We all know brisket is an icon of barbecue that everyone enjoys a slice of after it’s well-rested off the smoker. What we might not know is what to do with the leftover slices beyond reheating them. Let’s face it, a packer brisket is going to have leftovers for most people unless you’re catering an event.
Sometimes you might have leftover brisket because you’re still learning how to smoke the perfect brisket or you’re trying out a new rub. You don’t want all that brisket to go to waste, so you want to find ways to rehabilitate it.
Rather than relegating yourself to just stealing slices out of the fridge to enjoy cold or reheated or throwing less-than-perfect brisket into the garbage, there are a number of ways to reimagine your leftovers. You need some leftover brisket recipes you can count on. Whether it’s simple and easy entrée or appetizer for weeknights after a busy day or more complex dishes on the days you have time, there’s a recipe that will suit your needs.
There are recipes for Tex-Mex fusion dishes, breakfast ideas, or smoky twists on classic hearty dishes. Regardless, you don’t have to play it safe with leftover brisket.
Here’s a collection of recipes for leftover smoked brisket for you to devour with your eyes before you decide what you’re going to devour later.
1. Leftover Brisket Tacos
Midweek meal planning can be a pain. If you’ve got some slices of leftover brisket from the weekend’s smoking session, you can introduce some smokiness to everyone’s favorite Tuesday night dinner, tacos. You’ve already done all the work smoking the brisket over the weekend, so you don’t have to worry about an elongated preparation time, either.
Leftover brisket tacos are perfect, quick, and easy for you and your family to enjoy on Taco Tuesday. Whether you have picky eaters who only want cheese and meat on their tacos, or you love loading up shells or tortillas with onions, lettuce, tomatoes, and some homemade guacamole, you can customize these tacos to your heart’s content.
2. Smoked Brisket Pizza
Brisket. Pizza. Are there two more magical foods that are as universally beloved? Now put them together. Pizza might be one of the best foods to make use of any leftovers, but when you throw leftover brisket on there, it’s a completely different beast.
This is our Pellet Grill Pizza recipe and you can simply use the leftover brisket meat in place of salami or pepperoni. Skip the tomato sauce and use bbq sauce. Make sure you’re using a good barbecue sauce. If you don’t have a go-to homemade barbecue sauce, you can try this original sauce or this Jack Daniels sauce if you’re more partial.
3. Brisket Grilled Cheese
There’s something nostalgic and comforting about a grilled cheese sandwich. You have melty, gooey cheese sandwiched in between golden-brown, buttery bread. What’s not to love about this staple lunch or dinner sandwich?
Then you throw smoky brisket into it? How can you not start drooling at the thought of a brisket grilled cheese? It’s a simple, easy-to-throw-together recipe that packs a flavor punch.
4. Brisket Quesadillas
Sticking with the theme of gooey cheese (and Tex-Mex too!), brisket quesadillas are a perfect vehicle for using leftover brisket. The best part is that you can customize quesadillas to fit your taste buds.
However, when using leftover brisket, sometimes simpler is better. Just slice some onion, shred some cheese and the brisket, and pour out some of your favorite barbecue sauce onto flour tortillas, and you’ve got a delicious dinner.
5. BBQ Brisket Nachos
If you’re looking for more leftover brisket recipes that have cheese and a Tex-Mex flair, nachos are a perfect gameday food or just to enjoy with friends and family. These BBQ brisket nachos can be prepared as is, or you can even throw some jalapeños on for some extra heat.
Whether you are looking for simple nachos with cheese, brisket, and sauce over tortilla chips or loaded up nachos, this is a great recipe to build on for whatever your preferences are.
6. Brisket Taquitos
Taquitos are an awesome little package of flavor rolled up in a flour tortilla blanket. So of course leftover brisket makes a ton of sense. Pairing the smokiness of the brisket with ingredients from Mexican cuisine is a great flavor combination. These brisket taquitos are a quick and easy way to make that happen.
You get to eat them with your hands, too. That means they can be fun to eat for the kids and means less dishes for washing later. These taquitos go well with your favorite dips like salsa, sour cream, queso, or guacamole.
