Churrasco Brazilian BBQ

I’ve been interested in Churrasco grilling for a long time and finally had a chance to try it. I have a multi rotisserie grill, but after I did my research, I found out that many home cooks actually don’t use these modern rotisserie grills that you see in restaurants like Fogo De Chao. They actually use an open style grill similar to Mangal (Kabob grill), but has multi levels to cook at different temp simultaneously. I also wanted something more interactive, since rotisserie grills do all the work.





So I rigged up some thing similar with three level of cooking




I also added these shelves hangers to help hold skewers on their sides so I could position them where I could cook in 360 degrees fashion.

The main body of the grill has these slits that allow the same application


I started with chicken drumsticks and pork sausage. The chicken was seasoned with rock salt and a little of black pepper.



Grill Cam



Added chicken hearts- I know, not a popular thing around here, but very traditional in Brazilian BBQ. I marinated them in a mixture of garlic, cilantro, red wine vinegar and some spices.


I added some eggplants and mushrooms


I couldn’t find Sirloin Cap, so I used NY strips instead. They’re similar in shape and flavor.

Seasoning is minimal with coarse salt only


The steaks on the grill

The cooking is done



Dinner is served



The flavor was awesome and was very similar to the meal I had at Fogo De Chao. It’s really amazing how much flavor the chicken and meat had with just addition of salt. I think it allowed the charcoal flavor (lump of course) to come through in a manner I did not expect. After all these years of marinating and experimenting with different spice mixtures and rubs, who knew that all you needed was salt, charcoal and high heat to get an awesome flavor and very juicy meat. I think I have new favorite food

**Special Thanks to Steven for including a generous amount of info on
Brazilian cooking in his BBQ Plant book**

Looks fantastic! Brazilian steakhouses are my wife and myself favorite type of restaurant. We don't eat much at all before we go and just sit there and become gluttonous

How cool is that?! Everything looks amazing! I envy all your grilling setups. I love my BGE, but it would be awesome to include some different rigs in my arsenal one day.

Z, I've been meaning to have this talk with you for a while now. You really need to step up your game Mister! You keep posting these same old same old small-scale repetitive cooks. You really need to step out of the mold and experiment a little.

All kidding aside: Z that is one amazing cook! Everything looks wonderful!! You remind me of MacGyver the way you build those different rigs for cooking styles from around the world. And then when you are done making a totally new style of grill, you turn out a huge spread of food on a grill you've never cooked on before. Often it's a new style of cooking you haven't done before too. And everything always looks great. There are some great grillers posting on this site. Leaving aside the man whose name is on the masthead of the site, I'd have to say I think you're the most talented grill cook here. What amazes me is it just seems to come naturally to you to boot. I always enjoy seeing one of your posts because I know it's going to be new and different. Keep up the grate work!

Jim

Nothing short of awesome, Z. You da man!

Really neat setup, Z! Do you do your own welding?

How would you describe the flavor and texture of chicken hearts?

Cool set up Z and an fantabulous looking cook!

Thank you all for the kind words.

Jim,
Thank you so much for such kind words. I think there are many excellent BBQ cooks around here and you’re one of them. Your stuff always looks professional and amazing.
I love researching food topics from all over the world and trying different dishes and flavors. The best part for me is reading the history about a particular dish and the people that came up with it. That’s the reason I love Steven’s books and that’s how I found this site. I also like to dabble a little in inventing new rigs to fit the recipe or certain style of cooking I have more fun doing that than any thing. And it’s very rewarding when things work out and the food turns out well.

Brad,
I wish I knew how to weld, I think I could do much more if I did. I try to build stuff with what I have on hand or I could find in Flea Markets/Garage sales…etc. I built that frame from left over bars that are used to hold garage doors and few screws

The chicken hearts were a little chewy, but not tough. The flavor was similar to chicken liver, but milder with a slight metallic taste like most organ meat. I’ve had them before, so they weren’t a big surprise.

Dancin' dinosaurs, Z!-- When you cook, you really cook! I join the sentiments of everyone here-- amazing, WOW!

I've been busy with work, so I didn't get back here in a timely manner thank you for your kind words. I'll respectfully disagree and to use a baseball analogy: you're in the major leagues and get perennially picked for the All-Stars. I'm playing for the AAA or AA affiliates. But both of us are having a blast doing what we do, and that's what really counts.

Jim

dang it, now i got another project to do. that looks great and is becoming my choice of cooking.
and yes, i went back to s&p a while back. its all any meat really needs.

I have some Brazillian friends and I've been to bbq's over the years at their parent's house.
The food is just as good as Fogo.
I asked the parents one time what they marinate the meat in.
Mom responded just salt.
She puts all the chicken, steaks, etc. in various containers and places it in the fridge overnight.
So simple yet so fantastic.

Awesome setup and nice food !

I also love Brazilian and Argentinian grilling a lot. We got a Team Sponsor that imports prime argentinian beef and charcoal and had lots of good cooks with them.

Cant wait to see more pics soon.

DM

I'm a huge fan of organ and variety meats - nice to see there are others out there. Excellent looking setup. You've got me thinking about this weekend now...