Dry Rub 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 Flat

We were smoking a whole brisket 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.

What Temp to Smoke Brisket

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 have only made an oven baked brisket 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.

To get your meats absolutely perfect we have this printable meat smoking chart to refer to so each and every time it will be fork tender.

Chipotle Smoked Brisket

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

You are going to want to prepare for 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.

Flat Brisket Recipe

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.

• We made a 10 lb brisket whole, also called a packer brisket, the flat cut
• 1 c beef broth
• Brisket Rub Recipe
  • 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. Ours for our How to Make Fall-Apart Brisket in the Oven is similar but tweaked slightly. This one is great and 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.

Pellet Smoker Brisket

** 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° for 48 hours. Remove and prepare above instructions.

• Prepare the night before: In a small bowl, mix together dry seasonings, beef broth, and mustard. Place brisket in aluminum pan.
• Spread this brisket seasoning mixture all over your beef brisket, top and bottom. Place it in the pan, with the fat side up.
  • Cover with aluminum foil and place in your refrigerator overnight for best results.
• Take meat out of refrigerator 1 hour before cooking to reach room temperature. Fill pellet grill container with hardwood BBQ pellets.
  • Mesquite is a good flavor for this recipe.
  • Prepare smoker by placing 2-3 long sheets of aluminum foil along the bottom of the smoker element, underneath the grill grates, for easy cleanup.
  • Brush grill rack clean.
• Set smoker to smoke. Once it starts smoking, set temperature to 225 degrees F.
• Smoke with the layer of fat facing up in the aluminum pan
  • insert meat probe if you’re using one now
• At the start of the second hour, baste with the juices that accumulate in the pan every hour.
• After 4 hours, check the temperature of the meat with probes or thermometer. Should be 160°.
• Cover pan with aluminum foil once it reaches this temperature and smoke until meat reaches 195° F.
• The total time will take 12-18 hours depending on thickness and size, but at 225 typically takes 1 hour 30 minutes per pound.

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.

Smoked Brisket Dry Rub

It should have a super smoke like flavor to it and not be hard to chew. 195 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 leftover brisket mac and cheese is probably our fave.