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.

A few months ago, I wrote about our newest family member, our Big Steel Keg and a beautiful smoked pork roast we made. And boy have we enjoyed it! We have been cooking everything on our new grill.

We were ready for a new challenge. This time we smoked a brisket. Now I have made brisket several times in the oven, but they just don’t compare to what a smoker can create.

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. Trim the brisket. If you need to figure out how much brisket you will need per person, we offer generous portions, about ½-pound per person. Trim some of the fat cap off leaving about a 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.
2. Season the brisket. 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. Bring to room temp. 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. Prep the grill. We do not own a smoker. We own a Kamado style grill and we make the best smoked meats in it. 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.
5. Add a steel plate. Above the coals  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.
6. Add water tray. 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. Add the brisket. 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.
8. Baste. 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.
9. Wrap in foil. After 8-hours of smoking the brisket in the roasting pan and when the internal temperature reaches 190ºF, wrap the brisket tightly in heavy duty aluminum foil (or barbecue butcher paper) and returned it to the grill to finish cooking for another 1 ½-2 hours.
10. Rest the meat. Remove the brisket from the grill and let it rest. It is very important to let it 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.

Expert tips and recipe FAQs

Standard grill instructions. 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.

As I mentioned above, we use 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.

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.

Smart meat thermometer. The key is making sure your temperature doesn’t go above or below 250ºF.

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.

Serving your brisket. 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.

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

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Smoked BBQ Brisket Sandwich

Laura Bashar | Family Spice

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.

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 hours hrs

Additional Time 8 hours hrs

Total Time 18 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Servings 12

Calories 474 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 3 tablespoon paprika
• 3 tablespoon light brown sugar packed
• 2 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoon chile powder
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder
• 7 lb whole packer beef brisket
• 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 10 oz beer
• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

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Instructions

 

• In a bowl, mix together paprika, 2 tablespoon brown sugar, salt, 2 tablespoon black pepper, chile powder, cayenne pepper, onion powder, 1 teaspoon garlic powder and mustard powder.
• Rinse and pat dry brisket. Trim fat cap on brisket, leaving ¼-inch layer of fat. Remove any silver skin completely.
• Coat entire brisket lightly with olive oil. Apply rub over the entire brisket. Place brisket on a baking sheet and keep in the refrigerator overnight, uncovered.
• If using a charcoal grill, fill chimney full with natural mesquite lump charcoal and add to one side of the grill.
• Mix in half a chimney full of lit, hot briquettes with the non-lit briquettes. Add 3-4 chunks of hickory wood for smokey flavor.
• Next to the briquettes, in the other half of your grill place a drip pan or aluminum pan. Fill with ½-inch of water.
• Place grill rack over the charcoal and water pan.
• Using a thermometer, maintain grill heat at 250ºF. Place prepared brisket on the grill rack, over the water pan for indirect heat, fatty side up. Cover and begin cooking low and slow.
• To keep your brisket moist, you will baste it every hour with this mop. Combine beer, cider vinegar, 1 TBS brown sugar, 1 TBS garlic powder and 1 teaspoon black pepper.
• Cook until internal temperature of the brisket is 190ºF, about 8-9 hours. Add more charcoal as needed to maintain 250ºF grill temperature.
• When brisket reaches 190ºF internal temperature, remove from grill and wrap tightly with heavy duty aluminum foil. Return foil-wrapped brisket to the grill and continue cooking for 1 ½ to 2 hours more.
• Brisket should be moist and tender. Transfer to cutting board and let rest at least 30 minutes. Slice brisket against the grain, about ¼-inch thick and serve immediately.

Notes

You can also cut brisket in half and smoke the cuts of meat on your grill to cut cooking time, 1 ½-2 hours per pound of meat.

Serving Suggestions: Serve with rolls for a sandwich or with mashed potatoes and cole slaw.

Don’t own a grill? You can also cook it in the oven.

• For smokey flavor add ½-1 teaspoon of hickory or mesquite powder to your rub.
• Cut brisket in two equal halves.
• Sear both sides of each brisket in a hot pan with 1 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
• Wrap each seared brisket separately in foil, place on a baking sheet and cook in the oven at 250ºF until brisket reaches a temperature of 195º-205ºF, about 8-10 hours.

TO STORE: Store any leftover brisket in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days.

TO FREEZE: You can also freeze leftovers. 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. It should keep in the freezer for up to 4 months.

TO REHEAT. If frozen, first thaw a brisket completely in the refrigerator. You can pan fry slices in a pan over the stove, or wrap it in foil and bake in the oven at 325F until warmed completely.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 474kcalCarbohydrates: 7gProtein: 56gFat: 22gSaturated Fat: 7gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 164mgSodium: 1399mgPotassium: 1002mgFiber: 2gSugar: 3gVitamin A: 1437IUVitamin C: 0.4mgCalcium: 35mgIron: 6mg

Keyword bbq brisket sandwich, smoke brisket without a smoker, smoked beef brisket, smoked brisket

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Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.

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