Sous vide brisket is one of my favorite dishes with the sous vide cooking method. This sous vide brisket recipe results in a perfectly cooked brisket and a tasty sauce too.
Brisket is a favorite food of many people due to its tenderness and delicious flavor. Brisket can be hard to cook with other cooking methods like grilling, because you’re never quite sure what the temperature is inside the meat.
But sous vide’s precise temperatures and timings make cooking brisket easy.
This Sous Vide Brisket Recipe will help you make perfect brisket every time without the hassle!
Sous Vide Brisket Recipe
Equipment
- Sous Vide Cooker
- Sous Vide Container
- Vacuum Sealer
- Vacuum Seal Bags
- Skillet
Ingredients
- 21 Ounces (600 grams) Brisket Beef
- 1 Ounce (30 grams) Butter
- 3 tbsp Oliver Oil
- 1 Carrot
- 1/2 Onion
- 1 Ounce (30 grams) Paprika
- 1 Rosemary Branch
- 5 Juniper Berries
- 2 tbsp Salt
- 1 tbsp Sugar
- 1 tbsp Black Pepper
Instructions
- Set the Sous Vide Cooker to 68°C / 154°F.
- While waiting for the water to heat, peel and slice the carrot and the onion.
- Insert the carrot, onion, and brisket into the vacuum seal bag.
- Then add the salt, pepper, paprika, olive oil, butter, rosemary, and juniper berries into the vacuum bag.
- When the water hits the target temperature, place the vacuum sealed bag into the container.
- Let the brisket cook for the next 27 hours.
- Once the brisket is finished cooking, let's separate the liquid that has formed inside the bag and the brisket itself.
- Pour the liquid and the vegetables into a bowl, as we will blend it later to prepare a sauce.
- Take the brisket out of the bag and dry it using a paper tissue.
- Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a skillet, and put over high heat.
- Roast the brisket well in the skillet, and add 1 pinch of salt.
- It is now ready to be served.
- Blend the rest of the ingredients from the bag into a sauce. Season with salt and pepper, then pour on the meat for additional flavor.
Notes
Moist and Tender Brisket
Brisket is considered to be the “holy grail” of barbecue. It’s one of my favorite foods and can be found almost anywhere in America. But most of the times, it’s dry and bland brisket.
There are two main factors for that. Brisket is tough and lean, so it needs to be cooked for a longer time. Slow-cooking can bring out the best flavor in every part of a pig; even its tough shoulder meat is tender and flavorful.
Pork shanks take at least 12 hours to reach tenderness, but a whole pork shoulder takes even longer and requires multiple cuts. You need to cook a brisket for at least 12 hours to make it completely tender and juicy. Meat that’s dry to the touch but actually tender isn’t much different from that meat that’s actually tough.
There’s no secret sauce that will make it easy for anyone to smoke perfectly moist, tender brisket. But if you nail every step of the process from start to finish, you can enjoy tender, moist brisket whenever you want.
Even though sous vide cooking can take longer than traditional methods to prepare, the end results are consistently excellent because of the consistent, uniform cooking conditions that are provided by this method. This makes sous vide cooking the perfect choice for busy folks who want a perfectly cooked meal every time.
Why Cook Brisket Sous Vide?
Sous vide cooking offers convenience and can cook food evenly, which is why it’s an incredibly effective technique.
With sous vide, we’re not using hot, smoky air to gently break down connective tissue and infuse flavor. You don’t need to buy an expensive barbecue just to have really good barbecue.
It doesn’t take much more than time, dedication and a good set of tools to make really, really good barbecue. Barbecue that’s covered with a thick, crispy bark that turns light pink as it gets close to cooking. Then the meat takes on a deep smoky flavor that melts in your mouth.
Temperature and Timing For Sous Vide Brisket
The temperature of your water bath will determine the texture of your finished brisket. If your water is too cold, the meat will be too tough. If your water is too hot, the meat will be too chewy.
Barbecue brisket is one of the harder cuts of beef to cook properly. At 135°F (57°C), it doesn’t soften or lose its structure, so it’ll still be rather tough. You would need to cook it for about 72 hours for the meat to start falling off the bone with a spoon.
Cooking at 145°F (63°C) will allow it to break down the meat more, but be drier than cooked at lower temperatures. This temperature still allows you to cook the brisket at a temperature that breaks down the muscle fibers while keeping the meat moist.
I get the best results at around 155°F (68°C). As the meat continues to cook and release moisture, it will get softer and more tender. I like to cook it for 27 hours as in the recipe, but anywhere between 24 and 30 hours will be good.
Flat Cut or Point Cut?
There are two cuts of brisket: the flat cut and the point cut.
If you are looking to flatten your stomach, the flat is a good place to start.
The flat cut is similar to a flank steak as it has little marbling and a fat cap on top. The point cut is a triangle-shaped cut that’s on top of the flat cut. It has much more marbling, so it’s more moist and tastier.
The point cut brisket is more more preferred as it’s more forgiving when cooking, so it works for everyone from beginners to experts. The problem is it’s hard to find point cuts at your supermarkets. Most of these are sold directly to restaurants.
When buying a flat cut or point cut, look for more marbling (intramuscular fat) in the meat. If it’s too lean, it’ll probably end up more dry.
What Type of Rub Should I Use?
Most people only use salt and coarse ground black pepper, or their own homemade barbecue rub with other spices. I mostly only use my own salt and pepper.
If you’re not already using your homemade rub, I’d suggest you make it for the next time you grill, and then you won’t have to worry about it when you’re not planning on grilling.
Should I Inject a Brine?
Brine involves injecting liquid into the beef. Injecting a brine with salt can help prevent the brisket from drying out and adding flavor to the meat if desired.
The liquid is injected under pressure into the muscle tissue. This forces out the water in the meat and causes the muscle to firm up. It also acts as a preservative. How much brine to use for a particular cut of meat is determined by the size of the cut.
To Smoke or Not to Smoke?
Brisket cooked over a hardwood fire with plenty of wood smoke in the oven will give you a nice smoky flavor, but it won’t have as much of a thick black bark on it as the pit cooked briskets do.
If you like the smoky flavor that’s part of the traditional BBQ meal, definitely smoke the brisket.
Read more about whether it’s best to Smoke Before or After Sous Vide.
Do check out other sous vide recipes. These are some popular ones:
This tastes great and the potatoes really do make for a tasty side dish complement.