Step 1: Trimming and Seasoning

1. Remove any excess moisture from your brisket to allow for easy trimming.

2. With a sharp knife, as best as you can, trim your brisket to look aerodynamic leaving about ¼ layer of fat all over the brisket – this helps keep it moist and stops it front drying out. You want to try to avoid trimming too far passed the fat and cutting off the meat.

Think of your brisket like the shape of a shoe - the thinner part of the brisket or the Flat (leaner part), is like the front part of your shoe, and the taller part or the Point (fattier part), is the back of the shoe. Rounding the front of the brisket also helps for better air flow around the meat and a more even cook.

3. Once your brisket is trimmed, apply a nice heavy layer of your rub. I tend to keep my rub very simple and use salt, pepper, and garlic powder (proper Texas style is just salt and pepper). Let your brisket sit for about 15-30 minutes to help the rub better adhere.

Note: You can use yellow mustard or Worcestershire sauce as a binder to help the rub stick better, but its not required

Step 2: The Cook

4. Get your smoker or pellet grill set to roughly 250-275 degrees F. This is your ideal smoking temperature.

5. Place your brisket on the smoker and close the lid and fight the temptation of peeking in on too much. Follow the classic mantra – “If you’re lookin’, you ain’t cookin’”.

Important Tip: Using a temperature probe helps your to keep an eye on the temperature of the meat throughout the cook so that you aren’t guessing – GET A TEMPERATURE PROBE

6. Once your brisket reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees, its time to wrap. There are different ways to do this. You can wrap it tightly in butcher paper, or in tin foil. Whatever you do, just make sure you wrap it tight so the juices don’t leak out. You want those juices to “braise” your brisket.

7. Continue to cook your wrapped brisket until it hits an internal temperature of 202-203 degrees.

Tip: You don’t have to do this step on your smoker, I sometimes bring the brisket inside and put it into my oven set at 250-275 degrees.

Step 3: The Rest

8. Once your brisket hit 202-203 degrees, take it away from the heat and rest it for at least 3 hours, up to 8 hours to allow for the juices to redistribute and continue to render out that precious fat.

You can also use your oven for this step – set it at 170 degrees or as low as it goes and let it rest for as long as you need to – the longer the rest, the better.

Step 4: Slicing

Slicing your brisket can be tricky, and it takes practice, but you want to be sure to slice AGAINST the grain. It can be tough to locate where the grain goes and, on a brisket, the grain goes different directions based on the different muscles of the brisket.

Slicing the Flat (the thinner and leaning part of the brisket): Find the half-way point of the brisket where it starts to shape upwards to the point (remember the “back of the shoe”). Split the brisket in half here.

Put your point to the side and slice the flat in slices on the same path you made your half-way cut – essentially think of your half-way cut sitting at the WEST position and you are cutting in slices WEST to EAST.

Slicing the Point (the fattier part of the brisket). From the half-way point, take your point side of the brisket and turn it 90 degrees. Slice opposite from the half-way cut that you made – essentially think of the half-way cut sitting at the EAST position and you are cutting in slices from NORTH to SOUTH.

If enough of you guys want a slicing guide, I can post one on my Instagram!

The Juiciest BBQ Chicken

Ingredients

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