Asado Grill Guide: How to Cook Asado on an Argentine Grill

Asado is not a recipe. It is an afternoon. An Argentine asado is a wood fire burned down to embers in a basket called a brasero, a grate you crank up and down over those embers, and a procession of meat that comes off the grill in courses over two or three hours: sausages first, then the ribs, then the big cuts, with chimichurri on the table and nothing on the meat but coarse salt. The person running the fire is the asador, and the job is mostly patience.

This is how we cook asado on the Argentine grills we sell and install, the traditional South American way: how to build the ember bank, how to set the grate height for each cut, which American cuts stand in for tira de asado and vacío, the order everything goes on, and the pull temperatures. If you are still deciding on the grill, our Argentine grills explained guide covers the parrilla design and the Argentine grills collection has the Sunterra and Tagwood models in stock.

What Makes It an Argentine Asado

Asado is the open-fire cooking tradition of Argentina and Uruguay, carried from the gauchos of the pampas into every backyard in Buenos Aires, where a Sunday asado is as ordinary as a Sunday roast. The word means both the event and the meat (asado argentino, if you want the full name). Four things separate it from American barbecue, and you will meet them in this order:

1. The brasero

Wood burns in a basket beside the grate, not under it. You never cook over flames; you shovel embers under the meat as you need them.

2. A height-adjustable grill

A flywheel and chain lift the whole grate. Distance from the embers, plus how many embers you shovel, is the entire temperature control.

3. The V-channel grate

Angled channels carry the fat to a tray instead of into the fire. No flare-ups, so the meat can sit over embers for an hour.

4. Courses, not a platter

Chorizo and morcilla first, then ribs, then the big cuts. Coarse salt only. Chimichurri at the table.

The grill itself is the parrilla; in the United States it is sold as an Argentine grill, an Argentine style grill or a gaucho grill, and the wheel-crank grate over wood embers is the thing all those names share. Whatever you call it, an asado grill is the only equipment the menu below needs. If you are weighing it against the other crank grill, the Santa Maria, the short version is that the Santa Maria burns its fire under the grate for more flame and smoke, and the Argentine grill moves the fire to a brasero for steadier, cleaner ember heat. The full comparison is here. Both are one of the five types in our wood fire grills guide.

What You Need: Brasero, Crank and Grate

Any Argentine grill with a brasero, a crank and a flat grate will cook this menu, from a backyard build to a 72-inch commercial parrilla. These are the parts of an asado grill that matter, using the Sunterra Pro Series we cooked on as the example.

The fire side: the brasero

Burn there, cook here.

• ✓A brasero: the fire basket, beside or behind the grate. On the Sunterra it is the left third of the firebox, 16¼ by 26¾ inches, big enough for a log fire that runs all afternoon.
• ✓A coal rake or shovel to pull embers out of the bottom of the basket and spread them under the grate (the Sunterra ships with one).
• ✓Firebrick in the floor and walls, which holds ember heat steady for a long cook.
• ✓A swing-down door, so you can rake ash and add embers without lifting the grate or disturbing the meat.

The cooking side: the grill

Grate, crank, salt.

• ✓A V-channel grate for asado. The channels tilt forward and drain fat to a removable tray; round bar gives grill marks but drips into the embers.
• ✓A crank with a real flywheel and chain drive, so the loaded grate moves smoothly between 4 inches and 12 inches above the coals.
• ✓An instant-read thermometer. Argentines cook by feel; you can learn the feel faster by checking.
• ✓Long tongs, a cutting board with a groove, and coarse salt (sal parrillera), the only seasoning on the meat.

Material and mounting: Sunterra builds the Pro Series in 3/16-inch powder-coated steel with a stainless steel grate upgrade, or in full stainless steel. The cart version rolls on 6-inch wheels and lifts off later to become a built-in asado grill in a masonry island. A DIY Argentine grill of firebrick around a bought crank-and-grate kit is how most of Argentina does it, and the technique below is identical. Tagwood adds a clamp grill and a rotisserie cross on some models for whole animals. All of it lives in the Argentine grills collection, with the Sunterra sizes in the Sunterra Argentine grills range and Tagwood under Tagwood BBQ.

The Cuts, in Spanish and at an American Butcher

Argentine butchers break a steer differently, so the names do not map one-for-one. These are the cuts of a classic asado and what to ask for at a US butcher counter. Ask for them thick: the biggest difference between a real asado and a backyard imitation is a short rib cut two inches thick instead of a half inch.

