Brazilian steakhouses are known for their wide variety of mouth watering meats.
But what if you're not sure which one you're eating?
Should you waste your appetite on chicken — or go all-in on red meat?
We're breaking down the most popular Brazilian Steakhouse cuts for you.
"This is where brazilians come to eat"
"I gotta say Annie's really good at this.
She always drags me to the weirdest places, and the food is always incredible."
"And plus you get a lot for your money too, so that's good."
Let's start with picanha, the most typical cut of meat at a Brazilian steakhouse and
a must-have for anyone experiencing a churrascaria for the first time.
Picanha is a crescent-shaped cut of meat with the fat cap attached that, when skewered,
looks a little like a half medallion.
It comes from an animal's hindquarters and is also called the rump cap, rump cover, sirloin
cap, or occasionally culotte.
Because it has a fat cap that melts as it cooks, picanha is a tender, juicy cut of meat
perfect for slow roasting and often prepared with just a hint of salt.
You can find beef, pork, or even lamb picanha depending on the restaurant, but all are solid
choices if you want the authentic churrascaria experience.
While you might be hard-pressed to find picanha outside of a Brazilian steakhouse in the United
States, the cut is incredibly popular in Brazil and often found at kilo restaurants — a
frequent option for lunch similar to the all-you-can-eat buffet except that you pay by the weight of
your plate.
BBC Close-Up visited a kilo restaurant in São Paulo and put together a classic plate
of grilled picanha steak that weighed in at about 5 kilos and cost about $3.50.
Now that's a lunch we can get behind!
Fraldinha is another cut of meat you're likely to find at a Brazilian steakhouse.
Similar to flank steak, it's served in long, flat pieces with a pink middle and grilled
crust.
It's cut against the grain to make it as tender and delicious as possible.
As recommended by Taste Atlas, it's often served with a sharp, vinegary salsa.
As explained by The Spruce Eats, sirloin is typically divided into two cuts: bottom sirloin
and top sirloin.
Fraldinha is a bottom sirloin.
Both are a bit tougher than some other cuts of meat because they come from a more muscular
area, making them well-suited to the slow roasting process of Brazilian churrasco.
According to Churrasco Shop, fraldinha was introduced in Brazil by a butcher and restaurateur
named Marcos Bassi in 1967.
Bassi had a French customer who always requested this cut of meat, then essentially unknown
in Brazil, and over time he started to tweak the cut and serve it on a sandwich in sliced,
grilled pieces.
It was obviously a success, and today fraldinha is a churrasco staple throughout the country.
Alcatra is the top sirloin to fraldinha's bottom sirloin, the yin to its yang.
It's one of the largest skewered cuts served as part of churrasco and is prized for its
succulent, hearty beef flavor.
Long and lean, this beef cut is seasoned with salt and grilled with a layer of fat that
melts away and leaves the remainder crispy and delicious.
It's another one you don't want to miss.
Top sirloin makes for great steaks and is a good choice if you're looking for something
that's marbled and flavorful while being a bit more on the lean side.
It's also very versatile and a good option for making at home, especially if you're shopping
on a budget.
If you see chuleta on the menu, you're in for some whole ribeye steaks skewered and
grilled.
Like their name suggests, ribeye steaks come from the rib section of a cow.
Butchers can prepare them to be bone-in or boneless and the meat is marbled with a good
amount of intramuscular fat that gives the meat its flavor and moisture.
Speaking of that marbling, we happen to think it makes the ribeye the best cut of steak
ever.
That's why it's no surprise to us that Kobe, a type of Wagyu beef from Tajima cattle raised
in Hyōgo, Japan and one of the most prized types of beef in the world, is a ribeye steak.
It's actually pretty rare to find real Kobe, but if you're lucky you might just find Wagyu
on the menu of your local Brazilian steakhouse for an extra elevated experience.
This one doesn't need much explanation.
While filet mignon is a classic on Brazilian steakhouse menus, pacing yourself enough to
fully enjoy your experience is all about priorities.
And if we're making a list, we'd actually recommend one of the other cuts to get the
most out of your appetite.
Why?
Favored though it is for its buttery texture — and rightfully so — filet mignon isn't
as unique to a Brazilian steakhouse as some of these other meats.
Still, we don't blame you if you can't resist — especially if the filet mignon comes to
your table wrapped in bacon, which at a Brazilian steakhouse it often does.
This is where the benefits of that rodizio-style dining come in again.
You can try as much, or as little, of everything as you like!
Also known as tenderloin steak, filet mignon is lean, tender, and sold boneless.
It comes from the area below the backbone, the same area as strip steak, T-bones, and
porterhouse steaks, all of which are well-suited to the grill.
As reported by CNN Travel, its tenderness and lack of fat make it a favorite among Brazilian
churrascarias and it can be delicious when prepared in signature churrasco style.
