Brisket in Many Ways

One of the things I like best is catching brisket on sale.  Not one of those super tidy trimmed pieces, but the big old whole ones with the thick layers of fat.  (Look away, Eddie!)  $10 for 10 pounds of meat.  OK, maybe only 7 pounds of meat once  you chop off a lot of the fat.  Having some kind of layer of fat is important.  I’ll admit I’ve never cooked a super lean piece of brisket.  But, it looks like some potentially tooth cracking stuff.  Brisket is a very tough cut of meat to begin with.  Melting fat and slow cooking are sure fire ways of turning it into a fork tender masterpiece. 

The recipe I use includes an overnight spice rub, a quick grill to sear and then several hours of braising in a highly spiced broth with 8 carrots and a pound of bacon chopped up in it.  It’s such a long recipe, I hesitate to even get into it.  What I’d really like to talk about is what you do with all that meat if you don’t have a large party to feed.  

Of course, the first meal is the sliced meat with potato salad and beans.  I’m sure every brisket eater has their own traditional brisket meal.  And then you have the leftovers.  I have some for lunch and then I’m kind of tired of it.  Hubbard makes chopped brisket sandwiches for us with BBQ sauce.  That’s kind of different because we don’t eat BBQ sauce with our brisket usually.  I’m happy to eat brisket again.  Skip a day.  Then brisket enchiladas.  Now this is really good.  The secret is the sauce.

First, chop up some brisket.  Dice some onion and throw it in a pan with some oil.  Saute the onion and then throw in the  brisket until heated through.

Then make your sauce.  This is adapted from a recipe by Matt Martinez, Jr.  He calls it Poor-Boy Enchilada Sauce.  Here’s how it goes…

1/8 cup chicken fat, 1/8 cup bacon grease (he says lard, vegetable oil or shortening)
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp granulated garlic
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tablespoon Gebhardt’s chili powder
1 tablespoon chipotle chili powder
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 cup beef broth

Make a light brown roux from the fat and flour.  Stir in the dry ingredients and cook until fragrant.  Then start adding the broths.  You might want to use a whisk at this point.  Simmer the sauce until it thickens to your preference.  Warning:  The chipotle powder makes a bit spicy-hot.  You can use all mild chili powder to avoid this.  Maybe some ancho just to keep it interesting.

Our enchiladas were assembled with corn tortillas, run through a short bath in a skillet full of hot oil to soften.  Then dragged through a pie plate of the enchilada sauce and stacked until all of the tortillas were ready.  Place a couple of tablespoons (approx) of Monterrey Jack cheese on the tortilla, about the same amount of beef and onions and top with medium cheddar.  (This is just our mix of the day.  You can substitute any cheese or meat combo that you might like.)  Roll ‘em up tightly and put them in a greased baking dish.  Top with the enchiladas with a generous tablespoon of sauce each, as opposed to just pouring in all the sauce.  You don’t want a big mushy mess.  But, you do want the enchiladas to stay moist.  Top it with some cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. 

Serve the enchiladas with the extra sauce at the table and more chopped onion.  Hubbard ate four of them.

Of course, Mexican food lends itself beautifully to brisket adaptations.  Quesadillas, brisket nachos or tacos.  You can even make a King Ranch casserole with brisket.  And in the end, slice and stuff the leftovers in a freezer bag for later.  Big time value for $10, huh!?