“We are probably one of the best gas station restaurants in the world.” Today, Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with Chef Hong Tran, co-owner of Brisket & Rice in Houston, Texas. Brisket & Rice is located in an old Church’s Chicken next to a gas station serving Texas craft barbecue with fried rice inspired by the Vietnamese flavors the owners grew up eating.
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00:00We are probably one of the best gas station barbecue restaurants in the world.
00:04Brisket and rice is located in an old church's chicken, which is next to a gas station.
00:09When customers come in for the first time, they don't think Texas craft barbecue.
00:13When they come in and they see two Asian-Vietnamese guys running it, they really question it.
00:20We cook some really top-notch brisket.
00:22On top of that, we make our fried rice.
00:25Hence the name, brisket and rice.
00:27Once they pair, it's like a match made in heaven.
00:34Morning, guys.
00:34My name is Hong Tran, co-owner of Brisket and Rice.
00:37It's 5 a.m.
00:38Let's get these pits lit.
00:41Welcome to the restaurant.
00:43It's a 1,900-square-foot space that we work in.
00:46This is our dining room.
00:47One of the first things we do in the morning is
00:49we'll pull the briskets that we've trimmed and seasoned from last night.
00:53We have 30 briskets on here.
00:55Let's bring these back to my brother, Phuong.
00:58Morning, y'all.
00:58Morning, Phuong.
01:00We like to load pre-fire to get as much smoke flavor as we can in these briskets.
01:05These smokers are double 500-gallon pits from Primitive Pits out of Georgia.
01:10This is what typically most smaller joints start with.
01:14I place the biggest one up front, the second biggest one second row,
01:19and then the smallest ones in the third row.
01:22Normally, it seems like it's hot, it gets less hot, it gets less hot.
01:26Then they start ramping up in heat again.
01:28The way I put them, they cook perfectly, and they come out all at the same time.
01:32Getting ready to light the fire up.
01:33We use post oak wood.
01:35We crosshatch it to get started.
01:37It gets lit better that way.
01:39So we're about 100 feet, roughly, from the gas pumps that are over at that gas station.
01:45Part of the reason we were able to put these pits here
01:48and use live fire next to a gas pump and gas stations
01:51is because the fire code deems that we need to be so far away from combustible things,
01:57non-fire rated walls, which we are.
01:59So all the permitting and oversight has been done by our architects
02:03and was submitted to the city.
02:05So we're safe.
02:06This flat plate right here is an option on one of these pits.
02:10A lot of people cook on this.
02:11That's what they're advertised for.
02:12We chose these plates specifically to stack wood.
02:15Kind of preheat the wood.
02:17It brings out some of the moisture so when you throw it in, it's closer to temp
02:21and it ignites a lot faster.
02:22We are in Houston, probably one of the most humid cities in the U.S.
02:26This helps with that.
02:28The cost of wood is fixed for this pit to run,
02:32no matter if you're cooking a chicken wing or 40 briskets.
02:35It doesn't matter.
02:36That cost to keep this pit running at a certain temp is the same.
02:39So it's almost like a fixed cost.
02:41So you're trying to get as much as you can out of a cook.
02:45I normally check them about every four to five minutes
02:48throughout the day for about 12 to 16 hours.
02:51I'm not going to move it.
02:52I'm not going to do nothing.
02:54That's it.
02:54Now that the fire's lit, the brisket's on,
02:57we're going to go and season ribs and chicken and everything else.
03:04It's 6.30 in the morning.
03:06These ribs have been trimmed already from the previous day.
03:10Brisket is more liberal in the seasoning.
03:12It's more forgiving.
03:12The proteins of a rib or a chicken,
03:15it'll be over-seasoned, I think, if you let it sit too long on the meat.
03:18So it's more of a light seasoning and it gets sauced.
03:22We like the flavor profile of a Worcestershire sauce.
03:25It's a slight, subtle taste that you can get throughout the meat.
03:28Our spice is nothing too crazy.
03:30It's just a 16-mesh black pepper and kosher salt for the ribs.
