Smoking Brisket in Electric Smoker 

If you’re looking for the best smoked meats, there’s nothing quite like good smoky beef brisket. It’s the best of the best! Brisket that has been smoke-rubbed with many different spices is delicious since it’s smoked for hours until it’s flavorsome, tender, juicy, and cooked perfectly. It’s cooked precisely the same way as it is in restaurants!

It’s one of barbecue’s tastiest meats, smoky brisket, to be precise. In other outdoor cookers, you may get close to the meaty, tender, and succulent meat tastes of classic charcoal BBQ without resorting to standard charcoal BBQ. A comprehensive guide on the ideal wood for a smoke-in-a-box brisket is included in this article. Find out all you need to know about smoking brisket in an electric smoker, from the finest woods to the greatest rubs!

Steps on How to Smoke Brisket in an Electric Smoker

Step 1: Preparation of the Beef Brisket

A thick layer of fats on the beef brisket is the most crucial factor to check for when purchasing your beef brisket for your cooking endeavor. A rich, thick layer of fats will gently meltdown over the meats while it smokes, infusing it with juiciness and a great taste as it does so. In addition, it’s crucial to get acquainted with your cuts when it comes to smoking brisket. The brisket is made up of two major muscles. For example, a ‘flat’ muscle goes parallel to the meat’s length and is surrounded by a fine layer of fats known as the fat cap. In addition, there is the ‘point,’ located around one end of the cut, and it has been separated from the flat owing to the layer of fats.

Beef-cut flats are generally preferred, and they account for most of the meat in the entire beef brisket. There is a bunch of intramuscular fat in the joint, which some individuals find to be a favorable must-have-. Choose whatever you wish to this brisket entirely at your own will! You may, of course, just cook the entire brisket in one cook. The night before, you plan to cook, perform all of your prep work. Dry brining the brisket up overnight with seasonings will ultimately produce an unforgettable great taste and texture for the final piece. However, if this is not feasible, attempt to do it at least two to four hours before you want to start smoking.

Step 2: Trim the Brisket

There are several essential steps to do before seasoning or marinating, but trimming is one of the most important of them. How effectively your meat cooks, and thus how it tastes, is determined by the amounts of fats you keep on there. The taste of your smoke will be unable to permeate the brisket if it has an excessive amount of fat on it. There will be no juiciness BBQ flavor if you remove too many fats from the meat, so be careful while trimming. 

Preparing brisket like Aaron Franklin’s brisket recipes has maintained its popularity throughout time because they are simple and straightforward to execute. Having a solid, dependable knife is essential to any successful meat preparation endeavor. To get the job done, you’ll need a 7- or 8-inch-long knife for your needs. If you don’t have the right knife, you won’t be able to cut through the massive and thick brisket.

Step 3: Purchase a Quality Brisket Rub

Remember to season your brisket with a thorough rub before cooking it. It will enhance but not overwhelm the smokey taste of the food, making it a perfect accompaniment to the smokey flavor of the brisket. In terms of seasoning, it is crucial to maintain a straightforward method. Sometimes, people tend to overcomplicate things during this phase but try not to go beyond. Our goal is for the meat’s natural tastes to shine through, rather than having an inch-thick coating of spice stand in their way. It retains its delicate flavor whenever brisket is cooked with just a pinch of black pepper plus sea salt. This is one of the most remarkable characteristics of brisket.

Several ready-made options are available if you don’t have the time to make your own spices and rubs. It’s more rewarding to put it together yourself, and you may customize it to your own preferences. Please consider the fact that the rub aims to improve the flavor of the meat, so thoroughly coat your brisket with it. Spread it with a light hand and slowly massage it in. It’s a good idea to experiment with garlic powder, paprika, red pepper flakes. Injecting the marinade into the brisket during this frame of opportunity will be beneficial if you already have prepared one.

