While everyone is dusting off their green sweatpants and gathering Guinness and Whiskey; why not consider taking your corned beef in another direction?
Such as this, my all-time fave way, beer braised (a can of that Guinness works a treat here, but for this batch I used some Glutenberg g-f beer), then oven barbecued corned beef?
The only thing challenging about this recipe is the amount of time it takes (6+ hours).
But, that can be easily split over two days; four hours in the slow cooker one day, and about 2-1/2 hours in a slow oven the next.
INGREDIENTS
Rub:
•1/4 cup brown sugar
•1 tbsp chili powder
•1 tsp black pepper
•1/2 tsp Aleppo pepper
•1/2 tsp garlic powder
•1/2 tsp onion powder
•1/2 tsp dry mustard
•1/4 tsp Cayenne
Slow Cooker:
•1 flat cut corned beef (discard any provided seasoning packet)
•1 can Guinness, or your beer of choice
•Bay leaf
Oven:
•Barbecue Sauce*
Stir the rub ingredients together, apply to all sides of your corned beef, and set aside to rest for one hour.
Pour the beer around the sides of the corned beef in your slow cooker, add the bay leaf, then cover and cook on Low for four hours.
Note: if you are splitting this over two days, remove the corned beef after four hours, transfer to a covered dish, and stash in the fridge until you are ready to finish.
When you are ready to finish, heat your oven to 250º and line a large baking pan with aluminum foil.
Arrange your corned beef in the center, then pull the foil up and over, sealing the corned beef into a packet.
Note: don’t wrap the corned beef too closely in the packet, leave some head space for steam inside the packet.
Bake the corned beef packet for 90 minutes.=While you are baking the beef, let us consider the barbecue sauce.
*Your fave store bought, or home made sauce will work a treat, but I have been kinda loving combining one twelve ounce jar of my Barbecue Sauce with an eight ounce jar of Pepper Relish.
Simple and tasty.
After 90 minutes, remove the corned beef from the oven, ope the foil packet, and brush with your barbecue sauce of choice.
Return to the oven, uncovered, and bake for another 30 to 40 minutes, basting once or twice with additional sauce, if you like.
Remove from the oven and set aside to rest for ten minutes before slicing.
Serve as you will.
Of course, I am not a fan of boiled cabbage with barbecued corned beef; so, how’s about trying a nice Waldorf Coleslaw instead?
Enjoy.