Smoked BBQ Brisket Sandwich

Tender smoked beef brisket cooked low and slow is a lot easier to prepare than you think and it makes the best BBQ brisket sandwiches.

I never considered myself to be a very patient person. My husband is DEFINITELY not a patient person. Nothing like having kids to not only test your patience, but also teach you to chill and not agonize over the small stuff.

Meditation can be one way to unwind. Of course, THAT never really worked for me. I can’t shut my mind off. Cooking and photography are two hobbies that relax me. And my husband’s latest hobby to relax with? Barbecuing.

A few months ago, I wrote about our newest family member, our Big Steel Keg and a beautiful smoked pork roast we made.  My husband dives into his hobbies with every ounce of his being, and barbecuing is no exception.

Why you should try this recipe

Again, the key to smoked beef brisket is cooking your meat low and slow: low heat for hours and hours and hours.

Smoked brisket is basically very easy to cook – if you are patient. If you rush and cook the meat too quickly,  you will render a tough, horrid roast. Brisket is best cooked at 250ºF (low) for about 10 hours (sloooooowly) for a 7-pound brisket.

The prep work is minimal. You do need to trim some of the big chunks of fat. Rub it all down with a delicious spice mix and let it sit in the fridge overnight. The hardest part of this recipe is waiting 10 hours to enjoy your tender, juicy and incredible bbq brisket sandwich!

Ingredients you need

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• Whole packer beef brisket: A whole brisket will have both the point and flat muscle included. You want good marbling within the meat because that translates into juicy and delicious meat. 
• Spices: We used paprika, chile powder, cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, mustard powder, kosher salt and ground black pepper.
• Brown sugar: You can use light or dark brown sugar.
• Extra virgin olive oil: A nice pepper olive oil would work well. But if you prefer a mild flavor, use avocado oil.
• Beer: I used whatever beer we had in the fridge. Remember, if you use flavored beers this flavor will be added to the meat.
• Apple cider vinegar: My personal favorite is Bragg apple cider vinegar. It has tremendous flavored compared to other varieties.

Step-by-step directions

1. If you need to figure out how much brisket you will need per person, we offer generous portions, about ½-pound per person. You need to trim some of the fat cap off the brisket. We leave about ¼-inch of fat on the outside of the brisket. Most of this will melt as it cooks, giving more juice and flavor into the brisket. A nice sharp boning knife works well for this task.

Beware: if you have a dog, they will stand and beg during this process. We can’t help but treat him to a couple pieces of lean raw brisket.

2. Once trimmed, rub the brisket down with olive oil and the spice rub about 12-hours prior to setting your coals on fire. Place your seasoned brisket on a baking sheet and keep it in the refrigerator overnight, uncovered.

3. Before you grill the brisket, you have to bring it to room temperature. You don’t smoke a cold slab of meat. We usually let it rest on the countertop for at least an hour before placing it on the grill. This gives you plenty of time to prep the grill for smoking.

4. We do not own a smoker. We own a Kamado style grill and we make the best smoked meats in it. The key is making sure your temperature doesn’t go above or below 250ºF. This is the dance you dance with your coals and the vents.

When smoking brisket in a standard grill, half of it is filled with coals and the other half contains an aluminum pan filled with a bit of water. The grill grate rests above that and your brisket is placed over the hot pan of water, not the coals, and cooked with indirect heat.

If you have a Big Steel Keg, or any other Kamado style grill space is limited. At the very bottom of the keg you place the coals and wood chips.

We used approximately 1 chimney full of hardwood lump charcoal with ½ a coal chimney full of lit coals. The Big Steel Keg does not waste coals, so we had plenty leftover after 10 hours of grilling.

5. You might need to add more coals if your conventional grill drops below 250ºF in temperature. We also used 3-4 chunks of hickory (similar to these) for smokiness and mixed them with the coals.

6. Above that  you have the low level tray. We placed a ½-inch stainless steel plate to disperse the heat. You can find this online or at your local metal supply company.

Above the stainless steel plate we have the main grill grate where we placed this roasting pan (with rack) filled with ½-inch of water. It is in this baking pan and rack where we place the beloved and seasoned brisket.

7. When you have a giant brisket, like a 14-pounder or more, you can cut it in half and place the second brisket on the top rack of your keg (not pictured in my diagram), above the baking pan containing the first brisket. We smoke a brisket in two layers all the time.

While you are smoking your brisket, you need to keep it moist. We mopped ours with a beer-cider vinegar mixture every hour. Set a timer. A timer is  your friend. Again, patience is the key to a tender and scrumptious smoked beef brisket.

We followed the basic directions and recipe found by The BBQ Pit Boys. Of course, we modified it to match our personal taste in spices and created our own indirect heat method to smoke the meat.

8. After 8-hours of smoking the brisket in the roasting pan and when the internal temperature reaches 190ºF, we also wrapped it tightly in heavy duty aluminum foil (or barbecue butcher paper) and returned it to the grill to cook for another 1 ½-2 hours

Is all of this work really worth it? Um, yeah. You end up with mind-blowingly awesome brisket that is ridiculously tender, yet firm enough for slicing. If you like your smoked beef brisket even more tender, like falling apart tender, continue grilling for another hour or two.

Another tool we found priceless, especially for these long slow cooking projects where you need to keep the heat consistent is our CyberQ bbq temperature controller, WIFI meat thermometer for the grill. This baby runs a little fan to control the heat in your grill. It also sends you texts/emails so you can control it via wifi, too. Priceless.

Expert tips and recipe FAQs

It is very important to let your brisket rest for 30 minutes or up to one hour. Just place it on a baking sheet or your cutting board and let it sit. You can let it sit long like this, just wrap a kitchen towel around it. We’ve done this several times and it stays nice and warm.

When serving, always cut against the grain with a sharp knife like this. This brisket tastes amazing by itself or with barbecue sauce. Anything goes! Before cutting, be sure to have all your sandwich toppings and sides ready.

• Brioche buns
• Pickle slices
• Barbecue sauce varieties
• Cole slaw
• Potato salad
• French fries

Leftover brisket can easily be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to four days. When we make a lot of brisket, we like to freeze portions to enjoy later. We freeze leftovers vacuum packed, but you can also use freezer safe resealable bags. Just be sure to remove as much of the extra air as possible.

To reheat frozen brisket, first thaw it completely in the refrigerator. You can pan fry slices or wrap in foil and bake in the oven at 325F until warmed completely.

PS If you try this recipe, why not leave a star rating in the recipe card right below and/or a review in the comment section further down the page? I always appreciate your feedback.

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