Not a bad looking brisket! It was done without a smoker.
One of the challenges of cooking briskets with less fat is trying to keep it tender and moist. With the long hours that briskets spend in the smoker, you’re almost guaranteed to get a dry brisket. I was recently at HEB and found a beautifully marbled brisket. I was so excited to smoke it, but unfortunately, when I got home and removed the packaging, found it had NO FAT CAP!
Brisket on the smoker was not an option here. Initially, I thought about turning it into a pastrami. However, looking through recipes online, the number of ingredients needed and the process was much more than I wanted to try at this time. My next best option seemed to be a sous vide brisket. I’ve read and seen videos about this technique before, but never seriously considered it. I couldn’t imagine a brisket obtaining a meaningful level of smokiness. After reading the praise by commenters for these recipes though, I got the courage to try it.
The most popular recipes you’ll find for a sous vide brisket are going to reference either ChefSteps’ or Kenji Lopez-Alt’s recipe. While ChefSteps had barbeque legend Meathead describe it as “extraordinary,” it has a long brine process which I had wanted to avoid with the pastrami. Kenji’s recipe on the other hands is a lot simpler.
Kenji’ did multiple sous vides trials at temperatures between 135-155F and 12-36 hours. He found 155F for 24-36 hours gave him the best result. Coincidentally, this is the same temperature and time used by ChefSteps. To get the smoke flavor, options included either using liquid smoke or actually placing it in the smoker either before or after the sous vide for around 3 hours. Smoking the brisket at the end of the process also helps the brisket develop it’s bark. Alternatively, it can be finished in the oven for bark formation.
For my brisket, I decided to use coarse salt, pepper, and liquid smoke. I cut the brisket flat in half and vacuum sealed them. I still had some smoked tallow from a previous brisket and scooped it into one of the bags before sealing. The meat was left to marinate for 3 hours in the fridge before going in to a 155F sous vide bath for 24 hours. The briskets were then removed from their bags and patted dry. I considered adding more salt, but was concerned that having the brisket sit in its liquid for so long would result in a real salty brisket. I sprinkled some Fiesta No-Salt Brisket Rub on both briskets and placed it in a 425F oven for 35 minutes . I flipped and basted the briskets in their juice/fat halfway. After a short rest, I served it up at the office.
And the results were…GREAT! It was definitely tender and tasty, but slightly dry and would benefit from more smoke flavor. The half that had the extra tallow was richer and moister of the two. The bark was well developed and the juice/tallow baste gave it a nice glaze. I was probably a little too cautious with the salt, but my colleague thought it was perfect.
The sous vide method with oven finish method of cooking a brisket is something to have in your back pocket. It was definitely the least amount of work I’ve ever had done in any of my brisket cooks. For a future cook, I will want to get more smoke and salt. I will either place a second layer of liquid smoke after the sous vide bath or just use a smoker before it goes into the sous vide.
Recipe (with credit to Kenji Lopez-Alt)
Equipment
- sous vide cooker
- container for sous vide
- vacuum sealer
- vacuum bags
- oven
Ingredients
- coarse salt
- coarse pepper
- liquid smoke
- tallow (optional)
- brisket rub (optional)
Instructions
- Trim brisket, leaving 1/4″ fat cap. The brisket may be cut into halves or thirds.
- Coat brisket with liquid smoke and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Place brisket in vacuum bag. Add tallow (optional). Seal bag.
- Marinate brisket in refrigerator for 3 hours.
- Place sealed brisket in sous vide container and set sous vide to 155F (68C). Cook for 24-36 hours.
- Remove brisket from sous vide bath. Can store in fridge if desired until ready to finish.
- Preheat oven to 425F (218C).
- Pat dry brisket with paper towels. Add additional seasoning if desired. Place brisket on oven tray with wire rack.
- Heat brisket for 15 minutes. Flip and heat for an additional 15 minutes. Baste brisket with fat and juice from bag and heat for a final 5 minutes.
- Remove from oven and rest until brisket is 140-150F internal. Serve.
I hope to make brisket using this method again in the future. As I get a better result, I’ll post updates to the technique. If you’ve made brisket using the sous vide method, let me know what worked for you in the comments below!