MCCOY BBQ BRISKET – Done Right – Ha!

 Brisket – usually about 12 pounds

Spices
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Tony Chacheres’s Cajun Seasoning
Garlic Salt
Smoker, Wood to Smoke with, Heavy Aluminum Pans
1 cup of brown sugar

 BBQ Sauce
2 – 16 ounces of good honey bbq sauce
16 ounces of jack daniels whiskey
16 ounces of good red wine
12 ounce can of root beer
6 ounces of sliced jalapenos

The first step is to pick out a brisket. Hard fat is not your friend, but you do not want to use a trimmed brisket. Packer trimmed is just perfect. Pick up the brisket and see if it bends easily. Hard fat will keep it from bending. Get a meaty brisket that bends or folds over easy. The second step is trimming: trim off any and all hard fat that you can. I also trim excess soft fat. Any fat thicker than a half inch should be trimmed.

Next, season your brisket 48 hours before cooking. Season your brisket fat side down first. I season my briskets with granulated garlic salt (not powder), Tony Chachere’s, and freshly ground peppercorn melange. Evenly coat your brisket with these seasonings. Spread out enough good quality plastic wrap to wrap your brisket, overlapping the plastic. Place the brisket, seasoned side down, with fat side up. It is time to season the fat side. Evenly coat the fat side with the same 3 seasonings. Wrap tightly in the plastic wrap and refrigerate for 48 hours.

Lay enough foil on your smoker rack so that the brisket only touches the foil. I like to wet smoke my brisket. If your smoker does not have a water pan you can always place a pan of water in between the meat and the smoke. I smoke with red oak only. You can smoke meat with most hard woods, but I like red oak. Other woods that you can use are pecan and hickory. Place the brisket fat side up in your smoker and smoke for 4 hours at 250 degrees. After the smoking , comes the slow cooking time.

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Put your brisket fat side up in a heavy, disposable aluminum pan. Crumble 1 cup of dark brown sugar on top of the brisket. Pack the brown sugar on to the brisket. Seal pan tightly with heavy duty aluminum foil, making sure not to tear the foil or make any holes. Place brisket in oven for 3 hours. Remove brisket from oven and let rest for 15 to 20 minutes. Slice the brisket across the grain and eat. This is an important step, if you slice the brisket with the grain of the meat, it will be tough. The brisket slices better if you refrigerate overnight before slicing. I like to do this because I can trim some more of the fat off and can freeze the brisket in airtight or vacuum sealed bags for later use.

 BBQ sauce:  
Pour two 16 ounce bottles of any good brand of honey barbeque sauce into a large sauce pan. Fill up one of the empty bottles half way with Jack Daniels whiskey. Seal and shake the bottle to get the BBQ sauce residue dissolved. Pour into sauce pan. Do the same thing with the other empty bottle of BBQ sauce but instead of Jack Daniels use a good red wine. Add this to pan. Add a 12 ounce can of root beer. Put a 6 ounce jar of sliced jalapenos with the juice in a blender. Liquefy the mixture and add to sauce pan.
Cook this mixture stirring often until the mixture comes to a boil.
At this point the alcohol should be cooked out. This will not be a thick sauce but it will be spicy.
Enjoy it!