I developed this braised beef brisket over a decade ago, and it continues to be a family favorite. With carrots, celery and aromatic fresh herbs like rosemary and thyme, it’s a deeply flavored aromatic main dish smells amazing as it cooks. This tender, saucy beef brisket is perfect for holiday celebrations like Passover and Rosh Hashanah. It cooks slowly for a long time, allowing the fresh herbs to deeply flavor the meat. Your house will smell amazing as it cooks!
What Cut of Beef Brisket Should I Use?
People often ask me what cut of brisket works best for recipes like this braised beef brisket. I generally recommend first cut, untrimmed. The first cut is easiest to find in supermarkets; it is shaped flat and has a thinner layer of fat. Second cut works great too– it is shaped with a point, and has a lot more fat. You’ll generally get more meat servings out of a first cut than a second cut.
Whichever cut you use, do NOT ask the butcher to trim the fat. Beef brisket needs fat for flavor and moisture during the cooking process; trim it before cooking, and you’ll end up with dry, unappetizing meat. You can trim the excess fat after cooking. Of course, I will show you how below.
How Do I Cook Grass Fed Beef Brisket?
More people are turning to grass fed meat; it is naturally leaner and healthier, and often grass fed beef is hormone free. If you choose a grass fed beef brisket for this recipe, you will likely need to cook it a bit longer. The lean quality of the meat makes it tougher to break down, and really requires a low and slow approach. If you choose a grass fed brisket, definitely do not trim it, and keep an eye on liquid levels as it cooks to make sure it stays moist.
Make this savory braised beef brisket a day ahead using the instructions below for easy slicing, and less preparation to worry about on the day you serve. You can make gravy from the pan drippings using a slurry of potato starch, then cover the meat with the rich herby brown sauce. This pairs really well with my Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes or Oven Roasted Root Vegetables. It’s all very easy to make!
For more beef brisket recipes and tips, check out my helpful How to Cook Brisket post.
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Food Photography and Styling by Kelly Jaggers
Braised Beef Brisket
Ingredients
- 6 lbs first cut brisket, untrimmed
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 4 onions, diced
- 5 carrots, peeled & sliced into 1-inch pieces
- 5 celery stalks, peeled and sliced into 1-inch pieces
- 10 sprigs thyme
- 2 sprigs rosemary
- 2 bay leaves
- 8 cloves garlic
- 1 quart low sodium beef or chicken broth
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt (you may need to use less salt if using a kosher salted brisket)
- 2 teaspoons black pepper
- 1 tablespoon potato starch (optional- you may substitute corn starch if not for Passover)
- Fresh chopped parsley (optional, for garnish)
NOTES
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Rinse the brisket and pat dry. Rub both sides of the meat with black pepper and kosher salt.
- Heat roasting pan over a medium flame on the stovetop. Drizzle a few tablespoons of olive oil into the pan. Brown the brisket on both sides—it will take about 4 minutes per side.
- Remove brisket from the pan. Drizzle a little more olive oil in the pan and add the diced onions, carrot slices and celery chunks. Sauté the vegetables for a few minutes, scraping up the brown bits on the bottom of the pan with your spatula.
- When onion is translucent and carrot slices are slightly caramelized, scoop vegetables out of the pan and place in a bowl. Pour beef broth into the bottom of your pan until covered. Scrape up any remaining brown bits on the bottom of the pan as the broth heats up.
- When broth is hot, add half your vegetables back into the pan spread out across the bottom. Place your brisket back into the pan, fatty side facing up. Place garlic cloves on top of the meat, evenly spaced. Add the remaining veggies to the pan, spreading them on top of the brisket to cover. Place herbs on top of the brisket and in the broth, evenly dispersed.Pour more broth into the pan until it goes halfway up the sides of your brisket. Cover roasting pan tightly with a layer of parchment paper, followed by a layer of foil, and place in the oven. If your roasting pan has a lid, use that instead of the parchment/foil combination.
- Let brisket roast undisturbed for 5 to 7 hours. It will take about 1 hour per pound of meat (leaner and grass fed cuts of meat may take longer—test for doneness). Brisket will shrink as it cooks. The meat is ready when it is fork tender and very easy to slice. Remove brisket from the pan. At this point you can follow make-ahead instructions below, if you wish. If you are serving right away, let it rest on the cutting board for 20-30 minutes before slicing.
- Meanwhile, strain pan drippings from the roasting pan into a saucepan and allow to cool. Reserve cooked vegetables.
- Skim fat from the surface of the pan drippings using a spoon.
- Reheat the remaining liquid on stovetop. Stir together the potato starch and 1 1/2 tbsp cold water, then pour into the cooking liquid. Bring liquid to a low simmer until it thickens to make a gravy-style sauce. You may need more of the potato starch and water mixture to thicken further; add slowly and simmer until desired thickness is achieved. Alternatively, you can blend the softened cooked vegetables (with herbs removed) into the gravy to thicken it using an immersion blender. Add salt and pepper to taste if needed.
- Cut fat cap off the brisket…
- then cut the brisket in thin slices against the grain.
- Serve topped with pan juices or thickened gravy, along with the softened veggies if you have reserved them. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley, if desired.To Make Ahead: After cooking the brisket, open the lid or foil and parchment to vent, then let the brisket slowly return to room temperature. Switch the brisket and sauce to a ceramic or glass dish. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator.
