When it comes to BBQ, brisket is king! And what barbecue aficionados won’t tell you is you can make an amazing fork-tender oven-baked brisket with a flavorful crunchy bark using your home oven, no smoker or grill necessary.
I love barbecue and for years I was afraid of making the different cuts of meat I enjoyed eating at my favorite bbq joints.
But at the suggestion of a grill master friend, I learned the secrets of dry brining and slow-roasting meats in my oven.
I love a good brisket sandwich and one of the places I frequent for barbecue makes a delicious combination by adding coleslaw and onion rings to chopped brisket covered in bbq sauce served on a toasted brioche bun.
You’re going whole hog with this sandwich!
What ingredients do I need to make an oven-baked beef brisket?
Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make a dry rub oven-baked brisket. In Chef Speak this is called the “Mise en Place” which translates to “Everything in its Place”.
Not only does setting your ingredients up ahead of time speed up the cooking process, it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.
What are the different cuts of Brisket?
Brisket comes in three different cuts. A full packer brisket is a whole brisket, that includes both the point and flat sections. It will weigh anywhere from 8 to 12-plus pounds.
The point cut is the fatty part of the brisket, also known as the deckle or second cut. The flat is the leaner cut of the brisket and is also known as the first cut.
Whether you use the whole brisket, a flat or the point this recipe will still yield a moist, tender OMG flavorful brisket.
*For my oven-roasted beef brisket recipe either the flat or the point will work. Most grocery stores will carry the flat.
How do I prepare the brisket for slow roasting?
The first step is preparing the dry rub which will act as brine, adding flavor and helping to keep the brisket moist.
*My spices include onion powder, garlic powder, brown sugar, chili powder, sea salt, cracked black pepper and a few others. Feel free to adjust the seasonings to your taste.
How do I make an oven-baked beef brisket?
Start by trimming the brisket of any silver skin and if needed removing most of the fat cap from the top of the brisket. Hard fat does not render!
- Pat the brisket dry with paper towels and coat the entire brisket with the dry rub, massaging the dry rub into the meat. Make sure to coat the sides of the brisket.
- Wrap the dry-rubbed brisket tightly with foil and refrigerate overnight. *A minimum of 3 hours is needed for the dry rub to penetrate the brisket.
- Take the brisket out of the refrigerator an hour before cooking, allowing the brisket to get close to room temperature before cooking.
- Preheat the oven to 275° F
- Insert an oven-safe meat thermometer into the thickest part of the brisket. The fat side should be up during the roasting process.
- Slow Roast in the oven until the internal temperature reaches 175 degrees F.
- Remove the brisket from the oven and carefully cut the foil open to expose the brisket and continue roasting until the internal temperature reaches 195-205 degrees F.
Chef Dennis Tip:
Do not be tempted to raise the temperature for faster cooking time, or your brisket will be very tough. Slow oven roasting using a low temperature allows the fats to break down gradually, tenderizing the beef, so it has a stretching juicy quality in the end.
How do I slice oven-baked brisket?
Place the beef brisket on a cutting board and let it rest for an hour before slicing, three hours is even better. Slices should be pencil width thick.
Allowing brisket to rest lets juice redistribute throughout the meat. If sliced right off the grill, the meat would lose moisture.
After the brisket has rested, the next step is finding the grain. The direction of the cut is key to having tender fall-apart slices of brisket.
You want to slice against the grain. The grain of any meat is the alignment of the muscle fibers. When you cut with the grain, the muscle fibers remain somewhat intact and result in meat that is tough and difficult to chew. When you cut against the grain, you break up the muscle fibers evenly so that the meat becomes much more tender and easy to chew.
Chef Dennis Tip:
Before cooking, find the grain and slice a corner of the flat. This will make it easier to find the direction of the grain when the brisket is done and ready to be sliced.
How can I use leftover oven-cooked beef brisket?
You’ll often find chopped brisket used in tacos, sandwiches, and chili. Other delicious uses for leftover brisket are in brisket hash, soups, stews, quesadillas, topping on pizza, and brisket and beans to name a few.
