BBQ BRISKET, Texas Style

BBQ Brisket, Texas Style
Originally uploaded by greatwhitebear70.

It used to take me about 12 hours to make this. Then, at a canoe rally, I ran into a chef from Ft. Wayne who taught me this great shortcut. It works wonderfully, and cuts cooking time to about 4 hours.

1 cup soaked Mesquite Chips
1 or 2 whole Beef Briskets
Sauce

A day or two before you are going to Q, rub down brisket with your favorite rub (I prefer KC Masterpiece).

Step 1: On one side of your kettle, light a small pile of about 15 charcoal briquets. Wrap your wood chips tightly in heavy duty foil and poke a few holes in the top. Place on top of fully lit coals. Place your brisket on grill over a drip pan (I usually use a disposable foil roaster) as far from coals as possible. You can do 2 briskets by overlapping the narrow ends until you have close to uniform thickness. When smoke begins to pour out of the foil packet, place lid on kettle and cook for about one hour.

Step 2: Remove Brisket and wrap tightly in heavy duty foil.* Move drip pan to middle of kettle. On opposite side of burning coals, make a pile of 28 coals and light. Add enough coals to burning side to make a pile roughly even with the other side. When the coals in the new pile are mostly covered with grey ash (about 25 min), place brisket over drip pan, replace lid, and cook about 3 hours (31/2 if doing two), adding 9 briquets to each side every hour.

Step 3: Remove Brisket from grill. On stove top, heat up a pan full of sauce. Remove brisket from foil to a cutting board. Slice thinly across the grain (electric knife works SO well for this). In Texas, they would serve the beef like this on a plate with the sauce on the side. I prefer to slice the beef into the sauce, cook it till the sauce starts to thicken, and serve on good bakery buns. Your option!

* you can cook brisket in your oven on 350 for about 3 hours, or follow instructions for grill.

posted by Mark