Spicy Asian Brisket

My husband has been working long hours. And the weather here on the East Coast has been awful. Like Hoth Planet awful. Like slice open a Tauntaun, stuff me in there and wake me in the spring awful. Seriously, this morning when everyone went to check out Mr. Groundhog and beg him for a sign of spring, he just stuck his cute little paw out of his cozy little den and flip us and Mother Nature off.

So, between hubby's 15 hour days and the snow, ice, sleet, snow, and more snow I have turned to my favorite instrument in the kitchen: The Crock Pot!!

I love my Crock Pots so much, that I own four of them. A small one for sides and dips. A medium one for appetizers or sides or dips for larger gatherings. A Large one for meals. And the Extra Large One that is actually a BBQ Pit Crock Pot.

The thing about Crock Pots is you can get your dinner done early. You can run errands, go to work, nap, watch tv, read a book....and at dinner time, it's done. And if you have someone in your family, like my husband who gets home late, you can eat at a normal time and keep the dinner warm and ready to go when they come home. It won't dry out or compromise the flavors.

Without further ado, I bring you a new recipe I tried last week. Spicy Asian Brisket. It was so good that my son asked for Four helpings. Three at our normal dinner time, then a fourth when hubby came home. Spicy Asian Brisket was my son's bedtime snack. He chose that over cookies, that is how much he liked it.

Here we go:

I started out dicing an onion and tossing it into a bowl.



I added whatever opened bottle of BBQ sauce I had lying around in the fridge.




I would say it was about a half of bottle. Next time I'm going to make my own BBQ sauce for this. I do make an awesome BBQ sauce and I think it will really give this recipe a little personal touch. So, if you make your own BBQ sauce, go for it. Otherwise, use your favorite bottled sauce.

Then, whatever opened bottle of teriyaki I had. This was a great clean out the fridge recipe.



Next was a new ingredient I had never tried before. I was a little hesitant, but I have seen many of the cheflebraties on tv use it, and I do love to try something new.


When I opened the can, I was like..."Huh?" It looked weird. It smelled good though. Smokey and spicy.


It's chipotles in adobo sauce. I ran them through my mini-chopper to give them a quick puree. This really released the spicy/smokey scent and I began to get excited about using it.

Everything went into the bowl and I whisked it all together. Then, I took a large brisket (make sure it's NOT a corned beef brisket. Just a good old plain brisket for this), and I placed it in my Extra Large BBQ Pit Crock Pot. I poured the onion/BBQ/teriyaki/adobo sauce all over the top.


See:



Isn't this a lovely Crock Pot. On Christmas Eve, this baby fits TWO large briskets. On Super Bowl Sunday, you can load this fella up with pounds of wings. I have slow cooked a Cuban flavored large pork roast in it. I. Love. This. Crock. Pot.

Moving on....


I closed the lid and let it slow cook on high for hours and hours. My brisket was still frozen, so I had it on high setting. If you try this recipe and your meat is thawed, then the lower setting would be best.



In the end, I had this:


Since I'm trying to eat healthy for the new year (I haven't lost my Healthy and Wealthy inspiration motto yet!!), I had my slices of brisket over a bed of stir fried sugar-snap peas with garlic.

It was so good. So filling. The sauce gave the brisket just the right amount of heat and kick. Wasn't too overpowering. And the smokiness made it taste as if it had been slowly cooked over low smoke outdoors.

And I can't wait to cook with chipotles in adobo sauce again.