Traditional Jewish Beef Brisket (In the Oven)
on Apr 07, 2025
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This Traditional Jewish Beef Brisket is rich, flavorful, and slow-roasted in the oven to absolute perfection. You can serve this brisket for any holiday, we specifically love to make this for Shabbat, Passover, Hanukkah, or Rosh Hashanah, but it has a place at your table for any occasion. Traditionally, Jewish brisket is a braised beef dish, a popular Ashkenazi Jewish food that is oftentimes served during the holidays.
If you’re looking for show-stopping meat mains, try our Prime Rib with Au Jus, or Red Wine Braised Short Ribs.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This Jewish brisket recipe is infused with flavors like balsamic, red wine, and mushrooms, slow slow-cooked until completely tender. This recipe is special because it’s inspired by the briskets and roasts that my aunt and uncle slow-roasted and it is always with mushrooms! So here is my version inspired by theirs with lots of black pepper and paprika to season.
- Fork-tender and juicy: By slow-cooking the brisket in a delicious and fragrant sauce, the meat stays extremely moist and falls apart tender.
- Perfect for a crowd: This recipe can feed a large group of people, making this a great option to set it and forget it, and then serve for a large party.
- Minimal hands-on cooking: While you need to wait for the brisket to cook in the oven, the actual hands-on cooking time is minimal, just some seasoning and chopping and that’s it!
- Make-ahead friendly: You can make this brisket ahead a day or two, and then just slice and warm it when you’re ready to serve It also makes great leftovers.
Recipe Ingredients
Below are the ingredients you need to make this recipe, including all our tips and substitutions.
For the brisket: We are using beef brisket for this recipe, and then seasoned with kosher salt, black pepper, and paprika.
Aromatics and vegetables: For this brisket recipe, we love using cipollini onions (if we can find them), they are very sweet and get jammy and caramelized when slow-roasted! But, you can use pearl onions as a substitute, or yellow onions. Also for vegetables we’ve added, baby bella mushrooms, as well as garlic cloves for aromatics.
Braising liquid: The braising liquid is composed of brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, red wine, and high-quality beef broth. The brown sugar adds some nice sweetness, and the balsamic adds tang and richness.
The full list of ingredients with exact quantities can be found on the recipe card below.
Tips and Substitutions
- If you want to swap the wine, add a dash or two more of balsamic vinegar, and more broth.
- Make your brisket ahead of time: If you are preparing your brisket ahead of time, make it from start to finish, and store it in the fridge, covered. When it’s ready to serve, slice it first (will be easy to cut sharper, cleaner cuts), then warm it in the oven.
- Opt to dry brine: If you want to prepare a day ahead, season your brisket with the salt, pepper, and paprika seasoning, and store in the fridge uncovered to allow the brisket to dry out and all the seasonings to get into the brisket. This also results in a more tender brisket! But, this is definitely optional.
- Add-Ons: You can add any of your favorite vegetables to this recipe, such as carrots, or parsnips. While we have added potatoes, sometimes it does tend to soak up all that amazing juice, so I don’t recommend it, personally. I would suggest serving with Crispy Fried Potatoes, or Creme Fraiche Mashed Potatoes.
- Slow-Cooker: If you want to make this Jewish brisket in the slow cooker, repeat the same steps, ensuring that you’re still able to sear the brisket first, still. You will need to just adjust the time accordingly, most likely in the 6 to 7 hours, instead, of flipping halfway.
How to Make Jewish Beef Brisket
Step 1: Preheat your oven to 300°F. Season the brisket with salt, pepper, and paprika, or dry brine (see note). Let it stand at room temperature. Sear the brisket with oil in a large pot and remove it.
Step 2: Add new oil, and saute your onions, mushrooms, and garlic until fragrant. Deglaze with balsamic, brown sugar, and red wine. Add broth and bring to a simmer.
Step 3: Return the brisket to the pot, cover, and transfer to the oven for 4 hours. At the last 30 minutes, increase the heat to 300°F, and continue cooking uncovered for about 20 to 30 minutes.
Step 4: Transfer the brisket to a cutting board, and slice against the grain. Transfer to a platter, and pour over all the sauce from the pot. Finish with chopped parsley.
The full detailed instructions can be found on the recipe card below.
Serving Recommendations
Looking for some pairing ideas for this Jewish brisket? Here are a few good ones to choose from.
- For the perfect Passover pairing: Matzo Pizza with Parmesan and Lemon Zest, or Crispy Fried Potatoes. Don’t forget Matzo Ball Soup!
