Smoking Brisket Right!
Howdy folks, and thanks for stopping by the website! Whether this is your first brisket or you thousandth, you are going to learn something from this video. The free printable recipe is below, as always, and I’m going to summarize a few of the tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years to help you make the most delicious brisket you’ve ever eaten.
Whole Brisket
Many of you will buy the pre-trimmed flat brisket, and if you do that, it’s fine. You may be able to save a little money, however, by buying the whole brisket and trimming it yourself. In the video, I demonstrate how much of the fat on the back of the brisket to cut off – not all of it, but most of it. There are some specific edges and corners I want you to cut. If you’re in a hurry, bring up the video and skip ahead to 1:00 into the video and watch until 4:36. For the rest of you, here’s a summary of the tips while you trim the brisket:
- Untrimmed brisket is cheaper than trimmed!
- You can bet you’ll need about 1/3 lb of meat per person.
- Cut off any shiny, wet fat. It renders too slow.
- Cut any grisly meat off of the edge of the brisket.
Season the Brisket
I like to mix our Original Seasoning with our Mesquite Seasoning and cover over both sides of the brisket well. If you don’t have any on hand, that’s fine. Use salt, coarse ground black pepper, and garlic powder or your favorite seasoned salt. The key is to make sure you use a lot of seasoning.
The biggest mistake I see with homemade BBQ is that people just don’t season enough to bring out the full flavor of the meat.
- Season the flat sized first.
- After you season the brisket, let it sit at room temperature for 45 minutes to an hour.
Smoking the Perfect Brisket
Make sure you start with FOGO hardwood lump charcoal, and I like to smoke brisket using mesquite and cherry wood chunks.
- The coals are ready for smoking when they’re white hot. Literally, they’ll be white!
- Add mesquite and cherry when you are ready to put the beef on the smoker.
- Cook the fat side up, so the fat renders into the meat for maximum flavor.
- Regulate the temperature to about 250F.
- If using a grill, keep the coals to one end and the brisket on the other, indirect heat side.
- It should take about 4 hours for the internal temp to get to 160.
Once the brisket gets to 160 degrees, take the brisket out of the smoker and sprinkle with some Rib Rub. This is going to add a little brown sugar sweetness to the crust.
- Wrap the meat fat sized down in pink butcher paper.
- Place back in the smoker at 250-275 for 3-4 more hours until internal temp is just under 210F.
- The meat should stay in that paper for the rest of the cook so that the meat will remain moist.
If the brisket is finished early, just seal it up in a dry Yeti cooler and it will stay warm for hours, or until you’re ready to serve. A Yeti cooler seals so tight that it will act like a slow cooker or an oven – in fact, we used it to make a sous vide steak a while back.
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Smoked Brisket - Cowboy Kent Rollins
Ingredients
- 1 12 to 15 lb. packer brisket
- ½ cup Kent’s Original Seasoning or your favorite all-purpose seasoning
- ½ cup Kent’s Mesquite seasoning see substitution
- ¼ cup Kent’s Rib Rub or your favorite BBQ seasoning
- Pink Butcher Paper
Instructions
- Trim the fat side of the brisket down to about ¼ inch thick. Turn over and trim any silver skin or excess fat (see video for tutorial).
- In a small bowl, combine the Original and Mesquite seasonings (or substitutes). Generously season all sides of the brisket. Cover and let sit for about 45 minutes.
- Preheat the smoker to 275 degrees F. Place the brisket, fat side up, on the smoker. Add a few chunks of mesquite and cherry wood (or fruit wood of your choice).
- Smoke for about 4 hours, or until the internal temperature is 160 to 165 degrees F. Remove the brisket from the smoker and double wrap it with the pink paper. Place the wrapped brisket back on the smoker, fat side down, and continue to smoke about 2 ½ to 3 hours, or until the internal temperature is 205 to 210 degrees F. Be sure to probe the meat in the flat side.
- Remove the brisket from the smoker and let it rest for about 20 minutes. I also like to let this rest in a YETI ice chest for maximum moisture retention.
