Smoked Brisket

A mouthwatering smoked brisket recipe is one of the best parts of a backyard barbecue. Treat yourself to this tender, flavorful dish as a sandwich or served along side your favorite cookout sides.

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One of my family’s favorite parts about summer is smoking brisket in the backyard. 

The flavors are amazing, and the slow cooked beef is tender and moist.

And the aroma of the cooking brisket is amazing!

You are sure to catch your neighbor’s attention as it smokes all day.

It’s the perfect meal you can look forward too all day!

Ingredients

You really don’t need much to make delicious smoked brisket at home.

All you need is:

• Brisket – I use a roughly 8 pound brisket for this recipe and base the cook time around it.
• Spice rub – You can use your favorite brand and flavor of spice rub. I like this Paul Prudhomme’s Magic Barbecue Seasoning Blend.

How to make

Making any smoked meat takes some time, but you don’t need to do much while it’s cooking.

First, rinse the brisket with cool water and then pat dry with paper towels.

Next, use your hands to rub plenty of your favorite rub style seasoning blend all over the top, bottom, and sides.

You just want to make sure the outside has a nice even coat of seasoning all around.

Lay the prepared brisket, fat side up, on an overly large sheet of peach butcher paper.

Wrap it up and then fold ends over to close it in.

Finally, smoke the brisket at 225° for 12 hours.

Once it has finished smoking, carefully remove the wrapped brisket from the smoker and transfer it to a waiting platter or pan.

Let it rest for a full hour.

Carefully unwrap the brisket and transfer it to a clean cutting board.

You can use an electric knife or other sharp knife to thinly slice the brisket and serve.

Serving and storing

Smoked brisket is the perfect barbecue food.

You can serve it with potato salad and coleslaw.

It’s also delicious served on a homemade burger roll or any kind of bun.

And, of course, you want to slather it with plenty of your favorite barbecue sauce.

If you can’t finish all the brisket in one sitting, you can store it in the fridge.

Before placing in there, you want to wrap the brisket tightly in plastic wrap.

If you have a large enough air tight container, you can place it in there instead or in addition to the plastic wrap.

Tips and tricks

• For larger briskets, around 12-15 pounds, the smoke time will be around 18 hours.
• 195 degrees is the safe temp for a brisket to be considered done, but it will continue to cook after you remove it from the smoker and may even increase up to 10 degrees, so keep in mind so you don’t have over-done meat.
• Make sure the membrane has been removed before cooking- some briskets will be sold with it already removed, others will not- so always check for yourself.
• For extra flavor you can also inject the meat with your favorite marinade to really make it pop. I’ve even used flavored bourbon before and it was awesome!
• Often when smoking meat, you can’t really go wrong with your choice of wood chips, but brisket’s a little different. You don’t want the meat itself to take on a sweet flavor, which can happen with chips like apple, cherry, or peach when used by themselves. Instead, combine one of these with a stronger flavored wood chip like hickory, mesquite, or even pecan.

How To Remove The Membrane From A Brisket

If you got your brikset from a local butcher, a cow share, farmer’s market, or possible even the local deli- chances are it will have the silver skill still attached.

This is known as the cut of meat’s ‘membrane’, and will need to be removed prior to cooking.

Sounds tough, or possibly complicated, I know- but removing a brisket’s membrane is actually really simple.

The best way to trim this is by taking the tip of a very sharp, short knife and then poking under the edge of the silver skin and above the meat.

Working across the grain of the meat, gently work the blade down in a saw like motion- just until the membrane’s cut away.

Discard the silver skin, and then proceed with the recipe as instructed.

Other barbecue recipes to try

This smoked brisket recipe is a winner whenever we entertain in our backyard.

Make this the next time you are in the mood for some good old fashioned barbecue flavor.

Hungry for more barbecue recipes?

Check out some of my other favorites:

• Cherry Coke Smoked Pulled Pork Barbecue Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
• Cheesy Barbecue Chicken Quesadillas
• Slow Cooker Texas Style BBQ Brisket Sandwiches
• Cheesy Pulled Pork Enchiladas
• Barbecue Chicken Fajita Sliders

If you’ve tried this SMOKED BRISKET, or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and whatever else we’ve got going on!

This post may contain affiliate links. As an amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. See my full Disclosure Policy for details. As always, all opinions are my own.