Recipes / Meat
Picanha on the braai
A whole rump cap with its fat scored and salted, crisped fat side down over hot coals, then cut into thick steaks and finished on the grid.
- Prep
- 15 min
- On the fire
- 25 min
- Plan ahead
- 2 to 4 hours in the fridge with the rub, then 1 hour out before cooking
- Serves
- 6
- Done at
- 145°F (63°C)
Ingredients
Meat
Rub
Method
Cooking on gas?
- Preheat with all burners on high and the lid closed for 10 to 15 minutes, until the lid thermometer reads 260°C (500°F) or more. Brush the grates clean and oil them.
- Cook with the lid open and use the recipe times as a guide, checking with a thermometer.
- Keep one burner off or on low as a cooler zone. If fat flares up, move the food there. Never use water on a gas grill flare-up.
- For a smoky taste, put a handful of wood chips in a smoker box, or a foil parcel pierced with a few holes, over a lit burner while the grill preheats.
- Score the fat cap in a criss-cross pattern about 2 cm (3/4 inch) apart. Cut through the fat only, not into the meat.
- Mix the rub with the tablespoon of coarse salt and press it over the meat and into the cuts in the fat. Refrigerate for 2 to 4 hours, then take it out 1 hour before it goes on.
- Build a hot fire with a cooler area on one side. Lay the picanha fat side down over the hot coals for 6 to 8 minutes, until the fat is golden and crisp.
- Slide the meat to the cooler side whenever the dripping fat flares up. Turn it and give the meat side 3 minutes.
- Take it off and cut it with the grain into 3 or 4 steaks about 4 cm (1 1/2 inches) thick. Each steak keeps a strip of fat on top.
- Salt the cut faces lightly and braai the steaks over hot coals for 3 to 4 minutes a side, turning once.
- Rest the steaks for 5 minutes, then slice them thinly across the grain.
Done when: the fat is crisp and a thermometer in the middle of a steak reads 63°C (145°F), the safe temperature for whole cuts of beef, after a 3-minute rest. For medium-rare take the steaks off at 54°C (130°F); they rise a few degrees as they rest.
Tips
- Ask the butcher for the rump cap with the fat left on, about 1 cm (1/2 inch) thick. Trimmed picanha loses most of its flavour.
- Slicing direction matters twice: cut the raw cap into steaks with the grain, then slice the cooked steaks across it.
- Serve it with the chimichurri from the chimichurri steak marinade, or plain with a little extra coarse salt.
Picanha is the Brazilian name for the cap of the rump, a triangular muscle with a thick layer of fat on top. South African butchers have started selling it whole as braaiers discovered how well the fat bastes the meat over coals. Serve it with the chimichurri steak marinade as a sauce on the side.
Source
Adapted from Braaing picanha: what it is and how to cook it at Daily Maverick and Braaied Picanha with Star Anise Carrots at Woolworths.