Brisket is best prepared very low and slow, and is similar to pot roast. There’s some extra “umami” with this recipe that includes red wine, a little brown sugar and soy sauce. This is one of those meals that I enjoy slow-braising in my Dutch oven. The meat is velvety tender and so flavorful!
I absolutely love my InstantPot, and I use mine several times a week. But, there are lazy Sundays when I enjoy putting my Dutch Oven to work. Braising meats, in liquid, low and slow for several hours tenderizes meat until it’s so tender that you don’t really need a knife.
We have made slow-grilled brisket on the Weber (husband’s favorite), and my personal favorite “Kansas City Style Burnt Ends” . However, brisket is a perfect cut of meat to slow braise in the oven.
This recipe is somewhat like my Pot Roast. To build flavor, you have to make sure that your meat is patted very dry. Turn your oven-proof pot up as to high and sear that chunk of brisket until it’s nice and brown on both sides (a few minutes).
Cut up onions and carrots nice and chunky. (I passed on the parsnips because I haven’t really bonded with that vegetable.) Once the brisket was removed , all that beautiful “brown stuff” (fond) turned the onions a golden color. Saute’ the carrots for a few minutes.
For the braising liquid, use beef broth, red wine, tomato paste, a little soy sauce and some brown sugar. I picked some fresh rosemary and thyme from our garden and toss that in. Into a 300F oven it went. As it braised, the aroma wafting from our oven made me anticipate the end result.
Mmm. Five hours later it was time to remove the brisket (it does shrink a bit), cover it with foil and let it rest for a few minutes. I tossed out the herb bouquet garni and I was surprised I really didn’t have much fat to skim! Thicken the sauce with a bit of Wondra flour (secret weapon) or you could make a slurry of cornstarch and water, if you please.
We had dinner guests, so I sliced the brisket, against the grain, and slid it into this serving dish. I put the carrots and onions all around and poured a generous amount of gravy, plus some extra on the side. I made creamy Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes as a side dish. I served extra sauce in a dish, to slather over the mashed potatoes. Win!
TASTING NOTES: The brisket was super tender. The carrots weren’t mushy, because they were large and chunky. The onions had melted nicely into the background, but the flavor was there. The brown sugar and soy sauce gave a nice “umami” to the sauce. This is a one-pot dish, that would be tasty with buttered noodles, polenta or whole potatoes. My guests raved about the recipe and I wouldn’t change a thing about it!
Braised Brisket & Vegetables
Ingredients
- 1 6-8 pound brisket trimmed
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 onions cut into big chunks
- 4 large carrots peeled and sliced into 2-inch chunks
- 3 parsnips peeled and sliced into 2-inch chunks (optional)
- 2 1/2 cups beef broth
- 1 cup full-bodied red wine such as Merlot
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons soy sauce recommended: low-sodium
- 5 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 can tomato paste (4 0z.)
- 1 bunch fresh rosemary
- 1 bunch fresh thyme
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300°F.
- Season the brisket on both sides with salt and pepper. In a Dutch over medium-high heat, brown the brisket in the olive oil on both sides for 6 to 8 minutes per side. Set aside.
- Add the onions, carrots and parsnips and saute for a minute or so until slightly browned. Add the broth, wine, brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic and tomato paste and stir together.
- Put the brisket on top and place the whole bunches of rosemary and thyme around the brisket. Cover the pot, transfer to the oven and cook until the meat is fork-tender, about 5 hours.
- Remove the brisket from the pot and cover it in foil to rest for 10 minutes.
- Remove the herbs from the sauce and skim off any fat from the top. Slice the meat and return it to the pot to warm up. Sprinkle with the parsley before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Great looking meal Debbie. I started to buy an Instant Pot but after reading many reviews about early failures I passed. Please keep us posted on how yours does.
Always love to see new posts from you Debby! The brisket looks great. I have a hard time getting my husband on board with brisket. I do find it's better when you slow cook it than when you pressure cook it, so I'm glad you went with that route. I am in the midst of community theater rehearsals right now and I need some dishes I can slow cook (as in a slow cooker mode), so I may have to make the hubs eat some brisket (and i look forward to the days when I can use the actual oven to make a slow-cooked dish).
I need to try your recipe, I have a really hard time cooking briskets! I try to grill them and they turn out tough.
Hi! This looks great and I’m excited to try it! The recipe is missing any measurements for the brown sugar, tomato sauce, soy sauce additions. Did you just wing it or maybe just use Ree’s?
Oh my goodness! I’m so sorry. When I switched over to a new recipe card format, I left out some ingredients. I’ve fixed the recipe card. Thank you for bringing that error to my attention.
This is The Pioneer Woman’s exact recipe
Yes, it is. If you look at the recipe card, I give her as the source of the recipe.