A huge part of the food culture in Brazil is centered not just around the food but around the people. Meals are a chance to get together with family and friends, enjoy the company and conversation, and have some good food while we’re all at it.
If you’re interested in replicating the experience and want to do it with a Brazilian flair, here’s what you need.
Table of Contents
The Meat for a Brazilian Steak Night
The key to a good Brazilian steak night is right there in the name: the steak. The meat is the star of the show for any Brazilian gathering, and steak is the star of the meat menu. There’s a reason the bulk of the menu at Texas de Brazil is steak, after all!
That said, there’s potentially more than just steak at a Brazilian barbecue, so while steak is likely to be the bulk of the meat you serve, others can have their time to shine as well.
Steak
Since steak is the biggest part of a steak night, you want to get the best beef you can. If you happen to have a local butcher you can talk to about it, get fresh cuts of the best beef they have on offer. If you don’t, you have a few options. You can get beef from your local grocer, or you can order some from our butcher shop.
While we’re on the topic of steak, make sure to get a variety of different cuts of beef. Different cuts are different experiences in terms of texture and flavor, and the deep appreciation of these differences is key to the Brazilian steak night experience.
- Picanha. This is by far our favorite cut. It’s a lean medallion of beef with a thick fat cap that, when cooked, renders out and saturates the meat with delectable flavors. It’s also surprisingly difficult to find in the US, but it’s growing more popular, and butchers will know how to cut it for you.
- Filet Mignon. The king of cuts, the filet is the small, tender, expensive, and very flavorful piece most people think of as prime dining. We still think picanha is better, but the filet isn’t bad.
- Flank steak. Flank steak is often considered one of the least glamorous and least quality of the cuts, but that’s exactly why we’re recommending you get some. It’s actually very bold in flavor and, when prepared properly, can be an exceptionally tender cut you’d never expect was flank.
How much of what cuts you get depends on a few things. How much time do you want to spend preparing your meats? How many people are you planning to serve? Sometimes, you’ll just be getting a few pieces for a smaller gathering; other times, you’ll want a variety to satisfy your 50 closest friends.
If you want more options and ideas, you can check out other posts of ours on the subject as well.
Brazilian Sausage
Another staple of a Brazilian dinner is Brazilian sausage.
Our sausage is smokey and delicious and serves as a great contrast to the richness of beef. It’s also great as an ingredient in some of the side dishes we’ll talk about a bit later, so ordering enough to go around (and then some) is a good investment in your dinner.
Other Meats
While the core of a Brazilian steak night should obviously be the steak, you can bring other meats to the table as well.
Your other options include:
- Pork. Pork ribs are a classic for any meat-focused gathering, and they’re also a chance to show off your BBQ rubs since Brazilian steak doesn’t usually go in for the fancy spice mixtures. You can also do parmesan-herb pork loin or a bacon-wrapped pork cut.
- Chicken. We love chicken drumettes on our menu, and chicken breast wrapped in bacon is also a great option to combine the flavors of multiple meats.
- Lamb. Lamb is also fairly common in Brazilian cooking, and we recommend lamb chops as a great high-end option. We also like leg of lamb, but it’s a tall order for some people on top of all of the steak, so it’s easy to leave out.
- Burger. While this could go under beef, the burgers we have in Brazil are another breed. Truth be told, they don’t work all that well for a steak night just because they’re so large and elaborate that they deserve their own night.
The key here isn’t to get the perfect selection of meat according to us or some Brazilian recipe book; it’s to have a selection of meat that satisfies your steak night guests.
Do you need a specific spice rub for a Brazilian steak night?
Not at all!
When it comes to beef, the main thing you need is some coarse salt. You cook the meat with the salt crusting the outside, then scrape it off before serving. This allows the salt to penetrate and flavor the meat without leaving diners with the unpleasant experience of eating rocks.
That said, it’s your steak night, so you can do what you want. We offer a few spiced options, like our spicy picanha and spicy sirloin, and you can do that, too, if you like. We even sell our spice rub if you want exactly the mix we use.
The Grill for a Brazilian Steak Night
The meat is just the first step to a good Brazilian steak night. You also have to cook it!
How to cook steak the Brazilian way.
Cooking steak the Brazilian way – a churrasco – means cooking it over an open flame. It’s not quite like grilling the way you would be used to, though, because we use skewers instead of a grille. The meat is skewered, salted, and cooked over an open flame until it’s ready to be enjoyed. Cooking temperatures are adjusted by repositioning the skewers.
There are a few ways you can do this. A fire pit with hot open flames is the best. If that’s not available, a grill that gets hot enough, like a kamado, can do the job.