- Let the brisket chill overnight, or up to two days. You can also freeze the brisket up to a week ahead if you prefer. 1-2 hours before serving, remove the brisket from the refrigerator and preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. The fat in the sauce will have risen to the top and solidified. Use a spoon to scoop the fat bits out of the sauce and discard.
- Take the brisket out of the dish and brush any excess sauce back into the dish. Place brisket on a cutting board, fat-side up. Slice the meat cold—first cut the fat cap off the brisket, then cut the brisket in thin slices against the grain.
- Return the sliced meat to the dish and spoon sauce over it, making sure to spoon a little sauce between each slice.
- Cover the dish with lid or layer of parchment and foil, then place in the oven. Let the brisket cook for 45-60 minutes until heated through. You can cook it even longer to let it become more tender, if you wish. Serve with thickened sauce and softened veggies, using the sauce thickening instructions above.
Nutrition
Just roasted overnight as a make-ahead for my Hanukkah party. Looks and smells amazing. Made the Holiday Brisket last week to rave reviews! I wish I could post a pic of this one though!
Did you use the rack with your roasting pan? It doesn’t look like you did.
No – it’s best to let the brisket braise in its own juices so it doesn’t get dry.
Tori,
I am making this brisket for Thanksgiving and being that we are only 4 people, I ordered a 3 pound brisket from the butcher. My question is whether I should half the other ingredients to accommodate the smaller brisket. I will adjust the cooking time to approximately 1 hour per pound but adjust as necessary.
Many thanks.
Yes, you can halve the ingredients. The only place you should be careful is the broth, reserve the leftover broth as you may need more than half if the brisket and other ingredients appear dry. Add liquid as needed. Good luck!
I was thinking of using this recipe in a pressure cooker, braising the brisket separately to avoid burned pieces at the bottom of the cooker and adding vegetables in the last few minutes to get the flavor but to avoid overcooking. From what I can see about 105 minutes for a 7 lb Brisket, cooked at full pressure. But with this recipe, I don’t see why you can’t stop the cooking briefly to test the meat and restart if it needs more cooking. In one comment here someone was taking measures to avoid pressure cooking from degrading the flavor of the meat. Does this really happen? I have seen other pressure cooker recipes for Brisket and they just let it go through the complete cooking time.
I have never cooked this in a pressure cooker, so I can’t advise you here. Sorry!
This recipe looks so much better than mine. Love the way you are so specific with your instructions.
Question: 4 onions seem like way too many. Are they small onions or large ones? I like to use sweet onions which are generally larger. If using sweet onions how many would I use?
Hi Adria, I usually use 4 onions and it does not turn out overly oniony. You can cut down to taste. If using sweet onions 2 would be just fine, but you can use more if you prefer.
I was reading your recipe for brisket and was curious. Why don’t you use some dry red wine to deglaze the pan. I would think a cup or two would add a wonderful flavor to the sauce and would bring out flavor from the alcohol soluble compounds in the vegetables.
Hi David, you can certainly do that. I rarely use wine in my cooking, I only like the flavor of it in certain preparations. For this recipe I wanted a pure, savory herb flavor.
Hi Tori,
Hoping you can help! I’m planning to make this for Christmas dinner; my husband’s family is Jewish & they always come to our home for Christmas dinner. This is my first time attempting brisket & I want to get it just right. I live in Chicago & our butcher carries both first & second cut. Which would you recommend I purchase? I’ve done a bit of research and it seems most people are either firmly first cut or firmly second cut, so any help/advice would be appreciated! Thank you 🙂
Hi Suzanne! First cut is usually what I recommend, but untrimmed. Second cut is a bit too fatty for my taste. First cut is usually leaner, but don’t let them trim the extra fat… you want a little fat there for flavor as it cooks. Enjoy!
This recipe completely changed my mind about brisket! I have always despised it as a fatty cut of meat, but my husband loves the stuff. Have tried numerous recipes over the years and hated them all, including my mother in law’s recipe which is the only one my hubby likes. Unfortunately (or fortunately as it turned out!), her recipe is not kosher for Pesach, so I decided to give this one a try. After smelling it all day, I couldn’t wait to taste it and I was not dissappointed. I couldn’t wait to have seconds and thirds and… This will definitely be my staple brisket recipe. Thank you Tori for another fantastic recipe!
I made this for our holiday meal too! So glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Toriiiiiiiii!!!! 😀
My boyfriend wanted to do a Passover Seder party and make traditional Jewish dishes and have the Haggadah and all. We invited several friends over, and, as is customary, I ended up making everything (haha. Southern girl who can cook – Go figure). I’ve never tried Passover dishes before, so I used your brisket, lokshen kugel, and matzoh ball soup because I trust your knowledge will lead me to the light. The brisket was phenomenal!!! The pan drippings were soooo delicious. The soup and kugel were also amazing, and it all left everyone in a food coma. I hadn’t had the chance to use your recipes before tonight, but I’m definitely going to be using them in the future.
Thank you got the awesomely delicious recipes (and subsequent food baby)!!!! 😀
Awesome Yuri! I’m so happy you enjoyed your meal. Thank you for writing!
This looks incredible and I can’t wait to try it. I’d like to serve it with roasted new potatoes, do you have a recipe?
Grease a baking sheet with olive oil, then toss sliced wedged new potatoes with 1 tbsp olive oil, salt, and crushed rosemary. Roast at 400 degrees in the oven until golden brown and tender, stirring once or twice during roasting.