"Thank you all for being here.
Let's get started"
"Wow, great attitude, Ron"
"Sorry, I was talking to these ribs"
Costela translates to ribs, and at a Brazilian steakhouse you'll see slabs of ribs that look
too good to be true.
As impressive to look at as they are delicious to eat, pork or beef churrasco ribs are a
must if you aren't afraid to get a little messy.
James Hills, author of the food and travel blog Mantripping, told Mashed that the perfectly
caramelized edges of churrasco ribs give the meat a hint of sweetness.
The benefit to serving them rodizio-style is that it gives you a chance to try them
without filling yourself up.
He explained:
"At a regular steakhouse, by the time you get through [a beef rib] it's a lot of fat
and heaviness, but just a piece of it, it's perfect."
While we're willing to bet the best Brazilian steakhouses aren't making any of the most
common mistakes people make when cooking ribs, the rest of us might want to check out some
foolproof ways to serve up mouth-watering ribs at home, too.
Often confused with chorizo but with a milder flavor, linguica is a type of Portuguese sausage
commonly served in a Brazilian steakhouse.
"On the Gas" notes that while "linguica" translates literally to "tongue," this sausage isn't
made of tongues at all.
It's made from ground pork and spices, and the name is simply a reference to its tongue-like
shape.
Linguica gets its flavor from spices like garlic, paprika, oregano, and cumin paired
with a vinegar brine and smoke curing.
The salt and vinegar brine helps mellow out the meaty flavor of the sausage, and it's
smoked to make it even more flavorful and tender.
"Delighted Cooking" notes that linguica is typically made with pork butt, a cut that
oddly enough actually comes from the shoulder area.
This cut is higher in connective tissue, so turning it into ground pork or sausages or
using longer cooking methods is typically best.
While beef gets much of the spotlight at a Brazilian steakhouse, the lombo isn't something
to miss, either.
The Portuguese word "lombo" translates literally to loin and, on a churrasco menu, most often
refers to pork loin served with a crust or sprinkling of Parmesan that lends a smoky,
savory flavor.
A Taste of Home notes that pork loin – not to be confused with pork tenderloin — is
a cut from between the spine and ribs.
It's often trimmed in a way that leaves a fat cap on the top of the cut, similar to
picanha, to help the pork stay moist while it roasts.
Pork tenderloin, on the other hand, is from above the spine and is more tender because
it contains less muscle.
Nevertheless, pork loin is better suited to churrasco because it has that fat cap to keep
it juicy, while pork tenderloin is more prone to drying out.
Though if you're making it at home, marinade helps!
Cordeiro means lamb, and you'll find it at many Brazilian steakhouses in the form of
bone-in steaks and chops cut from a rack.
As noted by "Verywell Fit," lamb is a fairly lean protein with 10 grams of fat per serving.
According to Kitchn, it has a stronger, more gamey flavor than beef, pork, or chicken,
a direct result of the time an animal spends grazing at pasture, and stands up well to
bold spices and char from the grill.
If you try lamb next time you're at a Brazilian steakhouse and want to recreate part of the
experience at home, it's easier than you might think to make an almost-as-impressive rack
yourself.
Recipes all over the internet share secrets on how to get the cordeiro taste at home.
But nothing beats the skewer to table feel at a traditional Brazilian steakhouse.
Frango is Portuguese for chicken, and many Brazilian steakhouses have some version of
it on the menu.
Options range from bacon-wrapped chicken breasts to sweet and sour marinated drumsticks, all
served on skewers of course.
Tasty options yes, but we wholeheartedly support the steak when you're at a Brazilian steakhouse.
As Mantripping's James Hill put it to Mashed:
"I never get the chicken; chicken is not what I'm going to spend my appetite budget on."
That said, there are some chicken options very authentic to the churrasco experience.
Take coração de frango, for example.
You won't find it on every Brazilian steakhouse menu, but, if you do, you'll see chicken hearts
grilled in classic churrasco style among the skewers brought to your table.
According to food blogger Brazilian Kitchen Abroad, coração de frango is a classic appetizer
of the authentic churrasco experience and tastes similar to dark meat chicken, just
a little chewier and sweeter with a bit of a metallic tang.
Last but certainly not least, we have cupim.
This isn't a cut you're very likely to see in the United States.
The Cattle Site says that cupim comes from a special breed of cow called the Brazilian
Zebu that, unlike the cows we're most used to seeing here, have a hump between their
shoulder blades much like a camel.
That hump is where cupim comes from.
Tender, rich, and marbled, Taste Atlas explains that cupim has no blood or juice and, when
eaten, is described as rich and fatty with a bit of a stringy texture.
So, if you do come across this unique cut of meat, we definitely recommend giving it
a try.
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