Grilled Picanha With Chimichurri Sauce
Skewer up Picanha and throw on the grill for an authentic Brazilian Steahouse experience. This is the top cut in Brazil for how easy it is to BBQ, and the immense beef flavor derived from the fat cap as it cooks down and renders into the meat.
Ingredients
- 1 Picanha Roast
- 1 cup packed fresh Italian parsley
- 1/4 cup packed fresh cilantro
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Rock Salt or Kosher Salt for Seasoning Picanha
- Prep time
- 15 minutes
- Cook time
- 50 minutes
Instructions
- Thaw: Place Picanha in the refrigerator a full 24 hours before you plan to cook, allowing it to thaw fully.
- To make the chimichurri sauce, place Italian parsley, cilantro, olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, cumin, and salt into a food processor. Pulse until smooth. Remove from the food processor and place in a bowl. Refrigerate until ready to use. If ingredients separate during refrigeration, whisk together before serving.
- Preheat grill for indirect grilling; for gas grills, light half the burners of your grill. For charcoal, once coals are lit, arrange all the coals on one side of the grill.
- Remove Picanha from packaging and pat dry with paper towels.
- Lay the Picanha on a cutting board, using a sharp knife, remove any layers of silver skin from the meat side.
- Take the fat cap on top and score the fat by slicing criss-cross cuts into it. Do your best to not cut into the meat. Take some kosher salt and sprinkle all over the fat cap and meat-exposed sides. By scoring the fat, you can prevent your Picanha from shrinking, curling, and disfiguring while it grills. Scoring creates small channels for the fat cap to seep into the Picanha meat.
- Slice the Picanha into about 1-1.5 inch thick steaks, cutting with the grain of the meat. This way, the final cut when you’re slicing into the finished steak will be against the grain. Aim to keep steaks even thickness
- Season individually cut steaks generously with just salt on all sides, this is the traditional Brazilian method of seasoning Picanha. Rock Salt is preferable, but kosher salt works fine.
- Fold your individually cut steaks in half with the fat cap out, forming a “c shape”. Using roasting skewers, skewer your steaks. Place skewers over direct heat and sear for 3-4 minutes with the fat cap side up first. Flip and sear the other side for another 3-4 minutes. After searing, place skewers on the indirect heat side of the grill and continue cooking over indirect heat for about 40 minutes or until you reach an internal temperature of 135-140 degrees F for medium-rare. While grilling on indirect heat, flip skewers over every 5-10 minutes.
- Let Skewers rest for 10 minutes.
- For Brazilian preparation, thinly slice the steak against the grain off the skewers onto a cutting board and serve the sliced meat with a dollop of chimichurri sauce over it.