So Good You’d Think You Were Cheating: Braised Brisket with Beef Jus

Braised Brisket with Beef Jus by Stephen

This recipe was given to me by the grass-fed vendor and it’s a revised version of Wolfgang Puck’s original.

Ingredients:

All grass-fed beef brisket

Bacon-fat or other animal product

Salt and pepper

1 leek

3 large shallots

1 carrot

2 celery hearts

5 garlic cloves

tomato paste

1 cup dried apricots, sliced

1 bottle of wine reduced by half

beef stock – enough to almost fully cover meat

sprigs of thyme, rosemary, and sage

2 apricots, sliced (garnish)

Beef Jus:

Braising liquid

herb-butter (kerrygold)

For the braise, season all sides of the meat liberally with salt and pepper and set in refrigerator for 2 hours (if you don’t have the time, this step isn’t necessary). Set your oven to 300 degrees and heat a heavy dutch oven pan to high heat. Add the animal fat to the pan and sear each side of the brisket (5 minutes/side) until golden brown. Once all sides are crusted remove the meat and place all chopped ingredients from leek until garlic in the pan and sauté until translucent and soft. Add chopped garlic, tomato paste, and apricots to the pan and continue to cook on medium heat. Let the tomato paste get nice and brown (this will enhance the flavor of the braising liquid tremendously, don’t worry if the bottom bits on the pan look burnt, they’re going to taste great). Add the reduced wine to the pan and deglaze. Add the brisket back into the pan and cover with enough beef stock followed by the addition of the herbs. Gently mix the ingredients all around to evenly distribute. Cover the pan and place in the pre-heated oven for 3.5 hours.

Once cooked, take the pan from the oven and place on stove to cool with cover off. Here is where a few decisions can be made regarding the cooking date. It’s better to cook the brisket one day before serving it for a few reasons. This will enhance the flavor of the meat, allow for easy removal of excess fat, easy slicing of the brisket, and relieve stress when serving to company. If you plan on going this route then transfer the meat and braising liquid into a container to refrigerate until the following day. Prior to serving, skim off excess fat from the top to decrease the richness of the sauce, remove meat and slice to desired thickness and strain braising liquid into a small sauce pan. Begin reducing the liquid until the desired consistency is reached – depending on flavor and salt profile (about half). Once reduced, add a pat of butter (I used Kerrygold’s herb butter) off heat and whisk for added smoothness. For small servings, reheat the sliced brisket directly in the saucepan with liquid, or for larger portions, reheat in microwave and then pour hot beef jus over the brisket.

If you plan on eating the brisket directly after it’s done that’s perfectly fine. Just skim off as much fat as possible from the liquid, and follow the same instructions for the beef jus. Just note, you will not be able to cut the brisket into perfect slices since it will be too juicy, so expect a more shredded or junky consistency with your entrée.

Serve with cauliflower mashed potatoes or vegetable of choice. In the above picture I went with a similar approach to the Couscous recipe but added some yellow squash along with the cauliflower in the blender. I quickly sautéed the veggies with some coconut oil and salt and finished it off with a small knob of herb butter. You want a nice vehicle to soak up that brisket sauce!