Cook smoked Grilled Brisket low-and-slow on your backyard gas grill—moist and tender meat with crusty bark and a smokey taste. Make classic BBQ brisket without a smoker.
The fantastic bark with the smoke and tender meat will make this your favorite meat.
🐄Ingredients
Brisket—the size of your choice, but I generally cook a 4-5 pound point or flat.
Dry Rub—brown sugar, paprika, kosher salt, black pepper OR dry rub of your choice
Wood chips for smoke
Jump To (scroll for more)
- 🐄Ingredients
- 👨🍳How to Cook Brisket on a Gas Grill—Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
- ⏰How Long to Grill a Brisket
- 🌡️When is Brisket Done?
- 🌡️What Grill Temperature to Use
- 📚Reference posts for more information
- ✔️Tips to get it right every time
- What is "The Stall"?
- The Texas Crutch
- ❄️Storage and reheating leftovers
- ✔️FAQs
- Classic Grill Recipes
- 🐄About Brisket
- 📖 Recipe
Featured Comment from Matt :
"Thanks, this technique and explanation is fantastic! Haven't done it for a few years and these instructions are great."
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
BBQ brisket is the king of all barbecues. You can argue for pulled pork butt or baby back rubs, but it is smoked brisket for me. This brisket recipe provides what you need to make great brisket on your home gas grill. But you can use a charcoal or pellet grill.
Once you have your grill set up for low-and-slow cooking and smoking, it is easy to grill and smoke brisket on your gas grill with the easy step-by-step photo instructions.
👨🍳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.
3. Use the rub of your choice, or you may use mine.
4. Give all sides of the brisket a heavy coat of rub.
5. Set up the grill for a steady temperature of about 225°-250° with indirect heat, a drip pan on the indirect side, and a way to create smoke.
6. Cook on the indirect side over a drip pan.
7. Add smoke.
8. Cook until an internal temp of 200°-205°, about 5-6 hours total cooking time with the 5-pound point.
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.
These are products I own and use. All product links are affiliate links—see the Privacy Policy for more information.
Smoke™ by Thermoworks™
Thermapen™ One from Thermoworks™
CDN Grill Surface Thermometer
Thermopop™ by Thermoworks™
📚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.
What is "The Stall"?
“The Stall” happens when the fibers of the meat contract nearing 150°F to 160°F. This occurs with both beef and pork and continues to about 180°F when the meat fibers start to relax.
Since it occurs past "well done" temperature for most meats, it is not an issue for steaks, pork chops, or similar cooking. But with brisket or pork butt, where we are cooking to the 200° plus range, you may want to consider this issue.
The water in the meat fibers will be forced out of the cells as they contract and will make their way to the surface. On the surface, the water will evaporate as cooking continues. Evaporation uses energy and will “stall” the cooking process.
This stall can go on for hours, depending on the size of the meat and other factors. Six hours sometimes for a large whole brisket.
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
- The biggest pro is time. You can save hours in cooking time, especially with larger cuts.
- 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.
- If on a smoker, you can also control smoke exposure.
Cons
- 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.
- The fussiness and a bit of work. Yep, some people complain about anything.
- 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.
- 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.
- Get an area close to the grill and get two large pieces of foil ready to double wrap.
- 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.
- Wrap tight. I will say that again, TIGHT and crimp the seams and ends. The less space in your mini-environment, the better.
- Crimp tightly around your meat thermometer. You must have a continuous read thermometer to do this right.
- Back to the grill until you reach your goal temperature, usually 200°-205° for me.
- If you want to improve your bark, unwrap at this point and cook for 30 more minutes.
Why I don’t usually do this.
- I’m cooking smaller pieces of meat—less stall. So, there's not much reason to bother with it.
- I love a good crunchy bark. If you don't care about bark, do my oven method.
- 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
Buy ½ pound per person. For teenage boys, assume 1 to 1 ½ pounds. Plus, you want leftovers.
