Updated from the archives
I was fortunate enough to not only grow up in southeast Texas amid an incredible abundance of Tex-Mex restaurants, but to grow up just down the street from an incredible Mexican woman. Homemade tortillas, migas, and tamales were just a very few of the authentic Mexican dishes that Martha turned out of her kitchen.
I remember helping roll out flour tortillas (because Martha didn’t use a press) and wrapping tamales (because child labor was easily rewarded with leche quemada, a Mexican confection, or Nintendo time back in the day).
We do love our quesadillas around here. Matter of fact, there’s a member of this household who rarely glances at the menu when we go out for Tex-Mex. The other member of this household is less discriminate, whether it be a traditional variety or a more exotic mixture of caramelized onions and brie, a barbecue & brie, or a “black & bleu.”
Martha understood the relationship between a good life and good food – the woman was always busy in the kitchen cooking for a big family event. So even though the mixture would probably be met with raised eyebrows and a few words I wouldn’t understand, I know she wouldn’t object to me violating a Tex-Mex classic with a homemade mango-barbecue sauce.
Project Pastry Queen tackled this dish a few months ago when Tara selected the recipe. I originally blogged this back in November of 2007. I’ve since learned a little more about food photography – and how to bust out the crockpot for this recipe.
Brisket & Brie Quesadillas with Mango Barbecue Sauce
Tacos or quesadillas loaded with sliced brisket, brie, monterrey Jack, and topped with a mango barbecue sauce.
Ingredients
- Brisket
- 3 lb brisket
- Salt
- Ground black pepper
- 1 Tbsp chili powder
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 16 oz Dublin Dr. Pepper (made with real sugar)
- Mango Barbecue Sauce
- 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped (about 3/4 – 1 cup)
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 1/2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 1/2 tsp Creole (spicy brown) mustard
- Salt
- Pepper
- 1/4 cup mango chutney (1/4 cup homemade or purchased)
- Quesadillas
- 8 8-in flour tortillas
- 8 oz brie, thinly sliced
- 1 cup monterrey jack, shredded
- olive oil or cooking spray, to brush tortillas
- cilantro, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- To make the brisket: Rub the meat with salt, pepper, chili powder, and garlic.
- Place brisket in the crockpot and pour the Dr. Pepper over the top.
- Cook on low for 8 hours.
- Remove from the crockpot and let rest for 15 minutes.
- Slice against the grain (1/8-1/4 inch thick).
- To make the barbecue sauce: Heat olive oil in a 2-qt sauce pan.
- Saute onions for 5 minutes.
- Add garlic and cook until fragrant.
- Stir in the remaining ingredients and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Transfer to a blender or food processor and run until smooth.
- To assemble the quesadillas: Heat a griddle or large pan over medium-high.
- Lay out the tortillas. Divide the meat, brie, and monterrey jack between the tortillas, placing the meat and cheese on half of the tortilla.
- Top with a spoonful or two of barbecue sauce and fold the other half over.
- Place on the heated grill (brushing the tortilla with oil or cooking spray will prevent sticking).
- Cook until the bottom is crisp and flip over.
- Remove from heat and cut into 2-3 wedges. Serve with extra barbecue sauce.
Notes
Yields: 8 servings
{ 106 comments… read them below or add one }
Dr. Pepper?!?!? Hmmmm
Didn’t even know it was still around….
Love the idea of beef and brie quesadilla – and the mango sauce!
Yum! I bet the carmelization of the Dr. Pepper is yummy!! And I love the Mango BBQ sauce.
This sounds really, really good
My mouth is watering. Yum!
These look really good. The mango barbecue sauce sounds pretty tasty.
I want to crawl through my screen and eat those for lunch.
Thought you were referring to Martha Stewart when I read the title… like your Martha much better.
I so glad you reposted this and brought it to my attention! It looks so good!!!
These look delicious! What an excellent and unique dinner idea, and flavor combo too! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
these look so amazing! i like how you used brie. im interested to see how that turned out! ill definitely try this recipe. thank you!
those things look more like tacos than quesadillas! i lovee tex mex, i could eat it everyday! and mango barbecue sauce? that sounds..interesting, but worth a try for sure!
@Tawny @ The Year of The Cookie, Yeah, someone was more than generous when he built the quesadillas. Someone else might have scraped out half of the meat on to her plate and made a second one
I, unfortunately, grew up eating really bad Mexican take-out. Which is bad because it means I missed out on some truly amazing food for most of my life. But is also kind of good because it means that I have no ties to any sort of traditions. These look amazing and with the brie and mango sauce (uh…two of my most favorite things on this earth!)…I know that it would be love at first bite.
