Make the Ultimate Smoked Brisket with a deep smoky flavor, tender texture, and a rich, flavorful bark that makes every bite worth the wait!
Making Classic Brisket in a smoker is an amazing way to make extra juicy meat and to add smoky flavor to a favorite BBQ Beef dish and makes a great dinner to feed a crowd at your next cookout! For more ways to make brisket, check out my Slow Cooker Brisket too!
Why You’ll Love This Brisket?
- The brisket develops a rich smoky flavor with a delicious, crusty bark, and juicy tender meat.
- Perfect to serve to a large crowd or at a Summer BBQ and pairs well with so many sides!
Sabrina’s Ultimate Smoked Brisket Recipe
Smokers are a great way to make the most tender brisket ever. When the smoker cooks the meat using heat from the smoke instead of cooking it directly over the heat source, the meat has a chance to cook more slowly. The result after hours of the low and slow smoking process is the juiciest Beef Brisket recipe ever with a rich, smoky flavor that will rival your favorite barbecue joints. This brisket is perfect to serve if you are hosting a large crowd, having a summer BBQ or to make on the weekends when you have plenty of extra time on your hands.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 12 pounds brisket
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
- 1/2 cup coarse ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup garlic powder
- 1/2 cup apple juice
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar , mixed with juice in a spray bottle
Instructions
- Rub the oil all over the brisket. Mix the salt, pepper, and garlic powder together and coat the brisket with it.
- Refrigerate overnight on a baking sheet. (Check to make sure you have butcher paper for tomorrow).
- Heat the smoker to 250 degrees, add the brisket to the smoker and cook for 6 hours.
- Check it and spray with a mixture of apple juice and apple cider vinegar. Wrap in butcher paper and cook for an additional 3 hours.
- Let it rest an hour before slicing against the grain and serving.
Nutrition
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Sabrina’s Tips
If you have a smoker where the heat source comes from the side of the smoker, a good rule of thumb is to put the thickest point end of the brisket near the heat source to achieve even cooking. Additionally, if you have a larger or a smaller brisket, you might need to increase or decrease the smoke time by up to a couple of hours. The meat thermometer will be your ultimate guide, as you’re looking for 195 degrees internal temp.
Table of Contents
About this Recipe
This smoked brisket brings classic barbecue flavor to the table with beautifully caramelized edges and meat that slices easily and practically falls apart. While you do need to make sure you start making Smoked Beef Brisket well in advance, there isn’t much hands-on work for this surprisingly simple recipe. Just season the meat the night before then get it cooking early in the day so that it can cook over smoke for 9 hours before you need to serve it. The amazing smoke flavor and texture are well worth the extra time this recipe takes.
Ingredients
- 12-pound Beef Brisket: This recipe is made with a cut of beef that comes from the cow’s lower chest. Naturally, this type of meat is one of the toughest you can get. However, by prepping it in a dry rub and slowly smoking it, the muscle fibers and connective tissue breaks down to make the perfect tender and juicy brisket.
- Vegetable Oil: Vegetable oil is rubbed all over the meat to help the dry rub marinade stick to the brisket. It also adds a layer to keep the moisture inside the brisket. Vegetable oil is the best choice to hold up to the long cooking time of the brisket because it has a higher smoke point than other popular choices like olive oil.
- Seasoning: The smoker naturally infuses the meat with a rich smoke flavor, so you don’t need to add a lot of seasonings. Simply rub your mix of ½ cup kosher salt, ½ cup pepper, and ½ cup garlic powder over the meat. Then let the flavor soak in overnight.
- Apple Vinegar Mixture: Partway through the smoking process, you’ll use this mixture of ½ cup apple juice and ½ cup apple cider vinegar mixture. It adds the perfect level of rich, slightly fruity flavor.
Kitchen Tools & Equipment
- Large Sheet Pan: You have to use a large pan to hold a large brisket. Rub it with oil and seasoning on the pan for easy transport to the refrigerator. It will marinate in the seasonings on the pan in the refrigerator over night.
- Butcher Paper: To retain moisture, flavor, and to prevent the outside crust from burning, you’ll wrap the brisket in butcher paper for the last stretch of smoking.
