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Nicholas Gavin is the Culinary Creative Director of ChefSteps, where he develops recipes and is responsible for making all the food look beautiful. Nick has worked at ChefSteps for over a decade; he and ChefSteps co-founder Grant Crilly worked together at Modernist Cuisine. Nick has worked in professional kitchens both in the United States and abroad, most notably at Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Spain.

Nicholas Gavin

Joule® Turbo Sous Vide

High-precision digital scale

14-inch by 20-inch Heavy-duty vacuum-seal bag(s)

2-gallon Ziplock-style freezer bag(s)

Smoker

Breville Joule® Oven Air Fryer Pro

1/2 Sheet pan(s)

Baking/Cooling rack(s)

Pastry brush

Small fine-mesh strainer

Spray bottle

Beef brisket point

Brown sugar

Black pepper

Kosher salt

Prague powder #1

Molasses

Liquid smoke

Texas Black Pepper Barbecue Rub

Bark Builder: The Secret to Better Indoor Barbecue

Sweet and Sticky Barbecue Sauce

If you plan on finishing the brisket in a smoker, you can omit the liquid smoke in the glaze, as well as the curing salt (Prague powder #1) in the dry cure. The Prague powder #1 (aka “pink salt”) is optional; it helps create the appearance of the hallmark pink smoke ring you get with traditional smoked barbecue. 
 
IMPORTANT!
Curing (pink) salts must be used thoughtfully and carefully:
When adding the curing salts to any blend, it’s important that the mix is not too acidic. A highly acidic solution will cause the curing salts to rapidly decompose into nitric oxide, which is dangerous as a concentrated gas. Don’t add vinegar to the brine, and never mix liquid smoke (which is acidic) directly with curing salts. (It’s okay to add curing salts to a solution that includes some liquid smoke, as we do in this recipe.) If you’d like to add acid, feel free to ask about recommendations in the comments. 
 
When working with curing salts, it’s important to use the precise amounts called for in a recipe. When working with such small quantities, we recommend using a high-precision jeweler’s scale to <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/guides-tools/why-you-should-use-a-scale">measure by weight</a>.

Before we begin

Heat sous vide water bath to [f 162].

Heat sous vide bath

Transfer brisket to cutting board, fat cap-side up (keep brisket chilled until you’re ready to trim, as it’s easier to cut fat when cold). Using a sharp knife, preferably one with a thin and flexible blade, evenly trim fat cap to 1/4-inch thickness using smooth knife strokes.

Trim brisket

Weigh brisket; if brisket is far off target weight of 1.8 kg (4 pounds), scale cure ingredients using percentages provided above. 
 
In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, pepper, salt, and Prague powder (if using). Stir until well combined. Set aside.

Make cure

The hallmark of stellar barbecue, a pink smoke ring, achieved with ease by barbecue pitmasters and restaurants. That’s because the smoke ring is produced by a chemical reaction between the myoglobin in the meat and nitric oxide, which is produced from burning wood or charcoal. Myoglobin—the protein that makes raw meat red—naturally turns brown during cooking. The nitric oxide from woodsmoke condenses on the meat, binding with the myoglobin and preventing it from browning. Voilà! A pretty pink ring around the interior of the meat, just below the surface. 
 
For smokeless barbecue, we create the appearance and flavor of a traditional smoke ring by using a curing salt, Prague powder #1 (also called “pink salt”), which contains sodium nitrite. During cooking, the nitrite in the salt slowly decomposes into nitric oxide, reacting with myoglobin in the same way as the gas in woodsmoke, giving us a perfect smoke ring that could fool any barbecue enthusiast.

Getting a barbecue smoke ring without a smoker

In a separate small bowl, combine molasses and liquid smoke (if using), and stir until well combined.

Make glaze

Brush brisket on all sides with molasses mixture; reserve any leftover glaze. Season evenly on all sides with cure mixture. Place brisket in a 14-inch by 20-inch vacuum-seal bag or double-bag in 2-gallon ziplock-style freezer bags. 
 
Seal bag using water displacement method or vacuum sealer.

