Our 38 Best Brisket Recipes

From the smoker to the slow cooker (and everything in between!), here are our most delicious ways to cook this tender cut of meat.

September 12, 2022

By: Trish Clasen Marsanico

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Slow-Cooker Brisket

A true crowd-pleaser, brisket is a tender cut of meat that's worthy of any celebration — whether that be Rosh Hashanah, Passover or a summer backyard BBQ. It tastes best when cooked at a low temperature for a long time. You can braise it, smoke it, grill it or let your slow cooker do the heavy lifting for you. In this recipe, we add everything to the slow cooker, then walk away for 4 hours. Right before serving, we sear the brisket in the skillet to caramelize the crust and maximize flavor. (Do not skip this step!)

Get the Recipe: Slow-Cooker Brisket

The Ultimate Braised Brisket

In his 5-star brisket recipe, Tyler Florence takes the time to sear the brisket and brown the vegetables before adding a few aromatics and throwing everything into the oven for a few hours.

Get the Recipe: The Ultimate Braised Brisket

Pomegranate-Braised Brisket with Sweet-and-Spicy Zhug

Try this rich pomegranate-braised brisket for Rosh Hashanah to honor a sweet and prosperous New Year. Pomegranate is a prevalent ingredient in Israel, where my family is from, and here the juice and seeds bring flavor and color to this version of the holiday classic. I’ve also added fresh apples and dried cherries to bring more sweetness to the autumn celebration. It's topped with a drizzle of zhug, a spicy Yemenite condiment made from chiles and herbs that here gets a sweet hit of pomegranate syrup.

Get the Recipe: Pomegranate-Braised Brisket with Sweet-and-Spicy Zhug

Braised Brisket with Root Vegetables

Baby potatoes, carrots and parsnips sit beneath the brisket during braising, soaking up juices from the brisket and wine as it cooks. The root vegetables will taste so delicious, they may just steal the show.

Get the Recipe: Braised Brisket with Root Vegetables

Horseradish-Crusted Brisket with Carrots

Cover the brisket with dijon mustard, chopped parsley, minced garlic and freshly grated horseradish during the last 30 to 35 minutes of cooking to give the meat a crispy golden crust that will add a hit of bold flavor to every bite.

Get the Recipe: Horseradish-Crusted Brisket With Carrots

Classic Braised Brisket

This is a brisket worthy of a celebration. Most braised briskets are made with just the flat. Ours is a whole cut (which includes the flat and the point), that is braised in white wine and chicken stock with a mix of sweet onions, leeks and pearl onions. The result is super tender meat with an almost French onion soup-like sauce that is perfect for a Passover or Rosh Hashanah crowd. A fresh salad of raw shallots, scallions, parsley, mint and a splash of vinegar tops the roast, providing a bright counterpoint to the richness of the slow-cooked onions and meat.

Get the Recipe: Classic Braised Brisket

Braised Orange Brisket

Frozen orange juice concentrate, brown sugar, hot mustard and Sriracha come together to make a beautifully balanced sweet-and-spicy sauce.

Get the Recipe: Braised Orange Brisket

Braised Brisket

This crowd-pleasing brisket is juicy, tangy and slightly sweet. It's perfect for special occasions and holidays. Our low-and-slow cooking method and flavorful braising liquid make this tough cut incredibly tender. Be sure to ask your butcher for a first-cut brisket, which is meatier than the fatty second cut.

Get the Recipe: Braised Brisket

Leftover-Brisket Breakfast Tacos

Have extra brisket? Flip the leftovers into a new dish. Sweet-and-smoky salsa, eggs and tortillas transform any remaining holiday brisket into Southwestern-style breakfast tacos.

Get the Recipe: Leftover-Brisket Breakfast Tacos

Brisket with Carrots and Onions

For her beloved brisket recipe, Ina sprinkles salt, oregano, pepper and garlic all over the meat, then roasts it with carrots, celery, onions and tomato juice. Pro tip: Place a piece of parchment paper between the aluminum foil and your brisket while cooking. This helps to prevent your dish from tasting weird, since tomato juice reacts unpleasantly with aluminum.

Get the Recipe: Brisket with Carrots and Onions

Brisket with Parsnips with Leeks and Green Onions

Alex Guarnaschelli shares a super-helpful tip for making a moist, fall-off-the-bone brisket: If the meat looks dry or begins to overly brown while cooking, cover the pot with a lid or a layer of aluminum foil for the remainder of the cooking process. This helps to ensure that the remaining liquid in the pan won't evaporate as quickly, resulting in a dry, tough brisket.

Get the Recipe: Brisket with Parsnips, Leeks and Green Onions

Smoked BBQ Brisket

Yes, of course Bobby Flay has a recipe for making brisket in the smoker! He makes his own spice mixture featuring chili powder, dry mustard, paprika and cumin to rub all over the meat, as well as his own Dark Beer Mop for basting.

