RecipeBlog-FeatureImage-BeefBrisket

Recipe for How to Smoke the Best Beef Brisket

By: Andrea Alden

There’s nothing like brisket off the smoker. Using the Apollo® 3 in 1 Charcoal Grill and Water Smoker, it’s easy to learn how to smoke the best beef brisket ever. Brisket is a labor of love and does take between 8 and 12 hours to do, so you’re in for the long haul. However, when all is said and done, a perfectly smoked brisket is well worth the effort and the wait.

Prep Time
720 min
Cook Time
720 min
Yield
6+
Difficulty
Difficult

Recipe for How to Smoke the Best Beef Brisket

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Ingredients

Method

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Ingredients

1

Beef Brisket 12 lb.

1½ cups

beef broth

1 cup

BBQ rub

1 cup

apple cider vinegar

1 bag

Blackstone charcoal

Tinfoil

Wood chips or chunks in Oak, Mesquite, or Hickory flavor

Cooler large enough to hold the brisket


Double Smoked Brisket Point Bites

Smoked brisket point, cut into chunks

¼ cup

BBQ rub

1 cup+ 

BBQ sauce

Wood chips or chunks in Oak, Mesquite, or Hickory flavor 

Method
  1. The night before you start your smoke, prep the brisket. Trim the fat off the brisket. Use a marinade injector to inject beef broth throughout the meat. Rub the brisket with your favorite BBQ rub – any combination of salt, pepper, paprika, brown sugar, and garlic powder will do nicely. Set the brisket on a rack over a baking tray, in the fridge, overnight. 
  2. *If you wish to eat your smoked brisket at supper time, around 5 pm, you will want to have your smoker ready to go at about 4 am.*
    Set up your Apollo® Smoker by pouring a load of unlit, premium chunk charcoal – like Blackstone - into the bottom basket and placing a number of wood chunks throughout. Light half to three-quarters of a load of charcoal using a chimney starter. Pour the lit charcoal into the center of the unlit that is in the smoker. Add the middle stacker of the smoker and fill the water basin with hot to boiling water. Add the cooking grid and the lid. Allow the smoker to come up to a temperature of 225°F. Close the bottom air shutters on the smoker to about one-quarter of the way open to manage the temperature. If the grill doesn’t heat to the right temperature, open one of the shutters to halfway. Continue to adjust by adding more or less oxygen until the smoker temperature evens out and holds steady.
  3. Insert a temperature probe into the flat but close the section where the meat begins to get thicker. Set the internal temperature alert to go off when your meat reaches 165°F. Place the brisket, fat side up, on the cooking grids and secure the lid. Smoke for about 6 hours, spritzing the brisket with apple cider vinegar every two hours or so. 
  4. When the brisket reaches an internal temperature of 165°F, remove it from the smoker and double wrap with foil. Continue cooking – no smoke required - with the smoker at 225°F until the brisket reaches an internal temperature of about 205°F – reset your meat thermometer to alert you at this time.
  5. When the brisket reaches a temperature of 205°F remove it from the grill, wrap it – still in the foil - with a towel and place it into an awaiting cooler – no ice – to rest for 3 hours. You can shut down the smoker for now by closing all of the air vents.
  6. Heat your smoker up to 275°F, you may need to relight the remaining charcoal, or add a whole new load at this point. Once the brisket has rested, remove it from the cooler and cut the flat off. Rewrap the flat and cut the point – the thick part – into chunks. In a baking pan, toss the chunks in your favorite BBQ rub and BBQ sauce. Smoke the chunks for an hour until they are sticky and caramelized. 
  7. When you are ready to serve, slice the flat of the brisket against the grain, brush with any juices, and don’t forget to serve with the burnt ends. You can serve on a bun, or just slice and eat as is. 

Now that you know how to smoke the best beef brisket, while it won’t be an every weekend thing, I bet you will be making it more often. A few words of advice, however. 

  • Remember to adjust cooking times accordingly as larger and smaller briskets will take more or less time respectively. 
  • Use a multi-probe digital thermometer like our Napoleon Bluetooth BBQ Thermometer, to monitor both the internal temperature of the smoker as well as the meat. 
  • After about 6 to 8 hours, the charcoal will have been spent, you can manually add larger chunks of unlit lump charcoal to any that are still burning, or light a small load – ¼ of the chimney full – to add to the remaining charcoal still in the smoker. 

We want to hear about how your perfect beef brisket went. Share your stories and photos with our social pages like Grills Facebook and Instagram using the hashtags #SmokedBrisket and #NapoleonGrills. Don’t forget to share your photos too!

Happy Grilling!

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- prep

Prep the brisket by trimming a majority of the fat, then inject the brisket all over with beef broth

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- season

Thoroughly season the brisket with your favorite BBQ rub

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- smoke1

Preheat the smoker to 225°F and smoke the brisket fat side up

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- smoke2

Smoke the brisket for about 6 hours

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- smoke3

Smoke until an internal temperature of 165°F

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- wrap

Wrap and continue to cook the brisket until a temp of 205°F. Remove and rest in a cooler for 3 hours.

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- prep burnt ends

Remove the point and cut into chunks, rewrap the flat. Season the chunks with BBQ rub, and sauce with your favorite BBQ sauce.

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- Look at those juices

Look at all of that juicy meat

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- Serves a crowd

Ready to feed a crowd?

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- Don't forget the burnt ends too

Don't forget the Double Smoked Brisket Point Bites too

AndreaAlden
Andrea Alden

I used to be the Sultana of Sizzle, but you can call me Andrea. I have always been passionate about food. Even though I was majoring in Art and Graphic Design, I would frequently be found cooking for my friends and family.

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RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- prep

Prep the brisket by trimming a majority of the fat, then inject the brisket all over with beef broth

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- season

Thoroughly season the brisket with your favorite BBQ rub

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- smoke1

Preheat the smoker to 225°F and smoke the brisket fat side up

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- smoke2

Smoke the brisket for about 6 hours

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- smoke3

Smoke until an internal temperature of 165°F

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- wrap

Wrap and continue to cook the brisket until a temp of 205°F. Remove and rest in a cooler for 3 hours.

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- prep burnt ends

Remove the point and cut into chunks, rewrap the flat. Season the chunks with BBQ rub, and sauce with your favorite BBQ sauce.

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- Look at those juices

Look at all of that juicy meat

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- Serves a crowd

Ready to feed a crowd?

RecipeBlog-BeefBrisket- Don't forget the burnt ends too

Don't forget the Double Smoked Brisket Point Bites too