SUBSCRIBE FOR UPDATES!

Kitchen Trials

Quick And Easy Smoked Brisket

By 1 Comment

A slice of quick and easy smoked brisket draped over a finger to show how tender it is while still holding its shape. There's a perfect smoke ring around the outside of the slice, and you can see how moist the meat is.

I am giddy to be sharing this recipe with you today. Literally from the moment Bo and the kids surprised me with a smoker three years ago I’ve been obsessed with making the perfect quick and easy smoked brisket.

I’ve done the MasterClass with Aaron Franklin from Franklin BBQ. I’ve watched dozens of youtube videos on how to trim, prep, season, and smoke. I have made probably close to 18 briskets over those three years, and throughout all that I refused to share a recipe until I was sure it was THE recipe to share.

A close up image of a quick and easy smoked brisket, sitting on a cutting board, and cross cut so you can see the inside. It glistens with juice and showcases a perfect red smoke ring around the ends illustrating how full of flavour it is.

Briskets are given such a bad rap. They’re published and shared over and over again as a complex meat to cook. Touted as difficult to trim, prep, and smoke to the perfect combination of tender and juicy doneness.

It’s taken me three years to perfect this for you. To create the perfect quick and easy smoked brisket recipe for the home cook. One that I was confident in. One that everyone could make and be proud of, even if it was their first time smoking a brisket. Don’t be afraid, don’t be nervous. I’ve got you. You’ve got this.

First Love

Mother’s Day, three years ago. Bo and the kids surprised me with a Traeger smoker and every type of pellet he could find. The most hilarious part of this gift was me though. I confidently stated that I was making a brisket as our inaugural smoke.

I’m a big proponent of using what you have to make what you want. There is always a work around, just check out this horrifically trimmed brisket. You see, for a few years before I was gifted that smoker I’d been smoking a brisket like this. On my gas BBQ with a smoker box full of damp wood chips and an aluminum loaf pan full of water. Remember, we all have to start somewhere, and as budget as this looks it still tasted great!

The Lore Of Smoked Brisket Perpetrated By The “Experts”

That first brisket on the Traeger I made was the first of around 18 briskets I trial and errored before sharing this. Don’t get me wrong, all of them were delicious in their own way, but until around brisket number twelve none of them were what I could consider perfect. Some were super flavourful, but had turned into shredded pork. Some had the perfect level of chew, but were dry and flavourless. More then a few I just completely f’ed up.

The worst part was that SO MANY of those briskets took me 12+ hours, because that’s what the “experts” said it took. Some nights I had planned for dinner to be ready at 7, but despite my best efforts it was 11pm and Bo and I were eating a few bites hours after I’d fed the kids something else, forced to put the brisket I’d slaved over all day into the fridge to be warmed up the next day.

A close up image of a quick and easy smoked brisket, sitting on a cutting board, and cross cut so you can see the inside. It glistens with juice and showcases a perfect red smoke ring around the ends illustrating how full of flavour it is.

I’m not joking when I tell you that I did ALL the research. I watched all the shows, took the classes, watched the youtube videos, tested the recipes. I was obsessed with making a brisket as good as any BBQ you visited across the country. And so many of them preached the process, the time, the effort.

I started to think that was the only way. Now, no shade to Aaron or anyone else, but they were telling me to cook a brisket for at least 45 minutes per pound. That’s was average of 9 hours for me before resting it for another 3-6 hours. 12-15 hours total. That was starting to become an absolutely exhausting commitment every month in the summer for me. I knew there had to be a better way. I just had to figure it out.

Hot And Fast Smoked Brisket

I started scouring the internet for anyone that had done something different. It didn’t take me long to find Hey Grill, Hey’s Hot and Fast Brisket recipe. I already trusted her, she’s a regular visit for me, and every recipe of her’s that I’ve made has been a fast favourite. So, I started here.

A full brisket that's been trimmed and seasoned before heading to a smoker. It's sitting on top of a white cutting board, and has been rubbed with yellow mustard, salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder.

The first time I followed her recipe exactly, but as recipe developers and bloggers do, we tweak. We find ways to switch things up that work better for us, or produce a result that consistently works for us. I highly recommend giving her recipe a try if you’re curious. Before you do that though, I’ll break out a few of the changes that I made:

  • I finish my brisket in the oven instead of on the smoker. This saves you money, I’ll explain below.
  • I break out a seasoning mix for you, so you don’t have to buy one.
  • I increase the amount of time your brisket rests, which creates a more consistent final result that is much more similar to those 12 hour briskets you typically see.

My Brisket Method Uses The Smoker And The Oven.

