Slow Cooker BBQ Brisket with Sticky Glaze
Spice-rubbed brisket slow-cooked in homemade barbecue sauce, then glazed with the reduced sauce in a hot oven until sticky.

A smoky-sweet spice rub and a tangy homemade barbecue sauce do the flavour work, while the slow cooker turns a whole brisket meltingly tender. The cooking liquid is reduced to a thick glaze and brushed on in layers as the beef finishes in a hot oven, giving it a sticky, caramelised crust. Slice it thin and pile it onto rolls or plates.

Slow Cooker BBQ Brisket with Sticky Glaze
Spice-rubbed brisket slow-cooked in homemade barbecue sauce, then glazed with the reduced sauce in a hot oven until sticky.
Ingredients
Tick the ingredients as you go
Brisket
Rub
BBQ sauce
Instructions
- 1
Combine the rub ingredients and pat them all over the brisket. If you have time, refrigerate for anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours (optional).

- 2
Stir the BBQ sauce ingredients together in the slow cooker bowl. Add the brisket, pressing it down into the sauce if necessary.

- 3
Cook on low for 8 hours for a 1.5 kg / 3 lb piece, up to 10 hours for a 2 kg / 4 lb piece.
- 4
Lift the brisket out onto a tray.
- 5
Pour the cooking liquid into a saucepan and simmer over medium-high heat until it reduces to a syrup. It will thicken more as it cools.
- 6
While the sauce reduces, brush the brisket with oil and roast at 200°C / 390°F for 15 minutes, until spotted with brown.
- 7
Take it out, brush generously with sauce and roast for 5 minutes. Brush again and roast for another 5 minutes.

- 8
Give it one last coat of sauce and roast for 5–10 minutes more, until sticky and caramelised.
- 9
Slice thinly against the grain and serve with the leftover sauce.
Tips & tricks
- Equipment: slow cooker, saucepan, roasting tray.
- Beef: any cut suited to slow cooking will work, but brisket holds together best for slicing. Rolled and tied chuck roast is the best alternative. Butcher-cut brisket tends to be thicker than pre-packaged rolled brisket.
- Slow cooker on high: 4.5 hours (1.5 kg) or 5 hours (2 kg).
- Pressure cooker: 1 hr 15 min (1.5 kg) or 1 hr 30 min (2 kg), then natural release, or wait 15 minutes before quick releasing. Electric pressure cookers need 1 cup of water added, and the sauce may need extra reducing.
- Smaller pieces (800 g–1 kg): 7–8 hours on low. Larger pieces (2.5–3 kg): about 10 hours on low.
- Serving idea: sliders on soft rolls with coleslaw.
- Barbecue finish: oil the grill grates, preheat to medium, brown the brisket on both sides and keep basting until glazed.
- Make ahead: cook the brisket but skip the final roasting. Keep it in the unreduced cooking liquid in the fridge for up to 3 days. To reheat, bake covered at 180°C / 350°F for about 20 minutes, then finish at 200°C / 390°F as in the method. Warm and reduce the sauce separately.
- Portions: allow about 250 g / 8 oz raw meat per person, which cooks down to roughly 200 g / 6.5 oz.
- Nutrition assumes a 2 kg brisket with some surface fat, 10 servings and all the sauce eaten.
Nutrition (per serving)
- Calories
- 476
- Fat
- 14 g
- Saturated fat
- 5.6 g
- Carbs
- 24 g
- Sugar
- 20 g
- Fiber
- 0.6 g
- Protein
- 66 g
- Sodium
- 756 mg
- Serving size
- 269 g
Nutrition values are estimates calculated from the ingredients and may vary with brands and portion sizes.
Fresh & Fusion · https://freshandfusion.com/recipes/slow-cooker-bbq-brisket-with-sticky-glaze
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