Competition Brisket on a Pellet Smoker
Who says you can't win on a pellet smoker? With this recipe you'll get killer smoke rings, great smoke flavor and awesome bark! This is how Tipsy Brisket cooks their Brisket for Competition BBQ! This is a little more in depth than just your average brisket cooking for home, but if you want to up your game and try a competition style recipe give it a try! Competition Brisket is geared towards one bite for that WOW factor, you want the flavor to POP when a judge tries it. If you were to serve competition brisket as the main course for dinner, this would probably be a little too rich, salty and flavorful than you'd want for an entire meal.
Equipment
- Pellet Smoker We use and LOVE Recteq
- (This is an affiliate link and an easy and free way for you to support Tipsy Brisket!)Sharp Boning Knife
- Marinade Mixing Cup We use a blender bottle
- Meat/Marinade Injector
- Spray Bottle
- (This is an affiliate link and an easy and free way for you to support Tipsy Brisket!)Fat Separator
- Foil
- (This is an affiliate link and an easy and free way for you to support Tipsy Brisket!)Thermoworks ThermaPen ONE
- (This is an affiliate link and an easy and free way for you to support Tipsy Brisket!)The Meat Swadl
- (This is an affiliate link and an easy and free way for you to support Tipsy Brisket!)Carving Knife
- Small Basting Brush
- (This is an affiliate link and an easy and free way for you to support Tipsy Brisket!)Spice Grinder For grinding your rub into dust
- (This is an affiliate link and an easy and free way for you to support Tipsy Brisket!)Powder Sugar Duster For dusting the rub on your slices
- 6 pack of your favorite beer For you, not the meat.
Ingredients
- 1 12-16 pound beef brisket
Brisket Injection
- 1/3 cup KosmosQ Moisture Magic
- 1/4 cup KosmosQ Brisket Injection
- 2 cups Water
Brisket Rub
- 1 cup Favorite Rub
Brisket Dusting
- 1 cup Brisket Au Jus Use Fat Separator on juice in the foil when done cooking and resting.
- 1/8 cup Complementing Rub Use a spice grinder to make rub into fine dust.
- 1/8 cup MSG THE KING OF FLAVOR
Instructions
Trimming the Brisket
- Crack open a beer, you're going to need it.
- Put your brisket in the ice chest or freezer for an hour before trimming.
- If you are doing a competition you should probably trim the entire brisket before trimming the fat, trim the flat to be about ½ inch to ¾ inch larger than your turn in box. Focus on the center of the flat where your turn in pieces will be coming from.
- Use a sharp knife like a filet knife and start with the white fat that is extremely hard that is on the point and the side. Cut off as much of this as you can as it won't render down well.
- Flip the brisket fat cap up and trim the fat off of the point, it's got enough fat inside the point and this will help even out the brisket for cooking evenly.
- With the fat cap still up, trim the fat on the flat to about 1/8 inch thick, mainly just get off the old fat and make it smooth.
- Flip your brisket back over and now concentrate on trimming the silver skin and fat off of the surface of the flat and the point, use your hand under the brisket to arch it up and make it easier to trim off.
Marinade and Injectiing
- Add Moisture Magic into Belnder Bottle first and then add Brisket Injection, Mix Well.
- Add 2 cups of water to the Blender Bottle and mix thoroughly.
- Use a Meat Injector and Inject the Marinade into the Brisket in as many places as you can, pulling the injector out slightly as you are injecting into the meat. Make sure to get the flat and the point. You'll notice how much the brisket can hold as it will start squirting out when it's got too much!
- Might as well drink another beer.
Seasoning
- Use the juice from your injection as a binder, slather it all over the brisket.
- Start fat cap up, slice the fat cap about an inch apart in diagonal criss cross X pattern to get good penetration of the rub. Apply generously until you can no longer see the meat under the rub, get the sides as well. PAT the rub, don't rub the rub.
- Flip meat side up and generously apply the rub to the top side of your meat until you can't see the meat again. Try to be even on your application of rub and again, PAT the rub, don't rub the rub.
- Take a beer out of the cooler or fridge to make room for your brisket, might as well drink it.
- Put your injected and rubbed brisket in the fridge or cooler for an 1-3 hours. The goal is to get the brisket to around
40 °F
Smoking
- Pre-heat your pit to180 °F
- Put the Brisket on the pit when it is between40 °F and 45 °F and let smoke for an hour. The purpose of this is to slow down the cooking in the beginning allowing the smoke to penetrate deeper, cold meat also absorbs more smoke.
- After an hour change the temperature on the smoker to225 °F
- 2½ hours after putting the brisket on the smoker start to spritz with water. Spritz every hour to 1⅓ hours as needed until foiled. A good time to enjoy a sip of beer while you spritz.
- When brisket reaches an internal temperature of160 °F wrap in foil.
- Continue cooking the brisket until it reaches an internal temperature of195 °F and then start checking for probe tender which should feel like sticking the probe in a jar of peanut butter. Usually this will be somewhere around 195 °F and 203 °F
- Once probe tender, remove the brisket from the smoker and unwrap the foil to let the steam off, rewrap and place in the Meat Swadl to rest for 1-4 hours, or if you want your cooler smelling like brisket, wrap in a towel and place in a cooler for 1-4 hours.
Slicing and Dusting
- Use a spice grinder to separately grind your Rub and MSG into a fine powder.
- After your brisket is well rested, take it out and pour the Au Jus in the foil into a fat separator, let that sit for 5 minutes or so to separate out and pour some over your brisket and the rest into a small bowl.
- Start slicing your brisket against the grain in ¼ inch slices, you'll want to go against the grain but keep in mind the size of your slices when you get to the middle of the flat for your turn in box.
- Once you have your turn in slices, use a small basting brush to "paint" them with the Au Jus and then "dust" them with your powdered MSG and powdered Rub.
- Drink that beer, you've earned it.
Nutrition
Serving: 0.5lbsCalories: 415kcalCarbohydrates: 7gProtein: 52gFat: 19gSaturated Fat: 7gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 152mgSodium: 198mgPotassium: 887mgFiber: 1gSugar: 0.3gVitamin A: 292IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 123mgIron: 9mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
2 Comments on “Competition Brisket on a Pellet Smoker”
Nothing like some slender succulent slabs… Love me these cooks
@jeffyttaco
Gonna try this brisket method this weekend I never get good smoke rings on my Traeger hope this helps