When it comes to BBQ, beef brisket is king! What barbecue aficionados won’t tell you is that making an amazing fork-tender oven-baked brisket with a flavorful, crunchy bark is easier than you think. No smoker or grill is necessary.
I love barbecue, and for years, I was afraid of making pulled pork, baby back ribs, and beef brisket in my oven. I just didn’t think they would be any good. Well, let me tell you. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Those cuts of meat come out perfectly in the oven.
But at the suggestion of a grill master friend, I learned the secrets of dry brining and slow-roasting meats in my oven. Of course, if you prefer, you can use a smoker. Try my smoked beef brisket recipe.
You can also use a slow cooker with my Slow Cooker Beef Brisket Recipe.
I love a good beef brisket sandwich, and one of the places I frequent for barbecue makes a delicious combination by adding coleslaw and onion rings to chopped brisket. It’s covered in BBQ sauce and served on a toasted brioche bun. Can you say heaven on a plate?
Ingredients
Gather the ingredients to prepare our baked beef brisket recipe. Culinary professionals call this the “Mise en Place,” which means “everything in its Place.”
Setting up your ingredients not only helps speed up the cooking process but also ensures you have all the necessary ingredients on hand to make the recipe.
What are the different cuts of Beef Brisket?
Beef brisket is available in three different cuts. A full-packer brisket is a whole brisket that includes both the point and flat sections. It weighs 8 to 12 pounds.
The point cut is the fatty part of the brisket, also known as the deckle or second cut. The flat cut is the leaner cut of the brisket, 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 oven baked brisket.
*For my oven-roasted beef brisket recipe, either the flat or the point will work. Most grocery stores will carry the flat.
How to Make Oven-Baked Brisket
Follow along with my simple step-by-step instructions to learn how to make oven-baked brisket in your home kitchen.
The first step is preparing the beef brisket rub. This will act as a brine, adding flavor and helping to keep it 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.
Start by trimming the brisket of any silver skin, and if needed, removing most of the fat cap from the top of the meat. Hard fat does not render!
- Pat the meat dry with paper towels and coat it with the brisket rub, massaging the dry rub into the meat, making sure to coat the sides of the brisket.
- Wrap the dry-rubbed brisket tightly with foil and refrigerate overnight. *The beef brisket rub must penetrate the beef for at least 3 hours.
- Take the dry-rubbed brisket out of the refrigerator an hour before cooking, allowing it to come to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 275°F.
- Insert an oven-safe meat thermometer into the thickest part of the beef. 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 it. 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 while keeping it juicy.
How do I slice oven-baked brisket?
Place the beef brisket on a cutting board and let it rest for an hour before slicing. Slices should be pencil-width thick.
Allowing the beef to rest gives the juices time to 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 baked beef brisket?
You’ll often find chopped brisket in tacos, sandwiches, and chili. Other delicious uses for leftover brisket are brisket hash, soups, stews, quesadillas, pizza toppings, and brisket and beans, to name a few.
Wouldn’t your friends and family love to sit down to this tender, delicious baked beef brisket?
Why not surprise them and let them think you’re the new grill master in the family? I won’t tell them you made it in the oven!
Storing and Reheating
Any leftovers should be stored refrigerated in an airtight container or well covered in plastic wrap for 3-4 days.
To reheat, preheat your oven to 325°F. Place the brisket in a baking pan. Pour about one cup of beef broth over the brisket. Then cover tightly with aluminum foil, creating a double layer.
Place the pan in the oven and reheat for about 45 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 165°F. Let the meat rest for 10-15 minutes before slicing.
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, which means it needs to be slow-roasted to a higher internal temperature before the fats start to break down and tenderize the meat. The magic starts to happen at 195 degrees and can continue to cook until 205 degrees.
A good rule of thumb is to cook the brisket for 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 tablespoon coarse sea salt kosher salt can be substituted. *If you use table salt cut it down to 1 tbsp.
- 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper more if you like black pepper as much as I do.
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika or sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried mustard
- 1 teaspoon 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 aluminum 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
- Place the foil-wrapped brisket on a baking pan (if you have a rack place it on the baking pan and place the brisket on the rack which is on top of the pan).