Wouldn’t your friends and family love to sit down to this tender, delicious dry-rubbed oven-roasted brisket? Why not surprise them and let them think you’re the new grill master in the family.
Recipe FAQ’s
If you rub the brisket with the spice mixture and immediately place it in the oven, it’s just a rub. It will flavor the exterior of the meat and the spices will penetrate a little way into the beef.
But if you rub the seasonings into the brisket and let it sit overnight before roasting this would be considered a brisket dry brine. The salt and other seasonings will have time to truly work their way into the center of the beef giving you a more flavorful piece of meat.
Brisket is a tougher cut of meat, and that means it needs to be slow-roasted to a higher temperature internally before the fats start to break down and tenderize the meat. The magic starts to happen at 195 degrees and can continue to cook up until 205 degrees.
A good rule of thumb is to cook the brisket 60 minutes per pound at 275 degrees F. Of course this all depends on your oven, make sure to give yourself extra time just in case it hasn’t reached the optimal internal temperature range of 195 -205 degrees F.
To get a fork-tender brisket, the maximum cooking temperature is 300 degrees F. Any hotter will produce a tough brisket. Brisket needs a slow roast and the sweet spot for roasting is 250-275 degrees F.
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Dry Rub Oven Baked Brisket
Ingredients
- 5 lb beef brisket
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp coarse sea salt kosher salt can be substituted. *If you use table salt cut it down to 1 tbsp.
- 1 tbsp cracked black pepper more if you like black pepper as much as I do.
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp sweet paprika
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp dried mustard
- 1 tsp dried thyme
Instructions
- Mix dry rub ingredients. (This recipe for dry rub will cover a 5 lb brisket.)
- Remove the brisket from the package and trim away any silver skin or excess fat.
- Coat the entire brisket with the dry rub and massage the dry rub into the meat. Make sure to coat the sides of the brisket.
- Wrap the dry-rubbed brisket tightly with non-stick Reynolds foil and refrigerate overnight. Completely wrap it as a package in one direction then go across the other direction sealing the foil.*A minimum of 3 hours is needed for the dry rub to penetrate the brisket.
- Take the brisket out of the refrigerator an hour before cooking it, allow the brisket to get to room temperature before cooking.
- Preheat the oven to 275° F
- Insert an oven-safe meat thermometer into the thickest part of the brisket
- Slow Roast in the oven until the internal temperature reaches 175 degrees F. Remove the brisket from the oven and carefully cut the foil open to expose the brisket and continue roasting until the internal temperature reaches 195-205 degrees F.*Depending on your oven, and where you inserted the meat thermometer, this process may take 5-6 hours.
- Do not be tempted to raise the temperature for faster cooking time, or your brisket will be very tough. Slow oven roasting allows the fats to break down gradually, tenderizing the beef, so it has a stretching juicy quality in the end.
- Remove the brisket from the oven and place it on a cutting board. Tent the brisket with a sheet of foil, and let it rest for 2-3 hours so the juices redistribute evenly throughout the brisket.
- When cutting the brisket make sure to go against the grain. Slice the brisket in pencil width slices. *See Notes
Chriss
Hi,
I made this and was wondering if , when you get to the point of cutting and exposing the brisket in the oven, do you remove the foil altogether? and roast for a couple more hours?
Chef Dennis Littley
You need to use an oven thermometer and you don’t want to cook it too long uncovered. It’s hard to say exactly how long it will take since ovens are all different. Just keep an eye on the oven thermometer.
Slow Roast in the oven until the internal temperature reaches 175 degrees F.
Remove the brisket from the oven and carefully cut the foil open to expose the brisket
Then continue roasting until the internal temperature reaches 195-205 degrees F.
*Depending on your oven, and where you inserted the meat thermometer, this process may take 5-6 hours.
Mark
After resting for 3 hours, will the meat get cold….even if its tented? If so, how do you recommend heating it back up?
