How to Smoke a Brisket So It's Tender and Juicy Every Time
To many, a brisket is the pinnacle of barbecue, but it’s expensive, time-consuming, and can frustrate even the most experienced cooks. Here’s how to master it.
This article was published in partnership with 5-hour ENERGY
Brisket is the big league. Barbecued pork butts and ribs, in some ways, are laced with so much fat and collagen that it’s almost impossible to overcook them. Brisket is fussier. Even with a mantle of fat covering more than 10 pounds of beef, if you don’t nail the technique, you’ll know it. Undercook it and this naturally tough cut of beef is going to chew like it. Let it rest on the back end too long and you’ll end up with shredded beef that won’t hold up to slicing (which, honestly, is still delicious, but not exactly Instagram worthy).
What Brisket Is and Why You Should Smoke It
Brisket pushes everything to the max. It’s just about the most expensive cut you can smoke and even half of one is likely the heaviest thing you’ll ever attempt to barbecue. It takes about 12 hours to cook—not including the rest period after—which means it requires the most attention. If cooking pork butt and ribs is checkers, cooking a proper brisket is chess. Yet, with the right game plan, it is something a home cook can pull off with great results.
Why bother?
Because nothing provides that beefy flavor and simple smoke punch—not to mention considerable braking rights—like a slice of brisket, as thick as a No. 2 pencil, that threatens to fall apart under its own weight when draped over your finger. “I think as long as the cook is open to learning the nuances you need to understand to make brisket better, then I think it becomes more approachable,” says pitmaster Christie Vanover of Girls Can Grill. “You really need to understand how to maintain the grill or smoker’s temperature.”
It also helps to know where brisket comes from. “It has a healthy fat cap on it, but brisket, which is the pectoral muscle of the animal, is lean, because it’s always working,” says James Peisker, chef and co-founder of Nashville-based Porter Road. “But that’s also why it develops great flavor and connective tissue, which is what you’re trying to unlock when you cook it low and slow for hours.”
How to Buy Brisket
Adam Bible
While beef cut terminology can change depending on where you shop, brisket terms are pretty universal, so you’ll usually find its two parts—the flat and the point—accurately labeled. The thicker point usually has more intermuscular fat and while you can slice it, cooks often use it to make burnt ends. The oblong slices you picture when you think brisket comes from the flat. Whether you shop online or visit a local butcher, you’ll find brisket sold in one of three ways.
Complete Brisket (Packer)
A complete brisket, called a packer, has the flat and point connected. If you’re an amateur butcher, you’ll enjoy trimming a whole packer brisket until the shape is uniform and the fat cap even. When you’re comparing brisket prices, you’ll want to know if you’re paying for fat, if you need to trim at home, or if it’s already been trimmed for you.
“When you buy an untrimmed packer brisket, you're going to lose 20 to 30 percent of that weight as pure fat,” says Peisker who suggests buying a trimmed cut of meat, which will be more expensive, but save you time and potential frustration when you get home.
Flat
You can also find the flat or point sold individually if you don’t need the full 20-pound packer, which is what an untrimmed brisket might weigh. “If you're intimidated and just want to figure out the process, starting with a flat is good because it's already trimmed for you and, usually, the fat cap on the bottom has been taken down to a quarter of an inch thick,” says Vanover.
Your grocery store will usually have USDA choice brisket, though a butcher, and occasionally the big box stores, carry prime. If you order a brisket online, it might arrive frozen so you’ll need to plan for up to three days for it to thaw in the refrigerator.
Half Brisket
Lastly, you might see a half brisket, which gives you a little bit of both muscles.
Brisket loses weight when it cooks. A 10-pound cut of meat might end up yielding eight pounds of beef. “I tend to stick with a third of a pound of cooked meat per person,” Peisker says.
How to Prep Brisket
If you’re new to barbecue brisket or don’t fancy yourself an armature butcher, have A pro trim the fat for you. You’ll still need to tidy it up at home, but it won’t be nearly as time-consuming. Vanover likes to use a boning knife to clean up any raggedy edges for a more uniform, rectangular shape. While you’re trimming, look at the flat muscle and pay attention to which direction the grain runs. Once the meat is cooked and it’s time to portion it, you’ll need to slice the brisket across the grain for the most tender bite. Like most proteins, slicing with the grain gives the meat a chewier, unpleasant mouthfeel.
Once the meat is cooked, it’s hard to remember which way the grain is running because the muscle fibers are less defined. Vanover likes to slice a little notch on the corner of the flap, running in the direction you’ll want the knife blade to run before serving.
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How to Use a Rub and Injection
Injecting is a debated topic in the barbecue world, especially when it comes to brisket. It can be a fun experiment to try, at least once. If you want to inject the brisket, fill the needle with beef broth for a little extra flavor and tenderness, especially with a lesser grade of beef. Vanover’s rule of thumb is about two cups of injection liquid for every 18 to 20 pounds of brisket, which she pumps in the night before. With the fat cap facing down, systematically work across the brisket puncturing the meat, pushing down on the plunger while slowly backing the needle out. Then, move over about an inch and repeat the process.
If you skip the injection and go straight to the rub, keep in mind it will still rest in the refrigerator, covered, overnight. Brisket rubs range from simple (salt and pepper) to more complex mixtures of seasonings.
