OK, so for todays post I am going to talk all about How to Make Smoked Brisket. There’s more to it than just smoking though. We are going to first make a brine, then dry rub and finally smoke the brisket with cheery wood. Feel free to use whatever wood chip flavor you prefer, but I find this works well.
How to Make Smoked Brisket
Some people feel this entire process is a little daunting. Well no more then anything else you haven’t done before, believe me. If anything, it is more time consuming than anything. After you get a few items mixed you can sit back and let things marinate, and smoke. No heavy lifting there, right? And once you get this brining and rub down, you can apply it to all different cuts of meat and poultry.
Half the time I keep a portion of the meat for lunch meat. I allow it to cool, refrigerate to firm up and slice it nice and thin for sandwiches or in chunks for a type of corned beef scramble with onions and potatoes. The possibilities are endless.
3 Steps to Smoke a Brisket
- First we need to fortify that beautifully marbled piece of beef with a brine. This ensures it is well hydrated for that long, low and slow smoke.
- We also use a dry rub for added flavor and to ensure a delicious crust, or bark.
- To finish it off we are using Cherry wood chips for the smoking agent. This imparts a beautiful, subtle flavor of smoke. You can read more about different wood chips for smoking here in a past article post I wrote.
Let’s get started!
Make sure to get a beef brisket with a beautiful fat top. This will melt during the smoking process and continuously keep the meat moist when rendering down.
You can keep it whole or slice into pieces. I slice in two for easy submersion in brining and later eating and slicing.
How to make a brine
In a saucepan over medium heat toast the spices slightly to bring out their essential oils for several minutes. Don’t burn these, continuously shake the pan and the aroma will fill the kitchen.
Next, add the water, salt and sugars and simmer for 10 minutes.
In a tub that can be sealed, add the cold water and ice. Pour the hot brine liquid in and when cool enough add the meat. Make sure it is submerged and feel free to weigh it down if need be.
Cover and refrigerate for 2 or more days. I wouldn’t do more than 5 days.
After the beef brisket has brined for several days remove and rinse under cold water.
Dry, cover all over with dry rub mixture. Rub in the spice mixture in a pan, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. Start your smoker and remove the meat from the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature.
Set your smoking chips up per manufacturer’s instructions. Place in the smoker set at 225°F for an hour and a half per pound.
There are a lot of opinions on keeping the vent open or closed during the smoking process. For me seeing as the smoker has limited smoke, unless you want to keep re-loading with wood chips, I keep it closed the first hour, then open it up for ventilation and constant airflow. I’ve read that with time and temp the ability of meats to retain smoke diminishes past 140°F. So it’s usually a 2 to 4 hour smoke window for optimum smoke absorption.
Look at that deliciousness! Smoked brisket at it’s finest. This is How to Make Smoked Brisket!
Carefully remove the smoked brisket from the smoker and allow to cool down and rest for 10+ minutes.
Feel free to discard whatever fat cap is still there and not rendered down completely. Slice across the grain and serve!
I served this with some fresh Perfect Grilled Corn on the Cob and baked potatoes.
The remaining sliced Smoked Brisket is great for leftovers, lunch or used to make a hash with chopped potatoes and onions.
How to Make Smoked Brisket - Brined, Dry Rubbed and Cherry Wood Smoked
Ingredients
- 5 lbs beef brisket
Brine
- 8 cups hot water
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 3 star anise
- 1 tsp celery seeds
- 2 tsp fennel seeds
- 8 cloves
- 5 bay leaves
- 1 tbsp mixed peppercorns
- 8 cups cold water and ice
Dry Rub:
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
- 2 tbsp kosher salt
- 2 tbsp fennel seeds
- 2 tbsp ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp chili powder
- 2 tbsp coriander seed
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp celery seed
- 2 tsp nutmeg
Instructions
- Toast all seeds lightly in a sauté pan to extract essentials oils and toast slightly. Allow to cool.
- Bring water to a boil and mix all Brine ingredients in a container large enough to allow meat to be covered in brine. Make sure sugar and salt are dissolved.
- Add the ice to cool brine down and submerge the beef brisket.
- Brine for two days or more if desired in refrigerator, covered.
- Mix rub ingredients together in a small bowl.
- Rinse off brined brisket. Shake off excess water and apply dry rub. Press rub mixture on to meat, allow to rest for two hours, covered and refrigerated.