- Spray Bottle: Using a spray bottle to add moisture to the brisket is really helpful. It ensures the apple juice blend is added evenly to your hot smoked brisket from a safe distance.
- Sharp Knife and Large Cutting Board: Grab a cutting board large enough to hold your entire brisket (it will shrink a little as it cooks). Then use a sharp knife to slice it into 1/4-inch slices.
Can this be made ahead of time?
Smoked Brisket is best served fresh, although considering how long Brisket takes to smoke, it might feel like you’re making it ahead. You could smoke your brisket a couple of days ahead if you like, and wrap it in foil, then refrigerate until the day you’d like to serve it. Leave it wrapped in the foil and warm it up in the oven at 325 degrees until it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Choosing the Right Brisket: You’ll see lots of different brisket shapes and sizes at the store or butcher shop. Some have a thicker point end with a thinner flat end. To achieve even smoking, you want to choose a brisket flat that is a bit thicker, with the whole thing an even thickness from point to flat. You will also see some cuts of brisket that have a membrane on them, called “silver skin”. To make things easy, you’ll want to choose a brisket without the silver skin. Otherwise you’ll have to remove it.
- Store Meat Without Slicing: When slicing your meat, try to slice just what you think you’ll actually use that day. If you plan to have leftovers, the brisket will retain more moisture stored in the refrigerator as one large piece, rather than stored as loose meat slices.
Pairing Suggestions
This brisket has tons of flavor as-is, but if you want you can serve it with Homemade Barbecue Sauce. Brisket pairs so well with classic summer barbecue sides like Mac and Cheese, Baked Beans, and Cornbread. Considering the heartiness, you could also pair it with something lighter like a Classic Wedge Salad. When the occasion calls for Smoked Brisket, it usually calls for a dessert too. Try summery, easy to serve Blackberry Crumb Bars. The southern classic hummingbird cake transformed into Hummingbird Cupcakes makes a great dessert when feeding a crowd.
How to Store
- Serve: You don’t want to leave this brisket recipe at room temperature for more than 2 hours.
- Store: If you have leftovers, you can let the meat cool completely. Then put it in an airtight container or wrap brisket in aluminum foil. It will stay good in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Freeze: You could also freeze this Ultimate Smoked Brisket recipe for up to 2 months. Wrap it in heavy-duty aluminum foil, then place that in a ziplock bag for easy storage.
Ideas to Serve
Brisket makes a great main course, however it can be used in so many ways. Try making an irresistible brisket sandwich with the toppings of your choice. Use the leftovers to make a delicious side like Brisket Baked Beans or make a whole new meal by substituting brisket for bacon and making Brisket Mac and Cheese. You can also substitute brisket for steak in this recipe to make Brisket Salad.
Frequent Questions
Charcoal smokers are easy to use and perfect if you want to get that classic BBQ flavor. However, if you prefer wood smoke, you can exchange the charcoal grill for a wood smoker. You can also make things easy with an electric smoker.
Usually, electric smokers don’t need wood chips, however, some of them still allow you to use them. Wood chips are another way to add more flavor and aroma to the cooked meat. Try out a different type of wood like apple wood chunks to give the brisket an amazing flavor.
A layer of fat is a good thing for brisket. A lot of it will cook down during the long cooking process, and some of it will retain for moisture and flavor. If your cut of brisket seems to have excess fat, you can trim it a little bit. You want it to have about 1/2-inch to 1/4-inch of fat before cooking.
Variations
- Dry Rub: When you prepare the brisket with oil and spices, you can change up what seasonings you add to the dry mixture. For Smoked Brisket with dry rub try your favorite spices like smoked paprika, pink salt, chili powder, black peppercorn, a pinch of paprika, and onion powder. Prep the meat with your choice of spices, then cook in the smoker as usual.
- Beef Broth: You can also change up the flavoring in the cider mixture that you spray over the meat. For a dark, rich, smoked flavor, whisk beef broth in with the apple and vinegar spray.
- Brown Sugar Smoked Brisket: To add some sweetness to the Smoked Brisket recipe, mix brown sugar with the spices before you rub them over the meat.
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