It’s been far too long since my last post, but with some of this delicious brisket, you’ll soon forget that I’d been gone!
Now that I’m done with school, I’ve found myself with more free time on my hands–which means much more time to experiment in the kitchen. With this time, I have been able to produce and develop more refined recipes and work on more complex projects, which has me and my geeky self all sorts of excited. In the past, I wasn’t able to always try my recipes as many times in the kitchen as I would have liked before sharing. And, as a result, as I look back at previous posts, I am not pleased with the quality of some of the recipes that I’ve shared. After all, and if I am fully disclosing already, whole wheat can only taste so good. But now that I’ve aired out the whole wheat in my closet, I’d like to start back up on a new foot.
This week, grass-fed, local brisket (Wisconsin Meadows) was on sale. Since we have no air conditioning and it’s been hot out, I figured it was a good time to seize the moment, pull out the slow-cooker, and buy three briskets. So, for the past three days, I have cooked these briskets three separate ways (pictured below). The first day, I cooked a chili honey BBQ brisket low and slow (no marinating, cooked with a dry rub and sauce). The second day, I cooked an onion brisket on high for the first 3/4 of the roast and low the rest of the time (marinated overnight, without dry rub, cooked in broth and onion). And finally, on the third day, I cooked a cocoa-cola BBQ brisket, which I used a combination of the techniques that I liked from the days previous for (overnight marination, first 4 hours cooked on high, the rest on low, cooked with a dry rub and sauce).
First Brisket:
Second Brisket:
Third Brisket:
Although I’m happy with how the first two briskets that I cooked turned out, and may even share the recipes eventually, I was especially impressed with how this cocoa-cola BBQ brisket turned out, and am glad that my experimenting paid off. My inspiration when developing this recipe was finding a balance of flavors that made it possible to forego using onion soup mix (which most cocoa-cola BBQ recipes that I came across call for, and I basically never have on hand).
I hope that you enjoy this mouth-watering, sweet brisket as much as Mike and I did. Let me know what you think!
Ingredients:
1.5 lb. brisket (if you use larger, try to proportionately increase the volume of proceeding ingredients)
1/2 cup white onion, cut into rings
1 C ketchup
1/4 C Apple Cider Vinegar (with “the Mother” if you have it)
2 C (about 1 1/2 cans) Coca-Cola
1 1/2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp Shoyu/soy sauce
1 Tbsp raw honey
2 Tbsp raw brown sugar
1 tsp salt (I used pink Himalayan) + extra
1/8 tsp garlic powder
Directions:
Marinate brisket overnight in 1 Tbsp Shoyu, 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 3/4 C Coke, and a few sprinkles of salt. In the morning, take the brisket out of the marinade and rub with 2 Tbsp of brown sugar, and 1 tsp salt. Place the brisket in a slow-cooker that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray or lightly greased with grapeseed oil (I find it to impart less flavor, but other oils will do as well) to prevent the sauce from sticking to the sides of the pan and caking up. Turn the slow-cooker on high. In a separate small bowl, mix the ketchup, ACV, honey, garlic powder, remaining coke (3/4 C), and Worcestershire sauce. After thoroughly mixing the BBQ sauce, pour over the brisket, coating it entirely. Place the onion, cut into rings, on top of and around the brisket. Finally, cover the slow-cooker and cook on high for 4 hours. After 4 hours, turn down to low and cook for at least 2 more hours. If possible, stir the sauce and coat the brisket with it every hour (don’t open it too much, otherwise the steam will escape and mess with the cooking time) after turning down to low. I cooked my brisket for a total of 10 hours, but it will be ready before then. Remove brisket from slow-cooker and let rest before serving. The brisket should be so tender that it will fall apart when you pull at it with a fork. Thoroughly enjoy!
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