Slow-cooked Oven Baked Brisket

This weekend I cooked what has to be one of, if not The Best Tasting hunks of meat I've ever made.

It was a 7 pound brisket and it was wonderful.

After all of the holiday goodies and sweets and snacks and chips, I was ready for some Regular Food. The last time we were home I had bought a brisket on sale and froze it when we ran out of time to grill/bbq/smoke it. I had intended to get it out this time and have my husband smoke it, but time and weather didn't co-operate (again) so I decided to do it in the oven.

Once I had it thawed, I put it in a cooking sprayed pan, fat side down. I stabbed it all over with a fork, then poured about 3/4 of a bottle of Italian salad dressing all over it. I used whatever is cheapest--brand name on sale and with a coupon, or store brand, it all works. I also sprinkled it lightly all over with Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning (any good season-all type of spice mix would do) and some Worchestershire sauce. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

When I got ready to cook it, I turned it over so that the fat side was up, and spooned a little of marinade from the pan over the top. Cover with foil, and put in the oven at about 325 degrees.

After a couple of hours, I sprinkled about a tablespoon of liquid smoke, re-covered with foil, turned the oven down to 275-300, and went shopping.

After a total of about 8 hours in the oven, this is what I had. It smelled so good, I only wish you could have been there to see it and smell it--and yes, taste it, too!

(A good general rule is 40 minutes per pound, but as long as it's well-covered and the oven is turned low, any extra time just makes it that much more tender.)

I let it rest in the pan juices for 20-30 minutes while it cooled enough to handle, but I couldn't resist forking just a bit off the end--doesn't this look good?

Once it cooled enough to handle well, we lifted it out onto the cutting board, and I cut away most of the fat, and scraped off the rest--I think I could have literally scraped it off with a butter knife, it was so soft.

Unfortunately, after it was sliced my hands were dirty and I forgot to take pictures after I washed them.

The first night, we chopped up some and heated it with a bbq sauce and a little of the pan juices and made bbq sandwiches.

The rest I put in a container and poured the pan juices over it and refrigerated it. The next day, I heated it all up in the juices, and we had sandwiches again--some with bbq sauce and some without.

By Sunday night it was falling apart and I scooped some up in a bowl and ate it with a spoon. Yes, it was that good.

Brisket makes the best bbq sandwiches; french dip style sandwiches; sliced bbq to eat with baked beans and potato salad; or eat it like a roast, with the juices over rice or mashed potatoes. It can be inexpensive if you catch one on sale--around home that's usually during bbq season, but they freeze well and can be cooked in other ways. I've even cooked a small one in the crock-pot, similar to the way I do slow cooker pot roast. I usually try to find the "market-trimmed" briskets, but you want the big slab of fat on one side, it makes the meat really tender and flavor-ful--and will make your puppy dog happy if you feed it the scraps!

What have you been cooking lately?

This post is linked to:

Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace

Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

Tuesdays at the Table at All the Small Stuff

Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life as Mom

Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum

Welcome to Our Krazy Kitchen

Until next time, good cooking, and good eating!