Shirley J Wednesday - BBQ Brisket and BBQ Sauce Buffet

My family gets together once a month for a big meal. We've been doing this for almost ten years. It's a blast.

You see, I am the sixth of seven children. Most my siblings are married and live near and have kids. Yes, I've got loads of adorable nieces and nephews.

Each month a different couple is in charge of the meal. Adam and I had the month of January and we decided to go for some bbq. We always try to go with a theme and have a lot of fun. In the past we've done "A Taste of Italy", "Stir Fry Night" and some other fun theme names my brothers tease me about. Seeing how my pantry is loaded with Shirley J and the fact that we wanted to save some money...we opted to use some Shirley J products. (Yes, we were feeding more than 30 people...it can get expensive.)

We made BBQ Brisket and had a buffet of bbq sauces everyone could pick from! One of my favorite (probably in the top 3) Shirley J products is our BBQ Sauce Mix. This just-add-water mix is perfect for making any type of sauce and makes an awesome rub. I love it cause you just keep it in your cupboard and make any flavor of bbq sauce. (beats buying a gazillion flavors of bbq sauce and crowding your fridge...)

Adam took care of the brisket and I let my imagination go wild with the bbq sauces. My parents and siblings took care of sides and dessert.

Here's the menu:
Shirley J BBQ Brisket

BBQ Sauces:
*Shirley J BBQ Sauce (Shirley J Mix and water)
*Cranberry Jalapeno BBQ Sauce (Shirley J BBQ Sauce Mix, jalapeno cranberry sauce I made up)
*Pero [faux-coffee] BBQ Sauce (Shirley J BBQ Sauce Mix, Pero with water)
*Tomato BBQ Sauce (Shirley J BBQ Sauce Mix, water, ketchup)
*Rootbeer BBQ Sauce (Shirley J BBQ Sauce, rootbeer extract and water)
*Chocolate BBQ Sauce (Choffy with water, Melted Bittersweet Amano Chocolate)

Kaiser Rolls
Salad
Coleslaw
Fruit
Cranberry & Cream Cheese Dip with Crackers
Mom's Texas Sheet Cake (which I swear I'll post soon!)



I wish I could say I had exact recipes for all the sauces, but I don't, I really was just messing around with what I had in my fridge and pantry. That's what's cool about this mix. You can just play around. Crazy enough... like days later, our corporate chef, Brian came out with 11 new bbq sauce recipes. You can grab those bbq sauce recipes here! (My faves are the Asian and molasses ones)



The favorite of the night was the cranberry jalapeno and regular. Most my siblings and their kids had fun with the chocolate bbq sauce, but felt they couldn't just have it by itself...so they would put the tomato or regular with it. Oh and I should mention the brisket was awesome...tender and juicy and so easy!


Thankfully I do have a recipe for the BBQ Brisket. Enjoy!


Shirley J BBQ Brisket
via Shirley J Web site and October 2009 Catalog

Brisket
1/2 c. Shirley J BBQ Sauce Mix
4-5 lbs beef brisket
5 Roma tomatoes (diced)

Sauce
1 1/2 c. Shirley J BBQ Sauce Mix
3 cups water

Directions:
Brown the brisket in a heavy skillet until the meat has been seared on all sides. Next rub the brisket with BBQ Sauce Mix, making sure to cover the entire surface of the meat. In a roasting pan, put the tomatoes on the bottom and place the brisket on top with the fat side up.

Cover with foil and bake a 300*F for 6 hours or until tender. Remove foil for the last hour of cooking. Remove the brisket and cut against the grain of the meat into 1/4 inch slices or may be shredded. Serve with BBQ sauce on the side.

Sauce: Mix the water and Shirley J BBQ Sauce Mix together and bring to a simmer.


***Note if you've purchased Shirley J BBQ Sauce Mix it is different than Shirley J Slow Cooker and Dutch Oven BBQ***