Slow Cooker Braised Brisket

So the grocery gods were reading my blog last week and granted my request.

Beef is on sale!

And Lea Ann rejoices.

I’m celebrating by slow cooking a beef brisket. Excuse me while I wipe the drool from my chin.

I was just talking to my friend Nicole about beef in the crock pot the other day, too. You literally can not mess this up. Grab any thick cut of beef, throw it in your crock pot. Season it or don’t season it. Use liquid or don’t. Add veggies or not. It doesn’t matter — dinner will be divine.

Ok, so you want to completely copy my beef brisket tonight so you can pretend we are eating together? Well, first cook this meal. Then pass your plate across the table to the person next to you, because if I were eating with you I’d be hogging it all. #keepingitreal

To braise is to fry your meat quickly on the outside then slowly cook or stew the meat, covered, so the interior is tender and juicy. You can do this on a stove (kind of like we did for the Hungarian Goulash last week), or you can make your life super easy by using your crock pot. Guess which way we’re doing this week? Yep, the easy way.

Heat your skillet over high heat while you trim the most egregious fat off your roast. Then don’t add any oil to the skillet, just throw the beef on it. Count to 10, then turn it until you have dark brown on all sides. If your skillet is super hot, there is no risk of sticking to the pan; the heat makes the meat shrink away from the surface naturally. I don’t know why. It’s magic.

If you skip the browning part and just throw your meat raw into the crock pot, I won’t tell on you. I do that often, myself.

As long as you’re at it, broil some potatoes and steam a couple veggies.

Enjoy!

[recipe title=”Slow Cooker Braised Brisket” servings=”6″ time=”2hrs” difficulty=”super easy”]

• 5 lbs beef brisket or boneless beef roast trimmed of fat as well as you can
• 3 sliced onions
• 2 ribs of celery, chopped
• bottled chili sauce, about half a bottle or so
• 1/2 c water
• package dried onion soup mix
• salt and pepper

 

Brown the brisket on all sides in a skillet over high heat. Throw it into the crock pot (cut it in half if it doesn’t fit). Add onion and celery to the pot.

In a separate bowl, combine chili sauce, water, oniion soup mix, and salt and pepper to taste. Poor the sauce over the meat and veggies. Cover and cook on LOW for 6-9 hours.

About 30 minutes before serving, put 2 large tablespoons of corn starch and an equal amount of cold water into a very small, lidded container. Shake it like crazy. Pour into the crock pot and turn the slow cooker on HIGH to thicken the gravy.

Before serving, remove brisket from crock pot and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. Then slice and serve with sauce on the side.
[/recipe]

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