I got interested in Churrasco grilling a while back and decided 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 have multi levels to cook at different temp simultaneously. I also wanted something more interactive, since rotisserie grills do all the work.
Here few pictures of grills used by the home cook in Brazil
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
Used foil containers over the skewers to reflect heat from all direction
Under shot
The trick worked, the chicken was cooking nicely.
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 couldn’t find Sirloin Cap, which what’s commonly used, so I used NY strips instead. I also added some eggplants and mushrooms
Seasoning is minimal with coarse salt only
All cooking nicely
The cooking is done
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. I think the high heat and close proximity to the coal contributed to the awesome flavor and juicy meat
I believe Weber is making a similar set up now, which means this method is catching on