03:34And then we run it back with a 16-mesh black pepper
03:36just to give it a little bark.
03:38When you season higher, it seasons more evenly.
03:40We learned to smoke ribs the same way we learned to smoke brisket.
03:44You mess up enough times and you eventually get it.
03:46Me and Fong do come from a manufacturing background,
03:50CNC machining specifically.
03:52We did a lot of parts for oil-filled products.
03:55Our whole careers have been in machining.
03:57And so any machinist will tell you is that it's very tight tolerance,
04:01very exact, very particular on the steps that you take
04:06to have us go from raw material to finished goods.
04:09I think that kind of trained us for this barbecue thing.
04:13These ribs are ready.
04:14Let's get these on the pit.
04:15These normally come on at like 6.30.
04:18They'll be just ready at 11 o'clock at lunchtime.
04:22Well, the ribs go on the top because we have no more room.
04:26We normally cook about 14 racks or so a day.
04:30We cook them pretty soft here.
04:32I mean, we don't want it completely to melt,
04:34but ours is pretty tender.
04:36I won't check on the ribs until probably about two and a half, three hour mark.
04:42By then, they should be pretty close to being ready.
04:45We finished putting all the stuff.
04:49There's still a lot of stuff that needs to be done for open.
04:54It's nine o'clock.
04:55Our name is Brisket and Rice.
04:57So let's make some rice.
04:58We use a long grain rice that's not as sticky.
05:01It separates it much more easy.
05:03Just growing up in an Asian household, we always had rice.
05:06So we would, you know, eat rice for the barbecue and barbecue sauce.
05:11And that's the catalyst of how we started Brisket and Rice.
05:14We want to get the starch out of the rice,
05:16especially for fried rice, because you want separation.
05:19If you kind of hold rice in your hands and just kind of play with it,
05:23it's coated in micro grains of rice and starches.
05:27So if you take it and you just kind of, you know, you can kind of see it.
05:31You want that washed away as much as possible for separation of the grain.
05:36That way you can have individual char of the grain,
05:41which is what's the goal of fried rice.
05:43And if it doesn't separate and you get a clump, then it's not going to happen.
05:47We go through about a 50 pound bag of the fried rice a day.
05:50It flies off the shelf.
05:52All right.
05:54So right now the water is kind of clear.
05:57We have a pre-made mix that we've made for the rice
06:01to put into the rice while it's cooking in the rice warmer.
06:04So part of the mix in here, we have chicken bouillon, salt, pepper, some sugar.
06:10And then after that, we add sesame oil.
06:13The sesame oil will add a fragrance, very aromatic.
06:18And that's our fried rice mix.
06:19And then we'll put this on the rice cooker and it'll probably cook for about 45 minutes.
06:24This right here will probably run out within an hour.
06:27This making of the rice kind of happens throughout the day.
06:29People come in here for the fried rice at a barbecue joint.
06:33To not knowing how to make fried rice to where we are now with the fried rice,
06:37I think is pretty awesome.
06:38We learned when we opened, to be honest with you.
06:40We didn't have the wok burner until we decided to open.
06:43And you need the wok burner to really get that heat on that grain and really char that rice.
06:48So it's a little bit different from just stirring it around in a hot pan at home.
06:54Let's move on to prepping ingredients to actually go into the fried rice.
06:58So this brisket was made specifically for the fried rice.
07:01We typically make extra and we put it in the fridge to rest.
07:06Next morning, while it's nice and cold, we trim.
07:09Part of the reason we like to keep it cold is because it's a lot easier to cube.
07:13With a hot brisket, you typically need a serrated knife to cut it correctly.
07:18This push down method I'm doing here will not work with a hot brisket.
07:23The standalone barbecue fried rice is cubed brisket, Chinese sausage, eggs and onions.
07:28And then we have a dish that's called brisket and rice,
07:31which basically is the third pound of sliced brisket over our barbecue fried rice.
07:36We do fried rice to order.
07:38It goes into that wok as soon as that ticket's fired.
