This needs a better name. But, I don’t have it. And, mother-in-law’s brisket doesn’t sound compelling, though that is what it is. My mother-in-law makes this in the oven and the sauce comes out thick like traditional barbecue sauce. I cook it in a crock pot and it ends up as more of a long braise in wonderful spicy broth. Either way is fantastic. Before serving, I de-fat and reduce my sauce and add a little ketchup to thicken it up a bit, but it is still a very thin sauce when prepared in the crock pot. I like it that way. One other advantage of using the crock pot is you don’t have to worry about burning the sauce as you do in the oven. This has a lot of brown sugar in it which requires some care when you make it in the oven.
OK, a word on brisket. You should make more of it. It is a very user friendly cut of meat. It makes a great pot roast, you can go the barbecue route, the New England Boiled Dinner Route, you can just throw it in a gentle oven forever and have excellent plain brisket. You can make killer tacos and quesadillas with it. It is really versatile and easy to work with but I think a lot of people, especially around here think that if you don’t make a huge production and smoke it outdoors for ump-teen hours than you aren’t doing it right. I, on the other hand, think there are about a million ways to make brisket “right.” Like this recipe for instance. This is very easy. It is tough to mess this up.
First, obtain a brisket. Try to get a “flat cut” brisket if your butcher has one. The challenge with the crock-pot is that if you have a 20 inch long piece of meat you are not going to be able to fit it in. I bought a trimmed brisket and still had to cut off the end and put it on top to fit it all in. Also, don’t fuss about the fat “cap” on the brisket. It is a good thing. Go for something in the 4 to 5 pound range.
Get out your crock pot. Gather the following items: Worcestershire Sauce, ketchup, a bottle of beer (I used Heineken…better beer=more flavor, but Bud is just fine, too), brown sugar, salt, pepper, garlic powder. These and time are all you will need.
Lay your brisket in your crock pot. Sprinkle ½ cup of brown sugar on top on it and spread it around. Sprinkle the salt, pepper and garlic powder (to taste or about 1 tsp of each). “Slather” it all with ketchup. This is my MIL’s term but it is very accurate. Just do it. Then sprinkle on some of the Worcestershire and finally, pour the beer on top. Put the lid on the crock pot and turn it on.
I cooked it on high for 5 hours and low for 3 hours. This is not particularly scientific. I think 9 hours on low would be fine if you are leaving it while you are at work. The deal with all of my brisket recipes is that if you poke it with a fork and your fork doesn’t “fall in” the meat, it isn’t ready and you should keep going and check it hourly. I honestly don’t think you can mess this up. If your brisket is bad, it just isn’t finished yet. If you don’t have all day, try the oven at 325 for four to six hours, basting now and again. But remember to be careful that the sauce doesn’t burn. And, it is really important that you give your meat enough time. Fifteen minutes more in the oven or crock pot can be the difference between shoe leather and succulent success. 
Ok, now that the meat is finished, put it into some other pan. This part is a little gross. Get a flat spatula and remove the fat cap. It falls off so just scrape it up and throw it away. Then cut up your brisket into manageable pieces. I go across the grain; others pull it apart with the grain which produces long strips. It makes no difference. If you have a fat separator, use it. Put the sauce into the separator in batches and pour the sauce into a saucepan set on medium. Once you have separated the fat from all of the sauce, add some ketchup to the sauce until you like the consistency. I like it kind of loose and soupy, myself. Once you have reduced the sauce a little and you have thickened it and reheated it, pour it over your meat and serve.
Preparation: (serves 6 generously)
4 to 5 pound “flat” cut brisket
½ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 cup ketchup
3 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
1 (12 ounce) beer
½ cup to 1 cup additional ketchup to thicken the sauce at the end
1. Place the brisket in a crock-pot or a baking dish with high sides. Sprinkle the brown sugar on top of the brisket. Sprinkle the salt, garlic powder and black pepper on top of the brown sugar. Slather the ketchup on top of the sugar and seasonings. Sprinkle the Worcestershire sauce around the pot. Finally, carefully pour the beer in the pot, so as not to wash all of the seasonings off of the meat.