Tira de asado

Flanken-cut beef short ribs, 1½ to 2 in. thick

The center of the asado. Cross-cut across the bones so each strip has three or four rounds of bone. Cooks bone side down for most of its time.

Vacío

Flap meat (bavette), fat cap on

A loose-grained cut from the flank. Cooks slowly fat side down until the fat is rendered and crisp; sliced thin against the grain.

Entraña

Outside skirt steak

Thin, intensely beefy, and the one cut that goes on hot and fast. Membrane on in Argentina; have the butcher peel it if you prefer.

Bife de chorizo / ojo de bife

NY strip / ribeye, 1½ in. thick

Steakhouse cuts for a smaller asado. Cook them like the entraña, lower and longer.

Chorizo & morcilla

Fresh Argentine-style pork chorizo; blood sausage

Chorizo is raw and cooks slowly without piercing. Morcilla is already cooked; it only needs heating. Chorizo in a split roll is a choripán.

Mollejas & provoleta

Sweetbreads; a thick disc of provolone

Mollejas crisp on the hot grate with lemon and salt. Provoleta goes in a cast-iron pan on the grate until the edges crust and the center melts.

Buy about a pound of raw meat per person with bones counted, a little less for boneless cuts. For eight: 2 lb chorizo, 1 lb morcilla, a 1-lb provoleta, 4 lb tira de asado, 3 lb vacío, 2 lb entraña. If that sounds like too much, it is the right amount.

The Cooking Order: Grate Heights, Times and Pull Temps

Everything cooks on one grate over one bed of embers. You manage it with three things: where on the grate it sits, how high the grate is, and how many embers are under that spot. Asado heat is low, and low ember heat over time is what makes a tough cut tender. The temperature test is your hand held flat at grate level: 7 to 8 seconds before you have to pull it away is asado heat; 3 to 4 seconds is searing heat for the entraña. Argentine doneness runs jugoso (medium-rare), a punto (medium) and cocido (well done); the big cuts are usually served a punto.

Cooking Asado on an Argentine Grill, Step by Step

1

Light the brasero an hour before the first sausage

What you are looking for: A tall fire in the basket, grate up high, and embers starting to glow through the bars at the bottom.

Stack four or five split oak logs in the brasero with kindling or a chimney of lump charcoal underneath, light it and crank the grate to the top so it is out of the way. Wood has to collapse into embers before any of it goes under the grate; a flaming log is the wrong fuel for asado. Expect 45 to 60 minutes to usable embers, 30 if you start with charcoal and add wood on top. Meanwhile, bring the meat out of the fridge; everything goes on at room temperature.

Keep a log going in the brasero from now until the entraña comes off. The fire you are tending is not the one you cook over; it is the supply.

2

Shovel the embers and set asado heat

What you are looking for: A thin red bed with grey ash edges, no flames, the grate set at mid height.

Rake embers out from under the basket and spread them in a single even layer under the grate, a little thicker toward the back for the big cuts and thinner at the front where the sausages will sit. Crank the grate down to about 8 inches and heat it for five minutes; the stainless steel or seasoned steel of the V-channels should be too hot to touch but not glowing. Hold your hand flat at grate level. Seven or eight seconds is right. If it is three, raise the grate or rake some embers back. If it is ten, add embers.

3

Chorizo and morcilla on, then the provoleta

What you are looking for: Sausage skins blistered and tight, provoleta edges browned and the center starting to slump.

Lay the chorizo at the front of the grate at medium height and leave it alone except to turn it every 8 to 10 minutes. Do not pierce it; the fat inside is the point. Morcilla goes on 10 minutes before you serve, just to heat through and crisp the skin. Five minutes before the first course, set a cast-iron pan on the grate, drop in the provoleta disc, dust it with dried oregano and chili flakes, and let the bottom crust while the center softens. Serve all three together: chorizo split into a roll as choripán, morcilla sliced, provoleta scooped with bread.

4

Tira de asado, bone side down, and leave it

What you are looking for: Bones darkening to mahogany, meat between them pulling back, fat dripping down the channels instead of into the fire.

Ten minutes after the sausages go on, salt the tira de asado generously with coarse salt and lay it bone side down at the back of the grate with the grate at 8 to 10 inches. Then 35 to 40 minutes on the bone side with no turning; the bones shield the meat while the fat between them renders down the channels. Flip once and give the meat side 10 to 15 minutes, until the ribs read 135 to 140°F between the bones. Rest them five minutes and cut between the bones into single ribs; serve them as the second course while the vacío keeps cooking.

