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Sous vide brisket transforms one of barbecue's toughest cuts into buttery, sliceable beef with deep, concentrated flavor and an impossibly tender bite. Low-and-slow precision cooking locks in moisture before a final smoke or hard sear builds a rich bark that honors classic Texas barbecue while adding modern technique. Serve it with my Southern collard greens or easy stovetop BBQ baked beans for a soul-satisfying feast.
For other beefy sous vide recipes check out these beef short ribs or this sous vide chuck roast with jerk seasoning.
What Is Sous Vide Cooking
You don’t need to be a pitmaster or badass weekend smoker king to deliver the goods since the beauty of sous vide cooking is it can make any Joe Smo an ace in the kitchen and match the bog boys.
Sous vide cooking is a technique where food is sealed in a bag and cooked in a precisely controlled water bath at a consistent, low temperature usually lower than traditional cooking methods. People use it to get perfect doneness every time (no guesswork).
The brisket is seasoned with a simple rub, cooked to a precise temperature with the sous vide, and finished in the smoker for that gotta have it brisket bar and smokiness.
Sous Vide Brisket Ingredients
Most brisket recipes tend to be elaborate with unique, swear by “tricks” most of which are unproven and likely unnecessary. Good brisket according to this Texas boy is about a simple salt and pepper rub, time and smoke at low temps. So literally there are three ingredients - beef brisket, salt, and pepper!
- Beef Brisket flat or point cut
- Coarse black pepper
- Kosher salt
- Pink salt
How To Make Sous Vide Brisket (Step by Step)
Rub - Vacuum Seal - Sous Vide -Smoke - Rest. It’s that simple. The beauty of the sous vide step is it’s a set it and forget it type of cooking, meaning you set the temperature and don’t touch it, monitor it, etc. until the desired cook time is reached.
You can’t really dry it out. Pre-cooking also means you don’t have to man the smoker much and use as much fuel. You only need about 1 ½ hours in the smoker vs. the 7+ hours typically required.
And if you know anything about smoking brisket for long hours at a time there can be a lot of variabilities given the struggles to maintain a steady temperature and weather considerations.
Step 1: Prepare The brisket
Place the brisket on a rimmed baking sheet. Rub brisket liberally with salt and pepper
Step 2: Vacuum Seal The Brisket
Remove brisket and place in vacuum seal bag. Seal the bag and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
Step 3: Cook Via Sous Vide
Preheat water bath to 155 degrees F. Add brisket to sous vide bath and cook for 24 hours. Allow brisket to cool to room temperature. Remove the brisket from the vacuum seal and pat dry again with paper towels. Add the remaining spice rub mix.
Step 4: Smoke The Brisket
To finish sous vide brisket, transfer brisket to your smoker and cook over indirect heat between 250-275 degrees for about 3 hours.
Step 5: Let Brisket Rest
Transfer the cooked brisket to a cutting board then lightly tint with foil for 30-45 minutes as the brisket rests.
Step 6: Slice And Serve
In classic Texas style we like white bread slices, sliced onion, dill pickles, and jalapenos with our brisket. Barbecue sauce is optional at best.
Expert Cooking Tips
- Depending on size of your brisket, you’ll likely need to cut it for it to fit in vacuum seal bags. Slice brisket in half crosswise
- Be careful that none of the brisket rub touches the edges of the bags when sealing as it can compromise the seal.
- Add pink salt to your rub to give the brisket that pink smoke ring look during cooking
- Let the vacuum-sealed brisket rest a few hours refrigerated before cooking
- If making sauce reserve some of the liquid that renders during sous vide step. Add it to your sauce recipe and cook it down some
- Blot dry the brisket and add another round of the rub before smoking. This will help get that mighty essential crust
- Make sure to let the brisket rest 30-45 minutes before slicing.
- When slicing cut against the grain for maximum tender meat. See tutorial for how to slice brisket against the grain.
- For other brisket recipes checkout my tutorial for how to smoke brisket Texas style or this recipe for dutch oven braised brisket and onions.
Make This Recipe
This sous vide brisket recipe is a great way to get delicious, juicy and flavorful results every time. Not only does it offer an incredibly simple method for cooking the perfect dinner dish, but it also provides an incredible depth of flavor that cannot be matched any other way. It's important to remember that the key to success with sous vide brisket lies in the quality of ingredients used.
Make sure to purchase quality cuts of beef, as well as any spices or herbs you might want to add. Once everything is prepared and sealed in the bag, simply drop it in your sous vide water bath and let it go until it reaches desired doneness. You've just crafted a masterfully cooked meal with very little effort – so why not take the extra step and make this recipe today? You won't regret it!
If you make this delicious sous vide brisket recipe or any other from the site, please come back and leave me a comment below with your feedback. Definitely take a photo of the dish and be sure to tag #foodfidelity so that I can see them.
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Sous Vide Brisket Finished on the Smoker
Ingredients
- 5 lbs brisket flat or point cut
- ¼ cup coarse black pepper
- ¼ cup kosher salt
- 4 tablespoon pink salt
Method
- Slice the brisket in half crosswise. Pat each half dry with paper towels.
- Combine black pepper, kosher salt, and pink salt in a mixing bowl. Rub the each brisket half well using about half to ⅔s of the spice rub.
- Place each brisket half in a vacuum bag and seal. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
- Set-up Sous Vide cooker and pre-heat water bath to 155 degrees (F). Add the brisket and cook 24 hours. Allow brisket to cool to room temperature. Remove the brisket from the vacuum seal and pat dry again with paper towel. Add the remaining spice rub mix.
- Finish brisket in the smoker cooked over indirect heat between 250-275 degrees for about 3 hours. A dark bark should have formed by this point.
- Transfer brisket to a cutting board then lightly tint with foil for 30-45 minutes as the brisket rests. Cut against the grain and serve.
Nutrition
Notes
- Depending on size of your brisket, you’ll likely need to cut it for it to fit in vacuum seal bags. Slice brisket in half crosswise
- Be careful that none of the brisket rub touches the edges of the bags when sealing as it can compromise the seal.
- Add pink salt to your rub to give the brisket that pink smoke ring look during cooking
- Let the vacuum-sealed brisket rest a few hours refrigerated before cooking
- If making sauce reserve some of the liquid that renders during sous vide step. Add it to your sauce recipe and cook it down some
- Blot dry the brisket and add another round of the rub before smoking. This will help get that mighty essential crust
- Make sure to let the brisket rest 30-45 minutes before slicing.
- When slicing cut against the grain for maximum tenderness.
your pink salt looks like pink Himalayan coarse salt not the Prague Powder #1 really needed ~~so Hmmmmm ?????
You are correct. It's an old picture used in the original post some years ago. I updated the recipe post recently but didn't update the ingredient photo. Thanks