Oh my god — what an awesome idea. I can practically taste it from here. YUM!!
Totally making this this weekend. Not going to get Dublin Dr. Pepper in time, though… will it still taste ok if we use regular Dr. Pepper?
@Luke, Absolutely, regular Dr. Pepper will be fine!
Holy. Freakin. Cow. This is genius!
I just had my first brisket taco the other day at a BBQ place around the corner from my apartment. It was delicious, but I must admit, this one sounds better. I think this may be what I will be making for the Bears Packers game on Sunday! Thanks for the deliciously lovely idea:)
Yum. The meat looks so juicy and tender. Thanks.
For the sauce…how much garlic? The directions reference it, but not the ingredient list. Thanks!
Whoops! 2 cloves of garlic. Thanks for letting me know.
@foodiebride, Thanks! Don’t mean to be the comment hog here, but had to let you know that these were AWESOME! One of my faves, now. Thank you!!
@Nikki (Pennies on a Platter), Glad you liked them!
on the recipe you link to, it says 5 cloves. i made it with 2 though tonight and it tasted yummy. can only imagine it gets even better w/ more garlic! thanks for posting this. i made for friends and got rave reviews
Hey! Someone in my Myspace group shared this website with us so I came to give it a look. I’m definitely enjoying the information. I’m book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Great blog and wonderful design.
tried this recipe tonight and it was amazing!!!
loved the combination of brie with the salsa- wish i had made a double batch of the salsa though- so yummy!! :]
This sounds wonderful. Any substitute suggestions for the mango chutney? I’ve never seen any, but I guess I could make it …
I usually find it with on the international aisle near the Indian food and on the condiment aisle near the sauces and marinades. But it’s really easy to make,
recipe here.
Brisket is in the crock pot as we speak!
Katie didn’t know Dr. Pepper was still around?! Honey, my blood type is DP + haha My husband is allergic to corn, so I buy dublin dr pepper since it’s made with cane sugar and found this recipe yesterday at work and I went and bought a brisket…about to put it in the crock pot now!!!
What is the Dublin dp? Is it just like the pepsi made with real sugar?
It’s Dr. Pepper made with real sugar. It’s bottled in Dublin, TX, so that’s where the name came from.
Too bad there is no longer Dublin Dr. Pepper.
Oh my goodness. These look heavenly. I’m making these ASAP!
Holy yum! My love affair with the slow cooker continues…
I can’t wait to try these and as a sidebar to what to serve with them, we have become fanatics over a new mango margarita at a Mexican restaurant near us in the Dallas area. I bet that would be great with these. And just wondering if you ever make your own tortillas? If you don’t you can reheat the store bought ones on a hot griddle and they turn out yummy. I’ll make the brisket this week for our holiday guests!
I used this recipe as a starting off point since I didn’t have all the ingredients. I’m sure it would have been even MORE amazing just as you wrote it but it was amazing my way also! I used regular dr pepper and 4 cloves of garlic. Was out of chili powder so used some cajun spice instead. The meat came out so delicious I wanted to just sit and shred it and eat it all by itself! (I didn’t, miraculously.)
As far as the quesadillas, I didn’t have brie, I used muenster cheese instead. I could not find mango chutney in either of our local grocery stores so I mixed the BBQ sauce with some sweet chili sauce which was such a good flavor combo. My picky 2 year old ate an entire quesadilla and THAT is a good sign! Yum.
would love to make this but i hate dr pepper. can i use coke instead?
Sure! The acidity and sweetness are what’s important, besides the caramel flavor. I have a friend who swears by using root beer instead of DP. That I can’t get behind, though
Made these last night for my family and everyone loved! Used 2 – 3 lb. briskets, have a large family, and used one bottle, 16.9 oz, of Dr.Pepper – hardly have any leftovers. Thanks for a great recipe.
I listened to Rachel Ray yesterday and she was cooking a crockpot brisket and said to get the true flavors of crockpot meat—to brown them first—then the sugars get started–(dnt know what that means) but she said the seasoning got into it better that way.
An awesome recipe that I have passed around where I work and so far 3 others have made it and all have loved it. However, I would like to now have a moment of silence for what once was, Dublin Dr. Pepper. May it rest in peace*….
