Pulled Beef Brisket

[sotv]

I've always struggled with the Salt and Pepper Rub on brisket with my palate, but love the cut so though I would try something different today and turned out quite well. Bit of Prep the night before, but worth it if you like tomato flavour.

Last night I cooked  4 large vine ripened tomatoes and sliced them in half, Drizzled a tbsp of Balsamic Vinegar and 1 tbsp of Olive oil over them, sliced 2 cloves of garlic finely and placed them on top of the tomatoes with a sprig of fresh thyme (no dried unfortunately). Put in oven and roasted them at 150C  in the fan oven for 1hr 20mins till soft and squidgy. Covered them and put them in the fridge overnight.

This morning smoked a 1.5kg brisket in the smoker for 2 hours with a chunk of cherry wood, with a tray underneath to catch the drippings. 15 minutes before taking it out of the smoker. over the hob I prepared the sauce to finish cooking it off in and preheated the oven to 140C with the fan on

I added a tbsp of Rapeseed Oil and Extra Virgin Olive Oil and the drippings from the Brisket into the Dutch oven, heated them up on a low/medium heat then added 1 large onion sliced and cooked them till they softened and started to slightly brown for 15 minutes (not fried though) minced 2 cloves of garlic and after a couple of minutes added 100ml of chicken broth, 200ml of Bulls Eye Smoky Bacon BBQ sauce, 1tbsp of Low Salt Soy Sauce, 2tbsp of Coconut Sugar and heated them up and stirred for just over 5 minutes. Added the tomatoes and removed the piece of Brisket from the smoker and added it to the pot.

Put it in the oven for 5 hours and just left it, didn't stir or anything.I was tempted to cook it all on the ProQ but we had sheet rain for most of the day with gusty winds and would have struggled to maintain a 275F regular temp, so opted to finish it off in the oven.

After 5 hours took the beef out of the Dutch oven and put to one side. Sieved the sauce and contents so just left with a liquid and reduced it by half in a saucepan (took about 15 minutes). Whilst it was reducing, I scraped any soft fat still on the outer edges of the the beef (came away easily with the edge of a knife) and shredded the beef. Buttered some floury baps and added the shredded beef and 1-2 tbs of the sauce to it. Really tasty and the tomato flavoured sauce worked really with the beef. Definitely do this again, either all outdoors (weather permitting) or by the same method as today.

I realise the brisket purists will turn there nose up at cooking it this way. But worked well for me and bags of flavour to it and could seeing it working with roast potatoes and veg also

As a side note my wife loved the onions on hers, I don't like the texture of soft onion, but she assures me they were beautiful with the beef and sauce as well,

Sorry no pics, but will remember to next time.

Edited February 10, 2019 by sotv

[sotv]

Did this again the weekend for some family members but did it all in the smoker and a 2kg piece of brisket made enough for about 20 brioche rolls. 

Timings were just under 3 hours on the smoker being smoked. Added the brisket to the dutch oven and ingredients and slow cooked for just under another 7 hours, it took about just over a minute to pull apart after that, it was that tender and the sauce, sieved from what it was cooked in (sweet and tomato flavoured) poured over it was great. Buttered the Brioches and as an accompaniment put a container of those dried deep fried American Onions you can buy,  Really worked well with the beef and added a bit of crunch and extra flavour.

[Justin]

maybe a picture next time?