Go Back
Smoked and sliced Brisket

Smoked Brisket for the Backyard

This smoked brisket recipe is not a "competition style" recipe, but in my opinion is superior. BBQ competitions are a monster unto themselves where the techniques are what a judge is looking for and not necessarily the best.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Course Dinner, Lunch
Cuisine American, BBQ
Servings 0

Equipment

Ingredients
  

Instructions
 

Prepare the Brisket

  • Trim the Brisket
  • Pat the brisket Dry

Smoke the Brisket

  • Preheat your smoker to 225°F degrees and prepare your smoker to smoke meat
  • Using about half of the Beef Tallow, melt it and spread a thin coating all over the meat.
  • Sprinkle the rub on the brisket while ensuring to coat all sides. You should still be able to see the meat through the rub. If you use too much rub, the rub will hinder smoke penetration
  • Transfer the brisket to the smoker to smoke the meat
  • Monitor both the temperature of the smoking chamber and the meat. It is important you keep the temperature of the smoking chamber relatively constant. After the brisket has been in the smoker for approximately 2 hours, start spritzing (use water or vinegar) the meat every hour.
  • When the brisket reaches approximately 160° F the brisket will enter the stall. Continue to monitor the meat and as the brisket leaves the stall.
  • When the brisket has a nice dark color, the bark has set up and the fat is fully rendered (you can easily push your finger through the fat and liquid fat leaks out), pull the brisket to wrap

Wrap the Brisket

  • Layout butcher paper. Put a thin layer of beef tallow on the paper both where the bottom and the top of the brisket will sit after it is wrapped.
  • Place the brisket on the butcher paper where you already placed the thin layer of tallow.
  • Tightly wrap the brisket and return to the smoker
  • Continue to smoke the brisket until it reaches approximately 203°F (a better indicator of a done brisket is if you can insert a probe into both the flat and the point with no resistance and the whole brisket should jiggle like Jello-O if lightly shakened) and wrap the brisket with towel and set aside at least 2-4 hours (more is better) in an ice chest.

Serve the Brisket

  • After the brisket has rested for a sufficient amount of time, Slice the brisket against the grain in your desired thickness and serve right away.
  • Take in the compliments

Notes

  • You must rest the meat after the smoking process is complete or it will dry out
  • The brisket must be trimmed. The thick hard fats are not like marbling. They will not add any flavor to the meat and will both increase the smoking time, decrease the smoke/rub penetration of the meat. Fat is a barrier.
  • You can experiment with temperatures of the smoking chamber. In the BBQ world, there is much disagreement with the proper temperature.
  • I leave the thermometer in the meat when smoking the brisket as I like to monitor the progress. Many others only spot check the meat. It is important you do use a high-quality digital thermometer if you do choose to use one.
  • If this is your first brisket, please be aware the meat will stall at approximately 160ºF. It will stay at approximately 160ºF for a few hours. This is normal and do not overreact by messing with the ambient smoking chamber temperature. You can read our tip about handling the stall on our site at the following link. 
Why Does Brisket Stall, and how to expertly manage it?
Keyword beef brisket
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!