Easy Recipes for Stay-at-Home-Dads: The Five-Hour Beef Brisket

Those of you following my occasional ramblings about cooking and being a SAHD may recall that Friday afternoon grilling is the high pointof each week around here. Though pork ribs still occupy the apex of my grilling pantheon, this year I decided to branch out with other slow cooked meals. My first experiment was with smoking a beer brisket on the grill. If you have a spare afternoon and a desire to try something a bit more challenging I recommend the below recipe which I found doing some surfing online. It serves about five and, between the post-rub refrigeration and the actual grilling, the recipe does clock in at about five hours. As my son (now in summer camp) now gets home earlier than he did from school I can start the meal when he gets home and have dinner ready just about the time my wife walks in the door.

In addition to the ingredients shown, the recipe also requires some hickory wood chips or chunks (they should be soaked in water for at least an hour before use), a 9”x13” disposable aluminum pan (as well as aluminum foil) and a couple of cans of dark beer (we used stout).

Beef Brisket

Ingredients:

3-4 pound beef brisket

Six hamburger buns

Barbeque sauce (if desired)

Rub:

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon granulated garlic

1 teaspoon granulated onion

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Sauce:

1 cup low-salt beef broth

1 tablespoon butter

1 Vidalia onion, chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cloves minced garlic

1 teaspoon caraway seed

½ cup of catsup

1 pint of dark beer (stout, porter or heavy ale)

4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1. Using your hands, mix the rub ingredients in a small bowl then press the rub into all sides of the brisket.

2. Place the brisket on a plate, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours.

3. Remove the brisket from the refrigerator and, while leaving it on the counter for about 30 minutes, set your grill up for direct high heat. When the grill has reached about 450 degrees place the brisket over the heat for a total of eight minutes (turning once) with the cover closed as much as possible.

4. Remove the brisket to the disposable aluminum pan and cover with the aluminum foil.

5. Using grilling gloves and a garden tool (I use a hoe on a short handle), separate the charcoal into two equal piles at opposite sides of the grill bowl for indirect grilling.

6. Using a medium size sauce pan, melt the butter and add the olive oil. Add the garlic, onion and the caraway seeds and cook for about six minutes, stirring occasionally.

7. Stir the catsup, broth, beer and vinegar into the mixture and allow it to simmer for about five minutes.

8. Pour the mixture over the brisket but do not allow it to fill more than one-half of the pan. Cover the pan with foil and place it in the middle of the grill so that it can be indirectly cooked.

9. Add a handful of the wood chips to each charcoal pile then decrease the heat to about 250 degrees by closing down the grill’s vent holes. Since the cooking process takes 2 to 3 hours you will need to add a few charcoal briquettes and wood chips during the cooking process.

10. Pull up a lawn chair and quaff a beer or gimlet.

11. After about 2 hours check the brisket for doneness (ours took about 2 ½ hours). When you can use a fork to shred pieces off the brisket the meat is done.

12. Remove the pan from the grill and either shred pieces off the brisket with a fork or cut slices across the grain.

13. Serve on hamburger buns with barbeque sauce.

On my first attempt I left a corner on the pan uncovered by foil to allow it to vent. I found, however, the sauce was evaporating way too quickly. I closed the “vent” and added some water and barbeque sauce to rescue the meal. On the second attempt I did not vent the foil to a better result.

We served the meal with cole slaw and oven fries as well as a bottle of merlot.