Smoked Traeger Corned Beef Recipe

Traeger corned beef is amazing! If you love fall apart meat on St. Patricks Day this is a great way to cook it outside on your grill. Adds a smoky flavor to your brisket and doesn’t heat up your house at all.

Pair your smoked corned beef brisket with the best mustard sauce over the top like we do with our his slow cooker corned beef and cabbage but doesn’t take all day to make.

Smoked Corned Beef

For years we have made Ninja Foodi corned beef. Using a pressure cooker is a great way to get this roast fork tender but you don’t get much texture on the outside. Adding the smoke flavor pairs well with this brined piece and just adds to all those delicious flavors.

You can use a flat cut or point cut, either way, but one with a bit more fat on one side is best. My preference is flat if I can find it.

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.

Smoke Corned Beef Brisket Recipe

Sometimes I just have to buy what the butcher has to offer since we are in a small town. Over the years I have experimented with both pieces and will say that I do prefer the flat square type a bit better. I think the reason is it’s the same thickness all the way across so it cooks much more evenly.

How long to smoke corned beef brisket at 225

You’re looking at 5 or so hours with the prep and cook time basically. Of course it depends how large yours is but typically they are about the same, give or take a bit. What makes ours different from the others is our mustard sauce for corned beef. This takes your meat from good to out of this world I tell you.

How do you smoke store bought corned beef?

We are going to explain it to you here today. The key to these instructions is to put on the grate first, then transfer to a pan with sauce, cover and continue on low heat for the remaining hours. You need to keep it covered with mustard and/or barbecue sauce inside to maintain the moisture and create some steam within the pan.

Should I soak corned beef before smoking?

Yes, that is the best method. That means you need to begin this whole cooking and preparing process early the morning you want to eat this. 2 hours is the minimum, but up to 6 hours (or 30 min. per pound) it can sit in water to suck out some of the salt.

Typically the size I choose and is widely available is about 3 pounds. This feeds the 5 of us perfectly with a little left to enjoy for lunch the next day. If you have a significantly larger piece the cook time will of course need to be increased quite a bit. When you slow cook it at a low temp for a long time is the key.

Corned Beef Brisket on Smoker

As with any other easy smoker recipe you will want your meat to be fresh and/or defrosted. If you’re in a pinch and realize yours isn’t, you’ll need to follow our Instant Pot frozen corned beef timing instead.

Another must is to have the lid closed and preheat it to the desired temperature before adding any food to it. That will ensure an even heat and cooking of your meat. If you have a WiFi capable machine it makes this super convenient because you can check the temp. right on your phone!

As soon as it reaches 275 F. you’re ready to get started. Place it right on the grill with the fattiest side facing up. You can see here my piece wasn’t exactly as I had hoped but nevertheless came out tasty. I would recommend choosing a piece with a healthy fat pad on it for best results though.

Traeger Corned Beef

This part will take about 2 hours and will add a bit of texture to the outside. You could skip this step if you really wanted to but would need to add several more hours while it is in your enclosed pan. Leave it alone and do not lift the lid during this period of time, you never want to do that.

That part doesn’t differ no matter what you are making. The key to smoking meat is a steady consistent temperature for a fairly long time. We learned this early on when we made our first smoked turkey. Too anxious to check on it (like we would if in the oven) we opened it too often and on the second go around was much better.

Corned Beef in Smoker

You can either double this and use it on the bottom and the top or use your favorite bbq sauce on the bottom. This way you will get a wallop of different flavors all the way around this baby. The liquid in these will create some steam so when you seal the top with aluminum foil it will be like it’s wrapped in an insulated sleeping bag as it cooks.

For the container you could use a few options. For an easier cleanup I use a disposable aluminum pan as you see here.

How long should corned beef rest?

This is a very important step. You do not want to slice that meat as soon as you take it off the heat. Leave it in the pan with the foil left on for at least 10 minutes to rest. I usually leave it for a good 20 minutes and just use that time to make an easy side dish with it like Ninja foodi cabbage or smoked baked potatoes.

• Rinse your corned beef and soak in a bowl of cold water for 2 hours. Discard pickling spice rub packet, you won’t need that for this. Preheat your smoker to 275 degrees F.
• Place corned beef brisket on smoker grates with fat side facing the top and cook for 2 hours.
• Whisk together your mustard for corned beef. Place meat in an aluminum pan with cup of barbeque sauce on the bottom and mustard sauce prepared by you poured over the top. Cover pan with foil very tightly.
• Put back on your smoker and cook for about 3 hours until it’s nice and tender + meat reaches an internal temperature of at least 200 degrees F. If it’s not as tender as you’d like, longer in your pellet grill / smoker will achieve this.

Take off the heat, cover to keep warm with foil or paper towels. Allow to sit on counter for 20 minutes (up to 30 minutes) to rest before slicing. Make our pressure cooker or baked cabbage steaks recipe to serve on the side.

Keep more of the mustard sauce out so you can serve it on the side. Each piece should have a nice coating on it because it is just so darn good. Now that you know how to cook corned beef you may be looking for other ways to cook other large cuts of meat like this one. Here are a few more:

Our Instant Pot brisket with gravy is to die for. A lot faster than this method but turns out just as tender.

• Try an oven baked brisket during the Fall when heating up your house is where it’s at.

Of course you have got to have some simple cabbage recipe to serve on the side. I wouldn’t suggest adding it to the pan as it won’t get soft enough to enjoy. Instead make our Instant Pot fried cabbage, Crockpot cabbage and sausage or air fryer cabbage recipe instead.