Smoked Venison Brisket (Wild Venison)
We’ve all seen the Instagram posts and Youtube videos of them big juicy smoked briskets.
Well, you won’t be making them with venison, but you can make something equally as tasty, if not tastier.
The difference is they won’t be as big or juicy. But let’s not let that stop you.
How to Make Venison Brisket
Before I get into the hows, let me first outline the differences between venison briskets and beef briskets.
As I mentioned in the opening paragraphs, venison brisket is smaller, but there are a few more differences to be aware of.
Venison has a much lower fat than beef, being wild animals with limited forage, venison does not gather as much fat as cattle made for beef consumption.
On top of the limited fat, this recipe will call for trimmed venison, meaning remove as much of the fat as possible.
The reason for removing the fat is because venison fat is not palatable and nowhere near the flavor of beef fat.
All of this makes venison brisket much harder to cook than beef brisket, but it’s still doable and quite tasty when it works.
Ingredients
The main ingredients in a smoked venison brisket are the rub. The recipe I created here makes a savory, slightly sweet, and spicy rub.
I find sweet and spicy works well with venison but I should point out that this is mostly savory, if you want more spicy you can use spicy paprika instead of sweet paprika.
If you want less spicy you can omit the cayenne pepper.
Cooking
This is the hard part of making venison brisket because of the issues mentioned above.
Because a venison brisket is small with no fat there is little room for error.
Get the grill to 225F and hold it there as best as possible. If you drop below this temperature it will be difficult to form a bark due to the humidity in the smoker.
If you go above 225F you run the risk of overcooking the venison.
Cook the venison until the internal temperature reaches 150F, by this stage the brisket should have formed a nice bark, this should take about 1 hour 30 minutes, to 2 hours.
Remove the venison from the smoker and wrap it in butcher paper or aluminum foil and place it back onto the grill until the internal temperature reaches 200f and is tender.
Getting it tender should take about 2 hours.
If you struggled to manage the temperature, the venison might be slightly tougher. To fix this, when wrapping the venison add in a half cup of stock and continue to cook until 200f.
Smoked Venison Brisket (Wild Venison)
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 2 venison briskets trimmed
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Remove the briskets from the fridge (do not pat them dry) As the brisket begin to come to room temperature they will become more moist. See note 1
- Add all of the ingredients to a mortar and grind to a powder
- Sprinkle the rub over the briskets and pat them in trying to form an even coating
- Wrap the briskets in saran wrap and set them in the fridge until you are ready to use.
- Fire up your smoker with the wood of your choice. For this recipe, I used an oak and apple 50/50 mix.
- When the smoker reaches 225F hold it for 10 minutes, then set the briskets in the smoker.
- Smoke the briskets at this temperature until the brisket internal temperature reaches 150F, approximatly 2 hours
- Remove the briskets from the smoker and wrap in butcher wrap of aluminum foil. Wrap tightly to prevent leaks
- Return the briskets to the smoker and cook until the internal temperature reaches 200F, approximatley 2 hours
- Remove the brisket from the smoker, remove the wrapping and let rest for 15 minutes
Notes
- Because I used no binder in this recipe I use the moisture from the briskets to hold the rub.