Glaze, season, and bag brisket

When you are cooking heavy food or cooking at temperatures above 158 °F / 70 °C, the seams of ziplock-style bags can fail and expose food to water from the sous vide bath. When cooking a recipe like this, opt for heavy-duty vacuum-seal bags designed for sous vide cooking if possible; if you must use ziplock-style bags, double-bag to reduce the chance of bag failure.

No vacuum-seal bags? Double-bag it.

Lower bag into sous vide bath until brisket is fully submerged, and clip to the side of the water bath container. 
 
Cook for 24 hours. 
 
Once cooked, brisket can be held in sous vide bath for 3 hours (27 hours total) without any loss in quality.

Cook brisket sous vide

For long cooks, it’s important to cover your sous vide bath container to reduce evaporation. Use a lid, a cut-up yoga mat, or some high-quality plastic wrap, then let Joule do its thing while you prepare the house for a barbecue feast.

Cover for long cooks

If finishing brisket in a smoker, 1 hour before brisket finishes cooking sous vide, heat smoker to [f 200]. 
 
If finishing brisket in an oven, 30 minutes before brisket finishes cooking sous vide, adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to [f 250] with fan on if using a convection oven, or [f 275] if using a standard oven. 
 
Remove brisket from bag and transfer to wire rack set inside a 1/2 sheet pan. Gently pat dry. Brush with an even coating of reserved molasses mixture on all sides. Season with an even layer of rub on all sides. 
 
If using Bark Builder, after seasoning brisket with rub, use a small fine-mesh strainer to apply an even coating of Bark Builder. Using a spray bottle, mist surface with water to hydrate rub and Bark Builder. Season brisket with a second even layer of rub, and then mist surface once more with water until no dry spots remain. If you’re not using Bark Builder, only apply one layer of rub after brushing with molasses mixture. 
 
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Recipe and guide to using Bark Builder, for indoor barbecue crusty bark. Use it for making brisket, ribs, pulled pork.

Glaze brisket and season with rub

If finishing brisket in a smoker, transfer brisket to the smoker set to [f 200] and cook until surface of meat looks dry and matte in color and has formed a crusty bark, about 1 hour. 
 
If finishing brisket in an oven, transfer sheet pan to oven and cook until surface of meat looks dry and matte in color, and has formed a crusty bark, 25 to 30 minutes.

Smoke brisket or finish in oven

Transfer brisket to cutting board, fat cap-side up, and allow to rest for at least 5 minutes. When ready to serve, slice brisket against the grain into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Serve, passing barbecue sauce at the table (if you’re the saucy type).

Rest, slice, and serve

Step 1: Make brine
Pour water into a container and add 240 g smoked salt, 160 g brown sugar, and 120 g liquid smoke. Whisk until ingredients are fully dissolved in the water.

Store brine in the fridge until you need it.

Step 2: Trim brisket
Trim your brisket as you typically would. Some people like to remove all the fat, some like to trim none. We fall somewhere in the middle, removing the larger pieces but not cracking out and removing all the fat.

Step 3: Brine it
We like to transfer brine to a syringe and inject it directly into the meat, then allow the brisket to brine for 24–48 hours. You can brine it the old-fashioned way too—simply transferring the meat to the brine and letting it rest there—but if you do, you’ll need to brine for five to seven days. Either way, brine the brisket and let it hang out in the fridge.

Step 4: Add Prague Powder #1 (optional)
This is totally optional but, you know, fun. If you want to create a smoke ring—the pink rim at the outer edge that forms when you cook meat in a smoker—here’s how you do it:

Ladle a small amount of brine into a small bowl and add Prague Powder No. 1—also known as Insta Cure No. 1 or curing salt. Whisk until incorporated and return mixture to the brine.

Return the brisket to the brine and allow it to rest there 2 to 3 more hours. (Note: If you leave it longer than that, you’ll get a very thick smoke ring.)

IMPORTANT: Before you modify the brine to include pink salts, be sure to read our note in the intro. Pink salts must be used thoughtfully.

Step 5: Make glaze
In a medium-sized bowl, mix molasses, 120 g liquid smoke, and liquid aminos together.

