is that it can be slow cooked so it’s fork tender, yet is still sliceable. It also has a better beefy flavour compared to other slow cooking beef cuts like chuck.
Is there another name for brisket? There’s no other name for raw brisket, that is the name of the cut. But you will see it sold in stores already prepared in the form of corned beef, pastrami and silverside which is brisket that’s been brined.
What cut of meat is similar to brisket? There is no cut of beef with the same cooking qualities. For this recipe, the best substitute for beef brisket is rolled chuck, like you use for Pot Roast. Otherwise, try the Beef Ribs or Pork Ribs version of this recipe – both terrific!
How long does it take to cook? 8 to 10 hours in the slow cooker on low, 1 hr 15 minutes in a pressure cooker, or 5 hours in the oven at 320F/160C.
Is brisket supposed to be pink? No. Cooked plain brisket should not be pink, if it is, it is massively undercooked and will be tough. You cannot eat brisket rare. HOWEVER, pastrami and corned beef are pink even after cooking due to the special curing salt they use (like bacon).
How to make slow cooker Beef Brisket
It’s a straight forward beef brisket recipe though there is a fairly long list of spices because we’re making a homemade rub and homemade BBQ Sauce here. Totally worth it – there’s no bottled sauce that compares to this!
Spice Mix – We start off with a spice rub. No need to marinate because we’re slow cooking it – the long cook time essentially has the same effect as marinating. If we were roasting it, I’d recommend marinating it.
Slow Cook – place the ingredients for the homemade BBQ Sauce in the slow cooker (vinegar, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, garlic and spices), add the beef and leave to slow cook for 8 to 10 hours.
Caramelise crust – After this, all that’s required is a few minutes in a hot oven (or even under the grill/broiler) to caramelise the crust;
Reduce sauce – Meanwhile, simmer the liquid in the slow cooker to reduce it down to a syrupy sauce consistency <– This right here is our homemade BBQ Sauce!
What is beef brisket?
Brisket is a cut of beef made for slow cooking, not fast cooking. It’s unique characteristic compared to other slow cooking cuts of beef is that it holds its shape even after hours and hours of slow cooking and can be sliced.
When you slow cook other cuts of slow cooking cuts of beef like chuck (like in Beef Stew), gravy beef (an Australian beef cut) and short ribs, they “fall apart easily because there is more connective tissues running throughout the meat which breakdown with slow cooking.
However, as you can see in the photos in this post, brisket holds together and can be sliced. But the slices are ultra tender and could be shredded easily, see? 🙂
Is brisket suitable for shredding?
Brisket does shred well, but I prefer using chuck beef or ribs for shredding for recipes like slow cooked Shredded Beef Ragu, Shredded Beef Chili and Shredded Mexican Beef.
Those cuts have more fat running through the meat and so the shredded pieces are nice and juicy. Though brisket has a layer of fat on the surface, there actually is not that much fat or connective tissues running through it, so if you shred it then it’s pretty lean.
What to serve with beef brisket
For this particular recipe, I’m keeping this Slow Cooker Beef Brisket whole and slicing it. Serve up a hearty Southern style supper with sides of Homemade Southern Style Baked Beans, Corn Bread (or try my favourite Corn Bread Muffins!), Creamy Corn Casserole, classic creamy Coleslaw or this No Mayo Coleslaw (it’s excellent!), Macaroni Salad, Potato Salad or mashed potato.
Or pile it onto sliders – this is the way I usually serve it because brisket is a perfect recipe for feeding a crowd! – Nagi xx
MORE GREAT THINGS TO PILE ONTO SLIDERS
• Slow Cooker Honey Buffalo Shredded Chicken
• Easy Homemade Pastrami
• Chili – and Slow Cooked Shredded Beef Chili
• Cubanos (Cuban Subs with Mojo Marinated Pork, from the “Chef” movie)
• Slow Cooker Pulled BBQ Pork Sliders
PS If you love beef, don’t miss this Beef Pot Roast and Prime Rib / Standing Rib Roast recipes!
Watch How To Make It
This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand!
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Slow Cooker Beef Brisket with BBQ Sauce
Ingredients
- 1.5 – 2 kg / 3 – 4 lb beef brisket (Note 1)
- 1 tbsp olive oil (or a neutral oil like vegetable, canola)
Rub:
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp paprika powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 3/4 tsp mustard powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
BBQ Sauce:
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1/2 cup / 125 ml apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups / 375 ml ketchup
- 1/2 cup / 110g brown sugar , packed
- 2 tsp EACH black pepper, onion powder, mustard powder
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper (adjust to taste re: spiciness)
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Mix Rub ingredients. Rub all over brisket. If time permits, leave for 30 minutes – 24 hours in the fridge, but I rarely do this.
- Combine BBQ Sauce ingredients in a slow cooker. Mix then add the brisket – squish it in if needed, like I did (see video).
- Slow cook in slow cooker for 8 hours (1.5 kg / 3 lb) to 10 hours (2 kg / 4 lb). (Note 2 for pressure cooker and click here for oven)
- Remove brisket onto a tray.
- Pour liquid in slow cooker into a saucepan. Bring to simmer over medium high heat and reduce until it thickens to a syrup consistency (it thickens more as it cools).
