The enduring popularity of the brisket-doughnut sandwich
Texas barbecue has evolved wildly in the past 10 years by combining both traditional and innovative ingredients and techniques. Certainly, the Texas trinity of brisket, pork ribs and sausage still rules the roost for menu items that will be found on essentially every barbecue-joint menu.
Beyond that, menu items can spin off in many different directions. For instance, beef and pork burnt ends — a traditional dish of Kansas City barbecue — have become creative outlets for Texas pitmasters.
One of the more enduring and head-scratching menu items is the brisket-doughnut sandwich. At its most basic, this is a glazed doughnut cut in half so that the two slices act as a bun, which is then filled with chopped brisket and sauce. Pickles, jalapeños or onions add acidity to the flood of fat, sugar and salt.
It’s a Texas-barbecue take on the recent food trend of blending sweet and savory ingredients. Perhaps the earliest and most famous example of this trend is the McDonald’s McGriddle sandwich that combines eggs and bacon in maple-syrupsoaked pancake buns.
The origin of the brisketdoughnut sandwich, like many food items, isn’t definitive. The earliest example I can find is from the summer of 2014 in a Facebook post associated with CorkScrew BBQ in Spring.
A picture of sliced brisket, fresh jalapeños and a glazed doughnut is accompanied by the comment, “Sliced brisket Donut Sandwich, donuts courtesy of Donut Licious and brisket courtesy of Corkscrew BBQ, it is so freakin good !!!! Love their donuts they are so so so good! We think it just may make it on the menu.”
It’s notable that this is around the time that the “cronut” became a culinary sensation. Made famous at the Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York, this doughnut made with croissantlike dough inspired many creative variations among pastry and traditional chefs alike.
Also at this time, “craft donut” shops such as VooDoo Doughnut in Portland, Ore., became known for using unconventional ingredients including bacon, nuts and fruits.
Surely, it was only a matter of time until the doughnut zeitgeist yielded the Texas barbecueinspired brisket-doughnut sandwich.
Wherever it was invented, it certainly took off and endures to this day. Later in 2014, Glazed the Doughnut Café in Houston announced a “barbecue doughnut” associated with the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. In 2015, Blood Bros. BBQ debuted the Dr Pepper-glazed doughnut sandwich. In 2016, a food trailer in Florida called Smoke & Donuts built an entire menu around the combination.
Even Central Texas-style barbecue stalwart Black’s Barbecue in Lockhart got in on the act in 2017, featuring jalapeño-andcheddar sausage as the filling instead of brisket. Kimchi Smoke, a Texas-inspired barbecue joint in New Jersey, took the trend to a new level with its “Chonut” (named after owner/pitmaster Rob Cho) featuring brisket, kimchi, bacon, cheese and scallions on a
doughnut bun.
More recently, the now-closed Willow’s Texas BBQ food truck served a variation called the Brisket Hug that included salty/ peppery Central Texas-style brisket with a doughnut from local shop Hugs and Donuts.
Today, Pizzitola’s Bar-B-Cue has also partnered with Hugs and Donuts to create its own version — a cheddar/jalapeño doughnut stuffed with a pile of silky, fat-laden chopped brisket. Pizzitola’s also pushed the evolution of this dish a bit further, creating a version with pulled pork as the filling in an apple fritter bun, also from Hugs and Donuts.
Though the brisket-doughnut sandwich endures as a Texas barbecue menu item, it’s not necessarily something I would add to my standard ordering rotation. It fits more into the comfort-food/hangover-food category. To be sure, the Brisket Hug from Willow’s is still one of my favorite barbecue bites of all time. And the new Pizzitola’s version is something I’ll order as occasion warrants.