Chef Dennis Littley
you can reheat it in a 275 degree oven. Moisten the brisket first with beef stock, water, or apple juice. rap it in foil and heat for about 25-30 minutes. If you’re eating it right away there is no need to let it rest for 3 hours.
Jerry Capito
Excellent recipe. So very tender and juicy.
Nicole Harf
In your dry rub recipe you say to let rest23 minutes. But prior to that you say to take it out and tent brisket 3 hours and lesystem. Rest.. Is this while it is still cooking the 5 – 6 hours or resting? I find your directions very confusing. Which is it or both?
Chef Dennis Littley
The instructions are pretty clear:
Step #3 Coat the entire brisket with the dry rub and massage the dry rub into the meat. Make sure to coat the sides of the brisket.
Step #4 Wrap the dry-rubbed brisket tightly with non-stick Reynolds foil and refrigerate overnight. Completely wrap it as a package in one direction then go across the other direction sealing the foil.
*A minimum of 3 hours is needed for the dry rub to penetrate the brisket.
Step #8 Slow Roast in the oven until the internal temperature reaches 175 degrees F. Remove the brisket from the oven and carefully cut the foil open to expose the brisket and continue roasting until the internal temperature reaches 195-205 degrees F.
*Depending on your oven, and where you inserted the meat thermometer, this process may take 5-6 hours.
Step #10 Remove the brisket from the oven and place it on a cutting board. Tent the brisket with a sheet of foil, and let it rest for 3 hours so the juices redistribute evenly throughout the brisket.
caje26
What if I didn’t dry my meat that well before I applied the rub?… the rub looks wet.
Chef Dennis Littley
the dry web does get wet-looking. The name dry rub is because there in no liquid added.
Moop brown
I appreciate how easy to make this brisket is and am I looking forward to trying this recipe. Thanks
LaKita
Love a good brisket recipe and this one certainly did not disappoint. So delicious and full of flavor!
Mikayla
A brisket is a wonderful cut of meat that we use often. After pulling this from the oven and slicing it up for dinner, couldn’t help but sneak tasty bits.
Frank
In Step 5, the foil is removed. In Step 8, the foil is cut open. I assume that after the brisket reached room temperature, it is rewrapped in the foil and s beet thermometer inserted through the foil.
Chef Dennis Littley
that was a mistake on my part, thanks for alerting me to the error Frank. You don’t unwrap the brisket when it comes out of the refrigerator. Just let it get to room temp and roast.
Loreto and Nicoletta
Wow Chef Dennis, this is one good looking, tasty brisket. You have definitely schooled us on brisket. Love the flash back on Renolds wrap tin foil. We used it to growing up!
Back to this brisket. Love the dry rub, slow cook and end result of pure deliciousness!😋🥰👍🙏👌
Leslie
We just bought 1/2 a cow and I’ve been searching for a good oven-roasted brisket recipe with a good dry rub to compensate. This is perfect!
Ann
I had no idea I Coudl make such great brisket at home! My dad is going to love this
Marie
I’d never cooked brisket before, but your recipe made it seem so breezy and delicious, it gave me the confidence to give it a try! The meat is incredibly flavorful and tender. My whole family loved those BBQ brisket sandwiches I made, inspired by your photo at the top! Thanks for the inspiration!
Marta
I live in the land of brisket (Texas) so I know a thing or two about a good one. This dry brined roasted brisket may just be my new favorite way to make it.
Marisa Franca
We have been craving a grilled brisket for months. BUT! We’re not at a place where we can grill. When I found this recipe I thought it was heaven sent. Hubby and I tried it out yesterday and it was amazing. The meat turned out perfectly and the seasoning was just the way we like it. This is a recipe I’m saving and making again!
Allyssa
Thank you so much for sharing this amazing oven roasted brisket recipe! Will surely have this again! It’s really easy to make and it tasted so delicious! Highly recommended!
Lisa
We made this yesterday and it was amazing! Another hit for Chef Dennis!!