How to Cook a Brisket on a Gas Grill

👨‍🍳How to Cook Brisket on a Gas Grill—Step-by-Step Photo Instructions

1. Use a half or whole brisket and rub of your choice.

2. Optional: Trim brisket of large chunks of fat and the fat cap.

9. Remove from the grill and wrap in foil and a couple of towels.

10. Allow to rest for 1-2 hours before cutting thin across the grain to serve.

For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.

⏰How Long to Grill a Brisket

Most will say 1 to 1 ½ hours per pound, assuming a 250° grill. It is not a bad starting point for time management, but a wide range. The significant variables are weight, thickness, and grill temperature.

🌡️When is Brisket Done?

Brisket is done when the internal temperature reaches 200°F-205°F. I think 190°F is too low. 195°F-200°F will slice nicely. But 203° seems to be the number competition smokers want. 205°-210° is ok. But over 210° is probably too much and will become a texture and moisture issue.

🌡️What Grill Temperature to Use

Try to use a stable grill surface temperature of 250° in the indirect heat area. Most smokers will use 225°. As you get to 300°, you will get more dryness issues.

You must have a good grill surface thermometer to do this correctly. A continuous read probe meat thermometer is a good idea, along with the required surface thermometer.

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📚Reference posts for more information

• How To Set Up Your Gas Grill for Smoking and Low and Slow Cooking
• A Beginners Guide to Grill Temperature on a Gas Grill
• BBQ Dry Rub
• Memphis BBQ Sauce—Sweet and Tangy

Easiest Oven Baked BBQ Beef Brisket

Learn how simple it is to make smoky and tender oven-baked BBQ Beef Brisket with this never-fake brisket recipe—just two ingredients and 5 minutes of prep time—everybody deserves great BBQ. 

✔️Tips to get it right every time

• Use the grill you have, but it needs to be big enough for the meat and the cooking technique.
• You can use a charcoal or pellet grill if you can control the temperature.
• Be sure to have enough fuel to complete the cooking—an extra tank of propane, an extra bag of wood pellets, or charcoal. I use a natural gas grill.
• This recipe only has the most basic dry rub, but it works and is delicious. But for a more complicated flavor profile, check out my full BBQ Dry Rub with infinite options.
• Fat side up or fat side down is hotly debated, but it does not matter. The moisture is from the melted connective tissue and not the fat. My friendly competition smokers agree. It does not matter. I prefer to trim some to decrease the mess and increase the surface area for great bark.

The Texas Crutch

The "Texas Crutch" is used to counter “the stall.” It is tightly wrapping the meat to prevent evaporation. 90% of competition smokers do this. But remember, they are cooking large whole briskets.

By tightly wrapping, you are creating a “mini-environment” next to the meat, which will quickly reach 100% relative humidity and prevent further evaporation.

While the meat fiber will continue to contract and force out water, it can not evaporate, cooling your meat and prolonging the cooking time.

Pros and Cons of “The Texas Crunch”

Pros

1. The biggest pro is time. You can save hours in cooking time, especially with larger cuts.
2. Moisture. It can help maintain moisture in the meat. As the beef passes the 180° range and the cells relax, the moisture can re-absorb into the cells. This is not a huge effect.
3. If on a smoker, you can also control smoke exposure.

Cons

1. The main con is water can destroy your bark. Your hard-earned crunchy bark becomes soft. You can counter this some (not completely). See the next section.
2. The fussiness and a bit of work. Yep, some people complain about anything.
3. Your grill temp goes down. I work hard to keep my temperature stable. I try to keep my hands off and the hood closed as much as possible.

The Technique of the Texas Crunch

While some will use butcher paper (the pink butcher paper, not the white wax-coated stuff), I don’t want to buy hundreds of feet of it. It may be a bit better on the bark issue. Most people use heavy-duty aluminum foil since we all have that.

1. You will want to do this in the 150°-160° range when the meat temperature “stalls.” Also, the bark should be dark red approaching black and “set up,” meaning not mushy looking.
2. Get an area close to the grill and get two large pieces of foil ready to double wrap.
3. Quickly grab your meat off the grill. Do not just flip the lid wide open and keep it that way. Open as far as you need and close immediately.
4. Wrap tight. I will say that again, TIGHT and crimp the seams and ends. The less space in your mini-environment, the better.
5. Crimp tightly around your meat thermometer. You must have a continuous read thermometer to do this right.
6. Back to the grill until you reach your goal temperature, usually 200°-205° for me.
7. If you want to improve your bark, unwrap at this point and cook for 30 more minutes.

Why I don’t usually do this.

1. I’m cooking smaller pieces of meat—less stall. So, there's not much reason to bother with it.
2. I love a good crunchy bark. If you don't care about bark, do my oven method.
3. The moisture thing is not that much. A lot of that “moisture” you love is melted collagen. Collagen melting starts at 160° and increases to 180°.

❄️Storage and reheating leftovers

Store leftovers in an airtight container and refrigerate for 4 days. Or freeze for 3 months.

Reheat covered in a 300° oven until hot. While I yell and scream about using sauce to reheat pulled pork, brisket can take the abuse from the acid in the sauce, so it's your choice.

✔️FAQs

🐄About Brisket

Beef brisket is a cut of meat from the lower chest wall. The brisket includes superficial and deep pectoral muscles, which have lots of connective tissue. The cow does not have collar bones, so these muscles support about 60% of the body weight of the 1500-pound cow.

Whole briskets are generally vacuum packed for the producers and are usually 8 to 12 pounds, which is more meat than most of us “cooking for two” people want except for parties.

Many consumer meat markets and some grocery stores will sell half briskets. There are the “point” and “flat” halves. Generally, the flat half has two layers, and the point has only one muscle layer.

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