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Ultimate Beef Brisket

Moist, tender meat just falls apart, and the sauce is a delicious and perfect balance of sweet and tangy with perfect seasoning. This is truly the only brisket recipe you'll ever need and our absolute favorite, hands down.
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Jewish
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 4 hours
Total Time 5 hours 10 minutes
Servings 8 people

Ingredients

  • 1 5 -6 pound first cut beef brisket
  • 1 32 oz. bottle Heinz ketchup
  • 1/2 cup (heaping) brown sugar (light or dark, your choice)
  • 1 1/2 envelopes Lipton Onion Soup mix
  • 1/4 tsp. garlic powder (or more per your taste)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the entire bottle of ketchup, onion soup mix, brown sugar, and garlic powder. Mix well.
  3. Take two very long pieces of heavy duty aluminum foil and lay them out in a cross shape. The foil should be long enough to completely wrap around and cover the brisket. Place brisket on foil and pour half the mixture over the meat and spread it evenly. Turn brisket over (this will be messy!) and pour the remaining marinade over the brisket.

  4. Wrap the foil around the meat as tightly as possible, keeping the marinade inside the foil as best you can. If necessary, add another piece of aluminum foil. It's a messy job, but well worth it!

  5. Place foil package into a deep roasting pan. Add enough water (about 1 to 1 1/2 cups) so there is enough water to surround, but not drown the meat. The meat package should fit comfortably inside the pan with just a few inches of space around it.

  6. Cook for 3 hours. Check halfway through the cooking time to make sure the water has not evaporated (add more if needed). After three hours, remove pan from oven. Use tongs to carefully remove foil, scraping all the gravy onto the meat. Discard foil.

  7. Let the meat sit in the pan and on the counter for an hour. Slice against the grain and put into a large storage container, pouring gravy over the meat. Store in fridge overnight.

  8. The next day, remove from fridge and let meat sit on the counter for one hour. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Remove from storage container and return to roasting pan with all the gravy. Tent with foil and cook for 1 hour. Serve hot.