Step 6: Heat sous vide bath
Heat sous vide water bath to [f 154].

Step 7: Glaze the brisket
Brush half of the glaze evenly onto the surface of the meat. Make sure you reserve leftover glaze! We’re going to do this a second time.

Transfer brisket to a heavy-duty plastic sous vide bag.

Step 8: Cook!
Cooking the brisket at [f 154] for 24 hours will result in tender yet juicy meat.

NOTE: The above time-and-temp combo is our favorite way to cook this brisket, but everyone has their preferences. To learn more about customizing your time-and-temp combos when cooking tough cuts sous vide—plus a bunch of other amazing techniques—check out <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/classes/sous-vide-beyond-the-basics">Cooking Sous Vide: Beyond the Basics</a>.

Step 9: Make brisket rub
In a small bowl, whisk together 300 g smoked salt, 200 g brown sugar, chipotle chile powder (or smoked paprika), black pepper, mustard powder, onion powder, and garlic powder.

Step 10: Glaze it again
Once brisket has finished cooking, remove it from the bag and pat dry. Brush on the other half of the glaze.

Why glaze a second time? To create a tacky surface to which the rub will stick.

Step 11: Preheat oven to [f 257]

Step 12: Rub brisket; roast
Apply a liberal coating of rub to the surface of the meat and transfer to a baking rack.

Allow meat to cook for until a nice crusty bark develops, about 3–4 hours.

Let the meat cool for a few minutes before you slice into it.

TIP: If you are short on time, you can roast meat for an hour at 302 °F / 150 °C, then crank the oven up to 390 °F / 199 °C and roast again for an additional 5–10 minutes to help the bark develop.

Step 13: Serve!
Serve this meat with a few delicious sides—scroll down for our favorite barbecue accompaniments—or stuff into Slider Buns. Ain’t nobody gonna believe you didn’t smoke that thing.

Water

Smoked salt

Brisket

Liquid aminos

Chipotle chile powder

Mustard powder

Onion powder

Garlic powder

The original recipe

Brisket can be cooked sous vide through step 5, rapid-chilled in its bag in an ice bath, and refrigerated for up to 1 week. Reheat in a [f 157] sous vide bath for 4 hours before proceeding with the recipe.

Make-ahead and storage

Brisket is a pitmaster’s mainstay, but let’s face it: It’s often poorly executed, and ends up being dry, bland, blah. 
 
Tired of the ho-hum stuff (and never willing to shy away from a challenge), we set out to make a better brisket, with juicy, smoky meat and a sticky, satisfying bark. Just to up the ante, we decided to develop it without the aid of a smoker, taking a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/guides-tools/the-ultimate-guide-to-modernist-bbq">modernist approach</a> using liquid smoke and nitrites to evoke a smoky flavor and signature pink ring at the edge of the meat—both hallmarks of first-rate ’cue—and cooking the beef sous vide. We also developed <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/bark-builder">Bark Builder</a>, which can be applied to the meat just before finishing it in an oven to produce a crust on the exterior that is very close to the dark and delicious crust that forms on the outside of long-smoked meats. Combined with our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/texas-black-pepper-barbecue-rub">Texas Black Pepper Barbecue Rub</a> and our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/sweet-and-sticky-bbq-sauce">Sweet and Sticky Barbecue Sauce</a>, even the most discerning &#39;cue enthusiast will find it hard to pick nits about the quality of our sous vide brisket. 
 
The upshot for you, hungry meat fiends, is the best dang barbecue brisket you’ll ever make, and you can make it in the climate-controlled comfort of your own kitchen. You don’t need a smoker and you don’t need a lot of space—although we also give you the option of finishing this tender-as-heck brisket in a smoker, if you&#39;ve got one. 
 
Grab some carnivorous buddies—you’re gonna want to show this one off. 
 
