Smoked Barbecued Brisket with Grilled Poblanos & Onions

I appreciate a 3-ingredient, quick-to-assemble supper just as much as you, and this recipe is certainly not that. But it’d be a crying shame to look a gift steer in the mouth.

Back in June, I’d received a brisket certificate from Downtown Home & Garden (part of their Big Green Egg package), which I recently redeemed at Knight’s Market. This wasn’t a little ‘ole 3-pounder that tends to dry out on the grill. I waddled home with a choice grade, 12-pound cryovaced packer that felt like a newborn baby cradled in my arms.

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Rumor has it, the brisket champs inject the meat prior to barbecuing.

It's 4 AM: Light up the grill and grab a cup of Joe.

Keep the heat at a constant 225 degrees.

Nothing beats hanging out by smoldering coals....

except, perhaps, napping under the sun with a brew while the beef slowly cooks.

Time for the Texas crutch.

203 degrees: Cooked to perfection.

Now wrap lightly and let it rest in a covered ice chest 3 hours.

Letting it rest without grabbing off a hunk's the hard part.

If you're making a mop sauce, now's a good time.

Slice against the grain.

Ummm...the best part.

Grilled poblanos/onions and an optional mop sauce are icing on the cake.

Briskets are from the chest area of the steer. These pectoral muscles do a lot of moving, so there’s minimal fat and lots of connective tissue, making for a tough cut of meat. But there’s a heck of a lot of flavor as well, and if you cook it just right, it’s one fine tasting piece of meat.

Barbecuing a whole packer is not for the fearful. For starters, if you want to serve your brisket at a reasonable hour, it means you (in my case, my husband and his visiting relatives) must crawl out of bed by 4:00 AM if you plan on eating dinner by 7 or 8 PM. The timing was perfect to feed our crowd after last week’s Michigan/Minnesota game.

The following recipe is for folks serious about their barbecue, and not squeamish about injecting meat, for example, with a hypodermic needle. In Texas, barbecuing brisket is next to godliness, and brisket competitions abound.

It’s a greatly abbreviated version of the website Amazing Rib’s treatise. I’d advise your checking it out for more information regarding injections, crutching and carving.

Brisket connoisseurs may very well dispute the following methods, which makes for lively banter – but arguing brisket is a heck of a lot more entertaining then politics.

“You Need No Teef To Eat My Beef” advertises a Texas billboard. Dentures may likewise be removed when savoring my brisket as well.