Smoked brisket is a barbecue classic everyone loves. It’s juicy, the meat is tender and extremely flavorful. Cooking it in a smoker may seem a challenge, since you’ll have to maintain smoker temperature all the time and overcome the so called ‘stall’, when the meat evaporating juices prevents the internal temperature from rising.

Following a few simple instructions will save a lot of trouble and will help you to make the process of smoking the brisket as easy and fun as possible.

Here are a few tips and tricks. Choose a 10-12 pound brisket, it should be the right size to fit your smoker. Trim if of all excess fat, but leave a little fat on top. As it melts during the smoking process, it will keep the meat from drying prematurely. Now, to the rub. I’ve tried a lot of rubs on the brisket and I have to tell you. You really can’t go wrong, unless you use just too much salt or overly hot pepper if you don’t really like a lot of spice. So, use any rub that suits your fancy and be generous with it.

You can cook the brisket immediately after or postpone the cooking till later and keep it in the fridge overnight to let the meat soak up the flavors.

Important note. The brisket is generally done when the internal meat temperature reaches about 190F. It’s best to use a kitchen thermometer to check the temperature. If you see that the temperature is about 150F and not rising any longer, because of the liquids evaporating from the brisket, wrap it in foil with a cup of apple cider or juice for a while and keep cooking.

I hope your barbecue outing is fun with this recipe!

Wondering how long to smoke a brisket to perfections? Find out in this article