The anti-trimming gang says it is natural and will protect the meat.
The trimmers will argue it makes a big mess and that it is the melting of collagen that produces most of the moisture. Also, more area for the rub to be on the meat.
A compromise is to trim the layer of fat to ¼ inch thick. This is usually what I do now, but the picture is a full trim. I'm not eating a chunk of fat just because it has the "bark" on it. But tender brisket with bark is heaven.
Injecting brisket—I don't. You can add a variety of flavors, but I don't want to do that—I want my brisket to taste like brisket, not apple juice or something else.
Is it moister with injecting? Some say yes, and some say no. If yes, then it is marginal. Research injecting carefully before doing this. Mistakes can ruin your brisket.
Brining brisket—Some people swear by it, but most competition smokers don't. I have never been a fan of brining beef. I have experimented with other cuts of beef, and I felt it took away the "beef" flavor a bit.
This is a personal taste thing. I love hickory, but mesquite, apple, cherry, and pecan are good for smoking a brisket. Oak seems to be another commonly suggested wood, but it would be my last choice.
Yes, as long as you can maintain the grill temperature correctly.
Classic Grill Recipes
Don't miss these classic grill recipes, like Smoked Pulled Pork and Baby Back Ribs on a Gas Grill. And use my wonderful Memphis Barbecue Sauce.
🐄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.
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
Have you tried this recipe, or have a question? Join the community discussion in the comments.
📖 Recipe
How to Cook a Brisket on a Gas Grill
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Ingredients
- 5 pound Brisket - Size of your choice
My rub for a 5-pound brisket. Scale for different size. You may use the rub of your choice.
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup paprika
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons black pepper
Instructions
- Use a half or whole brisket and rub of your choice.
- Optional: Trim brisket of large chunks of fat and the fat cap. Don't try to be perfect. Some people don't trim or will leave a ¼ inch thick layer. Personal choice.
- Use the rub of your choice, or you may use mine. For my rub, mix rub of ¼ cup each of brown sugar and paprika. Add two tablespoons each of kosher salt and black pepper and mix well.
- Give all sides of the brisket a heavy coat of rub. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight if you have time, but rub and go works. Remove from refrigeration about 1 hour before cooking and allow to rest at room temperature.
- While the brisket is resting, set up the grill. You want a steady temperature of about 225°-250° with indirect heat, a drip pan on the indirect side, and a way to create smoke. See the link in the post for more information.
- Cook on the indirect side over a drip pan.
- You need a method of adding some smoke to your brisket. The method, amount, and duration are up to you. I do about 1 hour of hickory with my built-in smoke box. But foil packs or cast-iron smoker boxes work well. Set How To Set Up Your Gas Grill for Smoking and Low and Slow Cooking.
- Cook until internal temp of 200°-205°. It takes me about 5-6 hours total cooking time with the 5-pound point.
- Remove from grill and wrap in foil and a couple of towels.
- Allow to rest for 1-2 hours before cutting thin across the grain to serve. If you have a flat half or whole brisket, separating the layers before cutting is best.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- The set up of the grill for low and slow cooking plus smoking is the most important part of cooking a brisket on a gas grill.
- Use the rub of your choice, but I include a suggested rub.
- I usually will do smoke for about an hour, but more is fine.
- Cooking time varies a lot, but 1-1 ½ hours per pound is a good starting point to estimate your cooking time.
- Be sure to wrap and let sit after cooking for 1-2 hours.
- You must cut across the grain.
- See the write-up about injection, brine, the stall, and the Texas crutch.
- For serving size by the person. Cook ½ pound per person but double or triple for teenage boys. And you want leftovers.
- This recipe scales up well, but a large whole brisket may take 12-16 hours, and you want to read my discussion about the Texas crutch in the main post above.
- Good in refrigerator for 3-4 days and freezer for 3-4 months.
