Atlanta Brisket is a braised, southern dish featuring boxed onion soup mix, ketchup, and Atlanta’s own Coca-Cola. With this recipe the soup mix is replaced with a blend of sautéed onions, onion and garlic powders, brown sugar, and dried thyme. The brisket is slow-braised in a mixture of cola and ketchup, which not only flavored the meat but also provided a sweet, tangy sauce to serve with it. The meat is tender and the tangy and sweet sauce is so good!
I am going to preface this blog post, by blurting out, “This brisket recipe is so good, that I absolutely-positively will make this again! ” I am so excited to share this with you, because I received a round of applause from my dinner guests. Well, okay, they were family– and I was thrilled with how well my Easter dinner turned out.
I have three new recipes that I made for yesterday’s Easter family
supper to share with y’all!
I wanted to break away from making baked ham. (Confession: baked ham isn’t my favorite dinner.) I adore lamb, but my husband is so-so about it. I started thinking about other traditional dinners I could make.
Then it hit me– Passover Brisket! I did some internet surfing and stumbled across a recipe that detoured me from the Passover Brisket idea. This recipe comes from one of my favorite recipes resources: “Cook’s Country” (part of the Cook’s Illustrated family). I had never heard of “Atlanta Brisket” so I read the article and recipe. Apparently, Atlanta Brisket is a Southern dish that traditionally uses chili sauce, onion soup mix and Coca Cola. Since Coca Cola originated in Atlanta, George, that’s how this dish got it’s name.
I don’t buy onion soup mix, and I rarely drink Coca Cola. However, I have used sodas in recipes, with great results (such as this 7-Up cake). I watched the video on America’s Test Kitchen, and saw how the onion soup mix was made from scratch (and loved it) and that’s when I knew this would be our main dish for our Easter Sunday Supper.
I called my butcher and ordered a 4-pound cut of brisket, with the fat cap trimmed to 1/4″. If you are not familiar with this cut of beef, it is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of beef. It has to be slow-cooked because of all the connective tissue. The night before, I poked holes all over the brisket, with a fork, then salted and wrapped it in plastic wrap and gave it a good night’s sleep in the refrigerator.
This is how we slow-grilled a brisket, for several hours, with our Weber. Barbecued brisket it so delicious grilled with wood chips (or oak, if you have that kind of barbecue set up). The average time to slow cook a brisket is 3-4 hours. It’s worth the wait, though.
The next day, I blotted the brisket with paper towels to make sure it was nice and dry. It’s time to give the beef a good and even sear. In order to do this, I heated some vegetable oil in a 12″ skillet, and placed a cast iron Dutch oven (wrapped in foil for easy clean up) on top.
The oven is preheated to 325F. Cover the brisket with parchment paper and then (tightly) with foil. Why the parchment paper? Because you don’t want the foil to come into contact with the acidity of the ketchup. It’s all science! You now have about four hours to tidy up the kitchen, make other recipes, and watch your family come into the kitchen with their noses in the air. It smells so good, while it’s braising!
Four hours later, you can see that the brisket has had some shrinkage. The brisket needs to sit in the sauce for 30 minutes.
Oh, yum! Once I removed the brisket, I covered it with foil and skimmed off the fat from the sauce.
This photograph doesn’t do justice to how moist this meat turned out. It wasn’t dry, at all.
Right before serving, I poured sauce all over the sliced brisket. It was plenty hot, even though it had rested for close to an hour.
As a side dish, I served these “Funeral Potatoes” with the brisket. This was equally delicious and my guest and family dug in for seconds (and thirds).
You do not want to miss out on my recipe for the Texas Roadhouse Rolls. Holy Cow! These were so addicting, slathered with the cinnamon-honey butter. These are now in my Hall of Fame recipe and will be perfect for summer grilling recipes. Yee-Haw!
Cooking and baking, for my family and guests, is my Love Language. It makes me happy to see my loved ones enjoying their food, going back for seconds (and thirds) and raving about this entire menu. Humbly said, I have to agree. I got lucky with all three new recipes, and I plan to make them again. What a feast! We are so blessed, indeed.
RECIPE NOTES: Unanimous raves were that the meat was ultra-tender. The sauce has a mildly sweet flavor, with a little bit of acidity. This would be delicious served with mashed potatoes, to slather with the sauce (there was LOTS of sauce). I had six guests, and enough leftovers for two. So, I could safely guess that this serves 8 people (everyone had seconds). Can this be made in a slow cooker? I dunno. It’s worth a try, but would take at least 8-10 hours. I love pressure cooking, but I think I’d leave this to be slow-braised in the oven.
Slow-Braised Atlanta Brisket
Ingredients
- 1 3.5-pound beef brisket flat-cut, fat trimmed down to 1/4-inch
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 5 medium onions about 1-pound, halved and sliced, about 1/2-inch thick
- 2 cups cola
- 1 1/2 cups ketchup
- 4 teaspoons onion powder
- 2 teaspoons packed dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
Instructions
BRISKET:
- Using fork, poke holes all over brisket. Rub entire surface of brisket with 1 tablespoon salt. Wrap brisket in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or up to 24 hours.
- Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325°F.
- Pat brisket dry with paper towels and season with pepper.
- Heat 2 teaspoons oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Place brisket fat side down in skillet; weigh down brisket with heavy Dutch oven or cast-iron skillet and cook until well browned, about 4 minutes.
- Remove Dutch oven, flip brisket, and replace Dutch oven on top of brisket; cook on second side until well browned, about 4 minutes longer. Transfer brisket to plate.
- Heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil in now-empty skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes.
- Transfer onions to 13×9-inch baking dish and spread into even layer.
SAUCE:
- Combine cola, ketchup, onion powder, sugar, garlic powder, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper in bowl.
- Place brisket fat-side-up on top of onions and pour cola mixture over brisket.
- Place parchment paper over brisket and cover dish tightly with aluminum foil. Bake until tender and fork easily slips in and out of meat, 3½ to 4 hours.
- Let brisket rest in liquid, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
- Transfer brisket to carving board. Skim any fat from top of sauce with large spoon.
- Slice brisket against grain into 1/4-inch-thick slices and return to baking dish.
- Serve brisket with sauce.
Notes
Nutrition
So glad to see you back Debby! I know what you mean about dark winter lighting and photographing food. It is a real challenge. Your brisket looks so good that I will definitely be trying it. Can hardly wait for the funeral potatoes and the rolls. Great meal for your lucky family.
Thanks so much, Penny! It's good to be back, because this blog has introduced me to so many friendly people.