5

Vacío fat cap down, embers topped up every 20 minutes

What you are looking for: The fat cap gone crisp and deep brown, a fresh scoop of embers glowing under it, grate near the top of its travel.

The vacío goes on with the ribs, fat cap down, at the highest part of the grate, 10 to 12 inches up, and stays there for an hour or more. This is the heart of asado grilling: tender meat from low heat off wood embers and time, not from a marinade. Every 20 minutes, open the door and rake a fresh scoop of embers from the brasero under the big cuts; the heat should never fade and never flare. Flip the vacío once the fat cap is crisp and deep brown, usually at the two-thirds mark, and finish it on the meat side to 135 to 145°F. Rest it 10 minutes under a board, then slice it thin against the grain.

6

Entraña low and hot, then the table

What you are looking for: Entraña charred outside and pink through, vacío sliced thin with a crisp fat edge, chimichurri spooned over nothing until it reaches the table.

While the vacío rests, rake the embers together under one end of the grate and crank it down to 4 to 6 inches. Hand test: 3 to 4 seconds. Lay the entraña on, salt it at the first flip, and give it 4 to 5 minutes a side to 130°F. Rest it three minutes and slice it on the bias. Carry the entraña and the sliced vacío out together on one board with chimichurri, salsa criolla, bread and the Malbec. That is the last course, and the asador finally sits down.

Chimichurri, Salsa Criolla and the Asado Table

The board comes out in courses, but the table is set once: chimichurri, salsa criolla, bread, Malbec.

Nothing on the asado table is cooked except the meat and the bread. Both sauces are raw and made an hour ahead so the vinegar can soften the onion and garlic.

Chimichurri

The green sauce, spooned on at the table

Parsley, dried oregano, garlic, red pepper flakes, red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt. Chopped, never blended; a blender turns it into pesto. It is a condiment, not a marinade, and it goes on the sliced meat, not on the grill.

Salsa criolla

The red one

Diced onion, red bell pepper and tomato in vinegar and oil with oregano and salt. Sharper and crunchier than chimichurri; the classic topping on a choripán and the sauce for the vacío.

Provoleta

Grilled provolone

A thick disc of provolone in a cast-iron pan or a provoletera on the grate until the bottom crusts and the top blisters. Oregano, chili flakes, a thread of olive oil. Eaten with bread before anyone has seen a steak.

Choripán and bread

The first thing anyone eats

A grilled chorizo, butterflied, in a crusty roll with chimichurri or salsa criolla. Warm the rolls on the edge of the grate. Bread stays on the table for the whole asado; it is how the juices get eaten.

Serve with: a simple green or tomato salad, grilled vegetables on the cool end of the grate (bell peppers, onions, whole potatoes in the embers), and Malbec. Dessert, if anyone is still standing, is flan with dulce de leche.

Six Mistakes That Ruin an Asado

More on the Argentine Grills We Cook On

Every grill in our Argentine grills collection has the two things asado depends on: a brasero for the wood and a grate you can set at the right height over the embers. They differ in how you set it: a flywheel crank, a fixed grate with a rotating clamp, or preset heights. These are the three asado grills we point people to most.

Sunterra Pro Series Argentine 60″

From $3,889 built-in, $5,269 on a cart

The grill in these photos. Side brasero, flywheel chain crank, V-channel or round-bar grate in steel or stainless, firebrick floor and walls, NSF certified. 36, 48, 60 and 72-inch sizes, single or split grate.

See the Pro Series

Tagwood BBQ33 clamp grill

$8,500 in 304 stainless

A 23-inch clamp grill that rotates 360° over the embers, for racks of ribs, butterflied chicken and whole cuts you turn without tongs, plus a fixed main grate, a firebrick brasero and a roof grill. All 304 stainless; feeds fifteen to twenty.

See the BBQ33

Tagwood Chief BBQ18

From $2,500 in black steel

The entry point: a 32-inch round-bar grate with two preset heights (no crank) over a firebrick brasero, with a top lid and an ash drawer, on casters. Black steel, or 304 stainless as the BBQ18SS. Feeds a family of eight to ten.

See the Chief

Accessories worth having from day one: a second coal rake, a provoletera or small cast-iron pan, and a grill cover. If the grill is going into an outdoor kitchen, our free 3D design service sizes the cutout and the hood before anything is built. Everything in the Sunterra Argentine grills range ships free, and all of these are part of the wider wood fired grills collection.

Frequently Asked Questions