There’s a lot of things in life that I’m impatient about:
1) Christmas
2) Vacation
3) New seasons of Dexter and Homeland to start
So for me, slow-cooking is a real challenge. I’ve been known to burn an entire layer of skin off the inside of my mouth because I can never wait for things to cool down before I dive into them, because sometimes things just look sooooo goooood that I am willing to sacrifice a burnt tongue and those funny little blisters that form on the roof of my mouth to get that first bite.
And after waiting 6 hours for this Texas Beef Brisket to cook, well let’s just say R.I.P tastebuds.
I found this recipe on Food Network, and after reading a lot of the reviews underneath, it seemed to me that most people used it as a base and then added their own touches to it. Which is exactly what I did, and while sometimes my ‘a little bit of this and a little of that’ can lead to a mess of a dinner, this time I’m pretty sure I nailed it. And what better to serve Texas Pulled Brisket on than buttery biscuits?
Don’t even think about those 100 calorie sandwich thins. Don’t you dare.
Texas Pulled Beef Brisket Biscuit Sliders
*Inspired by Food Network – Biscuit recipe from Alton Brown
INGREDIENTS
For the Brisket:
3-4 lbs of beef brisket
1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 tablespoon seasoned salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 tablespoons chilli powder
1 bay leaf crushed
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons stone ground dijon mustard
2 cups beef broth
2 – 12oz cans/bottles beer of your choice
(I used Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale which is like an IPA)
1) Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F. In a small mixing bowl, prepare your spice rub by combining all of the spices (from Kosher salt to red pepper flakes). Set aside.
2) In another small mixing bowl, whisk together the olive oil and dijon mustard until combined. Then rub the mixture all over the brisket. After the brisket is covered in the dijon marinade, you can then cover it with the spice rub.
3) Place the brisket in a roasting pan and cook uncovered for 1 hour.
4) After an hour, reduce the oven temperature to 250 degrees F. Remove the brisket from the oven and add the beef broth and beer to the bottom of the roasting pan. Cover with foil and cook for another 3 hours or until the meat has become fork tender and shreddable.
5) Shred the brisket, place the meat in a dutch oven or heavy bottom skillet with the juices from the bottom of the pan and simmer over low heat for 1-2 hours. This step really is optional, but I like to let the meat absorb all the flavors of the juices. You could also take the juices and reduce them in a small saucepan to make a reduction for the brisket.
For The Biscuits
INGREDIENTS
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons shortening
1 cup chilled buttermilk
1) Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
2) In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don’t want the fats to melt.)
3) Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.
4) Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter (I don’t have a cutter, but the top of a wine glass works great!) Be sure to push straight down through the dough.
5) Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting.
6) Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until biscuits are tall and light gold on top.
7) Assemble your sliders by slicing a biscuit and loading it up with shredded brisket.
I had some broccoli slaw that I threw on for a splash of color, but even just on their own, these are little pieces of heaven 🙂
Not only did a Hurricane blow through this week, but so did Halloween! Luckily, Sandy swept in and out just in time for a cool, fall night for the kiddos to do some trick or treating. And this guy got to hand out lots of candy…
- the before….
…and after
I was trying to find the perfect Halloween dinner (hot dogs were off limits) and I went through lots of pumpkin/squash/fally’ type entrees. But then, for some reason, short ribs popped into my head, followed by tacos. So boom – Short Rib Tacos it was! I investigated a variety of different recipes, but this one from So Tasty, So Yummy sounded like the best flavor combination to me. I took the base of it, added a little of this and a little of that, and I don’t often throw rose petals at myself, but Halloween night, it was a shower of rose petals, because man were these good! We paired them with those delicious Pickled Red Onions from the Southwestern Pulled Brisket Taco recipe, some cilantro and fresh homemade salsa, and oooh it was a Halloween dinner to remember!
Short Rib Tacos
*Adapted from So Tasty, So Yummy
INGREDIENTS
8-10 short ribs (bone in or boneless)
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp pepper
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
2 small cans of black beans
1 – 14.5 oz can tomatoes w/ green chilis
1 – 14.5 oz can regular diced tomatoes
(I used the basil flavored but I don’t think it matters – if you wanted to kick up the heat, you could probably use 2 cans of the tomatoes w/ chilis)
4 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves minced
1/2 – 1 tsp red chilli flakes
juice of 2 limes
3 cups beef broth
*corn or flour tortillas
*queso fresco
*fresh salsa
*chopped cilantro
1) Mix the salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder and garlic powder in a bowl. Rub each short rib in the spice mixture and place them in a large ziplock bag. Let marinade in the fridge for at least an hour (obviously, the longer the better! I think I did mine for about an hour and a half)
2) In a food processor, take the 2 cans of black beans and the 2 cans of diced tomatoes and puree together. Set aside.
3) In a large dutch oven (or heavy pot) heat 4 tbsp. olive oil. Brown each short rib on both sides and then set aside on a plate.
4) To the same dutch oven, add the chopped onions and saute until translucent (about 3-4 minutes). Then add the garlic and chili flakes and saute another minute, or until fragrant.
5) Add the beef broth, lime juice and black bean/tomato puree to the garlic and onion mixture, scraping the brown bits from the short ribs. Return the browned short ribs to the dutch oven in a single layer and let come to a boil.
6) Reduce heat to low and cook the short ribs on low heat for up to 4 hours, depending on how much time you have (the longer cooked, the more tender the meat). After about an hour and a half, shred the short ribs and return the shredded meat back to the sauce to soak in the flavor. If they’re on a bone, the meat can be removed from the bone and shredded, or if they’re boneless, you can just shred the meat.
7) Be sure to reserve some of the sauce from the short ribs and reduce it for 10-15 minutes before serving. It’s a great little accompaniment to the tacos!
Serve the short ribs on corn or flour tortillas with the reduced sauce, some salsa, queso fresco and cilantro. Mmmmmmm.
Hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween!
Sunday nights are pretty brutal – not only is your weekend over, but in like 12 hours, you’ll be starting another work week – a 5-day one at that. Ick. AND when you realize that you are not in fact $540 million dollars richer, as you had intended to be when you returned to work on Monday, well it’s just that extra punch in the stomach.
BUT a delicious Sunday dinner can make all the difference in the world, and let me tell you, this short rib recipe I found on Eat Yourself Skinny did NOT disappoint. Ironically though, it’s not exactly a skinny recipe haha. Leave it to me to go to a healthy blog and find the one non-good for you recipe they have. But I figured a) it’s the last night of the weekend and b) we didn’t win the lottery, so Dave and I deserve a special treat 🙂
So here it is kids – Slow-Cooked Short Ribs – a meal that takes 8-9 hours to be ready, but is worth the wait, so much so that Dave had seconds! He never does that! It’s got a little bite to it, but it’s sweet at the same time – paired with Garlic Mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus, I don’t mind the food coma feeling this Monday morning. The only part I left out was the Worcestershire sauce. You know when you imagine something in your cabinet and then you go to get it and it’s not there? Yeah, that was the W. sauce for me – still amazing flavor though, and I’m sure the W. sauce would enhance it even more.
Enjoy!
Lookin’ a little chunky short ribs
I wish I could do this to my thighs
Lookin’ good short ribs! You guys been workin’ out?
tick toc
And They Cooked Happily Ever After 