Step 4: Selecting the Right Type of Wood

Try out hardwoods as a material for experimentation. The finest electric smokers nearly usually include a wood-burning option, even if it’s not standard on all models. However, not all-new models have those features, so choose wisely before buying a smoker. You may also make your own bespoke combination of wood chips in combination with a dry rub, wet brine, or marinade. The exception to this rule is apple, which does not do well when smoked with this meat. Try cooking your brisket over hickory or mesquite since they are known for their richness in terms of taste.

Step 5: Set Up Your Electric Smoker & Get It Ready to Preheat

To get the most flavor out of your meat, pick a good smoking wood that complements the flavor of the meat. I suggest using oaks, mesquite, or hickory as your wood of choice. Although I enjoy the combination of Hickory and Smoked Brisket, feel free to explore and get the best for your preferences. Make sure that the wood chips you choose are dry hardwoods before purchasing them. It would be best if you only used dry hardwood chippings to check to ensure they’re not soft or wet. This will guarantee that you are smoking a hygienic, healthy meal. To make matters worse, the bitter flavor that comes from cooking with black smoke is difficult to conceal. So choose your woods wisely!

It would be best if you preheated the smoker at around 225°F after the wood chips have been placed into the smoker. The meat will cook more consistently if you allow the temperatures to stabilize for an extended length of time. Otherwise, hot patches or undercooked portions may form.

Step 6: Place Your Brisket in the Smoker. Ready to Smoke

Whether you have frozen the brisket after applying the dry rub, allow it to sit at room temperature before continuing the cooking process. On average, this process would take approximately an hour. However, it depends on the size of your brisket. Fatty cap-side-up, put your beef brisket in the smoker. The brisket will remain juicy because of the melting fat that seeps into the meat. Bear in mind that every smoker has a distinctive way of performing things. It is especially crucial when the heat source emanates from the bottom of the meat since it will retain its moisture and prevent it from drying out. Keep the pointed end towards the flame if you have a heat source on the other side of your smoker.

Keep in mind that the point is fatter than the rest of the meat, so cooking it closer to the flame will prevent it from drying out. The flat should be situated near the chimney since this area is more prone to fire. Utilize a drip pan to limit the chance of a flare-up and collect any delicious drippings that you may use in gravies or sauces later on in the cooking process. Insert a half-filled pan with water/beer/cider/whatever else you like in the smoker. As the fire gets hot, it pulls moisture from meats, so if you keep a pan filled with water while cooking, that will retain the moisture within it. This will make the smoke easier to get into the meat. Allow your electric smoker do its thing after you’ve shut the lids or doors of your smoker. Take a seat, crack up a drink, and take in the scenery.

People exposing the meat while smoking will let the smoke and heat out, and it will take them longer to cook it—efforts to keep the lid closed for as long as you need to. Using a wireless innovative meat thermometer is the easiest method to keep an eye on the temperature. It will assist in reducing the amount of heat lost when the smoker is reopened. You’ll get the greatest smoky flavor from your meat within its first two hours of cooking time. Afterward, use a spray bottle to saturate the brisket with vinegar, beef stock, or apple juice, depending on your preference. Perform this action every 30 minutes to an hour, depending on your cooking span. It will assist in keeping the meat juiciness while also helping to form delicious crust or bark.

Step 7: Check the Brisket’s Internal Temperature

When the temperature of the beef brisket hits 195°F, it is done cooking. Using a digital meat thermometer, monitor the brisket’s temperature throughout the cooking process. On the occasion that your smoker is equipped with probes, its temperature setting for each electric smoker is distinctive. Some severals models have a temperature of 190°F, while others may have a temperature of 195°F.

Read your owner’s handbook to determine your particular model’s ideal brisket cooking temperature. Whenever the brisket meets this temperature, the smoker will shut down and switch to ‘Warm mode,’ which will preserve the piece of beef warm once you’re ready to devour it.