Get the Recipe: Smoked BBQ Brisket

Slow Cooker Beef Brisket

"One of my favorite meals to make ahead when I have a really busy week is beef brisket," says Trisha Yearwood. She meal preps a 4-pound brisket in the slow cooker, then shares a few ideas for turning the cooked meat into dinners during the week — including serving it on sandwich buns, topping it with a pie crust, using it to make tacos or adding to marinara sauce for a quick ragu.

Get the Recipe: Slow Cooker Beef Brisket

Braised Beef Brisket with Onions, Mushrooms and Balsamic

With 125 5-star reviews, Anne Burrell's brisket recipe is a fan favorite. She adds a generous amount of balsamic vinegar to create a bright, sweet sauce for the brisket and vegetables.

Get the Recipe: Braised Beef Brisket with Onions, Mushrooms, and Balsamic

Oklahoma Joe’s Smoked Brisket Flat

This highly rated recipe comes from a real barbecue joint: The 5- to 8-pound brisket is rubbed down with spices and then smoked for 5 to 7 hours over hickory or oak. The result? Maximum, true barbecue flavor.

Get the Recipe: Oklahoma Joe's Smoked Brisket Flat

Brunch Brisket

Molly Yeh packs all the flavors of breakfast sausage into one juicy brisket! After she sears the brisket, she sautes the onions in the same Dutch oven (in the brisket fat), then stirs in fennel seeds, dried herbs, crushed red peppers and minced garlic. For the braising liquid, she uses hard apple cider, white wine and a splash of maple syrup.

Get the Recipe: Brunch Brisket

Southwestern Pulled Brisket Sandwiches

Similar to pulled pork, brisket gets cooked in the slow cooker until it easily falls apart, then is shredded with two forks and coated with a tangy barbeuce sauce. This DIY sauce is a bit smokier thanks to canned chipotle chiles en adobo, but feel free to sub in your favorite store-bought bottle.

Get the Recipe: Southwestern Pulled Brisket Sandwiches

Braised Brisket Tacos

The braising liquid — featuring poblano peppers, red onions, garlic, spices, tomato juice and chicken broth — gets pureed with an immersion blender at the end to make a silky smooth sauce for the beef. Everything is served on warmed tortillas along with shredded cabbage, sliced radishes, pickles jalapeños and cilantro.

Get the Recipe: Braised Brisket Tacos

Smoked Brisket

Smoking a brisket takes a lot longer than braising. This recipe starts with a dry rub overnight to help develop flavor and tenderize the meat. Then, the brisket is smoked for 4 to 5 hours. While the meat cooks you can make a sweet-and-spicy barbecue sauce that’s great for serving alongside — but that you’ll also want to spoon over everything!

Get the Recipe: Smoked Brisket

Red Wine-Braised Brisket Roulade

While a big piece of brisket is impressive enough on its own, nothing beats the presentation of a roulade. To make this showstopping main, you butterfly the meat, pound it thin, and roll it up with chopped vegetables before cooking. Then, you arrange slices of the brisket on a platter along with a decadent, rich sauce.

Get the Recipe: Red Wine-Braised Brisket Roulade

Smoked, Spice Rubbed, Texas-Style Brisket on Texas Toast

"I get tons of questions about how to cook a brisket, how to make it really moist and tender," says Bobby Flay. His answer? This smoked brisket featuring a homemade spice rub and served over a thick piece of buttery, garlicky toast.

Get the Recipe: Smoked, Spice Rubbed, Texas-Style Brisket on Texas Toast

Pork-Brisket Chili

Instead of cooking the brisket whole, we're cutting the beef into 1-inch cubes and adding them to a slow cooker along with cubes of pork shoulder and all the fixings to make a killer, comforting bowl of chili.

Get the Recipe: Pork-Brisket Chili

Shredded Beef Tostadas (Salpicon)

While the beef brisket cooks, Marcela Valladolid makes a bright lime vinaigrette and chops up tomatoes, cucumbers, cilantro and radishes to toss with the cooked meat. When ready to serve, she piles the shredded beef salad onto grilled corn tortillas.

Get the Recipe: Shredded Beef Tostadas (Salpicon)

Pastrami-Rubbed Brisket

Fire up the grill or smoker to make Michael Symon's pastrami-spiced brisket. He cooks the brisket over indirect heat for 6 hours, misting occasionally with a spray bottle filled with apple cider and Worcestershire sauce. Then, he wraps the brisket in butcher paper and puts it back in the grill or smoker for an additional 3 hours.

