How long to marinate brisket with dry rub

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My Brisket Rub recipe is the perfect blend of spices for pairing with your favorite beef brisket recipes! Mix it together in minutes using common ingredients, then slather it on your beef brisket and enjoy the incredible flavor it gives. This is the only seasoning for brisket you will ever need!

• Best Brisket Rub
• Beef Brisket Rub Ingredients
• How to Make Rub for Brisket
• How to Apply Dry Rub to Brisket
• What's the difference between a dry rub and a wet rub?
• Brisket Rub FAQs
• How to Store Brisket Seasoning
• Best Brisket Recipes
• Beef Rub Recipes
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• 📋 Recipe

Best Brisket Rub

My family and I are big fans of beef brisket recipes! I love making smoked brisket, slow-cooker brisket, and even Instant Pot brisket at home. I find the best way to season brisket is to use a mix of simple but flavorful spices you likely already have in your kitchen pantry.

This beef brisket seasoning recipe is perfect for up to an 11-pound cut of brisket, making it a great choice for feeding a crowd or having plenty of leftovers. It's jam-packed with flavor, especially when paired with a nice slathering of beef fat if you're smoking a brisket.

I will show you how to make brisket rub, when to apply it, and even share some of my best brisket recipes with you!

Beef Brisket Rub Ingredients

• Coarse salt and pepper
• Paprika
• Garlic powder

How to Make Rub for Brisket

1. Combine pepper, salt, paprika, and garlic powder in a large bowl, and whisk well.
2. Pour the rub over the brisket and rub it on, until every part of the brisket is coated. Store any leftover brisket rub in an airtight container such as a jar.

   There are as many ways to flavor your barbecued brisket as there are people who love barbecued brisket. A sauce for every pitmaster, a rub for every cook. However, there are the traditional recipes and there are the general basics.

   Wood

   First, however, there is the smoke. The cornerstone of the brisket's flavor is the smoke. Since brisket is smoked for a very long time you want to avoid strong or bitter smoke. If you really like mesquite then I suggest extreme moderation. The usual wood for brisket is a mixture starting with oak. Because of oak's mild flavor, it is a great wood to use. To enhance this flavor try adding some hickory or apple.

   Marinade

   If you want to go with a marinade for your brisket plan on soaking the brisket in it for a good 24 hours to let the flavor deep into the meat. To make the meat more tender use an acid-based marinade. Try using lemon or lime juice or any type of vinegar. Add to this the seasoning of your choice. Brisket is usually seasoned either sweet or hot. For heat, you want to add cayenne or your favorite hot chili pepper. For sweet I recommend you pack the brisket in brown sugar overnight. The sugar will mostly liquefy by morning and can be a sticky mess so make sure if you do this that you wrap it tightly in foil or plastic wrap and put it on a large platter in the refrigerator.

   Rubs

   You have the world open to you when it comes to rubs, garlic, spices, and herbs. Any seasoning that you fancy will generally make a great rub for brisket. Remember not to over flavor, though. A plain brisket smoked without seasonings is still good eating. Also, remember that if you choose to do a combination of rubs and sauces (mops or finishing sauces) that the flavors should complement and not combat. Try using the same spices in your rub that you do in your sauce. The combination will dig that flavor into the meat and make it great.

   Bastes and Mops

   A mop is basically a baste. Barbecue people like mopping the meat with large cotton cooking brushes, hence the term mop. The legendary pitmaster, Walter Jetton, actually used a kitchen mop to sauce up his food, but he cooked for very large crowds. Anyway, you use a mop or baste to keep the brisket moist while smoking. The seasoning you add to the mop is just a bonus. A mop should be thin and watery. Adding too much vinegar or acidic juices can make the meat bitter. Also adding too much sugar like that in tomato-based sauces can lead to burning, especially in an offset firebox smoker. Keep mops and bastes simple and thin.

   Sauces

   When we talk about barbecue sauces we usually mean something you add after the food is cooked. Sometimes called a finishing sauce or a table sauce, this can be thicker, sugary, whatever you want it to be. It won't see the fire so it won't burn. Traditionally with barbecue, the sauce sits on the table and each diner can add what they want. Sauces for Brisket usually rely on the tomato but not always.

   How long should dry rub sit on brisket?

   Seasoning your brisket the night before and letting it sit in the refrigerator or cooler for at least 6 hours yields the best tasting and juiciest results.

   How long should I marinate a brisket?

   It's ideal to let the brisket marinate for 12 hours on each side, for a total marinating time of of 24 hours. Once you're done marinating, you can add the rub of your choice and bring the brisket to room temperature before smoking. This typically takes about an hour for a 6 lb. brisket.

   Can you dry rub a brisket too long?

   Some people suggest that salty rubs might dry out the meat if left on too long. Others say that the salt acts as a dry brine and traps in moisture. Rubs with sugar should be added after the meat browns to prevent burning. For most rubs, the longer you leave them on (up to 24 hours) the better.

   Should you marinade and dry rub a brisket?

   2. A dry rub, not a marinade. Marinating helps tenderize tough cuts by breaking up the muscle fibers. But low, slow cooking does that, too, so no need to marinate when you're smoking brisket.