- Meanwhile, drizzle brisket with oil then roast in a 200C/390F oven for 15 minutes until brown spots appear. Remove then baste generously with Sauce, then return to oven for 5 minutes. Remove and baste again, then return to oven for 5 – 10 minutes until it caramelises and looks like the photos. (See note for BBQ option)
- TO SERVE: Slice brisket thinly across the grain and serve with remaining BBQ Sauce. This is terrific served as a meal with sides or piled high onto rolls with Coleslaw as sliders. See Note 3 for more ideas.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Brisket recipe originally published July 2017. Updated to improve writing, and created separate recipe card for oven baked brisket directions. No change to recipe – much loved by readers as is, I wouldn’t dare!
Life Of Dozer
So. Much. Sand.
Anyone for a puppy kiss? 😝
I’ve made this several times. In search of lower sugar options, I omit the brown sugar from the sauce. A tangier version and the ketchup still adds sweetness. We love it, boys use leftovers for school lunches.
thanks for the recipe 🙂 somehow my 1.5kg brisket became super tender within 4-5 hours in my slow cooker, so much that i didnt need to finish it in the oven. the sauce was very good paired with your creamy mash recipe 🙂 also served with honey roasted carrots! was a hit with my family and generally low-effort, will make again. (i couldnt get mustard powder where i live so i used a lot of dijon mustard)
For those who don’t have a slow cooker.
STEP 3 I placed my beef brisket and sauce in a cast iron casserole dish with lid in oven at 160c for 3-4 hours then continued to follow recipe for STEP 4.
I don’t have a slow/pressure cooker. How can I cook this using stovetop or oven?
Aldi now sell big ass lumps of brisket like you get from the butcher. It was a winner at our place 🙂
We just got done eating the brisket. I did the recipe exactly how it says.It was amazing. First time I made a brisket. Thank you.We had coleslaw and potatoe salad as sides.
I just made this and it took 1 hour and 15 minutes in the pressure cooker, then I followed the directions for the rest in the oven. It was fantastic! The only thing I will do differently next time (I have 1.5kg of brisket meat still in the freezer after halving it) is to remove a little more of the fat. I was concerned it would affect the flavour, as we all know fat means flavour, but I doubt it will make a difference. I was concerned my partner was going to eat the lot, he loved it so much, but he did leave 1/4 for the next day.
Definitely a keeper recipe!
This was delicious, I’d double the amount of rub next time. The BBQ sause came out perfect. Served with coleslaw and buns.
Made this exactly as you said and turned out SO delicious. everyone loved it. absolute five stars.
made this a couple times now brilliant Thanks Nagi
The sauce is a Texas style bbq there is so much we saved leftover and used to marinate pork ribs cooked in oven beautiful Thanks again your recipes are always a go to when trying something new
My husband LOVED this recipe. Thank you so much for sharing, Nagi and Dozer! This will be in our dinner rotation for sure!
Hi Nagi, We loved this recipe, absolutely delicious! Only 2 of us so halved the recipe, putting the rest in the freezer 😊
delicious but without all that sugar! I omitted all the sugar in the BBQ sauce, only used 1/2 cup honey-sweetened ketchup because that’s all I had and then added small can tomato paste and sweetened that with just 1.5 T maple syrup. It came out perfectly sweet for us. There was lots of leftover sauce to make two more briskets!
This was FABULOUS! I did it in the pressure cooker and the flavour was so good. Have marked this to cook again.
Great recipe, really tasty. Tried it last night with a 2.2lb brisket in the pressure cooker for an hour. It tasted great but I somehow managed to dry the meat out – maybe I needed to add some water? Or was my cook time of 1 hour too long? I have no clue, going to have to try again!
I made a few modifications to this recipe. I used coconut sugar the sugar instead of brown sugar and in the rub I cut it in half to 1.5 teaspoons, and only 1 Tablespoon in the sauce. I would probably omit sugar entirely from here on out because ketchup is plenty sweet enough and is the primary ingredient for the sauce. I used Tamari instead of Worcestershire sauce and I also added a tablespoon of blackstrap molasses.
I didn’t add any oil to the brisket when I put it in the oven. There is already rendered fat in the sauce.
And I used 6 garlic cloves instead of 2.
I’m sure it is a delicious recipe as written, but I made changes based on our preferences and also dietary issues. Your recipe was a great starting point for me.
I ate a portion of it while I was cutting it up. And then my picky, picky, picky teen liked it so much that she asked me to set aside 4 additional portions for her for the rest of the week for leftovers. By the time the 3.5lb roast had shrunk down and I set aside 4 containers of leftovers, there wasn’t anything for my husband to eat and I had only gotten 1 portion’s worth.
Luckily I cook throughout the week so there is always plenty of food for him for him to eat for dinners and to take to work for lunch. And he is understanding an happy our teen ate the healthy grass fed/finished roast rather than junk.
Tonight I heated up the leftovers for her and she told me she hopes I make this again soon because she really liked it.
What should the internal temp be when it is cooked? I have a 2 lb brisket and don’t want to overcook it by just going based on the 8-10 hr time frame.
This was so good, my company raved about it! I had a second day of my special thighs and few had asked if I had any brisket left.
I have made this recipe many many times now. My husband works for the Beef industry in New Zealand, so we have brisket often. This recipe is fail proof, I love it!! I have only ever made brisket using this recipe, and I wouldn’t try anything else now. Thank you 🙂
Hi. Can you used diced chuck or brisket for this recipe or would it dry it out too much?