Brisket au jous for the liquid in chili

[boftx]

Any of you who know me know that any left-over BBQ (I always fix extra just for this) goes into a chili or stew after a day for sandwiches. Usually I'll use beer or water as needed for the liquid, but this time I think I want to try the beef juices from the pan instead.

Thoughts?

[DJ DeSpain]

Not done it, but an interesting question to see how a portion of smoked meat set aside aside to freeze, to save a bit for just this purpose. I make chili in the colder months, so I could thaw the smoked meat for to see how it comes out.

[_John_]

I use the jus from my pork butts when I wrap them, stuff is gold. Scrape off the fat layer and use the rest, but a little of that fat layer with the jus on some green beans or asparagus is awesome.

[Huskee]

I'm thinking it's a great idea. It just may look a little unappetizing seeing congealed fat on the cold stuff not normally seen in chili. But once hot what does it matter.

[CurlingDog]

i've done exactly that boftx ... brisket juice with some leftover chopped all went into my chili recipe. I had used MH's texas BBQ juice recipe which has a lot of similarities to ingredients in my chili, sans the higher levels of chili powder and cumin. the mouthfeel was phenomenal. I have two cups in the freezer that will probably make an appearance for the Denver/Packer evening game next Sunday.

[boftx]

Good to know, thanks!

[Voltron15]

Like CurlingDog I used leftover brisket and brisket juice in the chili I just made this past weekend. I was making MH's Texas Chili Con Carne and replaced half the chuck roast with brisket and replaced about 3/4 cup of the beef broth with the brisket juice. My wife and I thought it was pretty tasty, will be making that again for sure.

[gcdmd]

Remove the fat by skimming or by chilling and scraping it off the juice. Save the fat (brisket gold) for frying or for adding as needed to the chili.

I've never tried this, but you could probably use the fat to make Mongolian fried beef.

http://www.food.com/recipe/p-f-chang...ian-beef-66121

http://norecipes.com/recipe/mongolian-beef/

http://rasamalaysia.com/mongolian-beef-recipe/2/

Taste both the fat and the juice before using them for anything. They can also be used for cooking beans, for example.

[Papa Bob]

I use the au jus always for any thing beef. Freeze it add to beef stock for dip for tri tip samys add it back in the drip pan for next brisket cook than put your burnt ends in it before you put back on the cooker to caramelize, and defiantly into chili

[boftx]

Well, as it turns out my wife's cousin made the chili, not me. It was, shall we say, different than I would have made it. He added about a pound of ground beef and a pound of bacon to it, and a lot of tomato sauce and a can of corn. Not sure what he used for spices but it was gringo chili in my opinion. As for the jour, didn't happen.

But then again, the only ribs he has ever had in his 57 years on this planet until he met me have been grilled, not smoked.

Next time. (And yes, I damn near cried when I saw what he was doing to that beautiful piece of brisket that I had saved for chili. If I had known he was going to do that I would have just made more sandwiches with it.)

[gcdmd]

Come to think of it, you could use the fat to cook Yorkshire pudding and then serve it with the brisket.

[JeffJ]

I've used homemade beef stock in chili in the past. I am not sure that it produced any better results than beer. One thing I like to do is when running the smoker, take one of those 28 ounce cans of whole tomatoes and pour the entire thing into a loaf pan and pop it into the smoker for a couple of hours. It definitely picks up some smoke. Then puree it and then freeze it for when you want to make chili. I'll do 3 loaf pans and use the tomatoes as a base for BBQ sauce as well. I use the smoked and pureed tomatoes to augment the other liquid and I've been happy with the results.

[HC in SC]

I imagine it would be similar to an old Brunswick stew recipe my dad used to make - it called for rendering like a 1/2 lb of pure salt pork into the stew.

It was very, very good but incredibly rich and you could easily hurt yourself if you ate too much.

In the past 10 years or so dad has left out the salt pork from his Brunswick stew although it did lose a little in taste / mouthfeel, it is still jam-up; plus now you can eat a couple of bowls of it and not feel like you ate a whole Carnegie Deli cheesecake - lol.

[JeffJ]

When smoking in a kettle a couple of times I put a couple of beef bones slathered with a little tomato paste, some beef broth base, salt, pepper and water into my drip pan for chuck roast. It produced a nice smokey beefy broth and I think it would go very well in chili. I make simple, weeknight chili several times per year. I make a no hold-barred (make my own chili powder, smoked chuck, etc) pot of chili once per year. This year it's going to be for the Michigan/Ohio State tailgate.