Badass Brisket

Badass Brisket

Oh my god, my dad and I just made the most fantastic brisket ever!

Ingredients

• One untrimmed brisket
• Yellow "French's" mustard
• Brown Sugar
• Agave nectar
• Dry Rub
• 4 cups Pecan Wood Chips, soaked in Apple Juice
• Roll of heavy duty aluminum foil

The first thing you notice about an untrimmed brisket is that it a ton of fat on it. Don't be afraid of the fat as we will be trimming a lot of it off; but the fat that we leave on is useful to make the meat moist and delicious as it slow cooks in our smoker. You can always cut off excess fat when you eat the brisket, but for now we need some of it for the magic to happen.

Trim your brisket
This takes a fair amount of time but the end-goal is to remove all of the fat on the top side of the brisket and thin down the fat cap down to about 1/4" in depth.
Here is a pretty useful video about how to trim a brisket

Rub your brisket
Once you are all trimmed, put your brisket on a cookie sheet and liberally coat it with yellow mustard.
Next, dust it with your dry rub everywhere you can see meat (there's not much point in dry rubbing the fat cap).  You don't need to press down on the dry rub or you will end up using too much and the meat can be overly salty.  Here is my dry rub recipe.

Next, coat both sides with brown sugar.  It's OK to press this down as otherwise it will fall off.  I ended up using about three or four cups of brown sugar to coat our brisket.

Smoke your brisket
After your done with the rubbing, go start up your smoker and set it to 230°. The amount of time it takes to get up to temperature will help to marinate the brisket a bit and those flavorings have some time to soak in a bit (for even better results, you could let it marinate overnight).
Once the smoker gets up to temperature, put the brisket on the top shelf of your smoker with the fat cap up (this is important so that the fat renders down into the meat from above).

Put as many of the wet wood chips as your tray can accept (mine takes about two cups). Be sure to fill up your water tray (or add a vessel with water in it in your smoker). This evaporation of water also helps to keep the meat nice and moist.
Now we are going to smoke our meat until it reaches an internal temperature of about 145°. This will take a varying amount of time, depending on the thickness of the meat. It is pretty useful to use a remote thermometer that will tell you the meat's internal temperature without having to open the smoker to use a manual probe inasmuch as every time you open the door you lose all of the smoke and heat in the smoker. Insert the probe into the thickest part of the meat (obviously).

Keep an eye on your smoke. If it stops, go add some more wood chips. We went through about four cups

When the internal temperature reaches 120%, it's probably time to start heating your oven for the last step. Set your oven to 250°

Wrap and Coat in Agave
When the internal temperature reaches 145%, the brisket is at a point where smoke will no longer permeate it.
Pull off two big sheets of heavy duty aluminum foil. Squirt a liberal amount of agave nectar onto the aluminum foil where you will be setting your brisket. Pull the brisket out and lay it onto the agave nectar layer, fat cap down. Now, squirt a liberal amount of agave nectar all over the brisket. I used about 1/2 of a squirt bottle on ours. Dust it with a bit more dry rub, although using a bit less than the initial application.

Slow cook your brisket in the oven
Close up the foil tightly and put the brisket into the oven for about three hours.

Let it Rest, Slice and Enjoy
You can test the state of your brisket after about two hours. Depending on the thickness, this last step can take from between two and four hours. You want the meat to basically fall apart when you pinch some.
Once done, open up the foil, leaving the meat sitting in what should be a bunch of juice/gravy that you will retain.
When you cut the brisket, be sure to cut across the grain or the slices will not hold up.
For leftovers, store the brisket with the juices surrounding it in a glass container. It's even better the next day.
Enjoy!

webdood

Smoked Chicken

This recipe makes an amazing smoked chicken.

Ingredients/Equipment Required

• Dry Rub - you can use Butt Rub or Make Your Own. Put it in a shaker. This is mine.
• BBQ Sauce - Cajun Injector's Rosemary and Garlic BBQ Sauce is just fantastic for this recipe. Or, you can make your own.
• "Instant" Thermometer or Remote Thermometer - This is mine.
• Sauce Syringe
• Smoker
• Any kind of fruit-based wood chips. Apple, Cherry, Pecan or, in a pinch, Oak
• Rubber Gloves

Your smoker should be running "low and slow" at around 225°

The Procedure

1. Separate skin from Breast - wearing your rubber gloves, separate the skin from the breast. The idea is to create a sort of pocket in her without tearing it or otherwise puncture the skin as it will serve to hold in the juices as the bird cooks. This is the basic "secret" to this recipe.
2. Inject the sauce into the breasts - using one syringe per breast, shoot half into the front and half into the back by approaching the breast from underneath the skin at an angle. It is important not to pierce the skin
3. Inject the Leg/Thigh Area - put one syringe into the section where the leg and thigh come together. It's ok to pierce the skin here as there are already lots of oils/juice in those parts of the bird so if some leaks out, no big deal.
4. Dust with Dry Rub - using a shaker, dust the bird inside the skin we've separated and on the outside as well.
5. Smoke the Chicken! - cook, breast-side up, until the bird reaches an internal temperature of 165°. The place to put the probe is not in the breast, but rather in the thigh.

