Cranberry Holiday Beef Brisket (2024)

This cranberry holiday beef brisket is seriously amazing. It’s a lovely dish for the holiday season, Jewish holidays or any time of year you’re feeling festive. A large brisket with fresh cranberries or cranberry jelly is a great recipe for any holiday, special occasion or simply because it’s delicious enough to have any day!

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Literally bursting with incredible flavor, this Christmas brisket recipe makes a perfect holiday meal. Featuring the flavours of garlic, onion, Guinness, herbs, and more, it’s one of the nicest Christmas brisket recipes I’ve tried. Add this savory brisket to your dinner menu and you won’t regret it!

Cranberry Holiday Beef Brisket Ingredients

So what exactly do you need for this Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner beef brisket recipe? First of all you’re going to need the brisket itself.

Choose a flat cut, not a point cut. What’s the difference? Well, a flat cut brisket is thin and long as has a long fat layer on top. It slices more easily than a point cut brisket and the fat layer ensures your brisket dinner will be juicy and moist.

Garlic cloves, onion and shallot also go into this Christmas brisket recipe, along with potatoes. Even more flavour comes from the addition of thyme, rosemary, Worcestershire sauce, and Guinness. With ingredients this delicious, you can be sure your sliced brisket with pan juices is going to be incredible.

How to Make Holiday Brisket

You are going to find this wonderful brisket recipe easy to make. Make sure you’re starting with room temperature brisket so give it half an hour on the countertop before you begin.

Rub some oil over the meat and press some kosher salt, black pepper, garlic and onion powders, dried rosemary and thyme, to it. Coat it evenly on the fat side and lean side.

Next dice half an onion and slice the other half. Heat some olive oil in a pan and add the onions, shallot and garlic. Cook this mixture for a few minutes before adding the cranberry sauce, Worcestershire sauce and Guinness and cooking some more.

If you are looking for other Christmas beef recipes, you might like to try this Holiday Beef Wellington or this Cranberry Cream Cheese Stuffed Flank Steak

This next step in this holiday meal recipe is to preheat the oven and then pour half of the mixture from the pan into a large roasting pan. Add the onions then put the large brisket (fat side facing down) on top.

Next, add the rest of the sauce over the whole brisket then add the potatoes along with some fresh cranberries around the sides. Add some fresh rosemary and thyme also.

Cover with foil and roast in the oven for four hours or until you have tender brisket and fully cooked veggies. Slice with a sharp knife on a cutting board, serve with your favourite side dishes, and enjoy the incredible seasonal flavours in every mouthful. Use a wooden spoon to scrape the tasty brown bits off the bottom of the pan and stir into the sauce.

The fact you can pop this brisket for Christmas dinner into the oven and literally forget all about it for four hours makes it a great idea for Christmas or a dinner party when you have plenty of other things to do as well. It’s literally the perfect main dish for brisket aficionados. Holiday beef dishes are a nice change from turkey or ham.

How Can I Make This in a Crock Pot?

Brisket is full of connective tissue which means it requires a long and slow cooking process to come out tender rather than tough. Because of this, it’s definitely a good candidate for your slow cooker or crockpot. You will love the result when it slow cooks at lower temperatures!

The cooking time for brisket with cranberry sauce if you do it in a crockpot will be roughly nine hours. The exact shape and thickness of the meat determines the exact cooking time, so it might be ready in eight hours or it might take ten.

However, the long, slow cooking process does suit this recipe well so it will come out as the best holiday brisket recipe regardless of whether you choose the oven or the slow cooker.

What Do You Serve with a Christmas Brisket Recipe?

Christmas beef recipes are a great change from turkey or ham. So you’re making this brisket for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner – what are you going to have with it? Well bear in mind it already includes potatoes and onions. Consider pairing this cranberry holiday beef brisket with bacon-wrapped green beans or smoked asparagus. Beef brisket for Thanksgiving is also a great idea and this cranberry brisket is sure to be a holiday favourite.

Cranberry Holiday Beef Brisket FAQs

Cranberry Holiday Beef Brisket Recipe

You simply can’t go wrong with this easy cranberry holiday beef brisket. It’s perfect for a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner and you can cook it in your choice of the oven or crockpot. This cranberry brisket is easy enough for those making it for the first time. A brisket recipe with cranberry sauce is a festive main dish for your holiday menu. .

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