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The Fire 50 · cook it at home

Texas-style brisket in a home oven (or a smoker)

About 10 hr, mostly hands-off (plus an overnight dry brine) · 8 to 10 people

Real Texas brisket is post-oak smoke for 12 hours. At home, a covered grill with wood chunks or even your oven gets you the salt-and-pepper bark and the jiggly, rendered fat. The secret is low heat and a long rest.

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The real one

You need

• 1 whole packer brisket, 5 to 6 kg (11 to 13 lb), or a 2.5 kg (5 lb) flat with its fat cap
• 3 tbsp coarse kosher salt
• 3 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper (16 mesh if you can)
• 1 tsp garlic powder (optional)
• For the oven method: 1 tbsp smoked paprika and 1 tsp liquid smoke (optional)
• Butcher paper or foil for wrapping
• To serve: white bread, pickles, sliced onion

How to make it

1. Trim and season (20 min, the night before): Trim the hard fat to about 6 mm (1/4 in) and round off thin edges so they don't burn. Mix the salt, pepper and garlic powder and coat the brisket all over. Refrigerate uncovered overnight.
2. Cook low (6 to 8 hr): Smoker or covered grill: hold 120 to 135°C (250 to 275°F) with oak or hickory chunks, fat side up, the point toward the heat. Oven: heat to 135°C (275°F), add the paprika to the rub, put the brisket on a rack over a sheet pan with 2 cups of water in the pan. Cook until the bark is dark and set and the inside reads 74 to 77°C (165 to 170°F), usually 5 to 7 hours.
3. Wrap and finish (2 to 3 hr): Wrap tightly in butcher paper (or foil), put it back, and cook until it reads 93 to 96°C (200 to 205°F) in the thickest part of the flat and a probe slides in like butter. That tenderness, not the number, tells you it's done.
4. Rest (1 to 2 hr): Rest it wrapped, in an empty cooler or a turned-off oven, at least 1 hour. This is when the juices settle; skipping it dries the meat.
5. Slice (10 min): Separate the point from the flat along the fat seam. Slice the flat across the grain about as thick as a pencil; slice the point thicker, or cube it for burnt ends. Serve with white bread, pickles and onion.

Tips

• The stall (the temperature stuck around 70°C for hours) is normal; wrapping gets you through it.
• Fat side up in the oven, fat side toward the heat in an offset smoker.
• Save the drippings from the paper and brush them on the slices.

Chef Amazing's own home version of smoked brisket, in our words; not any restaurant's recipe.