Introduction: Perfect Smoked Brisket in an Electric Smoker

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Who doesn't love a nicely marinated and perfectly cooked beef brisket? I know for a fact that I absolutely love it and would eat it 24/7.

I'm going to show you a recipe that is so simple that a person who can't even cut an onion would be able to do it with ease, it gets perfectly cooked and the meat is cooked to perfection.

The recipe makes 12-16 servings (could be one serving depending if you can stop eating this piece of heaven!)

Ingredients for the Marinade

  • 2 tablespoons of chili powder (spice level is whatever you would like it to be, from mild to hot)
  • 1 tablespoon of coarse salt
  • 1 tablespoon of brown sugar (trust me don't use traditional granulated sugar, BAD mistake!)
  • 2 teaspoons of garlic salt
  • 2 teaspoons of garlic salt (I tend to add a tiny bit more but it's all a personal preference with seasonings)
  • 1 Teaspoon of cumin
  • ½ a teaspoon of cayenne pepper (again you can add a bit more or a bit less of this, it's a bit of a mix and match)
  • 1 tablespoon of dried oregano (I recommend using homegrown as it tastes so much fresher)

Instructions for Using the Marinade

This is very simple using the amazing seasonings, all you do is blend the above ingredients together (have a little taste first and see if you like it, otherwise you won't like the meat at all!)

Step 1: Choosing Good Brisket

The most important part of a good brisket is buying a great piece of meat. As with most meats you want the most tender as possible, the more tender the better.

A tip I'm going to give you today is to hold the brisket and balance it over your hands, the more the meat bends the better the meat will be and the more tender it will be.

Also, look for a brisket with a thick fat layer, the higher fat levels will help the meat stay as moist as possible during the smoking process, I recommend finding a brisket that's about 10 pounds in weight (4.5 KG)

Step 2: Marinade

Get your tasty marinade ready and massage it on to the meat. Although some people may tell you that this can be done 2-4 hours before the smoking process, I've found that the beef will have a much better flavor if you leave it to sit over-night.

I recommend putting the marinade on the brisket the day before you plan to smoke it. To finish up, once you have completed rubbing the marinade all over the meat wrap it in aluminum foil and chuck it in the refrigerator overnight.

Step 3: Smoke With Wood

Now here comes the part we all want to know how! Remove your brisket about 2 hours before you ready to start up the smoker so that it can rise up to room temperature.

Some outdoor professionals use this time to inject a marinade into the meat, but I personally just like to let the smoke flavor the inside of the meat.

Fill the wood chip box with mesquite, hickory, apple or cherry wood chips (this is again up to personal preference, I usually go with hickory). Charcoal can also be used, but wood chips are preferred as they provide better flavor to the meat.

Step 4: Smoke Brisket

Now comes the even funner part, letting it cook! If you're smoking with a Masterbuilt 40 electric smoker (quite a popular electric smoker you, can read review of masterbuilt 40 here ) then preheat it to 225 degrees F (about 107 Celsius) and set the internal meat temperature to 190 degrees F (87 C) Stick the temperature probe into the thickest part of our brisket and place it on one of the racks in our cooker.

Press start on the smoker. When the probe reaches 190 degrees (87 C) the digital smoker will stop cooking and turn on warm mode to keep the brisket warm until you want to dig in and eat it!

Now keep in mind other smokers will have different setting so refer to your manual, the key thing about the cooking process though is getting the brisket to 190 degrees F (107 C) Following this guide will make smoking a brisket in an electric smoker easy!

Image Source: flickr