Coffee-Rubbed Texas-Style Brisket

My family said it was the best brisket rub I made! I substituted Chipotle Chili Powder instead of Ancho. I was making a 12lb brisket so I tripled every ingredient except Cumin. I could have just doubled it, and would have had plenty.

Do not soak the wood chips. It only causes steam and creosote. AlwYs use dry wood chips.

Cooking time depends on size of the meat, the recipe says "cook for 6 hours or until a meat thermometer registers 195°".  You smoke meat based on time if you're familiar with the recipe, your smoker and the size of the meat.  Even then the most accurate way to do it is based on internal temperature.

I've now made this 4 times, following the instructions exactly each time, though the last two times I did remove from the smoker when it reached 160 and cooked at 225 degrees in my ovenwith a little beef broth (fat cap up) for the rest of the time to get to 190 degrees. I think it benefits from a resting period after reaching 190 as well. I am eating leftover slices on a sandwich right now and it is SO GOOD, even better than the day I cooked it. I get raves on the rub flavor every time I make this. I used a market trimmed brisket of about 4 lbs each time and smoked/cooked for about 8 hours total at around 225 degrees.

I did not have time to smoke slow & low so I halved the rub for a 2.5 lb brisket and braised it. Applied the rub in the morning, covered with plastic wrap & put in the fridge. Later that afternoon I browned on all sides in grape seed oil and then covered with bottled bbq sauce/vinegar/molasses/brown sugar mix and chunks of onion in a dutch oven at 350 for about 2 hours, fat cap up. Added more sauce & water halfway through. Made amazing sliced bbq brisket sandwiches, guests raved! Just in case there is anyone else out there who is short on time :-)

To: Steff8309 Instead of giving up, all you needed was to continue to cook your brisked (at 225F) until it reached 190F internally. You can do this two ways. One, using an internal and remote reading thermometer. The second would be to use a thermostatically controlled oven/smoker. I figure you had about 6 more hour of smoking time left. All my briskets are smoked for 12 hours. All who smoke briskets experiment. Join the club. It's fun and produces great tastes and only few small mistakes.

I can't rate it more than "has potential" because the recipe did not work for me. I'm assuming the error is my own, but I wanted to share the mistake so others don't make the same mistake. We apparently shouldn't have trusted the thermometer on the lid of our grill. According to that thermometer, we maintained the temp at 250 degrees for the 6 hours. We went to test the internal temp of the meat and it registered 137 degrees. So disappointed to follow directions for 6 hours and end up with a product that is inedible without much additional cooking.

Wow. Best brisket ever. It was so flavorful and melt in your mouth. I don't need any other brisket recipe