Slow Cooker Brisket & Gravy. Introducing you to delicious, tender, slow cooker brisket roast served with baby potatoes and a red onion gravy with hidden veggies.
Perfect for lazy Sunday roast dinners using the slow cooker. Just dump it in the slow cooker and come back later at dinner time.
Table of Contents
Slow Cooker Brisket
One of my favourite slow cooker roast beef recipes that the Milner house love is slow cooker topside beef.
We will serve it with air fryer Yorkshire puddings, some air fryer baby potatoes that are cooked first in the slow cooker and of course a yummy beef gravy.
It just shouts out Sunday roast dinner in the slow cooker and is incredibly simple.
But I had an idea.
What if we could recreate our slow cooker topside but with brisket instead?
Use a brisket joint instead of topside, see how it compares and if the rest of the Milner family likes it as much as I do.
Well, it was a roaring success and we all tucked into the most amazing slow cooker brisket.
We also all agreed it was the best part of our kitchen gadgets brisket theme. Earlier in the week we had done instant pot beef brisket, air fryer brisket and instant pot leftover brisket soup.
Not that the other brisket recipes were not fantastic, but because of how tender the slow cooker makes brisket and how amazing the depth of flavour is.
Beef Brisket Slow Cooker UK
I made this most amazing brisket recipe for our UK & Aussie readers. Not that I don’t love our readers from the rest of the world, as I think you are all amazing, but because of the style of cooking.
You see, if I mention Yorkshire puddings to an American, they look at me like I am talking Chinese to them. I also notice whenever I see American recipes for Yorkshire puddings it looks like a flat pancake.
But if you are outside of the UK and don’t want to do the British Yorkshire thing, then you can simply cook our beef brisket slow cooker recipe, then choose your own favourite sides.
Best Way To Cook Beef Brisket Joint?
The best way to cook a beef brisket joint is in the slow cooker. A slow cooker brisket roast is incredibly tender, is juicy and it keeps the seasoning on it for depth of flavour.
Plus, you can load it into the slow cooker in the morning and come Sunday lunch time you have perfectly cooked brisket.
Though for me, it’s the brisket gravy that really makes the slow cooker version stand out. Because the juices from the brisket are dripping into the slow cooker and can be reserved for the beef gravy and for future stock that you can load into your freezer.
Beef Brisket Slow Cooker Ingredients
Brisket – We used a 900g/2lb brisket joint in this recipe. You can of course go bigger. I also recommend a rolled one with string, as it will make it easier to cook. Then you can remove the string just before slicing.
Carrots – I love carrots as a hidden veggie for my gravy. You can swap carrots for swede, butternut squash or another favourite root veggie.
Onion – We start this recipe with sautéed onion with butter. It really kickstarts the flavour and everything tastes better with butter, right?
Potatoes – We recommend using baby potatoes because they are the easiest to prep. Go with those bags of baby potatoes that are already prepped and you can load them straight into the slow cooker.
Stock – Whilst you can’t cook frozen meat in the slow cooker, you can cook frozen beef stock in there. That is because it defrosts incredibly quick and mixes in with the brisket juices. Though of course, you can use thawed stock if you prefer.
Seasoning – For seasoning we used salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, and basil. You can use the same or mix it up a bit.
Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this slow cooker brisket recipe, it has just been our Crockpot. We have this one and it does an amazing job and is also ideal for sauteing your onion first.
How To Cook Beef Brisket In Slow Cooker?
- Sauté. Start by peeling and dicing your red onion and loading it into the slow cooker with the butter and garlic and sauteing it. Whilst the slow cooker is sauteing you can use this time to peel and dice your carrots, as it takes mine a while to warm up!
- Dump. Add in potatoes and carrots and season and mix. Then make a gap for your seasoned brisket and frozen stock cube.
- Cook. Slow cook until you have tender beef brisket and fork soft baby potatoes.
- Gravy. Make the gravy using your blender as your potatoes air fry and your beef rests.
- Serve. Carve the brisket and then serve everything together. If you are like me, then I recommend Yorkshire puddings via the air fryer and serving the beef inside a giant Yorkshire pudding.
How To Make Brisket Tender In Slow Cooker?
You will note, that when cooking a beef brisket or a pork leg joint, or similar, there is no need to add liquid. This is because the slow cooker meats produce their own liquid and don’t need it.
But you do need it to make the meat tender.
For example, in our slow cooker pork leg joint, we recommend using either apple juice or apple cider to make it tender.
And in this brisket, we are adding butter and frozen beef stock to make it tender.
How Long To Cook Brisket In Slow Cooker?
I recommend four hours on high for cooking brisket in the slow cooker. Any longer, and you are likely to have pulled brisket rather than sliced brisket.
