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Texas Smoked Brisket on the barbecue
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Texas Smoked Brisket Recipe For Absolute Beginners (Step-by-Step)

This foolproof Texas Smoked Brisket recipe teaches you how to trim, season, wrap, and rest your brisket like a pitmaster — perfect for pellet, offset, or backyard smokers.
Course Barbecue, Beef, Brisket Recipes, Brisket School
Cuisine Barbecue
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 20 hours
Resting Time 2 hours
Total Time 22 hours
Servings 15
Author Sarah Penrod

Equipment

  • Cutting Board
  • Boning or Utility Knife
  • Nitrile Gloves
  • Paper towel
  • Wood or Pellets post oak, hickory, and pecan are Texas favorites
  • Barbecue Smoker Offset, pellet, or kamado
  • Water pan  for consistent humidity
  • Glass spray bottle (glass allows it to go in the microwave)
  • Instant read thermometer
  • Probe thermometer
  • Butcher paper or foil
  • Drink cooler (Like an Igloo cooler)
  • Towel (hopefully, not one of your nice towels)
  • electric knife
  • Heat-proof liner gloves
  • Cutting board, with juice groove

Ingredients

  • 1 whole packer brisket 15–18 lb. choice or prime grade
  • 2 Tbsp kosher salt
  • 2 Tbsp coarse black pepper
  • Optional: 1 Tbsp garlic powder for Central Texas “Dalmatian rub plus” style
  • Beef tallow or apple cider vinegar for spray bottle see note about melting tallow

Instructions

Trim the brisket.

  • Using a sharp boning knife, trim the fat cap down to about ¼ inch thick. Remove any hard fat and silver skin, and round off sharp corners so smoke flows evenly. (Click here for full photo guide.)
    Also, a good time to guess your total cook time and plan ahead. You remove 3-5 pounds of muscle and fat during trimming. See the notes section below the recipe to estimate your smoking time, about 1-1.25 hours per pound, plus the rest.
    Trimming the fat from a whole raw brisket

Season.

  • Season generously with kosher salt and coarse black pepper on all sides. Some people also choose to use garlic powder. Let it sit for 30 minutes at room temperature while you prepare the smoker, water pan, and spray.
    For The Spray: In a glass spray bottle, fill half way with apple cider vinegar or melted beef tallow. 
    Pitmaster's Tip: 
    You can buy beef tallow in jars online or at most butcher shops. Before using, microwave it for about 30 seconds until it turns into a smooth, pourable liquid you can spray or brush onto your brisket. If you’re smoking in cold weather, you may need to re-warm it occasionally to keep it fluid and easy to use.
    beef tallow prepped to go in a glass spray bottle

Fire up your smoker.

  • Bring your smoker to 225–250°F with post oak wood for that classic Central Texas flavor. Pellet smokers can use oak, pecan, hickory, or a combination blend.
    On offset smokers, place brisket fat side up.
    On pellet smokers, go fat side down to protect from radiant heat from the heat source below.
    Add a water pan to the chamber and place your probe thermometer into the thickest part of the brisket. 
    A whole smoker on the barbecue ready to smoke

Smoke it low and slow.

  • Cook until internal temperature reaches 160–170°F, about 6–8 hours depending on size. Spritz occasionally (about once an hour) with apple cider vinegar or beef tallow to encourage bark formation. Do not overspray, less is more. Over spraying greatly increases the cook time.
    wrapping a smoked brisket to begin the texas crutch method

The Texas Crutch (wrap).

  • Once the bark is dark mahogany and firm to the touch, wrap the brisket tightly in peach butcher paper or foil. 
    Pitmaster’s Tip: Some pitmasters like to wrap their brisket in butcher paper and then set it on a “boat” made from heavy-duty aluminum foil. The foil boat catches the juices that render out during the final hours of the cook, keeping the brisket moist while still allowing the bark to breathe and stay crisp.
    Return it to the smoker and continue cooking until the internal temperature hits 203–206°F. 
    Texas crutch brisket with a foil pan to catch juices

Rest.

  • Remove from smoker, keep wrapped, and let the brisket rest in a drink cooler wrapped with a beach towel for at least 2 hours (or longer--many people leave it for up to 4 hours), This lets the juices redistribute, and the connective tissue and fat to fully breakdown and render.
    A drink cooler used to store a cooked brisket.

Slice and serve.

  • To unwrap the brisket, set up your cutting board with groove, electric knife or slicing knife, and gloves. I use these heat-proof liner gloves underneath my black nitrile gloves to better handle the brisket as it will still be hot to the touch.
    Unwrap your masterpiece, then separate the flat from the point by running your hand in between the muscles and finding the soft squishy deckle fat. You can work this seam with a gloved hand to gently separate flat from point.
    Slice the muscles separately: The flat should be cut against the grain into pencil-thick slices ; the point can be chopped for brisket sandwiches or cubed for burnt ends.
    Serve with potato salad, bbq sauce, pickles, white bread, onions, and a cold Dr Pepper—because that’s how we do it in Texas! :)
    slices of smoked brisket about a pencil width is best.

Notes

For a standard Texas-style smoked brisket, total smoke time depends on the brisket’s size and the pit temperature, but here’s the general rule of thumb:
  • Temp range: 225 – 250 °F
  • Time estimate: about 1 to 1¼ hours per pound
So for a 14-lb whole packer brisket, expect roughly 14–17 hours total from start to finish:
  1. Unwrapped smoke: ~6–8 hours (until 160–170 °F internal temp and bark is set)
  2. Wrapped phase (Texas Crutch): another ~6–8 hours (until 203 °F internal temp)
  3. Rest: 2 hours in a cooler before slicing
Total: about 16–18 hours including the rest.
If you run your smoker hotter (around 275 °F, like many Texas joints), you can shorten that to 8–10 hours total for a 14-pounder.