I Deserve a Gold Star (Slow Cooker Attempt #2)

For making a REAL, full on dinner!

Like, not just a main dish, and throwing together a salad, or just eating that one main dish by itself. No, this dinner had 3 whole dishes, and the best part? We got 6 days of dinner out of the main course: Jack Daniels Beef Brisket!

This was my second attempt at using our new slow cooker, and I had much better results than the first time. I think from these two tries, I can conclude that our slow cooker runs a bit warmer than some, so I need to err on the low side of the cooking times listed in my cook book.

The recipe was so easy, just 5 ingredients that you basically just throw in the cooker!


Pour 1 cup of the Jack Daniels BBQ sauce in the bottom, then layer a medium onion cut into wedges, and beef bouillon cubes. The recipe called for 3 bouillon cubes, but the slab of brisket I found was 4.87 lbs, as opposed to the 3-4 lbs the recipe called for, so I used an extra one. Plus I didn't want to end up with another flavorless slow cooker meal like last time!


Then you throw the brisket on top of the onions, and place bay leaves on top. Again, I used 1 extra because of the oversized chunk of meat. And by the way, these were fresh bay leaves! I don't think I had bay leaves in my collection of 7 year old spices, but I bought a new container at the store anyway.


After cooking for 6 1/2 hours (recipe recommended 6 1/2 to 8 1/2 with a 3 to 4 lb brisket), it was done! And a bit too juicy. At this point the recipe says to remove the meat, tear it up a bit, add another cup of the BBQ sauce to it, and let it cook for an additional half hour.


But with all this juice, I thought it was a bit much, so I took about half of it out before adding the additional BBQ sauce.


After shredding the brisket, putting it back in the cooker, and adding the BBQ sauce, I just stirred it and let it sit on the Warm setting for about 20 minutes. The meat was done, and I didn't want to get into an over-cooked situation again, so the extra cooking time in the recipe was unnecessary. And look, all ready to eat, along with fresh baked corn bread muffins and cheesy broccoli (the broccoli was frozen, but still!).


When the hubs came out in to the kitchen to see my nicely prepared and presented meal, his comment was, "Smells good, but the platter is a little unnecessary." Uh, duh!

But pretty kitchen things make me happier about doing the cooking, which I still don't really enjoy, but am trying to.