Easy Slow Cooker Brisket with Gravy

Slow Cooker Beef Brisket with Gravy is my favourite recipe for Sunday Lunch and completely melt in your mouth. It's incredibly delicious and makes the best tasting gravy I have ever tasted. It is as easy as it gets, another super important point for both of us..

Reasons to Love Beef Brisket

• super, super simple and easy
• make ahead
• incredible gravy
• economical cut
• tender and juicy
• big on the beefy flavour
• great for leftovers

I'm a huge brisket fan, like a really, really big one. I am a bit obsessed actually. It's just so good, beefy fact.

What exactly is Brisket?

Beef Brisket comes from the lower chest area of the cow between the shoulders. It is a potentially tougher piece of meat but when cooked long and slow it becomes melt in the mouth and has bags of flavour due to the high percentage of fat that is marbled through it. This makes it perfect for the slow cooker.

It is super versatile, easy to cook and ideal for pot roasts, pulled beef and pastrami type recipes. It pairs well with big flavours such as bbq, red wine, onions, chilli, spices and garlic.

Here in the UK it is popular and fashionable now for Sunday Lunch due to it's relatively economical price and incredible beef flavour.

This stuff is a real life taste sensation. So tender, so juicy. All you gotta have is time.

Here is more information about this fabulous cut.

I've been cooking Roast Brisket for years for Sunday Lunch. I used to roast it in the simmer oven of my Aga or overnight in the oven long and slow. It's flipping gorgeous.

My most favourite way to feed a crowd is to make my Brisket Buns. Brisket cooked till it falls apart and then stuffed into buns or baps with a generous spoon or three of beefy gravy. It's lush and the crowd always goes wild. I usually serve with chips and coleslaw baby.

*Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the full recipe card*

I don't like to add any extras here like herbs or an onion. I like my Roast Beef to taste of just that but do add whatever you personally enjoy.

Ingredients

2 kg beef brisket

2 stock cubes/pots

500 mls just boiled water

4 rounded tbsp gravy granules to thicken or 3 tbsp corn flour in 5 tbsp of water as a slurry - repeat if the gravy doesn't thicken enough.

Serves 6-8

Method

Listen I'm going to be really controversial here and say I don't bother to brown my brisket before cooking. I strongly believe that such is the beefy flavour of it that it just doesn't need it.

The fat that is running through it gives it such a huge flavour hit that it needs nothing else. Just trust me brisket babes.

So....

• Season the brisket all over with salt and pepper.

• Place your brisket in your slow cooker pot. Add the 500 mls of double strength stock carefully into your pot with the beef.

• Pour in the 500 mls of the stock carefully on top of the brisket and cook on Low for 9 hours.
• In my extensive experience I believe that cooking a large piece of brisket on High for half the time that you would on Low (which is normally how you can roll with the slow cooker) will not give you a soft and tender result.
• Long and slow is the only way to go here. Cook on Low for 8-9 hours.
• I know it does look like a large piece that would serve more than 6-8 but it does shrink significantly. There's never enough leftovers anyhoo is there?

• Rest for 30 minutes on a chopping board or similar, I usually cover with silver foil, whilst you make the gravy.
• I carefully pour the gravy that's left behind in the pot into a saucepan being sure to use oven gloves to hold the pot.
• Here things get a bit winging it stylee. Each joint will provide a different amount of gravy so I start with these amounts below and then add more if needed.

My easy cheat here is to sprinkle in gravy granules to thicken the amazing gravy. Sprinkle in 4 tbsp at first and stir with the whisk. Bring the gravy up to a simmer and stir whilst it thickens. If the gravy is not thick enough then add more gravy granules a couple of tbsp at a time. Taste to make sure that it doesn't get too salty.

If you don't have gravy granules then you can use a corn flour slurry. Simply mix the corn flour with the water so that all is dissolved and swirl it through the gravy as you bring to a simmer and it thickens. Add another slurry mix if it does not thicken enough.

• Season the gravy to taste.
• Slice the beef. Use a sharp carving knife. It may crumble somewhat see below in tips and tricks for advice.

• Serve with the best gravy ever! Loads of it.

Tips & Tricks

When buying brisket from the butcher the thicker end of the cut is the best piece as it is generally less fatty. However in the supermarket the pieces are usually the better ends anyway.

Here is the way I prefer to roll when cooking this for Sunday Lunch. I cook it the day before and put it in the fridge overnight before slicing and reheating in the gravy.

That way the brisket slices beautifully and doesn't crumble. It's a game changer. You just need to make sure you reheat it all till it's piping hot 145 F. I recommend using a digital meat thermometer to check.

If slicing straight away then use a sharp knife and slice thickly.

What's best to serve with Roast Beef Brisket?

Sunday Lunch is best served with crispy roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and maybe some buttery mashed potatoes, slow cooker mash or cheesy mash.

Vegetables like buttery Red Cabbage , slow cooker red cabbage, roasted carrots, roasted broccoli and cauliflower cheese are divine, not forgetting these very easy yorkshire puddings.

If you're feeling a little fancy pants then dauphinoise potatoes or slow cooker dauphinoise potatoes would be perfect and for something a bit more casual how about these very easy potato wedges.

More Slow Cooker Beef Recipes

• Slow Cooker Roast Beef
• Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff
• Slow Cooker Beef Ragu
• Slow Cooker Savoury Mince
• Slow Cooker Beef & Ale Casserole
• Slow Cooker Beef Casserole