Find out how to make the very best brisket a house out of this in style Texas BBQ joint

While it’s a little harder these days to sit down at your favorite BBQ spot to enjoy a tray of smoky, tender, peppery brisket, you don’t have to live without your favorite Texas cut of meat.

Although outside temperatures could be almost like those of an oak-filled pit, summer is still the preferred time of year to upgrade the grill boat – the COVID-19 pandemic has only served as an incentive to try.

A DFW staple since the 1990s, Hutchins BBQ has simple tips for the home pit master. The company had to focus on primarily offering drive-through services, but despite the pandemic and the rise in brisket prices, it has been able to keep its employees going and has even hired more people.

The good news is that brisket is still in demand – it’s been the heartbeat of Hutchins BBQ since Roy Hutchins started smoking on the side of the road in Princeton in 1978. Now with locations in McKinney and Frisco and the sons Wes, Trey and Tim Hutchins on board, the focus was on improving product quality. The family has spent countless hours tinkering and tweaking their chest piece smoking methods. “It’s not just about the money, it’s also about the inheritance,” says Tim of her efforts.

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The brothers’ biggest tip for cooking brisket is to buy the highest quality meat. Finding the best meat possible is a process in itself – it took Hutchins BBQ four years ago but found a supplier who can meet its inventory and quality requirements. Tim recommends building a relationship with your local butcher. “It’s hard to turn a piece of meat from one in ten to seven in ten,” he says. “If we can get top-quality meat that starts at eight or nine, we can turn it into a 10.”

Through years of testing, the family has found that aging the brisket for 30 to 45 days is the “sweet spot”. According to Tim, 30 days should be the benchmark for keeping at home in a normal refrigerator. The aging process doesn’t start when you put the meat in the refrigerator, but from the date the meat was packaged. So be sure to check the label for the correct date.

Coating the brisket with mustard before adding the seasonings is important to ensure a good rind or outer layer when smoking. Tim recommends a well-mixed mixture of two-thirds of medium-ground pepper and one-third of kosher salt. “You can’t go wrong with a two-to-one ratio between pepper and salt,” says Tim. “That’s just a good all-round brisket tip.”

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At the Hutchins BBQ, the pit cooks smoke most of the meat with pecan wood – brisket is the exception. For the brisket, they smoke for the first three to five hours at 225 to 250 degrees with Posteiche before moving on to pecan. Tim says he uses post oak because it helps “taste penetration” into the bark and cooks hotter.

For cooking brisket at home, Tim says the key is the fire. You don’t want a fire that is too calm or a fire that smoulders the logs. You want even, even flames. “You can cook a brisket without looking at it just because you see what the fire is doing,” says Tim.

When a nice bark has formed – usually when it reaches an internal temperature of 170 degrees – wrap the brisket in butcher paper and place it back in the pit. When the internal temperature increases to about 200 to 205 degrees, leave it in a room temperature environment for four hours or until the internal temperature drops to 140 degrees.

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Once that happens, it’s time to cut against the grain and enjoy your own Hutchins BBQ brisket.

Brisket cooking is all about feel, and the more brisket you cook, the better you get. Even for a pit champion like Tim, it’s not something he’s fully mastered. “I think that’s what I’ll be working on until the day I die when I put the best brisket on every single plate,” he says.

This article first appeared on Texas Highways. Click here to view the article in its original format.

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