If you’ve been cooking briskets for a while you’ve probably been told the key to that perfect smoke ring and flavour is time spent on the smoker. After a certain number of hours you’re instructed to wrap your brisket in aluminum foil or butcher paper before returning it to the smoker for another handful of hours.

A brisket rubbed with yellow mustard, salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder sitting on the grates of a Traeger smoker.

Well, firstly, if you wrap in aluminum foil NONE of that smoke is penetrating your meat any more. Secondly, if you wrap in butcher paper, your meat is absorbing a little bit of the smoke, but it’s also leeching liquid into the paper. This is a catch-22 for you. What’s more important? A bit more of the smokey flavour, or retaining more of the meat’s natural juices.

A brisket that's been smoked for three hours, now wrapped in aluminum foil and placed in the oven for the last two hours of cooking.

I can confidently answer this for you because I’ve done it both ways multiple time. Retaining liquid to be reabsorbed is key, and the additional smokey flavour you get with butcher paper is negligible at best. Also, it has to be said that during the resting process any brisket I had wrapped in butcher paper seemed dryer and greasier when eating. Wrapped in aluminum foil, the brisket had a more even texture, and a juiciness without seeming oily.

The Key To A Perfectly Smoked brisket Isn’t In The Cooking, It’s In The Resting

The most important takeaway I can impart on you is this: A perfect quick and easy smoked brisket has less to do with the amount of time it is smoked, and more to do with the amount of time it is rested. I tried a bunch of quick and easy smoked brisket recipes. The best one I found was the Hey Grill, Hey recipe I linked to above, but I still found there was tweaking to be done.

A quick and easy smoked brisket wrapped in aluminum foil and sitting on a baking sheet set atop a patio table outside.

No matter how much time I spent getting my brisket to that golden temperature of 210°F, it’s final outcome depended more on the amount of time I rested the meat, then the amount of time I spent cooking it.

A close up image of a quick and easy smoked brisket, sitting on a cutting board, and cross cut so you can see the inside. It glistens with juice and showcases a perfect red smoke ring around the ends illustrating how full of flavour it is.
This is my brisket right after being taking out of the aluminum foil following a two and a half hour rest. Look at how juicy it is now, right before I slice into it.

When I tried to do a quick rest of 1 hour or less, my brisket was always dry. It didn’t matter if I had smoked it for 5 hours or 9 hours, that quick rest meant that my brisket was lacking. However, if I rested the brisket for 3 hours, it was phenomenal – incredibly juicy and tender, while still holding its shape and chew. Even at a 2 hour rest, the end result was 80% of a 3 hour rest. What I’m trying to say is that if you do anywhere from a 2-3 hour rest you will be incredibly happy with your results.

A slice of quick and easy smoked brisket draped over a finger to show how tender it is while still holding its shape. There's a perfect smoke ring around the outside of the slice, and you can see how moist the meat is.

This is my brisket after a two and a half hour rest. This finger flop is what I’d been chasing for three years and have finally mastered with this method. If you have watched any BBQ videos or tv shows focused on a brisket they always do this with a slice at some point. When your brisket can do this it tells you three things:

  1. It is juicy and tender enough to bend over your finger like this without snapping.
  2. It isn’t so over-cooked that it just falls apart on you into two or more pieces of meat.
  3. You have perfected cooking a brisket at home.

Want to see exactly how excited you’ll be after cooking this brisket? Watch this video, and know that this isn’t the first or last one I will take like this. Every time I cook a brisket now, using my method, this is the result I get. And every time, I am just as excited and proud as I was the first time. Poor Bo having to deal with this level of me-ness every single time, lol!

Quick and Easy Smoked Brisket Recipe

Alright, I think that’s just about all of the information I can think to impart on you after 3 years of trial and error creating a quick and easy smoked brisket recipe. Above all else, I just hope you try. From talking to friends I know that a smoked brisket seems intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s been built up as this pinnacle of classic BBQ, when really it can be a staple meat, prepared simply, and cooked perfectly every time.

I can’t want for you to make this at your next BBQ to share with family and friends. When you do, I would really love it if you came back and let me know how it went. Let my other readers know, so that together we start chipping away at the stigma certain types of BBQ has. It’s not nearly as difficult as some people would like to make us believe 😉

A close up image of a quick and easy smoked brisket, sitting on a cutting board, and cross cut so you can see the inside. It glistens with juice and showcases a perfect red smoke ring around the ends illustrating how full of flavour it is.

Quick and Easy Smoked Brisket

Yield: 1 whole brisket
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 5 hours
Additional Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 7 hours 15 minutes

A quick and easy smoked brisket in half the time without sacrificing flavour or tenderness. I used to make it like this when I was tight on time, but it's so good that it's the only way I cook them now!

