Slow cooker French bistro brisket recipe

Slow cooker brisket is meltingly tender and so delicious you'll want to make it your go-to Sunday roast recipe, but it practically cooks itself in a slow cooker. Serve it with your favourite buttery greens and mash for a French bistro style (or roast potatoes and all the trimmings, if you fancy). You don't need a slow cooker to make this brisket recipe - you can just as easily make it in the oven, you just need to have some patience with it and leave it in for long enough to become perfectly tender and juicy. One of our favourite slow cooker recipes, it's well worth the wait, we promise.

Read our tried and tested reviews of the best slow cookers.

Ingredients

• 1 large onion, finely sliced
• 4 sprigs thyme
• 2kg brisket
• 3tbsp wholegrain mustard
• 1tbsp green peppercorn mustard (we used Maille)
• 200g shallots, peeled
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled
• 200ml warm beef stock
• 200ml Cognac

Method

1. Scatter the sliced onion and most of the thyme over the base of the slow cooker. Rub the brisket with salt and pepper, then the mustards and put on top of the onions then scatter around the shallots and garlic.
2. Pour over the warm stock and Cognac and cover with the lid. Turn the slow cooker to high and leave for 6 hours, until the meat is meltingly tender. Or, if you don't have a slow cooker, heat the oven to 140C, gas 1, put the ingredients in a deep casserole dish, then cover with wet greaseproof paper and pop the lid on.
3. Sprinkle with the remaining thyme and serve with creamy mashed potato, buttery green beans and the cooking sauce.