Smoked Beef Brisket
Smoked brisket is one of the most delicious barbecued dishes you can eat but it’s a little intimidating to most grillers. It’s a more expensive, large cut of meat. There’s trimming involved, it takes a long time to cook, the internal temperature “stalls”. It just seems like a lot, but have no fear, you can do it and we’re here to help!
Things you’ll need:
Brisket
Bo B Q Brisket Rub (1/3 to 1/2 bottle)
Beef Broth
Meat Injector
Butcher Paper
Beef Tallow
Sharp boning knife or fillet knife (for trimming)
Long bread knife (for slicing)
Directions:
1. Trimming this cut of meat can be intimidating. BBQ Pitmaster Aaron Franklin has a great video on selecting and trimming your brisket. You can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmTzdMHu5KU
2. Season the brisket with Bo B Q Brisket Rub. I recommend roughly 1/3 to half a bottle.
3. Let the brisket rest for about 1 hour at room temperature. Now lets fire up that smoker! We’re looking for 225 degrees.
4. Inject beef broth in to the brisket (about 1 oz per pound). This will help keep the meat from dehydrating and add extra flavor!
5. Now let’s head back out to the smoker and place that big guy on the grate right above the water pan.
6. Around the 3 hour mark, check the color of the brisket. If the top and bottom look different, flip it over. If it looks the same, just let it smoke. No spraying and no mopping.
7. “The Stall” Your brisket is going to slowly climb in temp till it hits the 150-160 internal temp range and then its gonna seem like it stops. This is called the stall. Its normal and can last several hours in up words to 5-6 hours! To help reduce this stall time, when the brisket hits the stall, we want to remove it, wrap it tightly in 2 layers of butcher paper (squirt beef tallow on the part of the paper that comes in contact with the brisket then wrap it in a second layer) and return it to the smoker.
8. Once the brisket hit 195-198 degrees internally, do the “Jello Test. This consists of removing the brisket from the foil and jiggling it. If it moves like Jello, its done!
9. If the outer layer or “bark” seems a bit soft or soggy, place it over direct heat for a few minutes. A broiler works great!
10. Slicing the brisket- Brisket muscle grains go different directions so how you slice it is key to a “fall apart” slice of meat verses a “chewy” one. Check out this video on how to slice a brisket: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xtcOjDnu50
11. Serve brisket immediately after slicing as the meat dries out rather quickly. Brisket goes great with corn bread, baked beans and potato salad.