Several years ago, my wife’s family visited for Christmas.  As I remember it, it was an unusually cold and windy holiday season, which is saying something in Minnesota.  But I had planned to smoke a brisket on our pellet grill, and I stick to my plans.  So, I shoveled the grill out from the snow and built a makeshift lean-to to shield it from the wind.  I fired up the grill after prepping the brisket and smoked it overnight in temperatures reaching something like 10 degrees below zero (without factoring in windchill).  I woke up a few times that night to don full winter gear, check on the brisket, and refill the wood pellets.  It turned out beautifully, and we had a lovely dinner together.  That story of persevering, enduring hardship (albeit self-imposed), and eating way too much red meat became a small bit of family lore that we still joke about.  I think I’m going to try smoking a turkey on the grill this year.

My go-to brisket recipe for pellet grills follows:

• 12lb (or bigger) whole packer beef brisket (Costco reliably has these, and in good quality)
• Lund’s Beef Signature Seasoning
• Neutral oil

1. 8 hours before cooking, trim the brisket.  (There are many good YouTube videos for this.)
2. Rub the brisket all over with a generous amount of neutral oil.
3. Rub the brisket all over with the steak seasoning.  (You can also use kosher salt, a generous amount of pepper, onion powder, and garlic paste or powder, but I find that a good quality steak seasoning adds the most flavor.)
4. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours, uncovered
5. Set pellet grill to 225, then place brisket fat-side down on grill and insert meat thermometer.  If you have an option that allows extra smoke at this stage, use it.
6. Cook for 5-7 hours until internal temperature reaches 163 degrees
7. Remove brisket and wrap tightly in multiple layers of heavy aluminum foil.  (Professionals use butcher paper, but it never works as well for me.  You might lose some of the crispy “bark” on the outside with foil, but the added juiciness is well worth it.)  In the meantime, raise the grill’s temperature to 250 or 275 (depending on how much time you have).
8. Return brisket to grill, fat-side up.  Cook until it reaches 203 degrees, which is likely going to take 3-4 hours or more.  The key is that the brisket should be almost butter-soft all over when prodded with your meat thermometer probe.
9. Remove brisket from grill and rest for one hour, at which point you can serve by slicing against the grain.  I’d suggest serving by starting at the “point” or softer, fattier part of the brisket.  The “flat” is better for sandwiches, tacos, etc.

• A larger brisket (say 15 pounds) can easily take 10+ hours to cook.  I typically start smoking my brisket around midnight if I’m aiming for an early dinner.
• Relatedly, you can keep a cooked brisket warm for a few hours in your oven at the lowest possible temperature—mine goes down to 170.  Remove from heat for at least an hour before serving.  Some people swear by wrapping the brisket in towels and then keeping it in a cooler until you’re ready to serve, but I find this to be more work than it’s worth, and you will never get the BBQ smell out of those towels.