This Oven-Barbecued Beef Brisket is so smokey, tender, and juicy. No one will ever guess it wasn’t cooked on the grill.
We are very partial to pork in the Carolinas and I truthfully haven’t eaten a whole lot of beef brisket in my life.
But this Oven-Barbecued Beef Brisket. OMG!
This is a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated and it makes THE most flavorful brisket.
It is one of the most scrumptious pieces of meat I have ever tasted and I think it has the potential to create quite a few brisket lovers.
The brisket is coated in a rub and completely wrapped in bacon – 1 full pound of bacon- and slow-cooked in the oven. The smokey flavor of the bacon really penetrates into the meat and all that pork fat coating the beef brisket really adds to its flavor.
So much smokiness that it will fool most people into thinking this brisket was cooked on the grill or in a smoker.
Once the brisket has cooked fully, the bacon is removed and serves double duty as a flavoring for the BBQ sauce. The meat is then broiled to give it a nice char to complement the smokey flavor.
A super flavorful sauce that is both sweet and spicy is made from the bacon, which is finely chopped, cider vinegar, dark brown sugar, chicken broth, ketchup, and chipotle peppers. Once cooked, you can strain the sauce and discard the bacon, or I like to strain half of the sauce and then add it back to the saucepan. This way, there’s still some bacon, but it’s not an overwhelming amount.
Leftovers heat up well and this would be a good thing to cook in advance if you are having dinner guests. If you are just feeding your family, you can get multiple meals from this Oven-Barbecued Brisket. No kidding, I usually manage to get 3 meals out of it. Leftovers can be made into Brisket Grilled Cheese Sandwiches or Brisket Nachos.
Never miss a recipe. Follow Spicy Southern Kitchen on Pinterest and Instagram.
Sign up for the Spicy Southern Kitchen Newsletter HERE.
Watch the short video below to see how to make Oven Barbecued Beef Brisket.
Oven-Barbecued Beef Brisket
Ingredients
Rub
- 1 1/2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons paprika
- 2 teaspoons dry mustard
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Brisket
- 1 (4-5 pounds) brisket roast – if there is a thick layer of fat, trim it down to 1/4 inch
- 1 pound bacon
Sauce
- reserved bacon from cooked brisket
- 1 onion,, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1-2 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 4 teaspoons canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce,, minced
Instructions
- Make the rub. Mix all ingredients well in a small bowl and set aside.
- Place oven rack in upper-middle position and heat oven to 275 degrees. Rub dry rub all over brisket and poke holes all over with a fork. Place half of bacon going crosswise in a broiler safe 9 by 13-inch pan (it’s best not to use glass). Put brisket fat side down on top of bacon. Lay the rest of the bacon crosswise on top of brisket, wrapping it down around the sides, and tucking any excess under. Cover pan with foil and place in oven for 4 hours.
- Take pan out of oven. Carefully flip brisket over, fat side up. Replace foil and return to oven. Turn off heat and leave brisket in oven 1 additional hour.
- Pour accumulated juices from brisket into large measuring cup or a bowl. Remove bacon from brisket and chop into pieces. Cook bacon in medium saucepan over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until fat has rendered. Add onion and cook until softened, 4-5 minutes. Take off heat and add vinegar and dark brown sugar. Return to heat and simmer until reduced to a syrupy consistency, about 5 minutes.
- Skim fat from accumulated juices and add chicken broth to make a total of 3 cups. Add to mixture in saucepan and reduce until about 3 cups in volume, 8-10 minutes. Take off heat and add ketchup. Mix well and strain if desired. (I like to strain about half the solid pieces out and leave the rest). After straining, add chipotle peppers.
- Turn oven to broil. Brush brisket with 1 cup sauce and broil until top is lightly browned and fat starts to crisp. Cut brisket against the grain into 1/4-inch slices and serve with extra sauce.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe adapted slightly from Cook’s Illustrated.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Do you need to drain the fat after the bacon is rendered?
