Beef Brisket & Onion Sauce

sliced beef brisket on a plate with mashed potatoes and onion gravy

Serves 2

About a year ago Chef John posted an Easy Baked Beef Brisket on YouTube.com. We tried the recipe and found the meat to be extremely moist and tender but overall we thought the brisket and the onion gravy were very bland. We reduced the meat amount to serve 2 people and added some seasoning. We also had to do some experimentation when it came to baking time as Chef John cooked a 3 lb. brisket.

Brisket size:

1 lb brisket will serve 2 people

2 lb brisket will serve 4 people

3 lb brisket will serve 6 people

Cooking time:

1 lb brisket; 325° F 1 1/2 hrs, 250° F 1 hr 15 minutes

2 lb brisket; 325° F 1 1/2 hrs, 250° F 1 hr 45 minutes

3 lb brisket; 325° F 1 1/2 hrs, 250° F 2 hr 15 minutes

Although we believe this is a perfect recipe for mashed potatoes, because of the fantastic gravy that is produced when the brisket is baking, we hope that you can handle cooking mashed potatoes on your own without the need of a detailed recipe!

We made the same amount of sauce no matter what size brisket we had. There comes a point where trying to cut back on quantities becomes somewhat ridiculous.

Night Before

Salt and pepper the brisket well (massage it in) and place in the refrigerator on a wire rack, on a plate or pan, open to the air, the night before you are going to cook it.

Ingredients

Directions

  1. See note above: Night Before
  2. Heat the oven to 325° F
  3. Add the vegetable oil to a sauté pan on medium heat.
  4. Add the sliced onions and sauté until they are translucent.
  5. Add the diced garlic, dried rosemary, Italian spice blend, Bovril and the Worcestershire sauce. Mix together and sauté for about 2 minutes.
  6. Add the apple cider mix and reduce the liquid to about half.
  7. Remove the brisket from the refrigerator.
  8. Place a large spoonful of the sautéed onion mixture on the bottom of a roasting pan.
  9. Place the brisket, fat side up, on top of the sautéed onion mixture.
  10. Place the balance of the sautéed onion mixture on top of the brisket.
  11. Cover the roasting pan with aluminum foil and place in the oven.
  12. Roast the brisket at 325° F for 1 1/2 hours. Then reduce the heat to 250° F and continue to roast for 1 hr and 15 minutes.
  13. Once the brisket has finished roasting, remove the aluminum foil, scrape the onion mixture off the top of the brisket into the roasting pan. Remove the brisket from the roasting pan and allow to rest covered with aluminum foil.
  14. Pour the onion mixture into a gravy fat separator. Allow to sit for a couple of minutes and then pour the onion mixture less the fat into a blender. Puree for about 20 seconds.
  15. Cut the brisket against grain.

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Bon Appétit