Texas-Style Smoked Brisket

This smoked brisket combines classic Texas dry rub with oak smoke to serve up the ultimate plate of juicy barbecue beef. Achieve the perfect bark, smoke ring, and tender texture with this full walkthrough to smoking a whole brisket from start to finish.

There’s no other meat that epitomizes Texas-style barbecue like beef brisket. In a region where beef is king, brisket is cooked for hours low and slow over oak wood to yield tender, juicy slices of beef that are unlike anything else.

You want that beautiful dark bark that’s synonymous with Texas barbecue, a pull-apart texture that’s just the right side of soft and juicy, and that iconic smoke ring underpins the perfect slice of smoked brisket.

But with such a long smoke time comes a number of factors that can impact the quality of your final plate of brisket, whether it’s your choice of seasoning, the type of cooker you use, or how you get through the dreaded Stall (more on that later).

And while it’s true that no two briskets are the same, there are a number of ways you can try to ensure that the final dish you put up to serve is as close to perfect as possible. In this recipe, I try to set these out as best as I can to help you make the perfect smoked brisket at home.

Trimming

To help you get to grips with trimming it, a quick lesson on the composition of a whole packer brisket.

A packer cut is comprised of two main muscles: The brisket point and the flat. The flat is the lean, thinner end of the brisket, while the point is the fattier, thicker part. The point sits on top of the flat, and slopes down into it about halfway across the brisket. Knowing which is which is important to help you trim it for the smoker, but also when it comes to slicing it for serving later.

I have briefly outlined how to trim the brisket in the recipe below, but I want to take the opportunity to go into more detail here and outline how I approach it.

Before you remove your brisket from the packaging, place it in the freezer for an hour. This will help the fat firm up slightly and make it much easier to handle. Once you take it out of the freezer, remove it from the packaging and pat it dry with paper towels.

On a large cutting board, place your brisket fat cap-side down. Using a sharp boning knife, remove the deckle (the hard fat area underneath the thicker end of the brisket, sitting between the point and the flat). Then, going with the meat grain, remove any other dangling pieces of fat and any obvious ‘pointy’ bits of meat.

Flip the brisket over so that the fattier side is facing up. Find the ‘mohawk’ ridge of meat that starts at the thick end of the brisket and runs toward the center. Slice this off so that the thicker end of the brisket has leveled out.

With the thinner end nearest you, trim the long edges about half an inch. Then, round off the thin end in a U-shape.

Start trimming the fat cap, aiming to keep about ¼ inch thickness across the top of the meat. Take your time, and do this in small sections and increments. The fat will be uneven in parts (particularly where the brisket point meets the lean) so it’s best to do this carefully.

Once you have trimmed the fat cap down to ¼ inch, finish by rounding off any uneven shaping along the brisket, particularly at the fattier end of the brisket. We want the shape to be as uniform and aerodynamic as possible.

The Rub

Texas barbecue is renowned for keeping its seasoning simple. And when you’re cooking large cuts of beef, why wouldn’t you? At the very least, a brisket dry rub will always feature salt and black pepper, but on top of that you might see seasoning salt, as well as a little bit of garlic or onion powder.

For this recipe, I’ve used a 2:1 ratio of black pepper to salt, with a dash of garlic powder. Go for a coarse salt like kosher salt, and 16-mesh black pepper. In both cases, the larger grains don’t get lost in the meat or smoke, and sit on the surface to help build up that bark. Use granulated garlic rather than fine garlic powder, which tends to clump and makes it harder to season evenly.

Some people use binders like yellow mustard or olive oil, but I just use a light spray of water to help the rub stick. Combine your salt, pepper, and garlic powder in an empty seasoning shaker, then start with the underside of the brisket and season in an even layer. Then flip and do the fat cap side, finishing with a gentle pat so the rub takes without wiping any of it off.

The Stall

A few hours into the cook, you will invariably hit a stage where the internal temperature of your brisket stops climbing, and instead hovers around the 160°F (71°C) mark. Better known as The Stall, this phenomenon is something every BBQ cook goes through and is nothing to be alarmed about.

