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TL;DR (Quick-Answer Box)
- What it is: A ridonculously succulent, slow-braised beef brisket cooked in a rich liquid of caramelized sweet onions, smashed garlic, apple brandy, and fresh herbs.
- Why you’ll love it: Inspired by French onion soup, this melt-in-your-mouth main course is deeply flavorful, perfect for crowds and celebrations, and even better when prepared a day ahead.
- How to make it: Sear the brisket, caramelize a boatload of onions and garlic, deglaze with Calvados, and oven-braise until tender. Chill overnight, slice across the grain, reheat in sauce.
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Are you Team Tomato when it comes to brisket, especially for the holidays? As in Nach Waxman’s famous sliced brisket recipe? Well, hold on to your yarmulke, cowboy. Let me introduce you to a beloved midcentury flavor: French onion. Cohen heaps mounds and mounds of caramelized sweet onions, apple-y Calvados, and plenty of fresh herbs into this brisket, creating a new classic.
I’ve made this countless times throughout the years. Sometimes, I get a little cheeky and serve it with French onion potato gratin or French onion mac & cheese. (What can I say? You can take the kid out of the 1960s kitsch, but you can’t take the 1960s kitsch out of the kid.) Enjoy.
Chow,
What can you do with leftover brisket?
What can’t you do with leftover brisket? Straight from the author’s mouth—and we couldn’t agree more—Jake Cohen says while everyone else is fighting over the meat, home in on the sauce.
- Save all that braising liquid. It’s packed with those lovely lil’ bits of fallen-apart meat. It’s truly better than any ragù or Sunday gravy you could dream of.
- Simply cook your pasta (rotini is the go-to!) until it’s just al dente, then drain and drop it into a simmering pot of the leftover liquid. Let it reduce until it coats the noodles like buttah!
- If you’re feeling a bit frisky, finish the whole thing off with plenty of freshly grated Parmesan.
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Write a review
If you make this French onion brisket, or any beef dish on LC, consider leaving a review, a star rating, and your best photo in the comments below. I love hearing from you.–David
French Onion Brisket
Ingredients
- 1 (5 to 6 pound) beef brisket, fat cap intact
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
- 5 large (2 1/2 lbs) sweet onions, thinly sliced
- 12 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
- 1 cup Calvados or dry sherry
- 3 cups canned chicken broth or homemade chicken stock
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme
- 4 sprigs fresh sage
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F (165°C).
- Season each side of the brisket with 2 heavy pinches each of salt and pepper. In a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat, warm the oil. Add the brisket to the Dutch oven and sear, turning it occasionally, until golden brown all over, 15 to 20 minutes. Move brisket to a platter.
- Reduce heat to medium, then add the onions and garlic to the Dutch oven. Cook, stirring often, until softened and beginning to caramelize, 20 to 25 minutes.
- Pour in the Calvados or sherry, then stir continuously with a wooden spoon for 1 minute to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the pot.
- Stir in the stock and 2 heavy pinches each of salt and pepper, then return the brisket to the Dutch oven.
- Tie the thyme and sage sprigs together with a small piece of butcher’s twine (tying is optional, but it makes it much easier to remove the herbs after cooking) and nestle the herb bundle in the pot.
- Bring to a simmer, then cover the Dutch oven and move it to the oven. Cook until very tender when pierced with a fork, about 3 1/2 hours.
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely, then refrigerate overnight.
- The next day, skim off and discard any fat, if desired, and discard the herbs. Transfer the brisket to a cutting board and cut it across the grain (perpendicular to the fibers you’ll see running through the brisket) into 1/4-inch (6-mm) thick slices.
- Return the meat to the sauce and heat over medium heat until warmed through.
☞ TESTER TIP: While rewarming the meat, give it a nudge every so often to make sure the onions aren’t burning on the bottom of the Dutch oven.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, then serve.
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Nutrition
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Recipe Testers’ Reviews
Did you know only 68% of the recipes we test make it onto the site? This recipe survived our rigorous blind testing process by multiple home cooks. It earned the Leite’s Culinaria stamp of approval—and the testers’ reviews below prove it.
Making this French onion brisket will transport you through time. For us, it brought back memories of arriving at my grandmother’s house after hours in the car. She’d welcome us into the house and you were greeted by the smell of slow cooking beef, oftentimes a Sunday pot roast, and that seductive smell was the only thing you could think about until dinner. Cooking this took me back to being that little kid at grandma’s house.
It is a testament to why everyone needs to know how to braise: with just a handful of ingredients (ok, maybe a lot more than just a handful of onions) and a few simple steps, it showcases how time can transform something humble into something memorable. It is a pot full of love and comfort, meltingly-tender beef and jammy onions, and was exactly what we needed on this cool September evening. We served it with buttermilk mashed potatoes and sautéed green beans.
When distributing leftovers throughout the neighborhood, one of my neighbors with a long history of brisket making inquired for the recipe to replace theirs. It’s just that good.
Although I have never prepared a brisket, I decided to try my hand at this recipe because we bought a butchered cow this year, and, well, we have brisket now!
Warning: this recipe is a two-day recipe, so keep that in mind when your kitchen gives off a delicious, savory aroma that will leave you wanting (because you can’t eat the brisket until the next day, people!). However, don’t let the time frame scare you, although it’s a lengthy time frame, it isn’t a complicated recipe.
As far as ingredients go, I recommend using real Sherry as opposed to cooking Sherry and homemade broth (if you are using store-bought, grab a low-sodium option, as this recipe is salty enough without all the added sodium in broth). I did not tie the spices with twine, and I found that their flavors were plenty prevalent (but not overpowering) in the finished product. Speaking of the finished product, it was delicious! I served this dish to my family with bread and celery stuffing and green beans, along with iced tea to drink.
Can I use homemade beef stock in this French Onion Brisket Recipe in place of the chicken stock?
Sure, Marj. I think that would work fine.