Brisket is a great cut of meat for your holiday dinner, but what do you do if you’re not hosting your family dinner on Christmas Eve?
Or maybe you would like to make some restaurant-style brisket for a family dinner or lunch.
If that’s the case, then it’s time to look at the best meat replacement options.
These meat cuts provide a similar flavor and texture to brisket, but they can be cooked in a fraction of the time, and some taste better than the original.
The following are some of the best substitutes for briskets that you can use for your holiday dinner.
What is Brisket?
The brisket is meat from a cow at the pectoral muscle or the lower breast.
Since this is a tough cut because of too many connective tissues, it should be cooked using a slow or low cooking method.
Brisket may be a large cut of the meat, sometimes called packer brisket, and it can weigh around 14 pounds.
It has two muscles that will overlap: the first cut or the flat, which is a thinner part with point, the deckle point, or the second cut, which is a fattier and thicker section of a brisket.
If you want to cook brisket, you should start by deciding how you want to cook it before deciding on the part to buy.
The large cut of brisket looks larger, and it is uniform in its shape.
It does have a thin layer of fat on one side, and it is ideal if you want to cook it in braising and oven because it is leaner.
It is also easy to slice it up. The second part does not have a uniform shape, but it is full of fat.
This is the ideal part if you want to smoke it because it cannot dry out.
5 Best Substitutes for Brisket
1 – Chuck Roast
This type of meat came to be called family meat since it is easy to serve many people.
It will cook well, and it has many properties of briskets.
What makes it different from the brisket is that the chuck will be gotten from the neck and the shoulder, and it will not cost too much.
It should be roasted on the two sides; you can add the tomato paste, garlic, and floor with some red wine or mix.
The mix should include garlic powder, butter, vinegar, black pepper, lemon juice, paprika, and maple syrup.
The chuck should be left to roast for up to 3 hours and become tender; it should be marinated first.
Vinegar and wine are used to tenderize the meat while the spice improves the flavor for an entire cut.
2 – Short Ribs
It is among the brisket replacement, and it offers the juiciest option for replacing the brisket.
Put the short ribs in the pan and fry them.
Add onion powder, black pepper, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, chopped onions, red chilies, brown sugar, cayenne, cloves of garlic, and some water into a cast iron pot.
Mix everything in the iron pot and cook for up to 3 hours to be tender.
The results will be close to that of the beef brisket, and you may eat it on their own, or you can use it in a sandwich to have a different flavor.
3 – Roast Pork
You may turn to pork if you want to substitute for brisket.
The cuts are large to serve many people, and they work well with different sauces.
The best cuts are Boston butts, pork sirloin roast, loin roast, rib roast, pork tenderloin, and blade roast.
When you roast meat in a tray, it should be seasoned with salt and pepper, and you can fry it on the two sides to develop its color.
The spices you may use are roasting sauce, beef bouillon, honey, celery, apple cider vinegar, pepper, and salt.
4 – Lamb Roast
Lamb meat is not the choice of many people, but some love it.
You can find different cuts that will make the best roast and can be used if you cannot find briskets.
Some cuts are expensive, while others are flavorful.
Lamb is the same as mutton, and it does have a stronger flavor.
The outer parts have to be cleaned well before it gets roasted.
It is recommended to use enough smoked paprika, olive oil, red wine, and rosemary while roasting it.
Lamb will have to roast for many hours, so you should start to roast it when it is still early.
The entire leg lamb is ideal for serving at least five people, but you should have enough of the side dishes, and you can serve dessert after some time.
5 – Poultry Thighs
Even if the poultry may not be the exciting meat that you can find at the market, it is the easiest to cook it.
Regardless of the type of dinner you want to cook, the tights will be tender compared to the red meat.
The thighs are similar to the leg meat that can be failed if it is not cooked well.
You will need to use poultry spices like rosemary, garlic, brown sugar, and lemon juice.
You should mix everything before you roast it.
The best time for roasting is between two hours; this may also depend on the size of the thighs.
The best combination is serving poultry with rice and gravy, but you can also have it with green vegetables or even sweet potatoes.
You will not regret having roasted pork at home if you do it well.
Conclusion
Even if you can find many recipes that require the use of briskets, you have to remember that briskets are expensive, and they will require enough time to prepare and cook.
You can turn to the substitutes if you do not have enough time to prepare for the brisket, and you can do it more quickly.
All of these substitutes will be more affordable, and they will taste delicious.
These substitutes are not difficult to prepare if you know what goes into them before turning on the oven/pressure cooker.
The 5 Best Substitutes for Brisket
Ingredients
- Chuck Roast
- Short Ribs
- Roast Pork
- Lamb Roast
- Poultry Thighs
Instructions
- Choose your preferred substitute from the list of options.
- Organize all of your ingredients.
- Follow the substitution ratio to determine how much is required in your recipe.
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