*For those that don’t know, Dublin Dr. Pepper agreed to stop making their DP on 1/11/12 to stop bottling their “brand” of DP and was pretty much bought out by Dr. Pepper.
I was so completely bummed out to read about that yesterday! Dublin DP really is something special – it just won’t be the same coming from somewhere else.
Maybe I didn’t do something right but after 8 hours on low my brisket was more than halfway raw. Has this happened to anyone else? I have made pulled pork in my crockpot before and that recipe called for a high setting for about 6 hours and that worked out. I’m not sure where I went wrong but dinner will have to be take out now
Are you sure that your crock pot is working correctly? I am just making this today, but I’ve never had a problem with roasts or even whole chickens after 8 hrs on low. I wonder if yours is malfunctioning and not getting hot enough?
CAN NOT wait to make this!!!
Can’t find the throwback dr. pepper can i use regular dr. pepper?
Sure!
This recipe sounds amazing!! Although I’m not sure what Brie is, do you mind telling me? Thanks!!!
It’s a soft cheese – you’ll find it in the “fancy cheese section” – it’s rich and buttery. I typically scrape away most of the rind since I’m not a big fan of it.
I’m so glad to hear that I’m not alone regarding Brie rind. I LOVE Brie, but can’t stand the rind. A little too…aged? for me.
Regards,
debojay
Is it okay that the brisket isn’t fully immersed under the dr pepper? There is about half inch that is above th level of dp…. Should I add water.
Nope, it’s fine!
making these on friday as a surprise for hubby- he’s going to die! any suggestions for what to serve on the side?
Made this recipe today. Everything turned out perfect- the bricket was perfecty tender. Because I like some heat, I did add one large fresh jalapeno to the sauce while simmering, then proceded to blend. Wonderful dish. I will definitely make this again.
These look fabulous. We are in south central Texas and love our Dr. Pepper. I shared your recipe on my Must Try Tuesday blog post this week.
http://therickettchronicles.blogspot.com/2012/03/61-must-try-tuesday-march-20-2012.html
Thanks for sharing!
Wende
The Rickett Chronicles
I made this yesterday for my man and me. OMG, the sauce was amazing, can’t wait to try it again sometime.
Well heck….no more Dublin dp. Have you tried it with imposter dp? Lol. Where in south tx are you from? I’m from Aransas Pass, near Port Aransas, but live in DFW now.
Yeah, we use “normal” (cough cough) Dr Pepper with no issues. We’re in Houston!
What is DUBLIN Dr. Pepper
I would love to see a recipe for fresh tortillas made without a tortilla press. There is nothing better than a fresh one. This recipe looks and sounds amazing, and my family would eat it.
I made this (minus the brie-I don’t care for it-used mozzarella instead). It was AMAZING! Thank you!
I made these for a gathering tonight and they were absolutely spectacular! Thank you for the delicious recipe. The mango bbq sauce met rave reviews… I used toasted buns rather than flour tortillas – outstanding. Will recommend this wholeheartedly!
So made this for my husband and we began drinking a little early in the day, waiting to make our quesadillas later…lo and behold we got a little too tipsy and totally forgot all about the BBQ sauce! We literally just had brisket, brie, and tortilla…and it was AMAZING! Love this recipe–never would have considered brie in a quesadilla but now that’s all I want!
These look great, but I’m allergic to mango! Is there some other type of fruit chutney I could make instead?
This looks amazing! But quick question- I don’t have a brisket on hand, but I have a roast, would that work as well?!? Thanks!
Sure! Just make sure you cook it ’til it’s fall-apart tender – or slice it thinly enough where it feels fall-apart tender
Not sure what you are slicing in thirds….
the quesadillas
this sounds yummy, but one problem…the instructions for the bbq sauce say to add garlic..? how much? garlic only listed in ingredients for brisket…
I fixed it – thanks for the catch!
I would like to know what size crockpot did you use?
My crockpot is a 6qt model.
Have i a treat for you peppers in Houston. Go to the Avalon diner/drugstore 1 block east of the Kirby & Westheimer intersection. Order a lime Dr. Pepper you’ll be changed. The have a full service soda fountain that’ll send ya back to the 50′s. Google’m just to read the menu
This sounds great! Sorry if this question has already been asked..but is the food spicy? Since its asking for spicy brown mustard. I LOVE spicy food but the family has heartburn issues, lol!