Ingredients

  • 1 whole brisket, trimmed
  • Yellow mustard
  • Kosher salt
  • Course ground black pepper (or regular ground black pepper)
  • Garlic powder
  • Onion powder
  • Apple cider vinegar in a spray bottle (optional)

Instructions

    1. Get your smoker preheating to 290°F. If it runs a little cold, or if it's a cooler, windy day, bump that up to 300°F.
    2. Trim your brisket. This is the one thing I'm still trying to get perfect, so here's a great video you can use if you're new to this. The basics though: First, I trim the fat cap on the top of the brisket down to 1/4 inch. Next, I cut out the fat that is running between the flat and the point of your brisket. This makes the entire brisket sit flatter and more even for you. After that, I trim off any hard areas of fat that I feel, as well as any edges that look bumpy or grey. Lastly, I square off the sides and the ends, and remove any silver skin the butcher missed.
    3. Season your brisket. Give the whole brisket a good rub with some basic yellow mustard. After that, sprinkle a generous amount of kosher salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder on the entire brisket, making sure you get the edges as well. I don't include measurements for these because it depends on how big your brisket is. The yellow mustard isn't going to impart much flavour to the meat, but it is going to do a great job of helping the seasoning stick - especially if you press it into the mustard with your hand after sprinkling it over. Look at this step as trial and error - after you make this once, you can adjust the next time by adding more or less depending on your tastes. I go even with the salt, pepper and garlic powder, and slightly less with the onion powder.
    4. When the smoker has reached 290°F, place your brisket fat side down onto the grates. You're going to leave the brisket on here until it reaches 170°F, roughly 3 hours depending on brisket size. I recommend using a temperature probe to alert you when you reach the desired temperature. If you don't have one, use an instant read thermometer to check every hour. As an optional step: To prevent your brisket from drying out you can spray it with apple cider vinegar every hour. This also adds a great tang to the bark of the brisket. If you don't like tang, use apple juice.
    5. When your brisket has reached 170°F you want to take it off of the smoker. Tightly wrap the brisket in two layers of thick aluminum foil. Now, a lot of people will tell you to put your brisket back into the smoker after wrapping it in foil. Don't do this! Smoke can't penetrate the aluminum foil, so you're just wasting your pellets*. Instead, put your foil wrapped brisket onto a baking sheet and into a 300°F oven until it reaches 210°F, roughly two hours.
    6. When the brisket has reached 210°F take it out of the oven and wrap it with a towel (the kind you use after a shower, not a kitchen towel). Let it rest for at least two hours, up to three if you have the time**
    7. After your brisket has rested you're ready to slice it up. The best way to do this is to separate the point from the flat, then slice it against the grain. You can serve this on it's own with BBQ sauce***, or with buns and some extra condiments like coleslaw, pickles, and red onions to make sandwiches.

Notes

Wrapping the brisket

*Smoke from your smoker does not penetrate aluminum foil. If you want to wrap your brisket in butcher paper instead, you can place it back onto your smoker, increasing the temperature to 300°F, for the final two hours. This may give you a marginal increase in smokey flavour. I've done it both ways multiple times, and can not taste a difference, so I wrap in foil and put in it the oven to finish.

Resting

2-3 Hours (Optimal)

**Allowing your brisket to rest for 2-3 hours lets all the juices that have left the brisket return to the meat. This makes for an incredibly juicy and tender brisket that still holds its shape and chew.

1 Hour (In a rush)

If you're really tight on time you can only rest it for 1 hour, but know that the meat may fall apart more easily than it would have with a longer rest.

4-8 Hours (Time to kill)

If you have even more time to kill before you want to serve your brisket, wrap it in the towel and then store it in a cooler. This will help to maintain a safe temperature for 4-8 hours, or until the meat has cooled to 140°F. Past that point you want to transition it to the fridge and reheat when ready. A meat prob is amazing for keeping track of the temperature for you.

Storage

Leftovers can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days. Make sure that when you package it for the fridge you're includes all of the juices that have accumulated as well.

BBQ Sauce

***My favourite type of BBQ sauce to eat with this is a golden one. In Canada I buy the PC Black Label Gold BBQ Sauce. In the US, similar ones would be the Traeger Gold BBQ sauce, or the Kinder's Gold BBQ Sauce

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

© Katrina
Cuisine: American BBQ / Category: Dinner

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anonymous

    For a quick and easy smoked brisket, marinate the meat with your favorite spices and cook it slowly for the best flavor. After enjoying your meal, visit Justbit Casino https://justbitcasino.net/ for an exciting variety of games and a thrilling gambling experience.
    Reply

Let me know below!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Skip to Recipe