Slow Cooker Beef Brisket Sliders

 

It's almost Super Bowl Sunday, so if you're having a crowd for the big game, it's time to start planning. If you're going to smoke a brisket to make sliders, you've got to allow about 16 hours to make that happen. But if you switch from your smoker to your slow cooker, you can shave a good 10 hours off of your prep time...and make the whole process a lot less labor intensive.

When the word "sliders" gets mentioned, it conjures up White Castle burgers...a little wisp of beef on a tiny bun. While this recipe still uses a somewhat tiny bun, I like to stack each bun with about 5-ounces of sliced brisket. If you follow my lead, this recipe will make roughly 12 well-furnished sliders. But if you would like, you could easily cut the meat to just 2-1/2 ounces per bun and get 24 sliders for a bigger crowd.

For the buns, I will leave you with 2 options. The best slider bun award goes to King's Hawaiian. I recommend either their original sweet rolls or their original sweet slider buns. For second place, I tip my hat to Costco's ciabatta-like Artisan Rolls (made fresh each day back in the Costco bakery and pictured above). The King's Hawaiian rolls are sweet, soft and melt in your mouth. The Artisan Rolls are hard and crusty on the outside and stand up well to a piled-high slider.

INGREDIENTS

3 tablespoons olive oil

Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

One, 4-pound beef brisket

One, 28-ounce can fire roasted crushed tomatoes

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon liquid smoke

12 King's Hawaiian Original Sweet Hawaiian Slider Buns

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Season the brisket with salt and pepper. Sear the brisket for 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a slow cooker.
2. Add the remaining ingredients to the skillet and stir, scraping off any brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Then pour the mixture over the brisket. Cook on high for 6 hours. Then slice the brisket and serve on the slider buns.

Pairing: An ice cold Pilsner

Cooking Without Fire

 

Bistecca alla Fiorentina

Grilling will always be my favorite way of cooking. But here in Minnesota, we only have two seasons: Grilling and Winter. The amount of grilling that gets done in winter is close to zilch. Brutally cold temperatures and knee-high snow makes grilling just too much of an unpleasant experience.

L to R:  My PK 360 charcoal grill, cabinet for
charcoal/wood pellet storage and Camp Chef
pellet smoker hibernating under 18" of snow.

About three years ago, I bought myself a Weber Q electric grill. It was small enough that I could keep it just outside the kitchen sliding door and under the eaves. That didn't work out because the grill never got hot enough to sear a steak. And without a way to add smoke, I was not grilling... all I was doing was "cooking" outdoors.

Two years ago, I bought Weber Smokey Joe. It was a small, 18" charcoal grill that, again, I could fit right outside my kitchen door. That got me the heat and the ability to add oak chunks to really grill up great steaks. But alas, it became quite challenging to use a charcoal chimney with such a small grill. I had an errant coal miss the kettle and it burned some deck boards. And the grilling surface was so small that there was really no way to build a two-zone fire. So I abandoned that way of cooking as well.

 

In September of 2022, Ninja announced an all new outdoor electric grill. The Ninja Woodfire Grill had 7 different cooking functions.....but of special interest to me was the claim that it got hot enough to sear steaks and it had a built-in pellet hopper to infuse your meat with smoke. I was skeptical, but kept a close watch on the reviews that came in on YouTube. And as they rolled in, I was amazed that the grill was receiving universal praise. It wasn't that it was just okay....it was that this was an awesome little electric grill. So I bought one and it arrived on December 31st.....just in time to for our New Year's Eve dinner.

I wasn't about to give it a weenie challenge, for I had purchased Bistecca alla Fiorentina from my favorite online meat purveyor, Wild Fork. This cut of meat is a 4-pound porterhouse that is 4-fingers thick...perfect for a New Year's Eve dinner with Becky, my BFF Steve and I. A reverse sear would be my cooking method of choice. I would cook it low and slow in smoke until the internal temp hit 125º and then sear it for 2 minutes per side.

This little electric grill performed like a champ. Cooking in a pellet smoker requires the pellets to produce the heat and the smoke. Not so with this grill. The grill surface is heated by electricity and the pellet hamper, which only requires a half cup of pellets, is simply used to produce smoke. This magnificent cut of meat, cooked on this grill, was among the best I have ever tasted. The Ninja Woodfire cooked it to perfection and the smoke flavor was nothing short of astounding.

So thanks to the Ninja Woodfire Grill, Minnesota has just been reduced to a single season. My search for winter's Holy Grail has finally ended and I will be spending the rest of my days grilling whenever I darn well please. "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays this cook from the swift grilling and smoking of his appointed meats."

Wine pairing: Barolo