It’s not overly spicy but the barbecue sauce is acidic and the purchased mango chuntney can be spicy, depending on the brand (just something to think about).
Eating one right now, DELICIOUS!!!
It always drives me nuts when I find a recipe and all the comments say they can’t wait to make it, but nobody comments after to say how it was! So, I had to leave a comment to say YUM … This is awesome and this will become a regular in our house! I made your mango chutney and used the extra for the top of my quesadilla and it was fantastic.
sounds delish.. makes me miss FT Hood TX
and Longview TX
to bad i am allergic to mangos =[
I make these all the time now. They are SOOOO GOOD! We love the bbq sauce. I also make cilantro lime coleslaw to go with them and it is a perfect match!
Any substitutions for the mango chutney… Very very allergic to mango… thanks!
Look on the “marinade” aisle at the grocery store for other “savory-sweet” fruit concoctions to substitute. Pineapple-habanero and Roasted raspberry chipotle come to mind.
I was at the Dekalb County Farmer’s Market in Atlanta this week and found Virgil’s Dr. Better which is made using unbleached natural cane sugar. I used this in place of the Dublin Dr. Pepper which I don’t think is made anymore. It’s in the crockpot as we speak so we’ll see how it turns out!
I’ve made this multiple times now and always get rave reviews. I pretty much follow the directions except I just use reg dr.pepper and instead of buying or making the mango chutney, I substitute the sweet chili sauce you can find in the asian aisle. I still use 1/4 cup along with the rest of the ingredients for the barbeque sauce and I must say, this is what makes it for me! Absolutely delish!
This looks amazing! I am a Texan living on the Northern Beaches of Sydney now. I am having a Tex Mex Brunch and am keen to make your Brie & Brisket Tacos! I am hosting around 20 adults & several kids…. how much brisket should I have the butcher cut? Thanks in advance….. as I am now dreaming of this meal~
I think if you double the recipe you’ll have too much. The recipe uses large tortillas and you can stretch the meat more efficiently if you use a 5- or 6-inch tortilla. I’d probably aim for a 4.5-5lb cut, giving you room for fat trimming. And still probably plenty of leftovers
Thank you so much!
My Aussie friends are going to love a Taste of Texas! Will let you know how it turns out! So excited!
Omg forget Thanksgiving Turkey…this sounds yummy
So, what do you do now that Dublin Dr. Pepper is no longer produced? Can I just use Dr. Pepper with HFCS instead (although not ideal)?
Yep, just plain ‘ol Dr Pepper!
I made this for dinner tonight. It was delicious. Everyone loved the sauce. I’m a native Houstonian so I may give it some extra chili powder next time. Thanks for the recipe!!
What do you mean by slice against the grain? Do u do it after brisket is done cooking, and just making sure it’s tender?
Yes, when you cut for building the quesadillas. It will be very obvious which way the grain of the meat runs – position your knife perpendicular to the grain and slice.
So, now that Dublin Dr. Pepper is dead :’( is it better to use normal Dr Pepper or to use the Coca-Cola with real cane sugar that you can get at the Mexican super markets?
Either will be fine – we usually just use regular Dr. Pepper now.
I am probably one of the only people that still has some Dublin Dr. Pepper (I am from Dublin and stocked up before they quite making it). I will be sacrificing one to make this recipes, look delicious, thanks.
Now that was a smart idea!
How much salt and pepper do you use for the rub?
A generous pinch of salt (probably 1/2-3/4 tsp) and probably an equal amount of (1/2 tsp) of pepper. I just grind until it looks “right.”
It’s just me and my boyfriend at my house. 3 lbs of brisket seems like way too much for the two of us. Do you think it would still turn out as good if I cut everything in half or do you have any recommendations for making it in smaller quantities?
You should have no issues with making smaller portions.
I love Dr. Pepper. However, the last time I looked, there was no Dr. Pepper made with “real sugar”. Yes, I am one of the people who object to High Fructose Corn Syrup, and that is what the manufacturer uses in Dr. Pepper.
Since Snapple squashed Dublin Dr. Pepper, we only now get the super-occasional “anniversary” or “special edition” Dr. Pepper made with Imperial sugar here. But it’s a rare, rare thing
This sounds ridiculously great! I live in an area with a high Latino population and a Mexican market a couple blocks away. Are there any Jarritos flavors that would work in lieu of the Dr. Pepper?
Look for something cola-like or use Mexican coke.
One word-delicious! My husband loved them and said they were a keeper! We will be making these again!