- For a Passover Dessert, try out Flourless Chocolate Cake with Salted Ganache or Easy Salted Chocolate Matzo Toffee.
- Sides: Honey and Sumac Roasted Carrots with Ricotta or Creme Fraiche Mashed Potatoes are great options.
- Salads: Keep it simple with our Radicchio Salad with Chives and Hazelnuts.
Jewish Beef Brisket FAQs
Jewish brisket is a popular dish of braised beef, usually a cut of brisket, oftentimes served for the Jewish holidays.
Both Jewish and BBQ brisket use the same cut of beef, however, it is the method that is different. Usually Jewish brisket is braised and slow-cooked in a sauce, and BBQ brisket is smoked, still very tender, but a different method.
It is called “brisket” which comes from the chest, or breast area of the cow. We tend to purchase the most marbled cut we can find, and one that is thicker, rather than longer and thinner in inches.
We love to use a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven. But a roasting pan will also work, just ensure that it is deep enough for the liquid. Whatever will fit the brisket comfortably!
More Meat Recipes
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Traditional Jewish Beef Brisket (In the Oven)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons paprika powder
- 2 tablespoons freshly cracked peppercorns
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 3 1/2 to 4 pounds brisket
- 2 tablespoons neutral oil
- 2 cups cippolini onions or pearl onions, sub with 2 small yellow onions or 1 large onion
- 16 ounce baby bella mushrooms
- 6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 6 cups beef broth
- Garnish with finely chopped parsley
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 300°F. In a small bowl, combine paprika, pepper, and salt, to create the rub for the brisket. Pour over all sides of the brisket to let the dry rub set in, for at least 20 minutes at room temperature before the next step.
- In the meantime, peel your onions. If you are using cipollini or pearl onions, peel them and leave them whole. If you are using a yellow onion, finely mince. Slice your mushrooms into quarters.
- In a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot with a lid (see slow cooker instructions in the notes), drizzle 1 tablespoon of the neutral oil until the pan is hot over medium-high heat. Sear your brisket on all sides, for about 10 to 15 minutes with the skin side down first, then flip and repeat. I will sometimes press down with something heavy to ensure it is getting nice and brown on all sides. Transfer the seared brisket to a plate, discarding the oil.
- Add in your remaining neutral oil, and bring the heat to medium-low. Add in your onions and mushroom. Season with salt and pepper. Allow this to saute and bring on a slight brown color, for about 4 to 5 minutes. Then add in your garlic until fragrant.
- Add in the brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, and red wine to deglaze the pan, and reduce the wine by half about 5 to 6 minutes.
- Place the brisket back in the pot, skin side down, and then add in your broth. Do a light mix to just make sure all the flavors and broth are combined and the brisket is submerged. Bring to a gentle simmer for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Transfer the brisket to the oven in the preheated oven, covered, for 3 to 3 ½ hours (depending on the size and thickness of your brisket), flipping the brisket halfway through.
- Towards the last 30 minutes of cooking, bring the oven up to 400°F. Remove the lid carefully, and allow the brisket to finish cooking with the lid off.
- Once the brisket is finished and very tender, remove it from the oven and pot, and transfer it to a cutting board to rest for at least 10 minutes.
- Slice against the grain with a sharp knife to your desired thickness.
- To plate, transfer your sliced brisket to a large platter (but not a plate or else the juices will spill over!), and pour over the juices with the mushrooms and onions from the pot. Finish with finely chopped parsley.
Video
Notes
- If you want to swap the wine, add a dash or two more of balsamic vinegar, and more broth.
- Make your brisket ahead of time: If you are preparing your brisket ahead of time, make it from start to finish, and store it in the fridge, covered. When it’s ready to serve, slice it first (will be easy to cut sharper, cleaner cuts), then warm it in the oven.
- Opt to dry brine: If you want to prepare a day ahead, season your brisket with the salt, pepper, and paprika seasoning, and store in the fridge uncovered to allow the brisket to dry out and all the seasonings to get into the brisket. This also results in a more tender brisket! But, this is definitely optional.
- Slow-Cooker: If you want to make this Jewish brisket in the slow cooker, repeat the same steps, ensuring that you’re still able to sear the brisket first, still. You will need to just adjust the time accordingly, most likely in the 6 to 7 hours, instead, of flipping halfway.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
An aboslutely delicious brisket for any holidays! It has so much flavor going on, and is a show-stopping main. I hope you enjoy!!