Over Christmas our furnace went out. In the middle of the night my wife woke me up complaining about the cold. This is nothing out of the ordinary, but once I actually woke up enough I realized even I was chilled – and if I’m cold you KNOW our eight month old daughter is going to be cold.

So – emergency preparations for the night, on the phone with the landlord at seven in the morning, and … wait … 3-5 days before it will be back up? And it’s going to be below 30 degrees all week? While trying to come up with a plan we decided to buy a few space heaters, plastic-sheet the stairs to keep heat on the main floor, and cook. We baked, we fried, and we went to the store to find something to slow roast…

If you weren’t aware I spent most of the 2000s in Texas – and in Texas if you are going to slow roast something it’s going to be brisket. Our kitchen and “emergency bedroom” (aka: the TV room with comfy couches) are connected so this tasty brisket not only was going to make our noses happy but 12 hours in the oven at 200 degrees was the perfect way to warm up the first floor. Here’s what I did:

Ingredients

¼ cup – Chili Powder
1 12 oz – Wheat (or other preferred) beer
3 cloves –crushed garlic
2 tspn – garlic powder
1 ½ tspn dried oregano
1 tspn – onion powder
½ tspn – kosher salt
½ tspn – cinnamon
½ tspn – mustard powder
½ tspn – cayenne pepper
1 to 3 – medium sized onions, sliced
EVOO

Instructions

Combine powdered ingredients well – then mix in crushed garlic.
Slather EVOO all around brisket and spread the spice mix around the brisket evenly on all sides.
Slice onions into ¼” strips and place in the bottom of your baking pan, then place your brisket on top of the onions with the fat cap side up.
Pour your beer of choice into the bottom of the pan. Do not pour directly on the brisket as it will wash off the rub, but ensure it gets all around the meat.
Place foil tightly around the pan – this will seal in the moisture during the cook making the meat moist and tender.
Let sit 3-12 hours in a cool place – refrigerate if for more than 3 hours.
Bake for 60-80 minutes per pound. If possible, bake for 45 minutes per pound covered, than uncover and leave fat cap up for the remaining 15-35 minutes per pound without a cover.
Final temperature should range between 190 and 200 degrees – anything above this and the meat may begin to dry out.

When cooked properly the meat will break apart by hand, but should require some pressure. Sorry I don’t have any pictures of this batch – I’m usually too excited to try my creations to remember the pics. The good news is this was AMAZING – and the furnace was fixed, eventually.