Dead Simple and Delicious Sous Vide BBQ Brisket
One of my coworkers brought back a gift pack of BBQ sauce and rub from Salt Lick BBQ, and we were left with a conundrum: what to do with this stuff? Well, it turns out that you should have a meat-acular potluck on a random Monday. I wanted to sous vide something, someone else is working on the ribs, someone else on the beans, etc.
I’d been wanting to do a brisket. So, the decision was easy: brisket rubbed down with awesome-ness. I happened to have some rub from Stubb’s in Austin, so the process was going to be very easy: rub, seal, soak, sear and enjoy.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 24 hours
Total Time: 24 hours, 5 minutes
One of my coworkers brought back a gift pack of BBQ sauce and rub from Salt Lick BBQ, and we were left with a conundrum: what to do with this stuff? Well, it turns out that you should have a meat-acular potluck on a random Monday. I wanted to sous vide something, someone else is working on the ribs,
| Cook Time | 1440 minutes |
| Servings |
serving
|
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons BBQ rub (like, Stubbs or Salt Lick)
- 5 pounds beef brisket
Ingredients
|
|
Instructions
- Bring a water bath to 137ºF.
- Liberally coat beef brisket with the rub.
- Package the brisket and cook for 1 to 2 days.
- Pull the brisket out and discard the excess liquid. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a cast-iron skillet, and brown the brisket on all sides -- torch if you can.
Recipe Notes
137ºF is becoming my favorite temperature for roasts. It's a good balance between medium rare and medium.
Share this Recipe
19 thoughts on “Dead Simple and Delicious Sous Vide BBQ Brisket”
Wow, don’t discard the liquid, that’s the best part! Strain it through a chinois into a sauce pan, reduce it down to a glaze or reduce it by half and add a corn starch slurry for the best sauce you have ever tasted.
Tommy: I tried almost exactly that. But, it was too salty and it wasn’t a pretty color. I definitely like turning the juices into a sauce, but was really bummed by the results of it in this recipe.
was all the collagen broken down in 24 hours? It seems short for such a low temperature…
I’ll let Adam answer the question since this was his recipe he posted.
FWIW, I just did this same recipe by for 55 hours and it was incredible. We are writing up the recipe soon, but here’s a photo of that we shared on twitter: https://twitter.com/SousVideLife/status/490675470233391104
It was tender, but not magically tender. Another 31 hours would have been good though 🙂
Extend with another home stock, or store bought. Reduce somewhat and thicken. Like nuclear waste fluids, often dilution is the solution.
Where’s the smoke?
David Dallas
As I get more “into” BBQ, the more I understand your question. Next time I would definitely smoke this for at least a couple of hours, then sous vide.
Iwas wondering the same thing – I bet it tasted great and at the same time a mild revolution with brisket fanatics who want the smoke. Still, after smoking 2 briskets with all the work, care and feeding, some toughness, etc. I am ok with enjoying brisket this way.
I did some sous vide ribs for 24 hours ( not enough time) and then smoked in gas grill for 2-3 more. I added a dry first. They picked up some smoke and didn’t overheat too much. I used a smoke tray over a side burner and put a larger chunk in it to burn slowly. I would really love to try some brisket.
Dry RUB
To be frank, I don’t think I can reasonably match the real Bbq guys with atraditional method. I am looking for a short cut.
Looking forward to this. I’ve smoked quite a bit, but being from further east than Texas, it is all about pulled pork and pork ribs. Anyway, I live in California now and I often make Tri-tip in the sous vide for 2 days. Then I show it to a hot hot grill for some color. In a lazy moment, I made ribs in the sous vide for 24 hours, adding a little under 2 teaspoons of liquid smoke. They were pretty darn good. That said, when I smoke now, I just smoke more than I need, seal and freeze, and reheat in sous vide.
Can you add a little liquid smoke to Sous Vide BBQ recipes? (I’m just about to get a unit so I haven’t done any cooking this way yet.) I’ve found it works in certain slow cooker recipes if you don’t over do it.
You definitely can, and we’ve had great success with it. However, remember that the longer the cook time, you’ll want to go easier on it since the flavors get amplified quite a bit. However, no liquid smoke is ever going to be as good as a real smoker would 🙂
I did a whole packer cut in half at 138 for 72 hours , then on a cool smoke of about 160 for three hours .. It was amazing ! And you could cut it with a fork !
That sounds delicious Brad!
Was that temp and time on smoke enough to produce any kind of “bark”, the crispy dark rind around traditional brisket?
Brad, curious as to why you would go through the setup/maintenance of a smoker for a few hours in addition to sous vide? Did it really turn out better than just smoking?