BBQ Spare Ribs

This recipe makes a really nice rack of ribs in about 3 1/2 hours. No par-boiling required!

Ingredients

• Dry Rub - you can use Butt Rub or Make Your Own. Put it in a shaker. This is mine.
• Garlic Olive oil or Yellow mustard (less flavor as it cooks off)
• BBQ Sauce - your chice here. Or you can make your own
• Brown Sugar
• Rack of Pork Spare Ribs - ("Lights" are preferred)
• Smoker
• Any kind of fruit-based wood chips. Apple, Cherry, Pecan or, in a pinch, Oak
• Rubber Gloves
• Aluminum Pan with steep sides to do prep work in
• Roll of Aluminum Foil

The olive oil or mustard acts as a binder to hold the dry rub. Garlic Olive oil will impart a nice flavor to the ribs whereas yellow mustard will just burn off and impart little, if any, flavor.

Your smoker should be running "low and slow" at around 225°

The Procedure

1. Remove the membrane from the ribs - you can do this by taking a paper towel to help to grab the membrane and peel it off.
2. Cut off the brisket bone - this is the thicker portion along one side of the ribs. You want the rack to be basically the same thickness to get even cooking. After you remove this section, you now have what are termed "St. Louis Style Ribs". Here are some more details about rib anatomy.
3. Coat with binder (olive oil or mustard) - wearing your rubber gloves, squirt the binder on the rib and evenly rub it all over.
4. Apply Dry Rub - using your shaker, gingerly sprinkle both sides of the rack with dry rub. Think of it as a "dusting". Do not rub the dry rub in as you will probably end up adding too much. A "dust" is fine.
5. Apply brown sugar - apply maybe a handful of brown sugar to each side. You can press this part on as it will tend to fal off.
6. Smoke for 1 1/2 hours - cook for 1 1/2 hrs, bone side down with the smoke running.
7. Smoke for another hour - cook for 1 hour, bone side up with the smoke running.
8. Wrap Ribs - after the 2 1/2 hr cook time, pull off two large sheets of aluminum foil. (wrapping the rack with two sheets keeps juices from running out). Using a squirt bottle, apply a light coating of BBQ sauce to the area of the foil where the ribs will lie. Drop the rack onto that and squirt another light layer ("drizzle") on top of the ribs. Seal it all up tight.
9. Cook for 1 Hour - cook for another hour, bone side down. No need for smoke at this point.
10. Apply BBQ Sauce - after the last hour is up, remove from smoker (now just acting as an oven), remove foil and squirt a more generous amount of BBQ sauce than in the previous step. You can smear it with the tongs if it's too hot.
11. Caramelize It! - now, with your BBQ running as hot as you can get it, put the rack back onto the grill for 1 minute per side to caramelize the sauce.
12. Rest and Enjoy - pull 'em off, let 'em rest for at least five minutes before serving.

A handy way to tell if ribs are done. Pick them up with tongs up to about the third rib. if they droop down, they are most likely done. if they stay semi-rigid, they still need more time

BBQ Cooking Temperatures

Useful Internal Cooking Temperatures for BBQ

Always pull off your meat 5°before the number listed as the temperature will continue to rise 5°

Beef and Lamb

125°	Rare
135°	Medium Rare
145°	Medium
155°	Medium Well
165°	Well Done

Poultry 165°

Pork 165°

Fish 145°

Tuna, Swordfish and Marlin 125°

A really handy item to have is a Wireless BBQ Thermometer.This is mine.

BBQ Sauce

This is a basic BBQ Sauce recipe

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup apple juice
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/4 cup paprika
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Combine all ingredients except ketchup in a sauce pan.
Simmer on stove for 20 minutes, add ketchup and simmer until thick.
Pour into favorite container. Chill and enjoy.

Credit goes to "Big Ed" of "Big Ed's BBQ"

BBQ Dry Rub

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sea salt
• 1/4 cup freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup paprika
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp chili powder

In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients together. Sprinkle over favorite meat.
Do not mash rub into meat as you will probably end up using too much on it.
Let rest for 30 minutes, then grill and enjoy.
Store any leftover rub in a sealed container.

Credit goes to "Big Ed" of "Big Ed's BBQ"