BBQing in SE Texas

SE Texas is recognized by its fabulous BBQ. Reckon in Texas refers to beef not pork. One of the primary ingredients is the brisket.

Brisket is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of beef. The brisket muscles support about 60% of the body weight of standing/moving cattle. This requires a significant amount of connective tissue, so the resulting meat must be cooked correctly to tenderize the connective tissue. Otherwise you will end up with very hard meat, not what you want.

After almost 10 yrs, in SW TX (and multiple tries barbecuing briskets), we have finally reached a recipe and technique that is worth trying.

Trimmed Beef Brisket

We start off with a nice and trimmed whole beef brisket. We recommend not to remove the fat in between the layers, as the same will provide moist during the smoking process.

Quality ingredients and spices will be require to make both the wet rub and the dry rub. If you can grind whole toasted spices would be even better, as this technique will improve fragrance and flavor to be infused by the spices.

We like to use black pepper, garlic, smoked paprika and cayenne pepper for the dry rub.

For the wet rub we chili peppers, yellow mustard and beef concentrate are a good combination. 

Rub the brisket with the wet run ensuring you are covering all sides and rubbing in between the layers of beef.

Sprinkle the brisket with the dry rub on all sides. Press the rub down with your hands to ensure it remains on the meat.

Cover and refrigerate the brisket for up to 2 hrs turning once after the first hour.

Remove the brisket from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for about and hour. 

Place the brisket in the smoker and hot smoke until internal temperature reaches 160 F. This could take anywhere from 4 to 8 hours depending on how cold was the brisket at the time it was placed in the smoker, the average temperatures of your smoker, and the outside temperature.

Remove the brisket from the smoker, place it in an aluminum pan. Pour one bottle of your favorite beer and one cup of apple juice, and cover with two layers of aluminum foil. Return to the smoker and continue to cook until the internal temperatures reaches 195 F. This can take up to another 4 to 6 hours.

Remove the brisket from the smoker and let is sit cover for 30 minutes.

Grilled the brisket for about 30 min, turning one, and serve.