25 Leftover Brisket Recipes That Will Give New Life To Your Spring Holiday Roast
Don't let your Easter or Passover efforts go to waste!
If you’re cooking a big meal this Passover or Easter, we bet there’s a good chance you’re going to end up with some leftover brisket. Don’t let it go to waste! These recipes will put it to excellent use, and because you’re using leftovers, they come together fast too. They’re so good, they might just have you making brisket more often.
The trick to these recipes is to use a light hand when it comes to the added liquid. You’re also likely going to want to make these recipes on the stovetop rather than in the slow cooker, so you can keep an eye on things and taste as you go. Your meat should meld with the flavors quickly, turning a 6- to 8-hour affair into only a half hour one. Start with just half the liquid the recipe requires. Remember, you can always add more, but it’s much more difficult to remove any once you’ve put it in. Don't be intimidated by changing up a recipe, you've got this!
Went with a corned beef brisket for your celebration this year? We’ve also included a few recipes here for leftovers from it too, like our Reuben sandwich, our corned beef sandwich, or our Reuben-stuffed chicken. Want even more? Check out our best leftover corned beef recipes too (we’ve got some quesadillas on that list you’ll flip over!). More of a ham fan? Check out our roundups of leftover ham ideas, from ham sandwiches to split pea and ham soup. Have an excess of lamb? We've got you too, with everything from lamb curry to shepherd's pie for your leftovers.
Sheet Pan Bibimbap
In Korean, bibimbap literally means mixed rice. You'll often see it filled with all different types of meats, vegetables, and toppings. Though people will typically cook or prepare each individual item that will be placed on their own bowl of fluffy white rice, by using a sheet tray and subbing for leftover brisket, you can eliminate more than half that work.
Get the Sheet Pan Bibimbap recipe.
Beef Chili
Lots of other chili recipes call for simmering for at least an hour, sometimes even more. That’s tough when you're looking to get dinner on the table after a long workday. Ours is a chili recipe that you can make in just 40 minutes, made even faster by using leftover brisket!
Get the Beef Chili recipe.
Beef Ragú
You can skip step one of this recipe and only will need to cook the ragú long enough for your leftover brisket to begin to fall apart. It should take much less time than the original 2 1/2 hours. Serve over your favorite pasta, like we did, or polenta.
Get the Beef Ragú recipe.
Steak Grain Bowls
A double-purpose chimichurri acts as a marinade for the steak (or leftover brisket!) and as a finishing sauce for these grain bowls. The not-too-spicy jalapeño sauce provides a tangy, creamy counterpoint to it—you might just want to put this combo on everything from here on out.
Get the Steak Grain Bowls recipe.
Birria Ramen
This birria stew usually takes 4 to 5 hours to come together. By using leftover brisket, you can cut that time significantly, without cutting any of the delicious Mexican-Asian fusion flavor.
Get the Birria Ramen recipe.
Philly Cheesesteak Soup
Everything you love about Philly cheesesteaks, in soup-form! The bread bowls aren't strictly necessary, but we love how they give this soup extra sandwich vibes. You could sub croutons instead if you want.
Get the Philly Cheesesteak Soup recipe.
Easy Reuben Sandwich
Not only is this Reuben built on one of the best of all sandwich breads—rye, ofc!—but it balances the salty, cured corned beef brisket with tart sauerkraut and mild, almost creamy melted Swiss. Don't even get us started on how amazing Russian dressing is.
Get the Easy Reuben Sandwich recipe.
Instant Pot Shredded Beef Nachos
Who doesn't love a big tray of nachos? These are particularly good, considering they're loaded with delicious, tender braised beef chuck roast (or brisket!). If your cut of meat is especially big, you can save the leftovers for quick and easy tacos—just add tortillas.
Reuben-Stuffed Chicken
As much as we’d like to, we can’t eat a Reuben sandwich for dinner every day. This stuffed chicken, though? That’s a whole other story. It’s filled with all our favorite ingredients—corned beef brisket, Russian dressing, sauerkraut, and Swiss cheese—and is fancy enough to serve to dinner guests while still being easy enough to enjoy any night of the week.
Get the Reuben-Stuffed Chicken recipe.
Beef Stew
Skip the searing step if you're using leftover brisket/chuck roast, and just cook this stew long enough that the flavors meld and the potatoes soften. Wine adds a layer of rich complex flavor to your stew, but if you don't have any leftover cooking wine on hand, your stew will be delicious without it—just sub in more beef stock!
Get the Beef Stew recipe.
Smoked Brisket With Chorizo-Cheese Fondue
Once served at Disney's International Flower & Garden Festival at Epcot, this glow-up of a loaded baked potato is so phenomenal, it’s worthy of its own celebration.
Classic Corned Beef Sandwich
With corned beef brisket, sauerkraut, and relish, what's not to love? We spread ours with a thick layer of mustard, but feel free to add or sub your favorite spread to make this your perfect sandwich.
Get the Classic Corned Beef Sandwich recipe.
Beef & Barley Soup
Looking for a soup that is warm and hearty? This beef and barley soup is just the one. Usually you'd simmer the soup until the meat is tender, but by using leftover brisket, you can pull it from the heat once the barley is cooked, making this come together extra fast.
Get the Beef & Barley Soup recipe.
Birria Quesatacos
Using leftover brisket, you can skip the long braise in a lot of liquid here and just cook your meat in the chile paste long enough that it becomes shreddable and takes on the birria flavor. Remember, you can always add more liquid, but it's much harder to take too much away.
Get the Birria Quesatacos recipe.
Keto Beef Stew
Making beef stew keto-friendly only meant a couple simple swaps. It's still silky and deeply comforting, and thanks to your leftover brisket, it can come together in less than 30 minutes!
Get the Keto Beef Stew recipe.
Beef Stroganoff
We can all agree that anything involving pasta or a rich delicious gravy is right at the top of the comfort food list. This recipe for stroganoff features both! With buttery egg noodles smothered in a creamy beef and mushroom gravy that's rich, warm, and full of flavor, this is the ultimate comfort food. Make it even more so by subbing in leftover brisket.
Get the Beef Stroganoff recipe.
Brisket Bites
Meat and potatoes, the cocktail party way. We love serving these as appetizers or a weeknight, pre-dinner snack.
Get the Brisket Bites recipe.
BBQ Brisket Tacos
By using leftover brisket, you can have these shredded meat tacos on your table in less than 30 minutes. Serve these with homemade salsa to make them extra special.
Get the BBQ Brisket Tacos recipe.
Yukgaejang: Spicy Korean Beef Soup
Yukgaejang is a spicy Korean beef soup loaded with warm earthy vegetables like mushrooms, leeks, and gosari (immature fronds of bracken, a wild plant that is foraged along the hills and mountains of Korea).
Slow-Cooker Beef & Barley Soup
Oops, forgot to set your slow cooker one too many times? Skip it and use leftover meat like brisket for this soup instead. We love this with barley, but feel free to use brown or wild rice instead.
Camille Lowder is the digital food producer at Delish, otherwise known as our resident queen of recipe galleries. Previously, she attended the Natural Gourmet Institute for culinary school and worked at/managed a number of New York restaurants. She loves anything vegan, foods masquerading as other foods (hello, cauliflower), and a well-used Oxford comma.
