Slow Cooker Beef Brisket

How to Cook Slow Cooker Beef Brisket

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1. Mix the salt, pepper, paprika and garlic powder and rub it over the brisket. Heat the oil and sear the brisket for 4 minutes on each side.

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2. Spread the onions and garlic in the slow cooker. Set the brisket on top, fat side up.

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3. Mix the stock, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar and sugar and pour around the meat.

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4. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours until fork tender.

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5. Rest the meat for 20 minutes, slice against the grain, and serve with the reduced cooking juices.

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Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.

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What Can Go Wrong

1. Sear the brisket for flavour.
2. Slice against the grain.
3. Reduce the juices for a richer sauce.

Changing the Recipe

• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

Good to Know About Slow Cooker Beef Brisket

The smell of brisket as it slowly turns tender is the best reason to own a slow cooker. The cut is tough, lean and full of connective tissue, and it needs hours of low heat to relax, which is exactly what this appliance gives you.

A 1.5 kg flat brisket fits most cookers. Rub it with salt, pepper, smoked paprika and garlic powder the night before if you can, to season it more deeply. Sear it hard on both sides in a hot pan for 4 minutes per side. The crust adds depth that the slow cooker cannot produce, and the browned bits dissolve into the sauce.

Cook it fat side up on a bed of sliced onions. The fat bastes the meat as it softens, and the onions lift the brisket off the base so that it does not stew in its own juices. Pour in a measure of stock, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup and a splash of vinegar.

After 8 hours on low, the meat should yield to a fork. Lift it out, rest it for 20 minutes, and slice against the grain. Skim the fat from the cooking liquid, reduce it in a pan for 10 minutes, and pour over the meat.

What to Serve It With

Mashed potatoes · Coleslaw · Pickles · Buttered carrots

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Buttermilk Biscuits, New York Bagels, Skillet Cornbread.

Keeping Slow Cooker Beef Brisket

Keeps for 4 days in the fridge in its juices, or 3 months in the freezer.

Questions People Ask

The Numbers per Serving

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

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