2. Turn the crock-pot onto high and cook for 5 hours, then proceed to cook on low until the brisket is fork tender, up to 3 additional hours. (LOW for a workday would be fine too). Do not stop cooking the brisket until the fork meets no resistance when poked into the brisket. If cooking in the oven, cover with a double layer of foil and bake at 325 degrees for 4 to 6 hours. If cooking in the oven, take care that the sauce doesn’t begin to burn.
3. Remove the meat from the crock-pot and scrape the fat off of the top. Discard the fat.
4. Pour the sauce into a fat separator and discard the fat that accumulates. Add ketchup to the sauce until it is a consistency that you like, ½ cup to 1 cup. Pour the sauce over the meat before serving. Slice or pull the brisket apart in chunks to serve.
I love this brisket with my Blue Cheese Cole Slaw.
You can easily prepare this a day ahead because it truly is better the next day. I like to make sandwiches out of the leftovers. Try this. Toast the bread. Reheat enough leftover brisket and sauce and pull apart the meat with two forks. Load it onto a piece of toast. Then mix leftover slaw cabbage with blue cheese dressing. Pile the slaw on the sandwich, and put on the top slice of toast. Serve it with a big dill pickle. Heaven on Earth.
Sounds delicious. Should the cooking time read 5 hours on low and 3 hours on high, though?
Hi. Thank you for asking. I actually went high and then low. My experience with brisket has been that high or low, or low then high or high then low…you are basically just sitting around waiting for the connective tissue to reach that magical moment where it softens and the hunk goes from shoe leather to silk. I went high to low on this particular occasion because my husband got stuck at the boat house (coaching crew) and was running behind and my schedule was changed up. I’m glad you are here. Come back again and keep me honest. There is no doubt in my mind that I will get these things backwards now and again. The high/low equation is also dependent on the size of the brisket and I was dealing with a pretty large hunk this time.
I have a confession that will shame my Texan heritage, I am sorry to say. I am AWFUL at picking out good meat. What I think would be great, turns out almost inedible. Now, pre-packaged chicken breats- I CAN do that! :) Beef- my dear love- I’m not so good at. It is a true, crying shame.
In all seriousness, could you do a guide for picking out meat? And what meat is good for what dish?
I will be trying this recipe soon!
Kelly,
tried my first brisket on mothers day and failed big time!!! Had to pick up popeyes chicken to go with all my sides! I marinated for 24 hrs and cooked for 8… what do u think went wrong?? Love your new blog!!
Kelly,
The site is absolutely wonderful!! I am already an addict, have been checking daily to see when you have new posts. Will be making the brisket this weekend, but it looks like you are now nominated for all family get-togethers:) GREAT JOB (as if I expected anything less)
Melody
Kristen. First, thanks for visiting. Second, I’m sure it was inferior meat and not your method. Right? Perhaps it was the universe smacking you for cooking on mother’s day when you should have been lounging about with servants bringing you cocktails and bon bons. But seriously, brisket can be a sticky situation. As I understand the issue from a purely scientific perspective, the internal temperature of the meat has to reach at least 180 degrees before the collagen (the waxy connective tissue) begins to turn to gelatin. So, contrary to steak-meat-think, you have to cook for a prolonged time til the meat reaches an internal temperature of 210. Then you can continue to cook it at a low temperature without any ill effects. Can you imagine what a filet would look like at that temperature, yikes. So, I suspect if you did slow, but too low this magic would never happen. That’s why you can get away with 4 hours if the temperature is right, but you are still out of luck at 8 hours. Last night a waiter at one of my favorite Mexican joints was telling me they cook their brisket for 14 hours. I think I’ll try that for fun. When I simply throw a brisket in the oven with zero fanfare, I do 1 hour at 325 and then 3 plus hours at 275. At the end I just stand there poking it with a fork every twenty minutes an somewhere along the line the magic happens and the fork dives right in like the meat has turned to butter…it is all about the connective tissue. There is something about cooking for “occasions” that is tempting fate for weird outcomes. Who knows. But brisket is one of my favorite cuts, so give it another try sometime. I do believe that every once in a while we do everything right and just have a bad cut of meat so, science aside, I bet that is what happened. Sorry it didn’t turn out, but frankly Popeye’s sounds great.