Please keep in mind that the temperature of the electric smoker and the temperature of the brisket are two separate variables. Maintaining the smoker’s temperature within the range of 225°F to 250°F is crucial. If you’re looking for the best outcomes, your brisket’s internal temperature must be between 195 and 200 °F.

Step 8: Preparing the Brisket for Wrapping

After a while, the temperature of the brisket doesn’t go up as much because of the moisture that evaporates from it. When the brisket reaches this ‘stall’ stage, it will begin to cool down right away. When the brisket has reached 165 ° F, you must wrap it immediately to avoid this issue from occurring. Depending on your preference, you may use aluminum foil or peach butcher paper. Keep in mind that the brisket is completely wrapped. There should be no openings or holes anywhere in the meat at all. 

Additionally, this will aid in the meat’s tenderness, suppleness and speed up the cooking time. The best way to wrap a brisket is to use peach butcher paper rather than aluminum foil. Since butcher paper allows smoke to enter the slab of meat while still preserving its juices, it is an excellent choice for grilling, smoking, or roasting meats. Furthermore, the brisket will be topped with a tasty layer of caramelized crust, which will add to the dish’s overall taste. As soon as you’ve wrapped the meat, please put it in the smoking chamber and let it cook for 20 minutes at 200°F.

At this point, a 12-pound brisket will require between 10 and 12 hours of cooking time to attain the desired internal temperature. Given that every brisket is distinctive in terms of thickness, it is impossible to provide a precise cooking time estimate. As a general rule of thumb, you should allow one hour of cooking time for each pound of meat. This is what you’d expect: A 5-pound brisket would take up to five hours to cook when it’s wrapped in foil. Cooking a brisket that weighs more than 15-pounds will require around twelve hours. However, it may take as little as five to six hours to smoke an unwrapped 12-pound brisket.

Step 9: How Do You Know When It’s Ready

To monitor the meat’s temperature, pierce its meat with a temperature probe and record the reading. When the beef brisket reaches a temperature of 195°F or 200°F, it’s time to remove it from the smoker. There’s an easy way to tell whether a piece of beef is tender for those who don’t have a temperature with probes. You may have heard of it as the “peanut butter test.” In order to determine the texture and tenderness of the peanut butter, push a wooden skewer and then feel it. That is precisely how you should feel as you put the wooden skewer into the brisket meat. If you still feel the same, it’s time to start taking out the meat from the smoker.

Step 10: Give It Some Time to Rest

Wait for at least an hour of resting time before slicing the wrapped brisket. It will help to settle it down as well as assist in the absorption of all of the juices back into the brisket throughout the resting time. Leave it until the brisket’s internal temperature reaches 170 degrees Fahrenheit, at which point it’s done. Cutting it too soon may result in some of the tasty juices dripping over the cutting surface, which was not intended at all.

Step 11: Slicing the Meat

The crust and fat are often scraped off, but the tastiest portion of the smoked brisket is the bit it removes. So it’s preferable to leave things the way they are. Begin by cutting long pieces from the lean portion of the meat using a 12-inch-long slicing knife, preferably serrated. The meat may be ripped apart using shorter knives while slicing the brisket.

The whole brisket should be sliced across its grain in order to achieve incredible tenderness! When it comes to point and flat cuts, grain direction is opposite. This because? Since the flat and pointed muscles converge at a point. Separately cutting each part will easily remove the flat and point pieces. However, cutting the flat area against the grain is the most effective method. The midway, where the flat and point parts intersect, is when you cut the point from the midway, twist it 90 °, and cut it across the grain.

It is possible to go through a pull test to determine whether or not the brisket is tender enough. Using this method, hold the slice vertically, and if it falls to the ground because of its own weight, you know it’s overdone. Also, the piece of meat should readily fall off when pulled; if it does not, it is hard as well as undercooked. The thickness of the cuts for the leaner area should be around 3/16 inches, and the fattier portion should be approximately 3/8 inches.