Small Oven Braised Brisket
A delicious, savory beef brisket recipe. Instructions for slowly braising a small, 2 lb beef brisket in the oven. We took a friend’s family brisket recipe and one from Celebrate! by Sheila Lukins, shared by another friend, as starting points for this recipe.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 3 hrs 20 mins
- Total Time: 3 hrs 30 mins
- Yield: 5 servings 1x
- Category: main
- Method: braising
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
Scale
For the sauce:
- 1 1/2 cups red wine – a Cotes du Rhone would be great, but other dry red wines will do.
- 1 cup ketchup
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp paprika
Other brisket ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 2 lb beef brisket
- 2 large onions, thinly sliced
- 4 carrots, chopped
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- salt and ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Make the sauce: Whisk together the sauce ingredients–wine, ketchup, broth, soy sauce, sugar, thyme and paprika–in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Brown the meat: Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil on medium high in a Dutch oven or oven proof copper pan. Add the brisket, salt and pepper to taste, and brown on one side for about 5 minutes. When browned, turn the brisket over to brown the other side. After browning both sides, remove the brisket from the pan, and set aside on a platter.
- Cook the veggies: Add the other tbsp olive oil to the pan or Dutch oven on medium high. Stir in the onions, stirring occasionally. Cook until they start to turn brown and caramelize, which takes about 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic and carrots, and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Start braising: Add the beef brisket back to the pan, placing it fat side up on top of the onions and carrots. Pour the sauce over the brisket. The liquid should cover between 1/2 to 2/3 of the meat. Cover the pan, and move to the oven. Braise for a total of at least 3 hours.
- Turn the brisket: After two hours of braising, remove the brisket from the oven to check the liquid levels and turn the brisket over. If the liquid level has dipped below 1/2 of the meat, add a bit of stock or wine to bring it back to that level. Put the brisket back in the oven, and braise for another hour, for a total of 3 hours braising time.
- Finish the brisket: After 3 hours of braising time, check the brisket by inserting a large fork into the meat. You should be able to pull it out easily. At this 3 hour point, it may well be ready to serve, or you might choose to return it to the oven for another 15 to 20 minutes of braising.
- Finish sauce and serve: When the brisket is done braising, remove it to a platter. There will be a nice sauce remaining in the pan. Simmer the sauce on medium low heat, while the brisket rests for about 10 minutes. Slice the brisket, and serve topped with some sauce. We served it with mashed potatoes and the red Gigondas wine. Cheers!
Notes
- These instructions are designed for a small brisket of approximately 2 lbs. If you have a larger brisket of 4 pounds or more, an hour of braising time per pound is one rule of thumb. But you may want to consult recipes for larger briskets for more timing details.
- As noted, you can use a Dutch oven for this recipe. But for this and similar braising recipes, we have been going with our Copper Chef Pan.
Find it online: https://cookingchatfood.com/wine-with-brisket/
