Brisket Flat Smoked

Traeger brisket flat smoked with dry rub turns out amazing! Fork tender beef on the smoker with a ton of flavor your whole family will love.

Smoked Brisket Recipe

We were smoking whole this time, or a packer brisket. As you can see here it was quite large, almost 10 pounds but could be cut in half and the other half frozen for later too. I mean it does save well for leftovers but if there are only a few of you then I would buy a smaller piece. We’ll go over the timing in a bit for each.

225 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal. Anything higher than 250 F isn’t considered smoking, but this is just high enough to get it tender with a crust on the outside. If you only know How to Make Fall-Apart Brisket in the Oven this one is great because it doesn’t heat up the inside of your house and the smoky flavor is fab.

The texture is better this way too. Similar to our air fryer brisket the dry rub gets really baked on and a bit crispy too. You can add just a bit of heat to make it spicy with a chipotle flair or leave it mild. If yours is large enough you could do half and half too if you wanted to.

If you wanted to add heat into the sauce of our Crockpot Brisket Recipe or this that would be easy to do. Just include more chili powder, Sriracha or red pepper flakes in yours. You can see the amazing crust that forms on the outside below here. Don’t fret though just because the outside is crusted, the insides will melt in your mouth if you follow the step by step below.

How Long to Smoke Brisket at 225

That depends on the size. A small brisket would take less of course. You are going to want 1.5 hours per pound to smoke brisket and get it to the perfect melt in your mouth texture all over. This is of course an estimate and depends a bit on the thickness of your piece and how constant you can keep it at a solid 225 Fahrenheit the entire time but a good gage of sorts.

The internal meat temperature is what is important to break down the connective tissues so it is easy to slice and chew. You’ll want to smoke until meat reaches 195° F for the best texture ever. Allowing it to rest for a lengthy amount of time is important to getting it tender too. We will speak about how to slice against the grain later on too. All important aspects to perfection.

Ok so beyond the actual ingredients to make this you will need some wood pellets unless yours uses chips. I am assuming that you already know where they go in your machine, usually pretty obvious, if not refer to your instruction manual. Most don’t need the chips wet but older models may. I like Mesquite or Apple varieties.

Ingredient Notes

• We made a 10 pound beef brisket whole, also called a packer brisket, the flat cut is best with a thick layer of fat that is soft
• Beef broth to keep it nice and moist as it smokes for a lengthy time is key, broth gives more flavor to the meat vs water but any liquid really could be used, even beer!!
• Smoked Brisket Dry Rub is optional but adds a lot of flavor for sure.
  • Mustard
  • 2 tbsp chili powder
  • Brown sugar
  • Salt and black pepper
  • 1 tbsp onion powder
  • Regular or smoked paprika
  • 1 tbsp cumin
  • 2 tsp allspice

If you have your own rub that you love, or would prefer to use an already made bottled variety then by all means do. The measurements are easy to throw together. If you wanted to make it hot then use 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes or dry Sriracha is even better. And of course you need a pellet grill with grates to set this on.

Tips

** For a very tender brisket, sous vide first! Remove butcher paper, wrap the brisket inside freezer bag or thick plastic and put inside sous vide water. Set temperature to 135° and set inside the warm water for 48 hours. Once done, remove, pat the outside dry a bit and prepare with instructions below.

If you want super bold flavors I suggest that you coat the outsides with our tri tip dry rub. This is sweet and savory also creating a nice crust on the exterior you can see above which we love.

Remove the brisket from the grill and allow it to sit at room temperature, covered, for 1 hour. Cut across grain and serve with pan drippings or your favorite BBQ sauce. Yes, it takes a while but so worth it. If you feel you don’t have the time for this, try our Instant Pot brisket recipe here instead.

What temperature should brisket be to fall apart?

It should have a super smoke like flavor to it and not be hard to chew. 200-205F internally may seem high but it is a very tough piece of protein and needs a high heat to break down the tissues. Slicing correctly, against the grain, will help with tenderizing it too.

When you enjoy it it will already be closer to warm than hot because it really needs to rest quite a long time. For this reason it doesn’t take long to cool down and store if you do have leftovers. They do save really well too though!

I have a big roundup of leftover brisket recipes here to choose from. You can of course just reheat it as is and enjoy the next day but dicing it up and adding it into another whole meal is sometimes even better. Our brisket mac and cheese is probably our fave.