smoked brisket

Hi everyone!  I hope you had a great Memorial Day!  We decided to smoke a brisket at my house.  This is my first attempt at smoking a brisket and just my second time using a smoker. 

to get started you will need: 

a brisket

dry rub seasoning

clear plastic wrap

I also used some salt, pepper and garlic powder

after removing the plastic from the brisket I decided to use mustard to help the seasonings stay on the meat better..

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all over on both sides.

I bought McCormick's Grill Mates dry rub for this brisket.  I ended up using the Smokin' Texas flavored packs over the Memphis Pit.  It just tasted better to me.  I used two packages on the brisket.

cover both sides with the seasoning

after you've seasoned the brisket to your liking, wrap it up in clear plastic wrap and set it into your refrigerator to chill.  I chilled this one for 6 hours and let it set out at room temperature for 1 hour before cooking.

you could use whatever wood chips you like, we chose hickory.  you will need to soak these at least one hour prior to cooking.. this is a smaller bag of wood chips and we used them all.

just put them into a large bowl and fill with water, I put a heavy plate on top of these to make sure they were properly soaked.

while the wood chips are soaking and the meat is resting at room temperature now is a good time to get the smoker coals going.. we used about 18lbs of charcoal throughout the entire process.

place coals in bottom of smoker pan and use charcoal starter and light them.. let them rest until they become an even gray color and are glowing hot.. have patience!

we decided to use Mott's apple juice during the first hours of smoking the brisket for the moisture pan.  You can use water here or whatever you want.

This is the unwrapped brisket that has set for about 6-7 hours in the dry rub

after you've got your coals hot and wood chips onto the fire and smoker assembled, its time to put the meat on the grill.. let cook for 6 hours without taking the lid off.

6 hours in..  I flipped the brisket at this point and continued to add apple juice or water into the moisture pan as well as new charcoal to keep the fire going.  

Finally done.. we took it off of the smoker after about 14 hours of slow and low cooking.

time to let it rest..  wrap the brisket tightly in aluminum foil..

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and then into a towel.. place in cooler or refrigerator for at least an hour.  I think I left mine in about 3-4 hours.

looks great!  slice against the grain and your brisket should be tender and flavorful.

yum.   happy memorial day <3