Smoked Wagyu Brisket

Get ready for the most sensational BBQ experience with this Smoked Wagyu Brisket!

Slowly cooked in a Traeger over oak pellets, the meat is perfectly juicy, tender, and literally melts in your mouth. Finish it off with Franklin’s BBQ sauce. 

Smoked Wagyu Brisket

INGREDIENTS

• 5 lb wagyu brisket (2.3 kg)
• 1 Tbsp kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; Use half for table salt)
• 1 Tbsp 16-mesh ground black pepper
• Franklin’s BBQ Sauce (or use your favorite BBQ sauce; You can get Franklin’s BBQ Sauce recipe in his Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto cookbook)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Gather all the ingredients. If brisket is frozen, slowly defrost in the fridge over 1 - 2 days. Do not defrost wagyu at room temperature as the fat will melt.
2. Pat dry with a paper towel. The brisket we purchased did not require trimming so there was no waste. If your brisket requires trimming, the fat should be trimmed to ¼ inch on the bottom side. Watch Franklin’s video in the blog post for detailed brisket trimming instructions.
3. If your brisket is not a full packer cut, pay attention to the grain so you can slice it properly after it’s done cooking. We took a picture just in case we forget. You want to cut across the grain to serve.
4. Combine salt and pepper in a small bowl and mix well. We use this Maraca Sifter (https://amzn.to/2ToPK72)
5. Sprinkle seasoning evenly on both top and bottom of the brisket as well as the sides.
6. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
7. Make a container out of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Preheat Traeger to 225 ºF (107 ºC).
8. Place brisket in Traeger smoker along with the aluminum cup filled with water. Check the cup every 1.5-2 hours to make sure it’s got water inside. There is a saying for smoking meat; “if you’re looking you’re not cooking.” To avoid opening the smoker while it’s cooking, use a temperature probe. With the probe inserted, the temperature of the brisket from the fridge is 40 ºF (4 ºC). You don’t need to warm the brisket up to the room temperature prior to smoking.
9. When the internal temperature of the brisket reaches 170 ºF (77 ºC), about 5 hours later, take it out of the smoker.
10. Tightly wrap the brisket in butcher paper.
11. Optionally you can also wrap it in aluminum foil or don’t wrap, but the results will be slightly different. If you don’t wrap, the brisket will be drier and smokier.
12. Place the brisket back in the smoker and cook until the internal temperature is 185 ºF (85 ºC). This is for wagyu brisket only. For regular brisket smoke until 203 ºF (95 ºC).
13. After removing the brisket from the smoker it should rest for at least 1 hour. Place the brisket inside an ice chest and cover.
14. If you don’t have an ice chest handy just place it inside your oven at a low temperature (160 ºF, 71 ºC).
15. After 1 hour, take brisket out of ice chest and remove it from the paper.
16. Slice brisket against the grain. Serve with your favorite BBQ Sauce.

https://www.justonecookbook.com/smoked-wagyu-brisket/