How to Cook Brisket in the Oven?

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To cook an amazing brisket in the oven, all you have to do is season it properly. I used the Standard Texas seasoning – Kosher Salt and Black Pepper.

Make sure you thoroughly season your brisket. Turn your oven on to around 400 degrees and let it come fully up to that temperature before placing your Brisket inside. Get some foil and wrap the entire piece of meat.

Once you have wrapped your brisket, place it in the oven and wait until the internal temperature has come up to the famed 200 degrees internal temperature. At that point, the brisket in the oven should now be ready to be pulled. From that point, just let it rest for a couple hours and you’re done! Enjoy!

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Brisket in the Oven – Getting Started:

Alright! Let’s get cook some amazing Brisket … in the OVEN! Woah. Does it have smoke flavor? Nope – BUT it does have all the same consistency as a normal smoked Brisket.

A Brisket in the oven does have the same flavor profile – for the most part – and has the potential to really come out great. The one I used for this blog post came out with amazingly crisp and tasty BARK. Not only that, just about every piece of it was incredibly moist. 

How did I get an amazingly tender Brisket in the Oven?

Simple:

• Brisket Flat
• Oven
• Kosher Salt & Black Pepper
• Thermometer

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Brisket in the Oven – Brisket Flat

What is a Brisket Flat?

A Brisket Flat is just the ‘leaner’ portion of the overall Brisket. If you didn’t know, a Brisket is a giant muscle with two parts – the Flat and the Point.

The Flat is the leaner part, while the Point of the Brisket is way more fatty. For this blog post, I used just a Brisket Flat.

Specifically, the Brisket Flat used was a great looking Prime grade Brisket. Basically, I just cut it in half and cooked the point at a later time and just was trying to cook the Flat in the oven. 

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Brisket in the Oven – Oven Temperature

Okay the cooking device .. the Oven! They’re actually not that bad. I used to be a BBQ SNOB before becoming the BBQ DROPOUT. Once you realize that there are actually OTHER ways and methods to cook a traditional piece of BARBECUE, the whole world seems to open up. 

Why is that?

First of, all not everyone has a Smoker. Second of all, not every one has the time to use a smoker. Not only that, maybe they don’t want to smell like smoke all day? 

All of that is totally fine.

Now, about the OVEN. What do you need to do?

Just go to the temperature interface, and select your preferred temperature. For this cook, I used the glorious setting of 400 degrees. This is commonly known as a ‘hot and fast’ cook. Basically, instead of cooking the Brisket in the Oven for the entire day .. it just takes a measly couple hours AND you get the same result as the ‘low and slow’ method. Over the course of all of my blog posts, you’ll see that the BBQ DROPOUT prefers the Hot and Fast method.

Before placing your Brisket in the oven, just make sure that the oven temperature comes fully to temp. This is to ensure that you don’t waste any time while your brisket is in the oven. Usually, if you were to put your Brisket I have found that it may even slightly decrease the ambient temperature in the oven, thus taking a lot longer for it to come back to temperature. Therefore, I try to just make sure the Oven is at 400 degrees, THEN I put the Brisket in the Oven.

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Brisket in the Oven – Kosher Salt & Black Pepper

Kosher Salt & Black Pepper – BBQ DROPOUT’S favorite seasoning! Why is that? It is the quintessential Central Texas Seasoning. Ever heard of the saying .. good BBQ doesn’t need BBQ Sauce? That’s because Kosher Salt & Black Pepper is the ONLY seasoning you will ever need. That being said, can you still make BBQ with more ingredients? Of course! You’re on BBQDROPOUT.com. It shouldn’t matter WHAT seasoning you’re using. I just really like Kosher Salt & Black Pepper Since it’s plain, simple, and produces AMAZING RESULTS.

BBQ DROPOUT usually sources his Seasoning from his local grocery store. Being in Central Texas, this is H-E-B (the best grocery store in the world). Fortunately, they actually just came out with an already blended shaker bottle filled with an even amount of Kosher Salt & Black Pepper. Just head on over to your local grocery store, see if they have a bottle such as that and if they don’t – just pick up the two separate ingredients and mix it 50/50 yourself.

OKAY – Actually seasoning the Brisket Flat

I really try to thoroughly season any kind of cut that’s traditionally used for Barbecuing. When cuts like Brisket aren’t seasoned really well, it just tastes mediocre – and the entire cook was basically a waste. To make sure this never happens, I always try to potentially even OVER season the Brisket to cover my bases. I don’t think I’ve ever had a Brisket that was OVER SEASONED but have definitely had an UNDER SEASONED Brisket. For calculating exact amounts of seasons to apply, I can’t give you any. Every cut is different. Each piece of meat has different sizes, fat – protein ratios, different grades – the list goes on. So a good ball park estimate is to just pour as much of it on the Brisket as you can and make sure all of the surface area is very well covered in Kosher Salt & Black Pepper.

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Brisket in the Oven – Thermometer

Measuring Brisket Temperatures .. How do you accomplish this? 

Well, with a thermometer of course! Which one? I personally have used ALL kinds. You’d be surprised how large the thermometer market actually is. As of this current date of writing this blog post, I actually have started using the MEATER-MADE thermometer. Great piece of technology. It’s basically just a wireless thermometer that you can just set and forget – set it inside the meat and just get updates through your phone when the internal temperature goes past a certain threshold. 

Besides using the wireless thermometer, I also like to use a ThermoPop style thermometer. This is more for ad-hoc style of probing the meat. With the MEATER-MADE thermometer, it’s more to measure the temperature at a constant threshold. With the ThermoPop style of thermometers, not only can you just probe around the meat in various areas, but can also serve as a way to just gauge whether or not the brisket is ‘probing tender’ – which is a very important thing to consider when measuring the done-ness of ANY brisket you cook.

Alright, using a thermometer – there’s two things to consider that I just mentioned above.

Firstly, just make sure your Brisket is temping out at around – roughly speaking of course – 200 degrees Fahrenheit. This is generally speaking the temperature at which point the collagen inside the brisket will breakdown and produce AMAZING results. As I mentioned before however, each brisket is different. Which brings me to my second point.

Make sure you can stick your other ad-hoc style thermometer in like it’s a stick of butter. Basically, this will ensure that the brisket is PROPE TENDER and will help serve as another safeguard to ensure you are cooking a fantastic brisket in the oven.

The results? I am SO glad you asked: