Cook-in-the-Oven Texas Beef Brisket

I’ve got one of those large chest freezers….you know, the really deep, horizontal kind where you never really know what’s at the bottom. So every couple months I’ll remove the top layers of frozen food from that freezer and take inventory…just to see what’s all there. I did that tonight, and lone behold, I found a beef brisket way at the bottom.

So guess what we’re serving up for company next time we have guests…BEEF BRISKET! It’s actually one of our favorite main dishes to serve up to large gatherings. When I do, I use the recipe below. This is for a 4-pound brisket. A lot of times I’ll double or triple this recipe, if I’ve got an extra large brisket to cook up.

The key is cooking this cut of meat very slowly at a low temperature—one hour for every pound of meat. It’s almost like using a slow cooker, and the meat comes up v-e-r-y tender and flavorful. I like to serve it up with Layne Wooten’s Rattlesnake Barbecue Sauce (which I talked about in my February 1 post).

If you use this recipe, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!

COOK-IN-THE-OVEN TEXAS BEEF BRISKET

Rub, for 4 pounds of beef brisket:

2 T. chili powder
2 T. salt
1 T. garlic powder
1 T. onion powder
1 T. ground black pepper
1 T. Sugar
2 tsp. dry mustard
1 bay leaf, crushed

For 4 pounds of brisket, you will need 1 ½ cups beef stock

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Trim excess fat on brisket. Mix the dry rub ingredients together, and season the brisket on both sides with the rub. Place the brisket on rack in a roasting pan, fat side up. Add beef stock to yield about ½ inch of liquid in the roasting pan. Put roaster lid on. Bake 1 hour per pound of meat. When done cooking, leave out at room temperature 15-20 minutes before cutting. Then slice the meat thinly across the grain. Top with juice from the pan, or serve with warm barbecue sauce on the side.