The Stall is common during low and slow cooks with larger cuts of meat, like brisket, where the meat’s water content is evaporating at such a rate that the moisture pushed to the surface counteracts the convection heat from the smoker.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however. During the stall, the collagen and fat in the brisket will continue to render, and the bark on the surface will keep building.

However, you do want to get to a point where you have pushed through the stall. Some people like to use butcher paper or a foil wrap (sometimes known as a Texas Crutch) to help limit the rate of evaporation, but the risk with this is softening the bark. Instead, I prefer to kick up the temperature of my smoker to about 275°F (135°C), which helps overcome the effects of evaporative cooling and push you through the stall while still maintaining that beautiful bark you’ve worked so hard on. Once your brisket starts to read an internal temperature of 170°F (76°C), you’ll know that you’ve managed to get past the stall successfully.

Texas-Style Smoked Brisket

This smoked brisket combines classic Texas dry rub with oak smoke to serve up the ultimate plate of juicy barbecue beef.

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Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 10 hours hrs

Total Time 12 hours hrs

Servings 12

Equipment

• boning knife
• large chopping board
• empty seasoning shaker
• food-safe spray bottle
• aluminum foil
• serrated meat slicing knife

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 10 lb whole packer brisket

Dry Rub

• 4 tbsp 16-mesh ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp coarse salt
• 1 tbsp garlic powder

Spritz

• 5 fl oz apple cider vinegar
• 5 fl oz cold water
• 1 tsp brown sugar

Instructions

 

• Place the brisket fat cap-side down on a large chopping board. With a sharp boning knife, remove the deckle, and trim down any excess fat.
• Turn the brisket over and remove the mohawk-shaped ridge of meat, leveling out the surface of the thicker end. Shape the brisket by slicing about ½ inch off each of the long edges, then round off the corners of the lean end to create a ‘U’ shape.
• Trim the fat cap down to about ¼ inch thickness, taking care not to leave the meat exposed. Finish trimming by rounding off any uneven surfaces, trimming down any obvious pointy bits.
• In an empty seasoning shaker, add the black pepper, salt, and garlic powder. Close shaker lid and shake the seasoning to combine.
• Turn the brisket so the underside faces up and season generously. Flip it so the fat cap is facing up and apply an even layer of rub from end to end. Leave to sit at room temperature while you warm up your smoker.
• Fire up your smoker to 225-250°F (107-121°C). Use oak hardwood as your smoking wood.
• Place the brisket on the smoker grates, with the thicker point end facing towards your firebox or heat source. Close smoker lid and smoke to an internal temperature of 160°F (71°C). *See Notes
• After the first 3 hours of smoking, combine the spritz ingredients in a food-safe spray bottle. Shake to mix well, then lightly spritz the corners of the brisket and any dry-looking areas. Repeat this every 1-1 ½ hours.
• Once the brisket hits 160°F, increase the cooking temperature to 275°F (135°C)
• Continue to smoke the beef to an internal temperature of 195-203°F (91-95°C). It will be ready to pull off the smoker when it is probe tender and feels pliable with some give and flexibility (use your hands to feel the underside as well as the top).
• Pull the brisket from the smoker. Double wrap it in foil and let it rest until the internal temperature comes down to 140-150°F (60-65°C).
• To slice, first find where the point and flat meet on the top of the brisket, usually about halfway along. Slice straight across at that point to cut the brisket in two: one lean half (all flat) and one fattier half (a mix of point and flat).
• Slice the leaner side against the grain, which will be parallel to the slice you have already made to cut the brisket in two. Cut into thin slices.
• For the fattier end, use the exposed cut meat to find the thinner end of the brisket. Slice perpendicular to the meat to create burnt ends. Then, continue to slice perpendicular to the cut, cutting into thin slices.
• Serve right away with pickled red onion, bread, and sauce.

Notes

• At around 160°F (71°C), your brisket is likely to hit The Stall, where the meat’s internal temperature does not increase for an extended period of time (often 2-3 hours). This is entirely common (see ‘The Stall’ section in the article above) and will pass. You can wait it out, but I prefer to bump the temperature up to 275°F (135°C) to speed things up.

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