Vanover likes a touch of sweetness and heat in her rub, so look for a blend with some brown sugar and hot pepper. In Texas they tend to keep the rub straightforward: Kosher salt and coarsely ground black pepper. Plan on about a ½ teaspoon of rub per pound of raw brisket. Apply the rub liberally to all sides of the meat, paying attention to the edges, then place the beef in a container, cover it, and stash in the refrigerator overnight to let the salt penetrate.
How to Smoke a Brisket—Plus How Long to Smoke a Brisket
Every brisket is different but Vanover’s found that an 11-pound brisket smoked at 225 degrees takes about 12 hours once you start cooking. When you’re ready to cook, get your charcoal grill, smoker, or pellet smoker to 225 degrees. Vanover likes to place the brisket fat side down to act as a heat shield and protect the beef from drying out. If you only have one probe, insert it about 1 inch from where the point and flat meet, If you have two probes, put one in each end of the roast. Have a spray bottle filled with apple cider vinegar handy and spritz the brisket every two hours.
Leave the brisket alone, spritzing it, until the internal temperature hits 160 to 165 degrees. Have a few sheets of heavy-duty aluminum foil, or butcher paper, spread out on a countertop. Yank the brisket, remove the probe, wrap the brisket, then reinsert the probe. Now place the wrapped brisket back in the cooker and wait until it reaches 200 to 205 degrees.
The rest period is a critical step in the cooking process, so don’t rush it. Once the brisket hits about 200 degrees, pull it from the smoker. Wrap the meat in another layer of foil, then in a towel that you don’t care too much about. Now put that brisket in a large cooler for at least three hours, where it will continue to break down connective tissue and still be plenty hot when it’s time to eat.
When it’s ready, use the notch in the brisket you made earlier as a guide to cut pencil-thick slices of beef that should fold over your finger and almost break apart under its own weight.
Why You Should Use a 'Texas Crutch'
Spend some time researching brisket and you’ll eventually read all about the "Texas crutch." Some purists call this cheating, but it’s a technique that Vanover uses with great success to combat what pros call the stall. The water in large cuts of meat, like brisket and pork butt, gets to a point, a few hours into the cook when the meat is at about 150 degrees, that the liquid starts to evaporate and thus cools the meat. It’s literally the meat sweats.
The consequence is the temperature on leave-in thermometers can sit idle for hours while the brisket continues to cook. The result of that extra time on the smoker means a greater chance of drying the meat.
The Texas crutch, which is little more than removing the brisket from the smoker and wrapping it in butcher paper or aluminum foil, creates a sealed environment. The crutch is somewhat similar to braising, allowing the brisket to cook in its juices, powering through the stall and finishing in less time.
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Smoked Brisket Recipe
Adam Bible
The most comprehensive guide to making no-fail smoked brisket from champion pitmaster Christie Vanover.
Ingredients
- 11-lb brisket
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1/3 cup brisket rub or SPG*
- Apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- Trim excess fat from the brisket.
- Inject the brisket with beef broth. Rub it liberally with brisket rub or salt, pepper, and garlic. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
- Set the smoker to 225 degrees with your favorite charcoal, wood chunks, or pellets.
- Smoke fat-side down, spritzing with apple cider vinegar every two hours, until a thermometer placed in the flat end of the meat measures 160 to 165 degrees. Make sure the smoker maintains a steady temp.
- Spritz the brisket one more time, then tightly wrap in two layers of foil.
- Continue smoking until the brisket is around 203 degrees.
- Wrap in another piece of foil and a towel, then place in a cooler (without ice) for at least 3 hours.
- Slice the brisket against the grain and serve.
To make burnt ends, after the resting stage, slice the point into one-inch cubes. Place them in a pan with a light sprinkle of rub and enough sauce to provide a light coat. Place the pan on a 275-degree smoker and smoke for one hour.
Best Gear for Smoking Brisket
Winco Heavy-Duty Plastic Cutting Board
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A full brisket might be the biggest cut of meat you work on in your kitchen, so a large cutting board, which you can toss into the dishwasher after, will help keep things sanitary. Winco Heavy-Duty Plastic Cutting Board is 18x24 inches, though they can be as big as 30 inches, with a groove around the edge to collect drippings. Toss a flattened, wet paper towel under the plastic to keep it steady while working on your countertop.
Cutco Boning Knife
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Trimming the fat off brisket is easier if you put down the chef’s knife. Butchers attack the job with two tools, a long-bladed, rigid knife that sort of looks like a saber, and a shorter six-inch boning knife. If you can only have one, go with the Cutco 1761 boning knife. The blade is stiff enough to help carve hunks of fat off brisket, yet is nimble enough to get under silver skin or help you carve a turkey.
OXO Good Grips Flavor Injector
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While injecting might not be something you attempt until you’ve had a few brisket cooks under your belt, it can be a useful technique to pump the beef up with flavor and moisture before you cook. OXO Good Grips has a couple of tips for thin or thicker liquids, is easy to grab even with gloves on, and holds up to 2 ounces of marinade or brine.
ThermoWorks Smoke Thermometer
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Barbecue is all about managing temperatures so you need to know where the meat is at, especially as it climbs through the stall. ThermoWorks Smoke comes with two probes, one for ambient temperature near the grill grates and another to stick into the meat. You can, and should, buy a spare meat probe and take the temperature of two different meats at the same time or, in the case of brisket, track the temperature climb on both ends. The Smoke sends all of that info in real-time to a receiver so you don’t have to babysit the cooker.
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