Brazilian BBQ

If you have ever eaten at a Brazilian BBQ place, you probably remember the that disk with red and green on it that you thought would mostly be on red but fondly remember you couldnt stop leaving it on green. What you probably dont remember is the smokey flavors in every bite of meat they brought you. In Brazil, when they BBQ they throw some wood on the fire and smoke the meat while it grills. Usually I reserve my smoking for my Weber Smokey Mountain and leave the grilling to my Weber One Touch Kettle grill. However, last week I started to experiment with the idea of adding some smoke to my high heat recipes. 

My first experiment was with some chicken thighs that I wanted to do on the grill instead of the smoker since I didnt have 3 hours. When I usually do this, I dry rub the thighs with my rub and some olive oil and then sear the thighs on both side before moving them onto the indirect side and letting them finish. This time I decided to throw some apple wood on the charcoal and let it get some smoke for about an hour before pulling it off.

While it wasn't as 'smokey' as on the smoker, there was an added flavor profile from the apple wood and there was crispy skin. Something that we dont get on 'low and slow'.

Last night I decided to try it again, but this time with a 1.5 inch thick ribeye. I had read in Cooks Illustrated that if you want to get a really good sear on meat, you should take an aluminum pan and invert it over the coals to superheat the grate. While the grill heated I put some kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and olive oil on both sides.

First 2 minutes with the meat at 45 degree angle.

2 minutes facing the opposite direction

And then the magic moment when you flip it over and get to see that awesome crust you have formed with the sear.

Now that you know the oustide is nicely cooked, we need to bring the internal temperature up. However before I did that, I threw some cherry wood on the charcoal to turn this BBQ into a Brazilian BBQ.

I placed the cover on and then let it smoke until the steak was medium rare.

Aside from the great color on the steak there was an added sweet smokey flavor to the steak