- Place the baking pan on the center rack of the preheated oven and slow roast the brisket 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 one hour 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
Tom Parker says
Great flavor, but my mistake was to open the foil when the temp hit 175; from there the temp dropped, the juices evaporated, and I eventually had to braise-finish it in a dutch oven. Next time I’ll just slit the foil!
Tim says
lovely alternate way to make beef brisket, yummy
Chef Dennis Littley says
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Val says
perfection
Chef Dennis Littley says
That’s what I like to hear!
Cindy Springer says
Hi chef forgot to mention I probably trimmed off 2 lbs of fat so I’m down to 10lbs or so
Chef Dennis Littley says
Hi Cindy, to answer your question, yes plan on 1 hour per pound. But make sure to use a meat thermometer to keep an eye on the internal temperature. I would do a quick check 2 hours before your estimated finish time, just to be sure.
Cindy says
Chef Dennis
? I have a 12.5lb brisket. The cook time would be 12hrs? Just want to make sure. Never done this before.
Thanks
Dave says
I’ve made this recipe like 15 times since finding it. Brilliant!
Chef Dennis Littley says
That is definitely what I like to hear! Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know you’ve been enjoying my brisket recipe!
Kathy says
Absolutely delicious! The
Chef Dennis Littley says
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed the brisket.
Purcell Gina says
Should I set my oven to bake or roast for this recipe? Also, our cow was young and doesn’t have much fat on this brisket (fence jumper so he went early). Any advice?
Chef Dennis Littley says
Roast is the preferred method. Depending on your oven, it will utilize both heating elements and the fan speed will be a little faster, which will help the meat cook more evenly.
Sue says
Brisket is in frig with dry rub, however dinner now postponed a day. Better to cook and reheat next day or can brisket stay in frig with dry rub for two nights before cooking?
Chef Dennis Littley says
You can leave it for up to 48 hours, so its not a problem. The seasonings will just have more time to penetrate the meat.
Christine Anderson says
should you cook the brisket fat side up or down.
Chef Dennis Littley says
Any meat that you roast, grill or smoke should always be cooked fat side up, the as the fat renders it drips through the meat. That adds flavor and also helps keep the meat moist.
Emily says
Very good! Will use this recipe again.
Chef Dennis Littley says
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed the brisket!
Sara says
I made this brisket today, following your recipe, exactly, and it is a STUNNER!! I bought a whole packet brisket which weighed 9.40 lbs after trimming, compliments of the butcher. I seasoned it using your recipe and wrapped it in pink butcher paper (bought at Home Depot) tied with string since I no longer cook with aluminum foil after learning how unhealthy it is. It took 13 hrs, total, to cook and was outstanding! The bark that developed after uncovering it when it reached 175° was perfection. It took another 1.5 hrs to reach 195°. Next time, I think I’ll try the seasoning minus the sugar and add cayenne pepper. Or, I may just use my homemade Cajun seasoning which is similar. Thank you for such clear instructions!! For meat lovers, this is a relatively inexpensive cut of meat if one buys a whole packet brisket rather than the more expensive smaller weight flat cut portion.
Sara says
Sounds delicious!!! Since cooking with aluminum foil is now known to be unhealthy, would pink butcher paper be a satisfactory substitute?
Chef Dennis Littley says
Yes, you can use pink butcher paper instead of aluminum foil.
MJ says
The rub flavor is excellent!
Chef Dennis Littley says
Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed the brisket.
Jennifer Shabaga says
OMG! I think I finally found you again. First brisket I ever did came out AMAZING. Prob only a year ago. Prior to that, I honestly didn’t even know what it was. Did some google searching, found recipe, and it was a “where have you been all my life?” moment as I took that first bite. I’ve made about 3 since, but never as mouthwateringly good as the first. I’m 90% sure that yours is the recipe I first used. It’s in the fridge now so I’ll be back with a thorough review… let’s say tomorrow. 😀
Chef Dennis Littley says
I am very happy you found me again too! Let me know how the brisket turns out. If you love barbecue, try my oven roasted pulled pork and baby back rib recipes.