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Beef brisket is wonderful when it’s done right.  When done poorly, however, it takes like a chewing a rubber tire…and I was having the hardest time finding a recipe that got it correct!

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I can’t tell you the number of times I cooked a brisket only to find that it was well-seasoned but tough as a rock.  The reason I keep buying it is because beef brisket is one of the cheapest cut which is important when you’re trying to buy high quality, properly raised meats but don’t have a lot of money.  I get mine from my local farmer for about $5 a pound which is even cheaper than the regular meat at the store so it’s really a great deal…which is why I was so determined to make it work!

This isn’t exactly a recipe, per say.  This is describing a style of cooking beef brisket that finally worked for me.  I’m just including salt and pepper in the ingredients because most recipes will have those included but you can add whatever seasoning you want to your beef brisket and you’ll get something tender and delicious if you follow the rest of the steps!

Ingredients:

  • 3-4 lb beef brisket
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground pepper

Other Stuff You’ll Need:

  • foil
  • dutch oven

Steps:

1. Take your defrosted beef brisket and place it on a large piece foil.

2.  Salt and pepper well on both sides. If you’re doing other seasonings, this is when you’ll add all those ingredients. I really like doing a barbecue dry rub but any will do.

3.  Wrap the brisket in the foil by folding up the sides so that it almost looks like it’s on a dish that’s made out of foil. Then wrap or foil the top on the sides.  The reason I’m making a big deal over the wrapping is because if you wrap it haphazardly, the juices will leak out of the foil and you won’t end up with really tender meat.  Keep wrapping it with foil to make sure it’s entirely covered but make sure that the bottom “foil base” stays wrapped up around it like a dish to catch all the juices.

4. Place the foil-wrapped brisket into a large ziplock bag and let marinate overnight.

5. Preheat your oven at 350 degrees.

6. While the oven is preheating, place your foil-wrapped brisket into your dutch oven.  Drape another piece of foil over the top of the dutch oven and then place the lid over the foil.  (This may not be necessary if you have a really nice dutch oven where the lid is super snug but mine was $20 from Aldi so it’s not a great one.)

7.  Once the oven is preheated, place your dutch over (with lid snuggly on) into the oven and let it cook for 3-4 hours.

8. After 3-4 hours, turn down your oven to 300 degrees and cook the brisket for another hour.

9. After that hour is done, turn down your oven to 250 and cook the brisket for one more hour.

10.  Remove from the stove and unwrap your beef brisket…and enjoy!