Ridiculously easy brisket

Sometimes a girl just needs some comfort food. Tuesday was one of those nights. I was in Kroger a couple nights ago and found a beef brisket just under three pounds for $5.65. Score! Tuesday night, I tossed it in the slow cooker. This is a modification of a recipe I got from Arthur Gordon in a Jewish cooking class at Williams Sonoma. The recipe given to me called for it to be cooked in the oven with a slightly different preparation.

Slow Cooker Brisket

1 beef brisket, size not so important, just as long as it fits in the crock

1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup A1 steak sauce
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1 packet Lipton onion soup mix
1/2 small can tomato paste
8oz water (better if you substitute beer, but I didn't have any)

Combine sauce ingredients in crock of slow cooker. Stir vigorously with a whisk to combine. Add brisket, turning a couple times to coat well. Cook on high for four hours or low for eight hours, or until tender.

Now, if the brisket is too big to fit in the crock, you can cook this in the oven. In a large baking pan lined with foil for easy clean up (trust me on this), place brisket. Mix ketchup, A1, hoisin, tomato paste and onion soup mix together to make a paste. Slather half over the top (fatty side) of the brisket. Mix the other half with the beer or water and pour around the brisket. Cover with foil and bake at 350 until tender.

Here's the important part, people. Listen up, okay?

DO NOT ADD SALT TO THIS. Seriously.

Did you get that? No salt needed. At all. The onion soup mix is salty. Wicked salty. Saves you a step and a trip to the WakeMed Heart Center.

Arthur Gordon's recipe left out the A1 and the hoisin, but I thought it seemed like fun. It was a good idea.

I would serve this with mashed potatoes and sweet and sour red cabbage. I changed up the red cabbage last night.

1 head red cabbage, sliced thin
1 yellow onion, sliced thin
1 TBSP minced garlic
1 1/2 cups of the liquid from the crock pot
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the cabbage, onion and garlic for 10 minutes. Add liquid, mix well, cover and simmer until tender.

Deelish.