"TO DIE FOR" Smoked Brisket

Chris made this brisket a couple of weeks ago and it was SO SO SO good.  My house smelled like some BBQ joint in Memphis, St. Louis, North Carolina, or Kansas City.  He made a rub using the following ingredients.

• 5 tablespoons paprika
• 3 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons onion powder
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon cocoa
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard

You can put whatever you want in a rub...you can go hot or sweet.  This rub gives nice flavor with a slow after burn that really sneaks up on you as you eat.  Rinse the brisket and pat it dry.  Be generous with the rub, you want a good crust.  If you're a BBQ fan, you know how good the crust is.

Now, if you're going to smoke a brisket, you need TIME.  We have a stovetop smoker and it cooks on the stove for an hour or so and then it was hours in the oven at 275 degrees.  The longer you cook the more tender the meat gets.  I think this went 6 hours in the oven.  The finished product looked like this.

Notice the crust??  You can only imagine how good the house smelled!  The brisket didn't shrink down to a glorified hockey puck either.

Look at that smoke ring!

We finished out the meal with twice baked potatoes and prosciutto wrapped asparagus.  

Our furry sous chef was exhausted after all of the work that went into this meal.