- Soak your wood chips. Bring meat to room temperature. Place dry rubbed brisket in the smoker set at 225°F for an hour and a half per pound. Add the smoke chips or pellets per smoker manufacturer instructions. (See Note 1).
Notes
- I recommend wrapping in foil at 145°-150°F internal temp to lock in the moisture so the rub does not pull it out. Remove at 170°F internal temp vs 180°F as recommended by Masterbuilt Smoker directions. Brisket is hard to get right and can be dry if you aren’t careful.
Great recipe! One note: I started with 1 chimney starter full of briquettes and that put my kettle at 400 degrees once ready. Luckily I had poured them into a couple of Weber char baskets designed to hold the briquettes to either side under the grill for indirect grilling. So I just removed one and the temperature dropped to a near perfect 200 degrees! I was able to maintain 200-225 degrees the rest of the way by adjusting the vents. Maybe I missed it but I’d certainly include starting off with half a chimney starter of charcoal in the instructions.… Read more »
Thank you for that! I am so glad it came out for you!
Have you smoked one using Red Oak?
That’s one I have not used yet John. I have used the cherry, apple, pecan, maple, hickory, and mesquite. Need to find some red oak and check it out.
I have smoked a lot of Brisket using RED OAK and it does a good job I also use it to smoke Ribs beef & Pork
This recipe is really amazing. Thanks!
Thanks so much Ted. Grilling and smoking season is here, right? Cheers!
Hey there, if I have a 14 lb brisket should I effectively triple everything? So triple the brine solution or would double be enough to stick it in? Thanks so much! I’m a newbie to the BBQ arena, I cook and bake a lot but I don’t do BBQ. We are testing this out to do for my brother’s rehearsal dinner in May.
Truthfully I feel doubling all would be good enough Megan. Just make sure brine covers all the meat and weigh it down to completely submerge with a plate or something. I also think you’re smart to test first instead of doing that day for a big event. Lots of factors and it’s good to be comfortable first with the process. Let me know how it turns out Megan, please! 🙂
Sorry I’m just now reporting! Our first run was okay, we made note of areas we wanted to improve (brine longer, cook longer), and now I’m gathering the ingredients for the real deal! Wish us luck, we are smoking on Saturday and the rehearsal dinner will be the next Wednesday. It’s not ideal but I hope it will be yummy just the same!
See, it’s always good to do a taste test run prior to doing the real deal for a big event. Wishing you the best of luck on Saturday smoking and the dinner! Excited for you.
I am waiting on a new smoker to be delivered and this will be a first one to break it in proper. 🙂
I’m kind of late to the game here but I need help!! I have a small catering job for 20 people tomorrow. It’s the city Council of my local city .. Huntington Beach.. in California, They requested corn beef and cabbage. Im going to skip the explanation of my neglect and pure stupidity, and jump right to the issues I have created for myself. I have 2- 15 pound prime brisket’s that have been in a brine for only three days. Also I may have put the briskets in the brine while the water was still warm to slightly hot.… Read more »
Joseph, sorry I was not able to answer prior to this but had out of town guests over. My concern is the brine was not iced and there lies an issue with the meat possibly cooking. The health and safety issue is to keep a brine 40°F and under so bacteria doesn’t start and the meat will not be tainted. Not sure how hot that liquid was when you started the brine, and I am not a health expert. To be safe I’d hit the store up or go to the market and tell the butcher the situation and get… Read more »
My 11# brisket is brining now and is going on the tregger Christmas Eve for a Sunday feast bout 3 pm. I really like the wrap tight in foil to keep moist on the slow cook. Thanks for sharing. Frank P.
Hey Frank thanks for stopping by and the kind words. We’re doing a dry rubbed and smoked turkey for Christmas! All the best, cheers!
Just made last weekend with a 6 lb brisket. This recipe was awesome. I brined for 48 hours. I made a thai pepper cranberry sauce for some optional flavor. Friends at the tail gate offered many many compliments on the taste….thanks! Tim
Now this sounded like a great brisket dinner Tim. Thanks for sharing and letting me know!
I’m intrigued how about posting the thai pepper cranberry recipe.
If this is the one you’re talking about, I made the spicy cranberry sauce in my Roasted Garlic Turkey Meatballs with Spicy Cranberry Glaze. Thanks for stopping by and have a great holiday Rick!