EDITORS’ NOTE: We’ve updated this recipe after further testing and considering reader feedback. We’ve increased the sous vide cook temperature to [f 162], and reduced the time for the oven finishing step to 30 minutes (down from 3 to 4 hours). This produces a better brisket texture that is more in line with great Texas barbecue: jiggly, juicy, and tender. We&#39;ve streamlined the seasoning process by replacing the wet brine with a dry cure and brushed glaze approach. We&#39;ve retested the recipe using our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/texas-black-pepper-barbecue-rub">Texas black pepper rub</a> and <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/sweet-and-sticky-bbq-sauce">sweet and sticky sauce</a>, and provided the option of using our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/bark-builder">Bark Builder</a> for improved bark results. Finally, we’ve also added the option of finishing the brisket in the smoker. If you prefer to use the original recipe, we’ve included it as a tip at the end of the recipe before the make-ahead and storage instructions.

Sous Vide Barbecue Brisket

In Texas, where beef barbecue is king, purists keep spice rubs simple and discourage dressing smoked brisket and the like with sauce. Proponents of this minimalist approach argue that any seasonings beyond salt and pepper are superfluous, and detract and distract from the flavors of the beef and smoke. In central Texas, many barbecue joints don’t even offer sauce. The pitmasters of East Texas are more permissive about the use of sauce on their ’cue, but they make sure to keep the flavors simple and balanced in order to complement the richness of the beef, rather than mask it.In keeping with that tradition, we’ve developed a sweet and sticky all-purpose barbecue sauce that can be used for mopping beef as it smokes—a technique that some folks favor for improving the texture of bark while deepening its color—or as an accompaniment for serving alongside brisket, short ribs, and more. It’s the full package: tangy, savory, and sweet, with just a hint of heat on the finish. NOTE: This recipe is an updated version of our previously published Sweet and Sticky BBQ Glaze. After years of feedback and further testing, we redeveloped the recipe, omitting the whiskey from the original, adding brown sugar and additional spices to bring the flavors into balance, and lightly simmering the sauce. We’re confident you’ll love the results.

Beef is the undisputed star of Texas barbecue. In order to let the flavor of the meat take center stage, seasoning is generally kept simple—most purists publicly favor a no-frills combination of equal parts of salt and pepper, known as Dalmatian rub in central Texas, for seasoning brisket and <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/bbq-beef-short-ribs">beef ribs</a>. But when pushed a little on the subject, <a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/bbq/seasoning-worst-kept-secret-texas-barbecue/">many renowned pitmasters admit to embellishing their dry rubs with a little extra spice</a>. With that in mind, we set out to develop a leveled-up, Texas-inspired dry rub for all your barbecue beef needs.In keeping with tradition, salt and pepper are the primary ingredients for this rub, and for good reason. Just like with a great steak, <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/oven-barbecue-brisket">brisket</a> doesn’t require much seasoning assistance in order to realize its beefy flavor potential. Salt, being water-soluble, is able to penetrate the meat below the surface to season the meat through diffusion. The pepper and other spices in the rub—brown sugar, smoked paprika, granulated garlic, bay leaf, celery, and cumin seed—are surface level seasonings that help form a delicious, crunchy bark that complements the rich, tender beef beneath it.

Making great indoor barbecue is hard; purists argue that it’s impossible. Specifically, they argue that the bark, the iconic and elusive feature of nicely smoked meat, can’t be done without a smoker.For the uninitiated, “bark” is that almost crispy layer of deeply browned to blackened spice, meat, fat, and smoke that develops on the surface of smoked meat. And to a certain extent, we agree with the purists: Without a smoker, producing bark is mostly impossible. Mostly impossible.What if we told you that producing bark on indoor barbecue is possible? What if we told you that after 300 hours of experimentation in the ChefSteps test kitchen, cooking rounds and rounds of pork butt, ribs, and brisket, geeking out on pH, Maillard reactions, and alternative sugars, we’ve developed a product that can help you produce barbecue bark, no smoker required? Well, that’s what we’re telling you, right now!Introducing: Bark Builder, the secret ingredient for leveling up indoor barbecue.Whip up a batch and use it on any barbecue recipe that doesn’t require a smoker—just follow the instructions below for applying it. You’re going to love the results, even if they seem impossible.EDITORS’ NOTE: You asked, and we listened! We’ve updated this page to include a recipe for Bark Builder, so you can just make it yourself.