Prepare to drizzle, dip in a sauce, and devour your meal. The ultimate brisket experience starts here!

Don’t believe you can use your charcoal grill to smoke a brisket? I’m here to tell you that you can.

I love a good brisket, and one of my most popular blog posts has been about how to cook a brisket in the oven. However, during the summer, I was ready to smoke a brisket but lacked an actual smoker.…

So, I learned how to turn my charcoal grill into one.

Not only was I able to smoke a brisket, but I also took the opportunity to smoke other cuts of beef, such as a roast and ribeye, along with the brisket. Both of these cuts are thicker and are great for smoking. The roast took about an hour, and the ribeye only 20 minutes. (Cooking times will vary depending on the size of the beef and your grill’s temp, so make sure to keep track of temps—I wanted mine medium rare at 130 degrees F.)

PREP THE BRISKET 24 HOURS IN ADVANCE

A good brisket will have fat marbled throughout the meat, which helps keep the beef tender and juicy and ohhh is it sooo good.

There are two basic parts of the whole beef brisket. The bottom part of the brisket is called a “flat” and it doesn’t usually contain much fat at all. The top part of the brisket is called a “point” and it is mostly fat with very little meat on it. 

Dry Rub Recipe:

• 1 Strandquist Family Farm brisket (4-8 lbs.)

• 5 tablespoons paprika

• 3 tablespoons salt

• 2 tablespoons garlic powder

• 2 tablespoons onion powder

• 1 tablespoon black pepper

• 1 tablespoon dried parsley

• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

• 2 teaspoons ground cumin

• 1 teaspoon ground coriander

• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder

• 1 teaspoon dried oregano

• 1 cup brown sugar

Instructions:

Step One. Take your whole brisket or brisket flat out of the package, lay it on a cutting board, and pat it dry with a paper towel (this prevents steaming). 

Step Two. Spread a generous amount of brown sugar (approximately 1 cup of brown sugar) and then dry rub on top (approximately 1/2 cup of dry rub depending on size of brisket to cover it) over both sides of brisket.

Step Three. Wrap rubbed brisket in a couple of layers of foil, covering it tight, and place it in a pan or dish so it doesn’t leak all over the refrigerator and refrigerate overnight for up to 24 hours. \

Step Four. Take the brisket out of the refrigerator an hour before cooking it, unwrap it, and wait until the brisket is room temperature.

PREP THE CHARCOAL GRILL

Preheat the grill to about 225-250 degrees F. To get this low heat, light only about 10 to 16 pieces of charcoal and set up the grill for an indirect split-fire. To do this separate the coals into two equal piles on opposite sides of the grill grate. Keep some coals unlit for later use or add more coals later.

To make sure the grill doesn’t get too hot, close the air vent. If your grill ends up getting too hot, douse some of the coals out with water.

Soak your wood chips in water for 30 minutes and add them to your smoker box. Place your smoker box with your preferred flavor of wood chips (mesquite or hickory are great options, I used hickory) to the left or right side of your charcoal grill. You will need to add more wood chips every 1-2 hours.

Meanwhile, heat some water for the water pan. When the water is hot, place a stainless steel bowl or aluminum pan between the two piles of coals on each side of the bottom charcoal grate. Pour in the warm water, and put the cooking grate in place. Close the grill with the lid and allow it to come up to temperature.

When it’s at the right temp, put the brisket, fat cap up, which means the fattier side up, on the grill rack and close the cover. I would recommend wrapping the brisket in foil or butcher paper as the temperature for the charcoal grill is harder to maintain consistently. Alternatively, you can leave it completely uncovered until it reaches that 150–170°F mark, then double wrap it tightly to help tenderize the meat while pushing past the stall that occurs as the meat sweats. Ultimately, the best way to know when to wrap is by using a meat thermometer. Let the internal temperature—and how the brisket is behaving—guide your timing.

Avoid lifting the cover too often.

SMOKING THE BRISKET

Check the grill’s temperature every hour, staying as close to 225 degrees F as possible.

Depending on your size of brisket, it can take anywhere from 3-7 hours (so for a 4 lb. brisket it may take 3 hours and for a 7 lb. brisket it may take 5 hours and for a larger brisket… you get the point :)).

Use a meat thermometer to measure the thickest part of the brisket for 190 degrees until it’s fork tender and juicy (you don’t want it to dry).

Once it’s at 190 degrees F, take the brisket out onto a cutting board, wrap it with a sheet of foil, and let it rest for 1 hour and it will come to an almost perfect 200 degrees. 

Don’t slice the brisket until the last possible minute. Cut the brisket against the grain about a 1/4” thick. Slicing a brisket is a bit of a challenge because there are two muscles and the grain flows in different directions so the brisket works best if you cut it across the grain.

Texas BBQ Sauce

Even though it’s a smoked brisket, not a BBQ, if you’d like to add more to your brisket, here’s a great sauce to try out. It’s a blend of tangy, sweet, and smoky flavors with a hint of spice.

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups ketchup

• ¾ cup apple cider vinegar

• ½ cup red wine vinegar

• ⅓ cup water

• ⅓ cup light brown sugar

• ¼ cup Worcestershire Sauce

• 3 Tablespoons chili powder

• 1 Tablespoon cumin

• 2 teaspoons garlic powder

• ½ teaspoon salt

A brisket, with its tender melt-in-the-mouth goodness, is an iconic cornerstone of cookouts across America. I hope you enjoy!

Warmly,

Tessa, Strandquist Family Farm

I used the Grill Smoker Box to turn our charcoal grill into a smoker and it worked wonders! If you’re interested, you can Click HERE to purchase it. And if you need wood chips, you can find your favorite flavor HERE.

Want the charcoal flavor, but the smoker included to make it easier? I recommend the Royal Gourmet BBQ Charcoal Grill and Offset Smoker. Click HERE to get one today.

Happy smoking!

As an Amazon Associate, I earn commission from qualifying purchases to help support our farm.