Smoked Brisket for Game Day - Learn to Smoke Meat with Jeff Phillips (2024)

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It's no secret that I love smoked brisket in all it's beefy, delicious goodness whether it's sliced, chopped, or made into burnt ends. I love the stuff.

Smoked brisket is a great game day food, and in this recipe, I'm going to walk you through the process of preparing and cooking a brisket in the smoker so that it comes out a winner.

Helpful Information

• Prep Time: 15minutes
• Cook Time: 16 hours
• Smoker Temp: 240°F (116°C)
• Meat Finish Temp: ~200°F (93°C)
• Recommended Wood:Pecan, Cherry, Hickory (all great options alone or mixed)

What You’ll Need

• Whole packer brisket (slightly trimmed is ok)
• ¼ cup molasses
• ½ cup Jeff's original rub
• Extra long toothpick

Prep and Season the Meaty Side

Place the brisket fat cap side down on a cutting board or better yet, down into a large, deep foil pan to help contain the mess.

Notice how you can see the strands of the meat and the direction that they run? This is called the grain.

Since we slice across that grain to get the most tender bite, we'll need a way to remember the direction of the grain once it's covered with rub and cooked.

For this reason, it's a good idea to mark this somehowso you'll know how to slice it later.

I sometimes notch the meat, but an even better idea isto simply run an extra long toothpick through it in the same direction thatthe slices need to be cut. This stays in throughout the cooking process.

This side will be facing down in the smoker but let's season it up before we flip it over to fat cap up.

I sometimes use mustard, spicy mustard, olive oil, barbecue sauce, etc. to create a sticky surface on the meat so the rub will stick. Rub is no good to anyone if it just simply falls off when you flip it over or when you are placing it on the smoker grate. A sticky surface under the rub fixes this problem.

This time we'll use molasses as it is very sticky, gives it great color when mixed with my original rub and tastes amazing as well.

Pour on some molasses.

Then use your hands or a cooking brush to spread it out.

Sprinkle ¼ cup of Jeff's original rubonto the brisket and use your hands to spread it out over the top and sides.

Let it sit for 5 minutes or so before flipping it over.

Prep and Season the Fat Side

The fatty side of the brisket called the “fat cap” only needs to be about ¼ inch thick. You can trim it down to this thickness using a sharp knife if you wantto.

As you can imagine, the smoke and rub does not get through that layer of fat so you might wonder why we leave it on instead of just trimming it all off..

Well, during the cooking process, this fat will begin to melt and as it does, this super tasty juices will flow over the brisket and down the sides sort of self-basting.

Now, let's cut a crosshatch pattern into the fat cap. Try not to cut into the meat but it's not the end of the world if it does happen.

This allows the juices to get trapped a little down next to the meat helping to keep it more moist. It also gives the rub a place to hold on to so the melting fat cap doesn't just wash all of the rub away. I also believe this gives the smoke just a little bit of access to the meat that it wouldn't have on that side otherwise.

Now let's do the molasses thing to the fat cap.

And pour another ¼ cup of Jeff's original rub onto the fat cap and rub it in real good.

The brisket is now in the correct configuration and is ready for the smoker and you can start dreaming about the delicious smoked brisket you'll soon be enjoying!

Smoke Time

Set up your smoker for cooking at 240°F (116°C) using indirect heat. Lower heat is ok if you must but, just know that this means it will take your brisket a little longer to get done.

If your smoker has a water pan, fill it up with water.

When the smoker is ready to cook, place the brisket on the smoker grate fat side up and close the door or lid.

I used a pecan/cherry mix for smoke but any good smoking wood will work fine for smoked brisket.

For large, normal sized packer briskets, you can expect itto take about 5-6 hours to reach 155-160°F which is the point at which the brisket can be wrapped in foil or paper.

I used my orange ThermoPop to get periodic temperature readings for this cook and because it reads in just a few seconds, I can raise the lid, get a reading and close the lid in under 5 seconds. That's lightning speed in the world of instant read thermometers.

You can also use a leave-in digital probe meat thermometer if you have one. Check out the “Smoke” by ThermoWorks.

Should you wrap the brisket once it reaches 155-160°F?

Wrapping a brisket helps it to get done faster, creates a more tender smoked brisket, and it helps to retain the moisture so it ends up a little more juicy. The down side is that the bark can end up soggy instead of nice and crisp.

Wrapping in paper does help the bark to maintain most of it's crispness and is a great choice for wrapping brisket. I sometimes wrap in paper or foil but often I choose to leave it alone.

You can purchase the food-grade natural brown paper in 18-inch or 30-inch width and it works great for this purpose.

There is also a pink/peach colored paper that some like to use.

This is completely your decision, so if you haven't tried wrapping, you probably should so you can make a good decision on whether to wrap or not wrap on future briskets.

If you do decide to wrap, just simply wrap it in foil or paper making sure it is tightly closed. Place it back in the smoker as quickly as possible in the same configuration as before.

Continue cooking the brisket until it reaches about 200°F (93°C) at which point I start checking it for tenderness using the butter test.

The butter test means that when a brisket is perfectly done, pushing a sharp probe or skewer into it should feel like it's going into soft, room temperaturebutter.

I puta half-stick of butter on the counter for a couple of hours to soften so I could compare the feel..

I then slid a wooden skewer into the top of the stick of butter before probing the center of the brisket flat. You can do this at home to get a feel for what a done brisket feels like.

It should go into the smoked brisket with little to no resistance when it is done.

Usually this happens at about 200°F (93°C) but can happen at higher temperatures if your brisket is particularly tough. Feeling the resistance is a great way to learn how to tell when brisket has reached it's sweet spot.

Once the brisket hits this “sweet spot” I recommend removing it from the heat right away.

Rest in a Dry Cooler

Before serving the smoked brisket, it needs to be rested for 1.5 to 2 hours in a dry, empty cooler wrapped in a layer of foil during which time, the juices will redistribute throughout the meat and it will end up being more juicy and tender than it would if you skipped this step.

If the brisket isn't already wrapped, place the brisket on a long piece of heavy duty foil.

Wrap the foil completely around the brisket..

Place the brisket down in the cooler..

I like to place pillows, towels, etc. on top of the brisket to insulate it while it rests.

Slice and Serve

Once the brisket is rested, it can be removed from the foil wrapping and sliced up for serving.

Be sure to set aside any juice from the foil or foil pan.

Beautiful mahogany color and juices puddling on top..

(don't forget to remove the toothpick)

First cut.. and beautiful smoke ring.

If the brisket slices are not as juicy as you hoped, pour some of the reserved juices from the foil wrap or the pan over the brisket slices just before serving.

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