Get the Recipe: Pastrami-Rubbed Brisket

Brisket Sliders with Ranch

Trisha Yearwood serves up cola-braised brisket slices on mini pretzel buns topped with a homemade ranch dressing for a dish that's perfect for Game Day or really any day of the week.

Get the Recipe: Brisket Sliders with Ranch

Slow-Cooker Brisket Tostadas

Enlist your slow cooker to make Marcela Valladolid's weeknight-friendly dinner. Marinated brisket cooks in the CrockPot along with onions, peppers, beef broth and tomatoes all day long. Pick up crisp corn tostada shells from the store, so you don't have to deal with frying tortillas right before serving.

Get the Recipe: Slow-Cooker Brisket Tostadas

Texas Oven-Roasted Beef Brisket

There are plenty of barbecue joints throughout Texas, and beef brisket is pretty much always on the menu. Rancher and restaurateur Tom Perini shares his recipe that's perfect for the home cook. Instead of cooking the brisket over a smoker, he cooks it on a roasting pan in the oven.

Get the Recipe: Texas Oven-Roasted Beef Brisket

Brisket Sliders with White Barbecue Sauce

Valerie Bertinelli's slow-cooked brisket has a delicious secret. (Psst! It's a packet of powdered onion soup mix.) This key ingredient adds instant flavor the beef. To make this meal a family favorite, Valerie serves the meat on potato buns along with caramelized onions and white barbecue sauce.

Get the Recipe: Brisket Sliders with White Barbecue Sauce

Braised Brisket and Vegetables

Right before serving her brisket, Ree Drummond removes the herbs from the sauce and skims off any fat. Then, she slices the fork-tender meat and returns it to the pot to warm up again quickly.

Get the Recipe: Braised Brisket and Vegetables

Braised Beef Brisket

Ree Drummond calls for beef consomme — not broth or stock — in her brisket recipe. Found in the soup aisle, beef consomme is basically concentrated, clarified beef stock. She also adds a splash of liquid smoke to really bring this dish to the next level.

Get the Recipe: Braised Beef Brisket

Slow Cooker Brisket Sandwiches

Do most of the work in the morning (read: sear the brisket and throw everything into a slow cooker), so all you have to do when you get home from the office is assemble sandwiches. Easy enough, right?

Get the Recipe: Slow-Cooker Brisket Sandwiches

Beer, Ginger, and Garlic Braised Brisket

For the most flavorful brisket, Aarti Sequeira blends up her own ginger-garlic paste to add to the pot along with a cinnamon stick, a handful or whole cloves, crushed cardamom pods and a bottle of beer.

Get the Recipe: Beer, Ginger, and Garlic Braised Brisket

BBQ Brisket Sandwich with Caraway Coleslaw

Inspired by her mom's brisket, a classic Jewish-style red-wine-braised situation, Molly Yeh makes sandwiches served on pretzel challah buns. "The sauce combines flavors from my favorite barbecue sauce (heavy on the sweetness!) and my mom's braise, whose acidity balances the sweetness for a next-level sandwich," she says.

Get the Recipe: BBQ Brisket Sandwich with Caraway Coleslaw

BBQ Burnt Ends

Burnt ends have earned their own spot on barbecue menus, but these candy-like pieces of meat come from the smaller, fattier part of the brisket. Trisha Yearwood's take on this dish is so easy, thanks to the slow cooker.

Get the Recipe: BBQ Burnt Ends

Sweet and Sour Brisket

Ellie Krieger's healthier take on brisket clocks in at just 360 calories and 330 millograms sodium a serving. She makes sure to trim the brisket of any excess fat and opts for low-sodium chicken broth and tomato sauce.

Get the Recipe: Sweet and Sour Brisket

Sunny’s Easy BBQ Braised Brisket with Sweet Potato and Carrot Mash

Sunny Anderson opts for a store-bought spice mix to rub all over her brisket. She stresses to check the ingredient list before buying anything. "Some BBQ rubs have sugar in them and some don't. You want the BBQ rub with the sugar in it because we're going to caramelize," she says.

Get the Recipe: Sunny's Easy BBQ Braised Brisket with Sweet Potato and Carrot Mash

Beer-Braised Beef

Nancy Fuller's brisket is nestled itno a flavor-packed sauce that is made with a ton of aromatics, chicken stock, tomato paste and two bottles of brown ale. "The lager gives it a deeper, more caramelized flavor," she says.

Get the Recipe: Beer-Braised Beef

Spiced Beef Brisket with Smokey BBQ Sauce (Texas)

Inspired by Texan barbecue, Giada rubs her brisket with brown sugar, chili powder and smoked paprika, then serves it with a homemade smoky BBQ sauce.

Get the Recipe: Spiced Beef Brisket with Smokey BBQ Sauce (Texas)

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