7. Smoked Brisket Shepherd’s Pie with Jalapeño Cheddar Mashed Potatoes
Shepherd’s pie is a wonderful dish, perfect for cold days. Browned meat, topped with vegetables of your choice (this recipe calls for mixed vegetables, I usually just use a mix of sweet corn and creamed corn), potatoes, and cheese. How can you not love a shepherd’s pie on a cool evening?
This recipe takes that traditional concept and substitutes ground beef for leftover brisket. It also puts an elevated spin on the mashed potatoes, giving them a spicy kick while integrating the cheese directly into them.
8. Smoked Brisket Chili
Chili is a staple of cold gamedays and winter evenings. While we all have preconceived notions fo what belongs in a chili, adding smoked brisket to a chili will elevate it. This recipe calls for beans and corn which may offend some, but the beauty of chili is you can make it your own.
Regardless of your feelings about beans and corn in your chili, this recipe is packed full of flavors. You get the smokiness from the brisket combined with the spices of chili powder, chipotles in adobo sauce, and diced green chilis. It even has bacon. Can it really be wrong if it has both brisket and bacon?
9. BBQ Brisket Sandwiches
Sometimes simpler is better when it comes to leftovers. A pile of brisket that’s been shredded, sliced, or even chopped on a sandwich bun with whatever toppings your heart desires? Sounds like great leftovers. This recipe calls for topping with coleslaw and melted cheese on a bun, but it also gives some fantastic ideas for sides and additional toppings.
You want extra barbecue sauce to add moisture to the sandwich? Go for it. You want jalapeños, hot sauce, or even horseradish to add a kick? Have at it. This sandwich recipe is a great starter for you to build the brisket sandwich of your dreams. Just ignore their method of preparing brisket. We all know your brisket was done on the smoker.
10. Sweet and Spicy Brisket Baked Beans
Hold on a moment, baked beans are a side dish for brisket, not where the brisket goes. Well, when you have leftover brisket, baked beans can be a great way to use it. These aren’t your typical baked beans you will see at most backyard cookouts. These baked beans are truly barbecue baked beans.
You get the smokiness of the brisket with the sweetness of the molasses and the spiciness of the jalapeños all wrapped up together into one satisfying side dish that might qualify as the star of the meal.
11. Brisket Stroganoff
If you were thinking about pasta and brisket together, would stroganoff be the first dish you thought of? Probably not, but that’s okay. This is a fantastic way to use brisket in a way that might surprise you and others. Brisket stroganoff is brisket wrapped in a buttery, savory sauce piled high over noodles. What’s not to love?
It may require a little bit of preparation if you don’t have wine or chicken stock immediately on hand, but it is not a hard or long recipe. If you need to put a unique spin on using leftover brisket, try this recipe.
12. Grilled Brisket Breakfast Burrito with Jalapeño Cheese Blanket
If you’ve ever snuck leftover brisket out of the fridge in the morning trying to make sure no one notices and comments on having brisket for breakfast, this is the recipe for you. You get to enjoy the hard work of smoking a brisket while eating a delicious hot breakfast.
This burrito substitutes crispy french fries in place of hash browns to help keep things from getting soggy. It also has eggs like any breakfast burrito usually has. You then can top the whole burrito off with a crispy blanket of cheddar cheese with jalapeño slices. The burrito is great by itself, so you can skip the extra cheese, but it is extra cheese so why would you?
13. Southwest Stuffed Poblano Peppers
Now, this recipe doesn’t specifically call for using leftover brisket. However, substituting that smoky brisket for the ground beef just further adds to this dish. While a number of stuffed pepper dishes are done with bell peppers, this calls for poblano peppers. While poblanos have more heat than bell peppers, at their hottest they are still more mild than jalapeños. This only adds to the flavor profile of the dish.
The best part is that you can add even more grilled flavor to this dish by roasting the poblanos on your grill prior to assembling the dish. This will not only help ensure the peppers are at the proper texture for the finished dish, but you can add fire-roasted flavor as well.
