Oven Roasted Brisket and Leftovers

My family loves brisket, probably because we are true born and bred Texans.  We have always used the same recipe, passed on from my grandmother and I once again made it for Thanksgiving.

Brisket:
A trimmed brisket
celery salt
onion powder
garlic powder
meat tenderizer
Lawry's seasoned salt
Worcestershire sauce
liquid smoke (I use mesquite flavor)

Liberally sprinkle both sides of your brisket with all the powders and salts, making sure to rub them in.  Place brisket in a large bag and add a 1/2 cup of Worcestershire sauce and 1 Tb of liquid smoke.  Place in the refrigerator and marinate for 24-48 hours or at the very least overnight.
Preheat oven to 225F, place brisket along with juices in a roasting pan, fat side down, cover with foil and cook for 6-8 hours.



Yes, you can cook it at a higher temperature but for those of you have never cooked a brisket before, the key is low and slow.  Brisket is naturally a very tough cut of meat, the key to making it juicy and tender is to cook for a long time at a low temperature.  On Thanksgiving, I cooked it at 325F for 6 hours since I was cooking other things in the oven as well and it worked just fine but if you want the really juicy, really tender, falls apart meat, cook it low.

When you pull it out of the oven, the pan will be full of all the tasty juices.  For heavens sake, DON'T throw them out!  Skim all the fat off the juices and use the juice as a gravy.  You don't need to worry about making it a proper gravy by thickening it, just put it in a gravy boat to serve with the brisket.

When you have eaten your fill of brisket, you will undoubtedly have leftovers.  Hmm, what to do with brisket leftovers?  You can eat it just like it is but what fun is that?  Here are a few of the recipes I like to make with leftover brisket.

LEFTOVER BRISKET RECIPES

Fajitas:
Leftover brisket
Onions
Peppers
Flour tortillas
Shredded cheese
Sour cream
Guacamole

Heat up some oil in a pan over medium heat.  Toss in your sliced onions and peppers and saute until tender.  Add some sliced brisket and some of the brisket gravy (you did save it didn't you?).  Serve with warm flour tortillas, shredded cheese, sour cream and guacamole.

Chopped beef sandwiches:
Leftover brisket
Onions
Your favorite BBQ sauce
Leftover dinner rolls or hamburger buns

Shred some brisket and throw it in a pan with some chopped onions and your favorite barbeque sauce.  Cook over medium heat until heated through and the onions are soft.  If you have leftover dinner rolls, slice them in half, brush lightly with olive oil and grill them until nice and brown.  Top with your brisket mixture and you have some tasty, chopped beef sliders.  If you have no dinner rolls, you can use hamburger buns.

Sheperds pie:

Leftover brisket
Sliced carrots
Onions
Leftover mashed potatoes OR
Russet potatoes
heavy cream
sour cream
butter
salt
paprika

Preheat broiler to high.
Chop up some brisket, throw it in a pan with some of the gravy.  Chop up some onions and carrots and throw them in as well.  Let them cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until carrots are soft.
*If you have leftover mashed potatoes you can skip this step.* Peel and cube some Russet potatoes and throw them in a pot with some water on high until they boil.  Allow them to boil for 10-20 minutes or until soft and ready for mashing.  Drain the water off.  Mash the potatoes, add heavy cream, sour cream, butter and salt and mix together.
Spoon your meat and vegetable mixture into a pie pan or casserole dish, top with your mashed potatoes, using a fork to rough up the top which will give you a lot of nice browned places.  Sprinkle with paprika and place under broiler on high about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are nice and browned.

Brisket pockets:

Leftover brisket
Shredded cheddar cheese
one package refrigerated crescent rolls
butter
Italian bread crumbs
sour cream

Preheat oven to 375F.  Once again chop up your brisket and heat it up with some of the gravy.  Unroll your crescent rolls and place them on a cookie sheet.  I would recommend spraying the cookie sheet with nonstick spray as I had a little bit of a tough time getting them off the sheet after cooking.
Take one triangle and top with about a tablespoon of chopped brisket.
Put some shredded cheese on the brisket.  I was out of cheddar so I used colby jack.

Fold over the long part of the triangle and press the bottom edge down.

Fold the short part of the triangle over to cover the larger part.

Repeat steps until you have all 8 filled and folded.

Brush with some melted butter, don't worry about keeping it just on the crescent roll part, it is perfectly fine if it gets on the filling as well.
Sprinkle liberally with the Italian bread crumbs.

Bake for 15 minutes at 375F until nice and browned.  Serve with sour cream for dipping.

So there are a few of my recipes.  What about you?  Do you have any recipes to share using leftover brisket?  Leave a comment below and let me know!