- Please see How to Set Up a Gas Grill for Smoking and A Beginners Guide to Grill Temperature on a Gas Grill for low and slow grill setup instructions if you need help.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Editor's Note: Originally Published July 28, 2014. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Bill Towner says
Using this recipe, cooked the crap out of a $50 brisket! Put a lid on it, leave a fair amount of fat cap on and add some wine, onion and other water bearing veggies so you don't end up serving leather to your hungries
Robert W says
Every one buys prepared (dry wood chips. If you have access to fruit trees,ie. apple pear peach cherry. It a great time to lightly prune 1/2" to 3/4" limbs from the inside area of the tree to slowly open the center of the tree to help ripen the fruit. Don't heavy trim cut only what you use that day, Cut with sharp pruning shears into 3 to 6 inch chunks(remove ALL leaves), Load your smoker tray in your gas grill, no tray , wrap in 4 layers of foil, poke tiny holes with a fork, you will get slow heavy smoke for hours, try micing it up. I usr 2 parts Hickory 3 peach 2 apple and 1part cherry, Works much better than any store bought chips I've ever tried...
DrDan says
Hi Robert,
I aways thought that might work. Excellent tip. FYI- I'm copying this to the setting up a gas grill for smoking post.
Thanks for the hint.
Dan
Ray Delfranco says
What is the desired internal temperature when the brisket is considered done?
DrDan says
An internal temp of 195 plus is considered done. I like 200 a little better myself.
Helen says
I'm going to make this brisket on Sunday. Any suggestions for a sauce/gravy to make to go with it? I am in Australia so I was thinking maybe a nice red wine jus?
DrDan says
Hi Helen,
I don't really see this a wine type of dish.
Try these. We always eat brisket with Gate’s BBQ sauce from Kansas City which I buy by the case and have it shipped to me. Not an option for you but here is their recipe. https://www.food.com/recipe/gates-sons-kc-bbq-sauce-16745?ref=amp&addPhoto=true Note: this looks like a recipe for the hot version. Watch that red pepper.
Also, I have a great Memphis BBQ sauce that will go well with this. https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/memphis-barbecue-sauce/
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Dan W says
I didn't have kosher salt, so I substituted regular table salt. It made the rub way too salty. My mistake. I think your recipe would have been great if I hadn't screwed it up.
DrDan says
Hi Dan (great name by the way...)
Yep that could do it. All rubs like this have lots of salt. Next time cut the salt in half if not kosher. I just did a pork butt today and I cut back the salt in the rub just for personal taste. I find the same thing with some brines. If you look in the FAQs, I do have a brief discussion about salt.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Wynne says
Looks delicious! I'm curious, though... Why the long rest (1-2 hours) after cooking? Thanks!
DrDan says
Hi Wynne,
The rest is to allow the moisture and fat to reabsorb back into the meat fibers and it will "firm up" a bit. If you try to cut the meat right off the grill, it will just rip apart. But after a rest (1 hour is fine) and cut across the grain, it will be great.
Thanks for the note
Dan
Bruce says
Dr. Dan,
We are going to try and cook a 3 lb brisket today, how should we do it? We have a two burning grill and I am going to wrap the brisket in foil with seasoning on it, so what temp. and how long should I cook it?
DrDan says
Hi Bruce,
I never cook wrapped in foil so really, I don’t have an answer for you. The following is without foil.
If you know your grill and have a grill surface thermometer, then indirect heat at 250 would be good. See https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/set-gas-grill-smoking-low-slow-cooking/ for more details.
Cook until internal temperature of about 195 or 200. With a 3 pounder, it will probably take about 3-4 hours. Variability due to grill, meat thickness etc.
Cooking at the wrong temp or to the wrong end-point with brisket will not give good results. You might want to look at the oven recipe https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/oven-baked-kansas-city-bbq-beef-brisket/ if you don’t haven’t had time to get the grill right or don’t have surface and instant read thermometers.
Hope that helps.