I made this brisket last night, and everyone loved it. I followed the recipe exactly (although my roasting pan was bigger than 9×13) but the meat was a bit dry. It was a 4.5 lb brisket. Even though the oven thermometer said 275 degrees, I’m wondering if it is cooking hotter than that and is the reason behind the meat being a bit dry. Again, flavor of sauce was great but if someone has suggestions about helping to fix the “dry meat” issue I would be eternally grateful.
I think the reason for the dry meat is the temp was so high. 275 is high for slow cooking. Next time put it in at 200 and go 7 hours or more. The more time the more tender at that temp. I bet your results will be more to your liking.
I am making this wonderful sounding recipe today. The brisket is in the oven as we speak. I am confused about one of the instruction steps: After 4 hours in the oven, flip brisket over; reposition bacon if necessary; and …..etc.
Do you take up the bottom layer of bacon, as well, when you flip the brisket? Logically, it appears you would have to , but I want to be sure. Thanks for your help and for the wonderful recipe. Elaine O., Florida
Try to flip it so that the bacon stays intact where it is, but kind of reposition it if you flip it over and it all falls off of what then becomes the top.
That is the most incredible looking slab of meat I’ve ever seen in my life. Well done.. I can’t wait to try this.
This was really good. My only issue was the sauce never thickened up & I followed the directions to a T. Can someone share why? Maybe too much accumulated juices – I got about 2 cups & added 1 cup of broth. I was expecting thick sauce like the kind you purchase at the grocery store but maybe my expectation was incorrect? I would love to make this again as the flavor was very good. Thank you.
My sauce was the same way….I added a small amount of cornstarch and it turned out perfect. I’m making another today!
Hi, I took all of the bacon mixture that was browned, added the drippings and after about 10 minutes of reducing pureed them. The sauce thickened up nicely plus I didn’t loose any of the flavor from the bacon .
Husband loved it and told me to sure to keep that in my recipe book as he will want it again soon.
I made this today, curious about the flavor the bacon would impart. Uncertain whether or not we’d like it, I stuck with a small (4 lb.) brisket….I wish now that I had used a 12 lb. brisket! Followed the recipe to the letter and I can easily say this is the best brisket I have ever had, hands down.
I live in Canada. Is your recipe temperature in Fahrenheit?
Yes. They are in Fahrenheit.
I recently made this recipe and it is delicious! My husband isn’t much of a beef eater and even he raved about it. I loved how tender the meat came out, and the flavor was perfect.
It’s definitely a winner!! 🙂
I just stumbled across this recipe. I’ve never thought to put bacon on top of the brisket, but boy does that look juicy, and you can’t go wrong adding bacon to anything!
You are right! You really can’t go wrong with adding bacon to anything!
For those asking about cook time. Brisket is done at 200-210f so just check your temps while cooking. A 10 pound full brisket can start at 350 for two hours then drop to 275-300. You may want to cover for the second stretch to avoid drying it out. I’ve done a 14 lb full brisket on a smoker in 5 hours. Cook at 325-350 till 160f at thickest part then wrap in foil with either beer, apple juice or stock till 200-210 internal temperature. Smaller cuts are fine at 275 but larger would take twice as long. Check your temps and you should be fine.
Walter, so your telling me that a 10 lb brisket needs to start out at the higher temp ?
I screwed up my last brisket and it was in a bag. I’ll follow your directions as you show here. Any other tips that will make this a success???
Paul, according to Cook’s Country, the key to tender, moist brisket is starting it out at 350 until the meat’s interior temp is 180 (about 1 1/2 hrs), then cooking it low and slow (275, I think) for the rest of the time. This avoids the meat temp plateau that occurs at low cooking temps because of evaporation, and it quickly gets the brisket up to the temperature where the connective tissues break down and make it tender.
I wrapped my brisket in foil after putting the bacon on it. It seems to keep the juices that way. I worked in a bbq restaurant and they wrapped the briskethalf way through to keep it moist. But I think I’m gonna do the Apple juice to see if I can get a smoky apple flavor. Thank you