Though it depends whether you are making brisket to serve as a roast dinner, or into sandwiches as an alternative to our slow cooker Asian pulled pork.
Alternatively, if you plan to be out, you can swap 4 hours on high to 7 hours on low.
Brisket Gravy
Let’s talk the brisket gravy, shall we?
My brisket gravy is the most simple gravy you will ever make and you can throw away the bisto gravy granules right now!
What you do is remove the brisket and the potatoes from the slow cooker. To save time it will be when the potatoes are in the air fryer and the roast brisket is resting.
We then drain the liquid and pour it into a blender (we use this soup maker with a powerful blender) and then add a little of the carrots, a bit at a time until it is the consistency of beef gravy.
Then once the beef has rested and been sliced, we add a couple of slices to the blender, and a little extra salt and pepper.
We then blend and have delicious brisket gravy.
The flavour from the extra brisket used as well as the stock and the carrots are amazing, and I could never go back to gravy granules again.
Making A Brisket Meal
What I love about using the slow cooker, is making a one pot dinner. It seems such a waste of the slow cooker, just to use it to make a brisket roast. I want the whole brisket meal!
To make the full Sunday roast with brisket I recommend the following:
- Adding a bag of baby potatoes to the slow cooker – Once they are cooked when the brisket is cooked, you can toss them in oil and seasonings and air fry them. They will now be crispy like roast potatoes, but for a lot less calories.
- Add carrots to the slow cooker – These will be the hidden veggies in your beef gravy. If you have kids that hate veggies, then you can do this trick with any root vegetable. Then just load into the blender when done.
- Air fry some Yorkshire puddings – I am a huge fan of Yorkshire puddings (can’t take Yorkshire out of the girl!) and will use the giant Yorkshires in the air fryer and then serve the brisket and gravy and potatoes inside of the Yorkshire.
You could also add extra veggies that you plan on serving with the dinner, or have it how we have done.
What To Eat With Brisket?
If you don’t do Yorkshire puddings or want something extra to eat with brisket here are a few more brisket recipe suggestions:
- Air Fryer Roast Potatoes
- Air Fryer Roasted Carrots
- Ninja Foodi Mashed Potatoes
- Instant Pot Cauliflower Cheese
- Instant Pot Cabbage
Slow Cooker Brisket & Gravy
Ingredients
Kitchen Gadgets:
Slow Cooker Brisket Ingredients:
- 900 g Brisket Joint
- 2 Small Red Onions
- 3 Large Carrots
- 200 g Bag Baby Potatoes
- 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 Tsp Chopped Garlic
- 2 Tsp Butter
- 2 Tbsp Thyme
- 2 Tbsp Oregano
- 2 Tbsp Basil
- Salt & Pepper
- 4 Giant Yorkshire Puddings optional
Instructions
- Peel and dice your red onion and load it into the slow cooker. Place the slow cooker on the stovetop and add the butter. As it heats up peel and dice your carrots and put the carrots to one side.
- Once the butter has melted and the onion is sautéed, remove the slow cooker from the heat. Add in the carrots and baby potatoes and half the seasonings and mix well. Make a space in the middle for the brisket.
- Score the brisket and smoother it with the other half of seasonings and place in the gap. Add in the frozen beef stock and place the lid on the slow cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 7 hours.
- Check that the potatoes are cooked by pricking with a fork and if tender they are done.
- Put the beef to one side to rest and load the potatoes into a bowl and toss with a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil and season with mixed herbs. Once mixed well load into the air fryer and air fry for 5 minutes at 200c/400f.
- Whilst the potatoes are cooking and the beef is resting, pour the liquid from the slow cooker into the soup maker/blender and blend until smooth. Add in a little of the cooked carrots at a time until you have a thick gravy. Carve your roast brisket. For extra flavour, add a couple of slices to the blender and blend the gravy again and if its not flavoursome enough add in an extra teaspoon of herbs and some extra salt and pepper.
- When the air fryer beeps, air fry your giant Yorkshire puddings for 4 minutes at 200c/400f.
- Serve your brisket inside the Yorkshire pudding, with the potatoes and with the gravy.
Notes
Nutrition
Can’t make it now? Then pin it for later!
Great recipe. The recipe pics really help me with the recipe when using the kitchen gadgets and help make the recipe easy to do. This was so tasty and so delicious.
It was really delicious, this was the first time i have cooked a full roast joint in my slow cooker and could not be happier about how it turned out thank you.
Hi, I dont have frozen stock so how much will I make up in ml or oz please.
Thanks
Hi Debs,
It is a 250 ml block so the same amount of stock made up would be ok 🙂