Do you need to cook steak Brazilian-style?
What if the weather is bad, or you don’t have access to a space where you can grill? Do you need to cook meat the Brazilian way to have a Brazilian steak night?
If you wanted a truly authentic experience, then yes. But if you just want the heart of the experience: enjoying a delicious meal with friends and family – then no, of course not. You’re free to cook your meats however you like, with whatever resources and tools you have available.
Should you serve your meal Rodizio?
The Rodizio style in Brazilian churrasco comes from a mistake many years ago, where a gaucho brought a skewer of meat out to the wrong table. Rather than deprive them of the cut, though, they sliced a serving off and shared, and proceeded to do the same with future skewers, inadvertently inventing a new tradition.
In the context of a home steak night, should you go with the Rodizio method? That’s up to you. Truthfully, in Brazilian households, we don’t really do that kind of elaborate serving. It’s more of a tradition for churrascarias, the restaurants like Texas de Brazil where you go to have that kind of experience in addition to the food.
If you want to have the fun of serving meat Rodizio-style, by all means, go for it. Otherwise, don’t worry about it.
The Sides for a Brazilian Steak Night
While the meat of a steak night is the star of the show, the sides are the supporting cast, and there are a few you should really consider having around to make sure the experience is as authentically Brazilian as possible.
How to make Farofa at home.
Farofa is the #1 side you should have, though calling it a side isn’t necessarily accurate. While some people enjoy it as a side, others treat it more as a topping. It adds texture and flavor to anything you put it on and goes great just as a bowl of something tasty to add to the meal.
Farofa is a coarse, sandy substance made of toasted cassava root, flavored with added ingredients like onions, bacon, and butter. When it’s a full dish, it often has added ingredients, like olives, raisins, scallions, and chunks of pork. When made more simply as a topping, those added ingredients are left out.
Either way, you can read more about making it yourself in our guide here.
How to make Pao de Queijo at home.
Pao de Queijo is another staple of the Brazilian table and with good reason. It’s a fairly simple concept, too.
It’s a bread made using cassava starch rather than your traditional wheat flour and filled with Brazilian cheese. Who doesn’t love a good bread alongside a steak dinner? Learn more about this bread and how to make it here.
How to make Feijoada at home.
Feijoada, also known as Brazilian black beans, is a black bean stew. It’s hearty and delicious, with a rich, meaty, and smokey flavor coming from the smoked meats used to make it. Most traditionally, it’s served alongside or on top of rice and makes up the bulk of a meal. As a side, you’d eat less of it while you enjoy other options, though.
Here’s our post on what feijoada is and how to make it yourself so you can put together a batch for your Brazilian steak night.
Other sides you might consider.
These are just some of the best sides you can make for a Brazilian steak night, but they are far from the only options available to you.
Some others you might consider include:
- Arroz Carreteiro, also known as wagoner’s rice, which is a hearty rice dish made with salted meat, jerky, and some vegetables, depending on what was available at the time.
- Tutu de Feijao, which is a bean-based dish that closely resembles Mexican refried beans, except it’s usually made with black beans rather than pinto beans and has added flavors like cassava, garlic, and paprika.
- Maionese de Batata, which is a sort of potato and ham salad using a creamy mayo as a dressing and filled with other delicious ingredients.
- Salpicao de Frango, which is a sort of shredded chicken salad with a dressing made of hot oil and mayo. It’s very flexible, so you can make it however you like.
Just make sure you leave off some of the traditional American sides, like fries or chips; while we certainly have these in Brazil, if you’re going for authentic sides, you want something from a Brazilian cookbook.
The People for a Brazilian Steak Night
Now we come to the real key of a Brazilian steak night: the friends and family! As we said at the start, meal times in Brazil often center around friends and family, and it’s really quite common to share a meal with a multi-generational household or a large gathering of friends.
So, when you’re planning your authentic Brazilian steak night, make sure to invite as many people as you can handle for the best possible results.
Let Texas de Brazil Be Your Host!
We get it; sometimes, it’s hard to do an authentic Brazilian meal at home. Whether you want the flame-cooked meat but don’t have a fire pit, you want picanha but can’t find the cut, or you want farofa but can’t find the cassava, don’t worry too much. It happens!
That’s where we can come in for you. Here at Texas de Brazil, it’s our mission to bring Brazilian food to new audiences around the world. If you want an authentic Brazilian steak experience, you can swing into your nearest Texas de Brazil location and join us! We would request that you make a reservation if your party is large, though. Alternatively, we’d be more than happy to cater an event for you! If you have any questions, feel free to let us know! We’ll gladly help you out however we can.
