Oven Cooked Spiced Brisket

I grew up eating brisket a lot. We had it almost weekly. It's a Texas thing. But I never tire of the slow cooked brisket smell or taste. Normally, I make my grandma Marian's brisket, which is to die for. But I'd seen a recipe in my Homesick Texan cookbook for a brisket that looked quite tasty, so I thought I'd give it a try with a 4 lb. grass-fed beef brisket that I'd thawed earlier in the week. Boy, I'm glad I gave this a go...and I'd say the results speak for themselves. I had about 3 oz. of meat and Andy and the boys devoured the rest of it...in one sitting. It was there and then it was gone. Completely gone. I'm still crying that I only got my 3 oz. I had already been talking about eating a brisket sandwich the next day, but nope, this meat just plain disappeared. And I was told in no uncertain terms that I had better make a bigger one next time. Well, okay - maybe I'll make it when I'm home alone! Hmmphh! :)

Lisa Fain, the Homesick Texan, calls this the Coffee-Chipotle Oven Brisket. Only, I didn't make the Coffee-Chipotle BBQ sauce...frankly, it didn't need a sauce, but my friend Tori had given me a pint of her grandpa's famous BBQ sauce and who can beat a friend's homemade BBQ sauce? I warmed that up on the stove and served it with the brisket. But the remaining recipe is Lisa's, and Lisa, thank you, thank you, thank you. Yummy!

Oven Brisket (via the Homesick Texan)
Ingredients:
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp chipotle powder
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 - 3 to 4 lb. brisket, the flat cut, preferably with a little fat still on it
4 slices bacon (oh yeah - as if anything with bacon on it could be bad)
1/2 medium yellow onion, cut into slivers
4 cloves garlic, cut in half (if you're short on garlic, add some garlic powder)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil.

2. Mix together the salt, pepper, chipotle powder, mustard powder and cumin. Rub both sides of brisket with the spices. Place brisket on a large sheet of foil, fat side down, and top it with the bacon, onion and garlic. Wrap the brisket tightly in the foil, and then wrap it with another piece of foil to ensure that no juices leak out. Place foil-wrapped brisket on foil-lined baking sheet (bacon side up) and cook it for 6 hours.

3. After 6 hours, remove the brisket from the oven and let it sit in the foil for 20 minutes. After it has rested, open up the foil and remove the brisket from the foil. To serve, remove the bacon, onions and garlic from the brisket and cut slices against the grain. (Mine just freaking fell apart because it was so tender and juicy.) Serve with a BBQ sauce on the side, if you want. If you want a bit of crust (bark), place the brisket under the broiler for 5 minutes before serving. (I didn't need to do this - mine had already developed a lovely bark that was being stolen from people's plates when they weren't looking.)

4. Inhale.

I served mine with Lisa's red chile rice...I'll save that recipe for another day. Heavenly!