How big of a crock pot do you have? I bought a flat roast/brisket thing last night and plan to try it. It was 6lbs, and there wasn’t anything smaller. The question now is will it fit in the crock pot? I have my Mom’s old one and am thinking with as much as I use it, I need a larger one, especially with this brisket. I’m going to call Tim and have him pick me up one from Target after his golf tournament this afternoon.
My crock-pot is about 12 inches by 8 inches by about 5 inches deep. When I did this recipe, my brisket was too large also, and I just lopped off the small end and put it in on top of the main piece. No harm no foul. Is it roomy enough to do that. You might add a little more of the sauce components if it leaves that piece high and dry but I don’t recall having to do that. Good Luck!! Let me know how it turns out for you. And if you get a new crock-pot and you love it (or hate it) post again so we know what brands are working for us…not against us.
Oh My Gawd! my fork just went gliding in!!! this is so exciting.
The owner of our house receives a Williams Sonoma Catalogue. Before I pack it up and send it to her, I GLANCE at it. There is a $299.00 slow cooker in it that I am coveting at the moment. I looked a t Target at some and am not happy with the reviews I see of other products. It seems the the other products I see have some major flaws, like melting counter tops, melting feet, cracking, popping, not heating, heating too much… stuff like that that makes the OC part of me cringe. So… until then, I will use my blessing of 15 years and get my husband to chop that 6 lb brisket in half.
This sounds beyond! Do to NYC apartment space, we do not have a large crock pot so will try the mother-in-law method with cast iron dutch oven. I did Sandy’s root beer pulled pork in that and it was great! Keep you posted and cant wait for the slaw!
oops its due
We need to bring Sandy on board or bribe her into letting go of the root beer recipe. That sounds amazing. I recently saw a short ribs in root beer recipe that sounded quite tempting, as well.
Maybe Snickers will sneak it to you! Its really good and really easy!
I made this brisket and it rocks! I didn’t have a fat separator, so I used my mom’s trick of putting the liquid in the refrigerator. The fat rises to the top and solidifies, then you just scoop it off the top. I reduced my liquid to 2 cups and added more ketchup and honey. Delicious. Thanks Kelly for this recipe. We will be making this again.
Amye, I’m thrilled that you like it. The “fat in the fridge” thing is great. And you are absolutely right, it forms a perfect little lid of fat that breaks up like arctic ice and you can just pick it off. I would suspect it is even a more thorough method…and a little horrifying actually. On the upside, though, I think all brisket is better the next day after a night in the fridge and if I had the patience I would always serve it on day 2. Great idea on the honey!
Kelly! Brandon, Sawyer and Ford are thanking you! This brisket was so good that it was gone before I finished making the sauce. So, we’ll have lots of sauce next time (which will be soon–they’re already requesting more)! I love your blog–it’s so much fun to check in and see what’s new! Thanks for sharing your awesome recipes and amazing perspective!
Megan
Have just been looking through your website for the first time. Love it! This is almost the exact same brisket recipe that my mom has been making for years and I have taken it from her. Instead of ketchup and garlic powder, our recipe calls for minced garlic (4 cloves) and chili sauce by Heinz (which is pretty much Ketchup with a kick.) I always double the sauce (you can never have too much sauce), mix all ingredients together and pour over the brisket. I have always cooked it in an oven in a roasting pan, but might try the crockpot option next time. Wonderful choice for a brisket, Kelly!
Joanie, I’m so glad you are “here”. Thanks for saying hi.
Kelly,
I made this tonight along with your blue cheese cole slaw and they both were so delicious!! I made a side salad for my kids because I didn’t think they would eat the cole slaw but they loved it! Very yummy!!
That is such a great pair Kim. I’m thrilled to hear that the boys liked it, too.
I made this last weekend and I loved the sauce! It was the first time I made brisket and it was easy! Thanks Kelly!
04/15/13 Keep cooking and developing recipes. J.
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