07:40Within three to four minutes later, it's a hot batch of fried rice.
07:44At first, the rice had peas and carrots and I thought that I didn't like that.
07:50Most people don't come to a barbecue joint looking for peas.
07:53When I decided to really take the plunge into opening this restaurant,
07:58there was a lot of pushback from family members and not really doubting me,
08:03just really worried about me not knowing, I guess, the failure rate of it.
08:08But if anybody knows me, I'm a little crazy and I didn't care.
08:13It was our money on the line.
08:15Basically, any future savings you have is on the line.
08:19You know, my dad in Vietnam was a business owner.
08:22You talk about taking risks.
08:23You know, they were a part of the boat people, the Vietnam boat people.
08:27You know, it's a big story here in the U.S.
08:29This is a small risk compared to, I think, what they took.
08:33So just be grateful that we're here.
08:36Understand why they took that risk and honor it.
08:40Push forward and basically strive to be the best you can be
08:44because they strive to get us here.
08:48A brisket's cubed onto the Chinese sausage.
08:50We've had people ask to use a house sausage.
08:53We stuck with this because I think this brings like the Asian side of it to it.
08:58It's a very distinct flavor that I don't think a lot of people are used to.
09:02If you're not familiar with Asian cuisine,
09:04the Chinese sausage, there's a sweetness to it.
09:07When it's cooked, it just almost caramelizes.
09:10Big chunks of fat that stays real well.
09:14Kind of makes for something a little nice and a little chewy.
09:17All the cubing for the fried rice is done.
09:19Let's check in with the front and get ready for people coming in.
09:23And let's see what else needs to be done.
09:27All right, 20 minutes to open.
09:29Let's check some of the briskets.
09:31These warmers are hailed from the briskets cooked from last night.
09:35We do what's called a long hold.
09:36It's a long rest for briskets to redistribute the juices into the meat.
09:41We use these Alto-Sham warmers.
09:43That's probably their most expensive warmers.
09:45They provide gentle heat or halo heat.
09:48It's a very gentle on the brisket.
09:50Most cabinets will just turn on
09:53until the cabinet reaches a certain temperature
09:55and then cuts off and it just keeps doing that.
09:58Alto-Shams do a very controlled heat source
10:02to where I think it gradually comes up to heat
10:04and it's a lot more gentle on the meats.
10:07So these briskets have been cooking for about 14 to 16 hours last night.
10:11When we test for pulling off the pits,
10:13we're looking for this flexibility right around this middle section of the brisket.
10:18If you could kind of see that kind of wiggle
10:20and you're just looking for tenderness all along the lean.
10:23This jiggling of the brisket tells me that
10:25the muscle fats and the fibers have cooked
10:28at a temperature long enough to really break down.
10:31Part of the reason why we wrap with butcher paper
10:33is because it lets out enough moisture,
10:37but it retains enough moisture.
10:39If you use foil on these,
10:40basically you'll have a sweaty piece of meat at the end of it,
10:43in my experience,
10:44and you'll lose a lot of the bark that you've worked so hard to set.
10:49So here from this little hump here back,
10:52we call the lean,
10:53here to here,
10:54here to here,
10:55we call the moist,
10:56and it has a different grain structure.
10:57So as you cut,
10:58you're kind of fanning like this to continue cutting cross grain.
11:03So I'm going to go ahead and separate the moist
11:09from the lean.
11:09And if you look,
11:11you know that's a nice jiggly piece of brisket.
11:14This is what's considered bark.
11:15If you look right here,
11:16there's a nice crust on the brisket.
11:18This is where the two different muscles meet on the moist side.
11:22You have the upper muscle
11:24and the cross running bottom muscle.
11:26So each brisket gets one of these.
11:28It's the most sought after,
11:29basically called the burn-in.
11:30There's only so many can go around,
11:31so everybody can't have them.
11:33Brisket looks good,
11:33so let's wrap it up and get ready for service.
11:41It's 11 o'clock.
11:42Tickets are coming in.
11:44Time to leave, guys.