Dan
Jeannette Paladino says
Hey Dan,
It looks like a recipe of delicious Brisket, I must try it out.
Although I do not cook these days, but my daughter will surely cook this for me and I am sure I am going to love it.
Chris Welch says
I got a 13.90 brisket what's the best way to cook it and how long??
DrDan says
Hi Chris,
This technique will work but cooking time goes up. So no specific answer. Mostly 1-2 hrs per pound is a good guess (from the internet) but it varies by thickness, weight (of course), exact grill temp and closeness to the flame for radiant effect. Mine always run 1 to 1.5 hrs per pound but some thinner ones have been a little less and thicker ones longer. Remember you are cooking to a temperature and not by time. Just my guess since I have never done a 13 pound brisket.
My favorite for very large whole brisket like you have is probably my oven technique. https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/oven-baked-kansas-city-bbq-beef-brisket/. Again the time would increase due to the size. If you opt for the oven method you need a large pan with at least 2 inch sides. A sheet pan will not work.
You might want to do some more Googling about large briskets on a gas grill.
Dan
Jay says
I used smoked paprika in place of regular and also add 2 tablespoons of garlic powder with the salt & pepper in the rub. I love how it turns out!
Paul says
You rock! Thank you,
DrDan says
Thanks Paul,
I do love my 70's classic rock
Dan
Gwen says
I know this sounds funny but How long do you produce the smoke. Is it during the entire cooking time?
DrDan says
You just need some smoke for flavor. 20-30 minutes will do nicely.
Dan
samantha eaton says
thanks for the recipe, ill give it a look, im hoping it creates yummy bark!
samantha eaton says
Thanks sounds great will give it a shot!
DrDan says
Let me know if you do it... sounds like a good post.
Dan
Samantha says
Prepped and in the fridge for tomorrow so will absolutely let you know- super excited!
Samantha says
Came out absolutely gorgeous!
DrDan says
Excellent, I will pickup a brisket and try it next week. Thanks for doing the first cooking for me...
Dan
samantha eaton says
I love your recipes, your oven pulled pork is my absolute favorite and now looking to give this a whirl - any suggestions if i want to do this in the oven instead?
DrDan says
I have a great easy oven based recipe I have used for 40 years at https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/oven-baked-kansas-city-bbq-beef-brisket/ .
There is no "crust of spices" but it's really a great easy recipe.
DrDan
samantha eaton says
I should add, I'd like it to have some bark!
DrDan says
Well I can take an educated guess... I'm very good at educated guessing.
Prep the brisket per this recipe BUT rub with some liquid smoke before the spice rub. Very much like the pulled pork.
Cook at 250 on a rack like the pork to the final temp of 195 to 200. Uncovered of course. The size of the brisket will somewhat dictate the time but I'm guessing 4-6 hours. It could be a little longer if a whole brisket. Then follow the after cooking instructions above.
How is that....
Dan
PS there is no bark on my other oven recipe.
Franklin Thompson says
How large a brisket for various cooking times?
DrDan says
Excellent question... No specific answer. Mostly 1-2 hrs per pound is a good guess but it varies by thickness, wt (of course), exact grill temp and closeness to the flame for radiant effect. Mine always run 1 to 1.5 hrs per pound but some thinner ones have been a little less and thicker ones longer. Also it can be a little hard to keep the temp exactly where you want it.
DrDan
Laurie Peters says
1.50lbs
Brigitte Nelson says
It sounds wonderful, I would make this recipe for my Memorial Day Party. However, I do not have a temperature gauge on my grill. How do I know what the grill's temp. is? I do not want to find out, after 5 hours of grilling, that the grill was not hot enough and we would need more hours to get the meat done.
DrDan says
The temperature gauges in the grill are almost worthless anyways. For 8-10 dollars you should be able to pick up a grill surface thermometer at a Home Depot or a hardware store. It will serve you well. Get the grill setup a day early and try to get the temp correct.
DrDan