12hr BBQ Beef Brisket in Kamado Egg BBQ Method

Simple 12 step / 12hr BBQ Beef Brisket for Kamado Egg BBQ Method

Whilst as a friend put it "sitting up all night tending a fire and nurturing a brisket is a noble thing to do", sometimes cooking a BBQ beef brisket on an offset smoker with the continual need to adjust the fire and add oak logs every 20 to 40 minutes can be tiring.

Surely there is a less taxing approach using the temperature duration and stability of a kamado egg BBQ whilst still introducing good blue smoke into the cooking chamber rather than the simpler charcoal fuel only. Yes, yes there is and I used my 12 step / 12 hour BBQ beef brisket method last night to great effect as you will see in the video

12hr BBQ Beef Brisket - resulting super tender BBQ brisket

The 12 step / 12hr BBQ Beef Brisket cooking method that works creating a moisture, tender brisket with amazing flavour but requires an early start if you want brisket served in late afternoon.

However, using large charcoal as your fuel base with a few oak log splits does provide a consistent heat for up to 6 hrs, which means you can start your cook at 4AM, with a target wrapping stage at 10AM, when then brisket can continue to cook in a normal oven (or continue on your kamado egg BBQ if you refresh the charcoal).

Simple 12 step/hour BBQ Beef Brisket Recipe

1. Source a small brisket (between 1.5kg/3lb and 3kg/6.5lb) with good marbling / fat cap
2. Season the beef brisket with a classic 50 / 50 salt & pepper mix (to which I add a little garlic powder & a little paprika)
3. Fill BBQ charcoal started with the largest lump wood charcoal you can find, light charcoal till it's glowing and then dump into bottom of Kamado / egg BBQ
4. Add several oak wood splits (2" in size) / oak wood chunks on top of coals
5. Insert direct heat baffle plate & place a tray with water on top to keep moisture levels up
6. Set temperature control or air vents for BBQ to come up to target 245f and place beef brisket into the kamado egg BBQ
7. Start spritzing the BBQ brisket around 3 hrs in with any form of moisture as moisture allows better smoke penetration & keeps meat moist by reducing surface evaporation
8. Smoke the brisket for around 6 hrs (large load of large charcoal should last this long in kamado) or till internal temperature reaches target 165f
9. Pull the brisket off the BBQ & wrap using doubled up butchers paper & pour in around 1/2 cup of beef stock (or chicken stock with a little soy sauce, balasamic vinegar, honey & Worcestershire sauce)
10. Cook for further 6 hrs at 245f or till internal temperature reaches target 203f in oven (because when wrapped, there isn't going to be much more smoke flavour added, especially in kamado BBQ)
11. Rest the meat for 1 hr before cutting

Things to note in the various stages:

Brisket selection

The amount of marbling really does make a different so try to work with your butcher to optimise your results by indicating that you really DO want the extra fat in there because of the cooking method you are going to be using.

You can see the lovely level of fat cap on this brisket. My butcher said to me specifically "we don't like to pay for fat when we are sourcing our meats", so if you are in the UK and using grass fed brisket, as seems to be the case most often, work with your butcher by telling them what you want and why

Using large lump wood charcoal in egg kamado BBQ

The largest possible pieces of lump wood charcoal will give you a restful night. It's worth sorting the pieces the day before and placing into your chimney starter together with your selection of oak splits so when you are starting the lump wood charcoal in the dark in the middle of night / early morning, it's just a case of setting it going.

If you've selected the right charcoal, your BBQ will keep going for 4 to 8hrs easily (but with a target of 6 hrs) with minimal / no input. Using a fan control wifi system for airflow control adds a further level of comfort in being able to see the temperature on your phone on an app (I find bluetooth connected systems are not as stable as wifi systems), making things even easier.

Using an oven for final stage of cook

Some would say it's cheating when it comes to BBQ beef brisket but if you are using an egg kamado BBQ, finishing the brisket after it's had 6 hrs of smoke and it already wrapped just seems to work. Finding the right 'medium' temperature for your oven however can be a challenge and you want to make sure you test the range of the on / off temperature of your oven.

The fluctuating temperature can be significantly more than inside an egg kamado BBQ, so you want to find the right average that will arrive at 245f. In the case of my oven, the range is 220 to 255 but with the beef brisket already wrapped, the variation in temperature is not an issue. Work out where the set the dial on your oven before hand (or even set the oven to temperature 30 minutes before you pull & wrap the beef brisket, so you can get it back into consistent heat).