Brisket Pizza

Like I mentioned in the original Brisketfest post, the idea for Brisketfest stemmed from an episode of Man Vs. Food where Adam had a brisket pizza in San Antonio. So of course a brisket pizza needed to be one of the things I made with some of the leftovers. The husband's dad came to visit for some hockey playoff games, so we had brisket pizza while he was here. I didn't really have a set recipe in mind, but I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Brisket Pizza

1 recipe homemade pizza crust
2 cups barbecue sauce (I used my leftover Rick Bayless barbecue sauce)
shredded brisket
shredded mozzarella or pizza blend cheese

Prepare pizza dough according to recipe. Top with barbecue sauce spread evenly over crust. Spread shredded brisket on top of the sauce, covering completely. Top with cheese. Bake at 450 for approximately 15 minutes or until crust is golden and cheese is melted.

*****

The only thing I think I'd change would be to mix a bit of barbecue sauce into the meat, but everyone else thought it was fine as it was. This was a great new pizza and like the brisket tostadas, something I'd make again without hesitation if I had leftover brisket!!

Brisket Tostadas

Tap...tap...tap...is this thing on?? I'm back! Did you miss me? Are you still there? The last couple weeks have been crazy with house stuff. I think I've mentioned we're trying to find a new house. Last week I had a minor breakdown that we're never going to find one and would forever be stuck living in our what-used-to-be-nice-but-is-now-ghetto neighborhood. The boys and I went out with our realtor one day last week (after my breakdown) and ended up finding a house that I loved. The husband came and saw it, put an offer on it, and it got accepted!! We're just waiting on the signed contract to come back from the seller then we can move forward with the inspection, appraisal, and all that fun home-buying stuff. What a relief! Of course, once that happens then I have to start cleaning out our house and packing, so I'm sure I won't be updating that often once again. Or I will because I hate packing to move and look for any excuse to procrastinate.

Now...finally I'm going to finish up the rest of my Brisketfest posts!! Well, Brisketfest leftovers anyway. But that was part of the reason to have Brisketfest so we could try a bunch of awesome leftovers using the brisket.

As you know, I heart The Pioneer Woman's cooking website. Since I had used her brisket recipe I thought it was only fair to also use her recipe for Brisket Tostadas. She does a much better job of laying it all out and taking pictures so I'm just going to link to her post:

Pioneer Woman's Brisket Tostadas

I didn't change it up a whole lot, although I bought tostada shells instead of making my own, and I only did two shells per tostada instead of three. I had some leftover Trader Joe's enchilada sauce in the fridge, so I used that instead of the El Pato.

These were so good!! I love tostadas, but I usually just have them with beans. I really liked the addition of the brisket meat. I would definitely make these again, assuming I have leftover brisket again at some point!





I'm soooo wishing I had stuff on hand to make tostadas!!

Brisketfest 2010

Recently the husband and I were watching Man Vs. Food on the Travel Channel and saw an episode where Adam was in San Antonio (interestingly enough that's where my in-laws live) and ate a brisket pizza. We were both intrigued and set about trying to find a brisket, which aren't very easy to come by in Phoenix. My mom was in Kansas City recently and found brisket at Costco and bought one and brought it home on the plane. The idea of Brisketfest was born. Our friend Steve used to work in a BBQ joint in Texas and makes an amazing brisket. he and I used to work together, and he'd occasionally bring a brisket in to work to share with all of us, and it was so freakin' good. We brought Steve into the Brisketfest mix, and he ended up buying a nine pound Wagyu Beef brisket. It's basically a kobe beef brisket. It was decided that he would smoke his, and I'd cook the one my mom got, and we'd all feast here.

I've never cooked a brisket before, but I remembered that Pioneer Woman had a recipe on her website, so I decided that's the one I'd make. It was really easy which I liked since I was already a little intimidated going up against Steve the BBQ-master!

Instead of pasting PW's recipe, I'll just give you the link to her page on it. Then you can see all her awesome pictures, too.

Pioneer Woman's Brisket

It was really good, although I was a bit concerned when I took the pan out of the fridge to put it in the oven and discovered the marindade was gelatinous which kind of grossed me out. Who am I kidding...it really grossed me out. But I put it in the oven anyway, and was so pleased with the results!! I think I calculated mine would need roughly three hours, but it ended up needing quite a bit more, I'd say it was at least 30 or 40 minutes until it was fork tender and separated easily.

I don't think it really compared to Steve's, but for my first attempt it was pretty darn good. I also made some Rick Bayless recipes to go along with the brisket, but thsoe will be in their own posts. Did you know his family owned a barbecue joint while he was growing up? What can't that man do?! Back to brisket, I don't know what Steve did to his brisket but it was pretty darn amazing. Of course his could have had a lot to do with the grade of meat he was using.

Brisketfest ended up being quite the feast. Two briskets, homemade barbecue sauce, homemade baked beans, cornbread, potato salad, coleslaw, and of course Shiner Bock beer in honor of our Texas dinner. My mom made the potato salad (red potatoes, ranch dressing, and bacon...yum!) and coleslaw (it had pineapple in it...I need to get the recipe from her because it was really good and a cool twist on coleslaw).

Brisket in its marinade:


See what I mean about gelatinous? Kind of gross.


Steve's brisket (I wish I could stick a fork in my computer screen and eat some more of it):


My brisket:


My Brisketfest 2010 plate: