The Simple Mistake That's Ruining Your Slow Cooker Brisket

The slow cooker has revolutionized meat cooking for an entire generation of work-hard, play-hard home cooks. Instead of sweating over a hot oven or smoker for hours, basting and tasting, you can now pop your deliciously seasoned brisket into the slow cooker, set the timer, go about your day, and come back to a satisfying dinner. However, just because the tool is easy to use doesn't mean it's foolproof — there are still mistakes that can ruin your meal if you don't know how to avoid them.

To make sure your brisket doesn't end up a burned, blackened mess, we turned to Christopher Prieto, a 2025 James Beard Foundation nominee for "Best Chef Southeast," champion pitmaster, and owner of Prime Barbecue, to learn what mistakes to avoid when cooking brisket in a slow cooker. According to Prieto, the biggest mistake is not paying enough attention to the meat — even in a slow cooker.

"A brisket can suffer more than other meats when overcooked because of the consistency in environment and precision that is required to cook two different muscles down into the same texture," Prieto says. This isn't a situation where longer is better, no matter what. Seven to eight hours is a good amount of time to aim for; much more than that risks negatively affecting the flavor and texture.

That said, it's important to remember that these timeframes are just guidelines — not hard and fast rules. Relying solely on timing to determine doneness is a common mistake when it comes to cooking brisket. As Christopher Prieto explains, it's all about the details. "A brisket has a small window of perfection, but this window can only be recognized through the entire cooking process," he says. "The rotating, cooking stall, wrapping, resting, and slicing all make up this small window."

If you're not familiar with a cooking stall, Prieto isn't referring to a food cart. It's the phenomenon, common in low-and-slow cooking, when the internal temperature of the meat stops rising, even though the external heat remains constant. Removing the lid too often is one of the most common slow cooker mistakes, but with brisket, you need to check the temperature — so it's best to get in, get a reading, and get out. While it might be tempting to crank the heat during a stall, doing so can have disastrous results for your texture. In a slow cooker, the best option is usually to wait it out.

If your first brisket doesn't come out like the meat of your dreams, don't get discouraged. Grab a double IPA — the best beer to pair with brisket — and try to figure out what went wrong. "Brisket can only be learned by failure, understanding your cooking device, and extensive repetition of cooks," Prieto says. "The best way to ensure greatness is to maintain notes of each cook, understand your cooker airflow, and use the highest quality of beef you can afford."