The best ever Southern Texas BBQ brisket

Audrey Michels

Contributing Writer

If you’re new to the world of brisket, you may find some confusing and potentially overwhelming information online. To broil or to barbecue? To slow cook or smoke? To strain or not strain the sauce — we’ll get there. Allow me to help cut through all that noise like a knife through a tender piece of brisket, starting with the ultimate question: What separates a BBQ brisket from a Texas BBQ brisket?

Well, it turns out a Texas brisket is an almost entirely different cut of meat! If you’re up to the challenge, the 8- to 12-pound Texas brisket, which includes both the point muscle and flat muscle, is the kind you might buy to make corned beef, or burnt ends, not the slim, shaved type you’ll find in your local grocery store year-round. And, if you were to buy this cut and cook it according to a normal brisket recipe, you’d most likely end up with the tough, leathery meat that calls to mind Samantha Stevens’ overcooked pot-roasts from Bewitched — except you can’t twitch your nose and do it all over again. What you need for that size and type of brisket is a special meat smoker and a spare eight hours. But, if you’re looking for an authentic Texas-style BBQ brisket, that’s so simple any mortal could do it, and doesn’t require any special equipment, look no further!

The most complicated part of this recipe is probably measuring and mixing spices to make the dry rub — which is to say, it's not a complicated recipe at all. If you don’t have a roasting pan, you can place a small rack, or even a smaller oven-safe dish upside-down, in your larger baking dish to ensure your brisket isn’t stewing in its liquids.

Cooktop Cove

Southern Texas BBQ Brisket

10 minutes

4 hours

4 hours 15 minutes

4-pound brisket

2 tablespoons kosher salt

3 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon chili powder

¼ teaspoon cayenne (optional, for extra spice)

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon onion powder

½ teaspoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon dried thyme

2 teaspoons dry mustard

2 tablespoons brown sugar, separated

2 cups beef stock

2 tablespoons ketchup

2 tablespoons barbecue sauce

Preheat your oven to 350F, and position the oven rack in the second-highest slot.

In a small bowl, combine the dry spices salt, pepper, paprika, chili powder, cayenne, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, thyme, dry mustard 1 tablespoon of the brown sugar and 3 tablespoons of olive oil.

Place the brisket in your roasting pan. This can be any deep oven dish, as long as it has a fitted lid and a rack or smaller oven-safe dish to keep the brisket off the bottom. Generously rub all sides with the spice mixture.

Roast the brisket for 1 hour.

In another bowl, combine the beef stock, ketchup, barbecue sauce and remaining sugar.

Add the stock mixture to the bottom of the roasting pan and cover with the lid. Lower the oven temperature to 300F, and cook for an additional 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until the meat is tender.

Trim the excess fat from your brisket, baste with the sauce from the pan and allow to cool slightly before slicing across the grain, or the way the muscle fibers are aligned, similar to a piece of fabric. Serve with the extra sauce no need to strain it first.

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