Chili Help

Unknown

I have been asked to participate in an informal Chili cook-off on Sunday. I can prepare in advance so I am going to make it with brisket and smoke the pot indirect for 2-3 hours. My question is, should I smoke the brisket before I simmer it and to what internal temp or should I just cube and brown it? Thanks.

yaB

BbqEd,
If you can rub the meat and smoke it at least until it gets some crust on it, it will definitely (at least in my experience) enhance the flavor of the chili. I haven't tried this with brisket, but it should be good. I've used chuck and cooked it low and slow, like a pork butt, then pulled it and added it to chili. [p]To expedite things, I wouldn't think you'd have to wait until the brisket is fork tender or even cooked through. The meat will continue to cook in the pot once you add it to the rest of the chili ingredients. [p]You'll probably want to trim the brisket of most of its fat before starting to smoke it, just to maximize the useable bark without adding too much fat to the chili. If I were doing a brisket for use in chili, I think I'd try cutting it up into a couple of smaller pieces to get more area exposed to the smoke and help it to cook a bit more, a bit faster. [p]Good luck, and post your method and results when the dust settles![p]Bob

RhumAndJerk

BbqEd,
Take a look at the following recipes. I did for a chili cook-off at work.
While I did not win, my chili sold out before anyone else’s did.[p]The concepts that they use plus cooking in an open Cast Iron Dutch Oven on the BGE, will give people something that they will talk about for years to come. Since my Dutch Oven was not large enough for the amount that I wanted to make, I made the chili up the night before and the added more tomatoes and liquid in the crock pot the next day. Added some extra volume of spices if you do this. [p]Hope this helps,
RhumAndJerk

[ul][li]Terlingua International Chili Championship Winners[/ul]