Beer Braised Brisket Recipe
Prep time: 30 minutes (can marinate in dry rub overnight)
Cook time: 6-8 hours Total time: 6.5-8.5 hours
Servings: 8-16 varying on size of brisket
What’s better than a tender, slow cooked brisket? Tell you what, a beer braised brisket on the Forge 15! Slowly braising off in a beer over a bed of yellow onions, this meal is sure to make everyone happy whether around the campsite or cooked right at home. We finished the brisket off with Gordo’s barbecue sauce and a nice simple slaw on store bought buns. Don’t be afraid of leftovers, the shredded brisket goes great into breakfast burritos the next day, or a chili around the fire. Hope you enjoy.
Ingredients:
Gordo’s BBQ sauce:
• 4 cups ketchup
• 1 cup chipotles in adobo
Meat:
• A 5-9# brisket (duh). Just the flat of the whole packer, no point needed here as it’s a little too fatty for the method of cooking.
• 2 cups dijon mustard
• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups Gordo’s Dry rub (4 parts paprika, 2 parts onion powder, 2 parts garlic powder, 2 parts mustard powder, 1 part fresh ground pepper, 1 part cayenne powder)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3 yellow onions
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• dash of liquid smoke
• 2 onions, diced
• 6 cloves of garlic, diced
Coleslaw:
• 1 small green cabbage, sliced thin
• 1 small red cabbage, sliced thin
• 1/2 yellow onion, sliced thin
• Three cloves of garlic, sliced real thin
• BBQ sauce (You should have some by now)
• Lil bit of ranch (Don't be afraid of the Hidden Valley ; )
Cooking directions:
1. Starting with a cleaned up flat of the brisket, I rub down the entire cut with our dijon mustard. Not only to bring more depth of flavor to the final product, but also to give the dry rub something to adhere to. I’ll generously coat the brisket first with our kosher salt all the way around and then the same with our dry rub. If I can afford the time, I’ll rub it down the day before I want to cook it to let the flavor really penetrate the meat ; )
2. Cutting yellow onions into 1/2” thick rings and fill the bottom of a dish that the brisket will fit in with them. It will separate the brisket from the vary warm bottom of the pan and also taste great when mixed in with the shredded brisket.
3. Onions down, brisket on top, dump your chosen beer over everything. ( I really enjoyed Sierra Nevada’s apricot ale they did on this one) Dump about the same amount of water into the pan and cover with foil. Put it on the grill at the lowest temperature the Forge 15 will hold which should be between 225 and 250 degrees. Total cook time will vary. Roughly 6-8 hours getting the internal temp to 200 degrees at the largest point of the brisket is a sure fire way to have tender, juicy ready to be shredded apart brisket.
4. I’ll usually put together my barbecue sauce while the meat is cooking. Diced up onions go into a little bit of cooking oil in a large pot at medium high heat. Once caramelization is just starting to occur I’ll throw in my minced garlic. I’ll let that go just until right before the garlic wants to start to actually caramelize and then will add in all of our liquids except the dash of liquid smoke. I like to let this simmer for at least 30 minutes, then adding in my liquid smoke and letting simmer for another 10 minutes before removing from the heat. Sauce will be good to go and can be made ahead of time, it is however quite nice served hot over a fresh brisket sandwich.
5. Time for coleslaw. I’ll thin slice all of my cabbages, onions and garlic. Tossing them all together and dressing with a half and half mix of ranch and BBQ sauce until I have my desired level of sauce incorporated into the coleslaw. I like to hit this with some kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to season. This stuff is great on it’s own or as we did, over the top of our brisket sandwiches.
6. Our sandwich method is shredding our brisket after letting it rest properly off of the grill. Toast up some store bought buns. Mix some of the brisket with your BBQ sauce for a sloppy Joe like sandwich and top with our coleslaw. Don’t forget an abundance of much needed napkins.
7. Enjoy!
