Hickory Smoked Beef Brisket
Here, succulent, juicy beef feeds a crowd. This can be done in an outdoor smoker, or in your oven using wood chips in a smoker box. Leftovers would be amazing wrapped in tortillas for brisket tacos, or mixed with crispy potatoes and over-easy eggs for a delicious hash.
INGREDIENTS:
DIRECTIONS:
- The night before you plan to smoke the beef, trim the brisket of all silverskin but leave as much of the fat cap on the meat as possible.
- With a meat injector, inject the brisket with 1 cup of the beef broth, inserting the needle parallel to the grain of the meat about every 2 inches and taking care not to puncture the surface.
- Rub all surfaces of the meat with the olive oil, followed by the salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and cayenne. Rub the seasoning into the meat thoroughly.
- Cover and refrigerate overnight.
- Preheat smoker to 225F using your favorite combination of charcoal and wood, following your smoker's instructions. (We used hickory.)
- If you are not using a smoker, set up a regular grill for indirect heat using a wood chip smoker box, or use your oven and a wood chip smoker box.
- 30-60 minutes before putting the beef in the smoker, remove it from the refrigerator to bring it closer to room temperature.
- Once the chill has disappeared, place the beef into the smoker.
- Once the beef reaches 150-160F, move it into a foil roasting pan carefully, so as not to disturb the brown crust.
- Pour the remaining 1 cup of beef broth around the brisket, then cover tightly with aluminum foil.
- Continue to smoke until the thermometer reaches 190F.
- When the meat registers 190F, move the roasting pan and wrapped brisket to a 190F oven. Allow the meat to rest in the oven, wrapped, for 2-3 hours.
- Remove from the oven and slice against the grain of the meat. Serve with the beef broth if desired.
RECIPE NOTES:
According to all the research we did on meat smoking (we really did — we’re nerds), smoking a brisket is notoriously tricky and easy to mess up. Yikes. Here, we took the best pieces of advice from the myriad sources we consulted and came up with a succulent, juicy piece of beef that was ideal for feeding a crowd. This can be done in an outdoor smoker, or in your oven using wood chips in a smoker box. If you somehow have leftovers, they would be amazing wrapped in tortillas for brisket tacos, or mixed with crispy potatoes and over-easy eggs for a delicious hash.
In general, allow about 1 hour per pound of meat in the smoker. (Ours took about 8 hours and 15 minutes.)
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