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Tender, tasty and effortless, this is THE way to make Slow Cooker Beef Brisket. Treat yourself to all the flavour without the effort, dishing up a melt-in-your-mouth dish that can be served in so many different ways depending on the day, size of meal and guestlist.
There’s slow cooking and then there’s sloooooow cooking, and this Slow Cooker Beef Brisket, at a 12-14 HOUR cook, is certainly in this camp (I’ll go into how to make the timings work).
We all know that the longer and slower the cook for some cuts of meat, the better, and this is certainly where brisket comes into its own.
Brisket is also really affordable too, and it’s easy to slice up or shred.
I have loved how slow cooking certain meats have worked out in previous recipes, such as this Lamb Shoulder, this Gammon and this Pulled Pork, and I knew I had to get Brisket in there too!
This recipe comes with the added bonus of a sticky, rich and delicious BBQ sauce – oh hello!
Why you’ll love this Slow Cooker Beef Brisket recipe
⭐️ Comforting, rich flavour
⭐️ Hands-off cooking with big results
⭐️ Affordable, simple ingredients
How we came up with this recipe
The brisket cut of beef is from close to the front of the cow (sort of lower chest area), and it has a lot of connective tissue.
This means it’s tough and needs to be tenderised well, and this is where a long braising process comes in.
It has a layer of fat that stops the meat from drying out, which is why we get such succulent, mouthwatering textures and flavours.
I’ve found it quite tricky to find a single 2kg piece of brisket unless you go to a butcher, so I have used 2 x 750g pieces in this recipe.
They may take slightly less time to cook so check how they’re doing at about 10 hours. (But this is very hard to overcook so don’t worry too much.)
Slow Cooker Beef Brisket Ingredients notes
- Beef Brisket – About 1.5-2kg (use 2 pieces to make up the weight if you can’t find a big enough piece)
- Sauce – Tomato ketchup and runny honey
- Mustard powder – If you don’t have powder, English mustard would also work but use HALF the amount
- Dark brown sugar – You could use molasses if you have them instead
- Cider vinegar – White wine vinegar will work in a push
How to make Slow cooker Beef Brisket
1. Mix up the sauce ingredients.
2. Place the brisket in the slow cooker and pour the sauce all over. Cook as per the recipe (at the bottom of this post).
3. When the meat is very tender, drain off the cooking liquid (keep it to one side in a jug or saucepan) and shred the meat with 2 forks or slice it up thinly.
4. Pour the cooking liquid back over the slow cooker beef brisket (add as much or as little as you like depending on how juicy you want it to be, but it will soak up some of the cooking liquid).
Hint: Once you’ve removed the meat from the liquid, you can reduce the sauce to concentrate the flavour if you’d like to.
Put the cooking liquid it into a small saucepan and put it on the hob over a medium high heat. Let it bubble for 5-10 minutes until it is thickened. Then pour back over the meat as above.
Substitutions
- White wine vinegar – You can use this instead of cider vinegar if that’s all you can find
Leftovers
In the fridge You can keep this recipe in the fridge for 3 days. Reheat fully in the microwave or hob before serving.
In the freezer This recipe freezes well. Just wait until it’s totally cold and then put into a freezer proof container and freeze for up to 3 months.
Defrost thoroughly before reheating in the microwave or on the hob.
Top tips
Cooking schedule:
To serve this for dinner at, say, 7pm, I’d put this on to cook at 6am (I always allow an hour or two grace with slow cooking in case they need extra time – it’s not an exact science!)
To serve this for lunch at 1pm, say, you have a couple of different options. Cook it the day before, allow it to cool and store in the fridge, covered. Then reheat in a saucepan, with the cooking sauce, stirring until hot through when you want it.
OR use this nifty plug timer to start your slow cooker off in the middle of the night.
To take it up a notch:
- Use molasses instead of brown sugar.
- Add a 1 tsp of cayenne pepper to add a KICK!
- Reduce the sauce down in a saucepan on the hob (boil for 5 minutes until thickened) before adding back to the meat.
- Add 2 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce at the end of the cooking time.
MOre slow cooker beef recipes…
Beef
Beef Goulash
Slow Cooker Curries
Easy Slow Cooker Beef Curry Recipe
Slow Cooker Beef
Honey Garlic Beef Noodles {Slow Cooker Recipe}
Slow Cooker
Slow Cooker Bolognese {No Browning Recipe!}
FAQs
This can be a perfect dry dish for adding to burger buns, tacos, quesadillas, Boulangere Potatoes or baked potatoes. Or you could make it saucier for dishes such as rice or potato wedges.
I love the Morphy Richards Sear & Stew Slow Cooker as it’s light and you can use it for browning on the hob too.
For induction hob users, I recommend the Lakeland Digital 6.5l Slow Cooker.
Let me know how you got on and what you thought of these recipes. Please rate the recipe using the ⭐️ below.
Also I’d LOVE to see your cooking creations. If you’d like to share yours with me, you can tag me on Instagram (@tamingtwins).
Slow Cooker Beef Brisket {with Barbecue Sauce}
Ingredients
- 1.5 – 2 kg Beef brisket
For the sauce:
- 4 tbsp Tomato ketchup
- 4 tbsp Runny honey
- 3 tsp Mustard powder
- 4 tbsp Dark brown sugar
- 3 tbsp Cider vinegar, (Or white wine vinegar)
Instructions
- Mix up the sauce ingredients.
- Place the brisket in the slow cooker and pour the sauce all over. Cook on LOW for 12-14 hours or until very tender.
- When the meat is very tender, drain off the cooking liquid (keep it to one side in a jug or saucepan) and shred the meat with 2 forks or slice it up thinly.
- Pour the cooking liquid back over the meat (add as much or as little as you like depending on how juicy you want it to be, but it will soak up some of the cooking liquid).
- OPTIONAL: Once you've removed the meat from the liquid, you can reduce the sauce to concentrate the flavour if you'd like to. Put the cooking liquid into a small saucepan and put it on the hob over a medium high heat. Let it bubble for 5-10 minutes until it is thickened. Then pour back over the meat as above.
Notes
- Use molasses instead of brown sugar
- Add a 1 tsp of cayenne pepper to add a KICK!
- Add 2 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce at the end of the cooking time
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Really want to try this. For 1kg brisket would the cooking time decrease? Thank you so much.
A huge success! Everyone enjoyed this for dinner this evening. So easy to do and it was lovely to be organised and not stressing before dinner time.
Tried and came up really well.
Keep it up with the slow cooker series! I’m loving every single recipe!