The Cut Of Meat Buc-Ee's Uses For Its Famous Brisket Sandwich

Buc-ee's is known for many signature roadside snacks, from Beaver Nuggets to beef jerky, but if you're hungry for a proper meal, only a Buc-ee's brisket sandwich will do. The barbecue section is often located right in the center of the store — impossible to miss on your way to the bathrooms — and you can watch as workers chop, sauce, and assemble the sandwiches right before your eyes.

Whether you prefer your brisket chopped or sliced, it all comes from the same place. Brisket is the term for meat that comes from the upper chest of a cow, and its two primary muscles are known as the point and the flat. The flat is lean, while the point is fattier and more flavorful. Buc-ee's uses both parts, but separates them so the fat can be trimmed and the meat can be sliced properly.

Only some of the fat gets trimmed, though. As Buc-ee's pitmaster Randy put it in a YouTube video with the Adventure Is Out There channel, "We can put all the seasonings in the world on it, but you better believe that flavor from the fat exceeds anything I can season it with, including smoke."

Buc-ee's brisket was actually created by that same Randy Pauly, a nine-time world champion in competition barbecue. As an accomplished Texas pitmaster, it's his recipe and methods for smoking brisket that every location uses, accounting for the esteemed status of the Buc-ee's brisket sandwich. He's also the man behind the call-and-response phrase you often hear in the store: "Fresh brisket on the board" and "Fresh sauce on the board" — although it's admittedly hard to make out over the noise of a crowded store. The "fresh brisket" call goes out when a new batch of meat hits the cutting board, while the "sauce" call comes once the brisket has been finely chopped and the sauce is mixed in to coat everything before it goes on the bun.

Buc-ee's smokes its brisket for about 12 to 14 hours and mainly uses salt and pepper for seasonings (before drenching it in barbecue sauce, of course). The result is a surprisingly high-quality sandwich that wouldn't be out of place at a sit-down restaurant — making it all the more delightful that you can get it at a gas station.