Spice Up Your Life

Well, I'm off and running with my 2013 resolutions.  Two weekends ago, I had a super productive weekend and knocked out my January cooking and got things shaped up in the den.  For this post, I'll focus on my Homesick Texan recipe.

With L's input, we decided to do the Coffee-Chipotle Oven Brisket and corresponding barbecue sauce.  We happened to have everything on hand to make it, so it just worked out.

Since I am not a proponent of copyright infringement, and because you can find this recipe elsewhere on the internet, I won't detail the recipe here, but I will say that I did have to make a few substitutions.  These are the ingredients I actually ended up using for the rub:

Since we didn't have any ground chipotle, I substituted cayenne pepper and paprika.  I have no idea what Lisa Fain's original recipe tastes like, but L and I both thought what I ended up with was pretty darn good.  I realize that since I changed the recipe slightly, it means I could just write it all out and post it here, but that still seems a little wrong.  And, I'm lazy right now.  A note if you ever opt to make this: the recipe calls for wrapping your brisket in two layers of foil before putting it in the oven.  I did more than that and I'm glad I did.  My roll of foil isn't super wide - it's just the standard width, and it wasn't wide enough in either direction for to have any one layer completely seal it shut, so I ended up with about four layers. 

Also, if you make this, you shouldn't have any apprehension about cooking food in foil.  L is one of those people who is a little hesitant about cooking with foil.  Since this cooks for six hours and then we rested it for another hour or so, I'm sure he'd say we'll probably die of foil toxins being absorbed by the foil if he knew how much foil I'd used.  So if I never post again, now you know why. 

Lisa (the actual homesick Texan and author of the cookbook) recommends putting the meat under the broiler for 5 minutes after you rest it and unwrap it.  I did that and wasn't amazed by the results.  However, the end result of the actual meat was that it was super tender and fell apart when I touched it with my fork.  The flavor was also really good - just enough spice to keep it interesting.  And apparently it smelled good, too.  Heisman was not allowed to have any, but he begged and begged for whatever it was we were eating.  Spicy brisket is not for 5 month-old puppies.

So, the sauce.  The sauce was really easy and we had everything on hand, just not quite enough of the Worcestershire sauce.  So rather than skimp, I just added some Kitchen Bouquet to make up for the missing amount.  Pretty good, but the end flavor definitely has a strong undertone of ketchup-y tang but with a nice kick of spice.  Not bad, just a warning for what the end result is. 

Sorry about all the shadows.  I took one without them, but I just realized it's a little blurry, so it's not actually any better.

Honestly, I think this may become our new go-to recipe until we figure out if we can ever get a smoker that meets our HOA's guidelines.  Definitely easy and tasty.  Great for a cold, rainy weekend meal.