Brisket Made Easy | GrillinFools (2024)

So this is my first attempt at a beef brisket. I am a pretty confident griller, but for some reason, the brisket has intimidated me. After much encouragement from my wife, I went to the store and shelled out more than $35 for an 11 pound brisket. Go big, or go home, right? And since this was my first time, I’m not going to get complicated. This is Brisket Made Easy.

***Editor’s Note ~ As you can tell from that opening paragraph (and price of the brisket) this post is pretty dated as it was published in 2014. That being said, the methodology and recipe are completely sound. Particularly if you too are ready to embark on your first smoked brisket***

I poured over my personal library of grilling cookbooks, googled the opinions of experts, and watched countless famous chefs producing beautifully cooked briskets on the cooking channels. I even read the recipes my associates posted on The Grillin’ Fools website such as this pecan smoked brisket recipeand this high heat method brisket recipe. After all of that research, I decided to just wing it. 😉

***Editor’s Note ~ Our latest beef brisket recipe, and our best to date, is right here and involves some wagyu beef tallow****

Brisket Made Easy Ingredients:

• Beef brisket, 11 pounds
• ½ cup kosher salt
• ¼ cup pepper
• 2 tbs paprika
• 2 tbs garlic powder
• 2 tbs sugar in the raw
• 1 tbs cayenne
• 1 tbs cumin
• 1 tbs chili powder
• ½ tbs dry mustard

First, trim the fat cap down to ¼ inch and trim any other excess, lose fat. I probably should’ve trimmed mine down a little more, but there were no complaints.

Place all ingredients into a bowl and stir until well combined

Next, rub the meat very generously. By this I mean there should be a thick coating of rub on all surfaces of the meat:

Some say there’s no need to rub the fat, but do not leave the fat naked. It tastes delicious, trust me.

Wrap the brisket very tightly in foil and place in the refrigerator overnight or longer.

Mop Sauce Ingredients:

• 32 oz beef stock
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• ½ cup peanut oil
• 2 tbs salt
• 3 tbs dry mustard
• 3 tbs garlic powder
• 2 tbs paprika
• 4 tbs Worcestershire
• 1 tbs pepper

Place all mop sauce ingredients into a blender and mix until combined

At least an hour before you are ready to put the brisket on the grill, take it out of the fridge and let it come up to room temperature.

How to Grill Brisket Made Easy

Now, prepare the grill for indirect grilling. We are talking low and slow when grilling a brisket. For this, I used a kamado style grill so I put a plate setter between the fire and the grill grates to deflect the heat away from the meat. For a regular grill, put coals on one side and nothing on the other. Target temperature for the grill is about 200F-225F.

Use plenty of charcoal and some good wood for smoking. I used cherry and hickory and was very happy with the results.

The next thing I did was pour a bottle of cheap red wine into a drip pan and placed it on the plate setter under the grate and meat.

When the fire is ready, place the beef brisket on the grill (not in the foil!) fat cap side up:

We were having guests over for Sunday dinner and wanted to serve this brisket around 2:00 p.m. Everything I read predicted that the brisket should cook about 1 to 1 ½ hours per pound. I decided it would be a good idea to start the cooking process at 10:00 p.m. the previous evening. I used an internal probe thermometer with a remote alarm set to 180 degrees. I know the brisket needs to cook to at least 200, but wanted to check at 180. So at midnight, I mopped the brisket and went to bed.

A note about mopping your brisket. Always let a crust develop before mopping or you will wash all the rub off. I mopped at about midnight, closed the lid on the kamado and went to bed.

With a good kamado style grill, I didn’t have to worry about keeping my grill at a constant temperature. The kamado maintains a temp long enough to cook this brisket without having to add charcoal. One load of fuel will last all night. If you are using another type of grill you will need to add coals every few hours to maintain a constant temperature which is why we use kamado’s for charcoal. We highly recommend a Grill Dome if you are looking to get one. It’s the best kamado on the market.

At 4:00 a.m. the alarm sounded that the internal temperature of the brisket was 180 degrees. I dragged myself out of bed, mopped the brisket and reset the gauge for 195 degrees. At 7:00 a.m. the alarms sounded again and the brisket looked like this:

The temperature in my kamado had increased slightly to 225 so it went a little quicker than I expected. The brisket didn’t seem quite finished, so we left it on until just over 200 degrees. Some of you are looking at that and thinking that it is burnt. It’s not. It may look black and gnarly on the outside, but it’s progressing perfectly.

At that point, the probe went into the meat like butter, there was no resistance:

I cannot give an exact magic temperature for tender, juicy brisket. But it’s somewhere between 195 and 205 and use the probe to check for tenderness. But that’s pretty much it. The brisket is done cooking. That’s Brisket Made Easy. While the grilling is done, we’re not quite done with it.

Since the brisket cooked more quickly than I expected we had to hold it for a few hours which made me a little nervous. I wrapped the brisket very tightly with aluminum foil and parked it in the microwave. It was still warm, juicy and delicious when I carved it for the family:

Speaking of carving, cut across the grain.

I am very happy with my first attempt at this intimidating cut of meat. This brisket was fantastic and I will make it again. Our guests devoured the vast majority of that 11 pounder and several took home leftovers for their lunch the next day. There you have it, Brisket Made Easy. It wasn’t quick, but it was easy. Particularly on a kamado.

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Here’s a collage of the process: