Picaña de Res a las Brasas
Salt encrusted sirloin cap roast grilled directly on hot coals. Sometimes the simplest dish is the best. If you love carne asada, you’ll love this dish too.
To cook, you wrap a sirloin cap roast, called picaña in Mexico, with salt soaked kitchen towels and grill it directly on hot coals. It’s real campfire cooking.
The result is a tender, smoky, slightly salty, beefy flavored piece of meat that needs nothing else but a simple charcoal-grilled baked potato on the side. Wash it down with an ice-cold Mexican beer for a perfect meal.
The sirloin cap is a cut that comes from just under the beef tenderloin. In Brazil, it’s called picanha and one of the most popular cuts used to make Brazilian BBQ.
Ask for it at the butcher counter and be sure to buy it with the fat on which ensures the meat remains juicy, tender, and full of flavor.
Light the Charcoal First
Before preparing the meat you need to start the fire to get the coals just right.
Once the flames have died down and the charcoal briquets are turning white they are ready to cook the meat. Spread them out to make a bed on which to place the meat.
Prepping the Sirloin Cap
After you have lit the charcoal and it’s getting to just the right point start prepping the meat.
Gather your ingredients:
- 4 lb. sirloin cap roast with fat
- 1 cup sea salt
- 1 bottle dark beer (Dark beer adds more flavor.)
- 3 or 4 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 2 cotton kitchen towels that you don’t mind parting with. They get bunt up during cooking
- Kitchen twine
On a baking pan, spread out one of the kitchen towels and pour ½ of the bottle of beer in the middle of the towel.
Sprinkle half of the salt evenly over the towel. A thin paste will start to form.
Place the sirloin cap in the middle of the towel.
Top the meat with the rosemary sprigs.
On the second kitchen, towel pour the remaining half bottle of beer and salt. Cover the meat with the towel.
Wrap the meat tightly with the kitchen towels the tie firmly.
Place the wrapped meat directly on the hot coals and cook for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, turn the meat over and cook for another 20 minutes.
Remove the meat from the coals and let it rest for 10 minutes before unwrapping. Unwrapping the meat is very showy.
Serving
Cut the meat in ½″ slices.
Serve 2 or 3 slices with a charcoal-grilled baked potato topped with butter and shredded asadero cheese. Try it the next time you have friends and family over.
They’ll love the flavor and they’ll love watching it be prepared. Cutting the meat out of the burnt towels is a unique presentation.
Mexico has so many great beef dishes. This is one to add to your recipe book.
You can make tacos with the meat too. Just grill up some corn tortillas and top with a great salsa like this fresh tomatillo salsa verde.
Provecho!
Sirloin Cap Roast
Ingredients
- 4 lbs sirloin cap roast
- 1 cup sea salt
- 1 bottle dark beer
- 4 sprigs fresh rosemary or 1 tablespoon dried
- 2 cotton kitchen towels
- 10 feet kitchen twine
Instructions
Prepping the Charcoal
- Before preparing the meat you need to start the fire to get the coals just right.
- Once the flames have died down and the charcoal briquets are turning white they are ready to cook the meat. Spread them out to make a bed on which to place the meat.
Prepping the Meat
- On a baking pan, spread out one of the kitchen towel and pour ½ of the bottle of beer in the middle of the towel.
- Sprinkle half of the salt evenly over the towel. A thin paste will start to form.
- Place the sirloin cap in the middle of the towel and top with the rosemary sprigs.
- On the second kitchen, towel pour the remaining half bottle of beer and salt. Cover the meat.
- Wrap the meat tightly with the kitchen towels the tie firmly.
Cooking the Meat
- Place the wrapped meat directly on the hot coals and cook for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, turn the meat over and cook for another 20 minutes.
- Remove the meat from the coals and let it rest for 10 minutes before unwrapping.
Serving
- Cut the meat in ½" slices.
- Serve with a charcoal grilled baked potato.
Notes
- The kitchen towels are no longer useable after cooking. Don’t use your favorite ones.
- Buy the sirloin cap with the fat on which ensures the meat remains juicy, tender, and full of flavor.
- Coulotte Roast
- Top Sirloin Cap
- Rump Cap
- Picaña de Res (Mexico)
- Picanha (Brazil)
Q says
Crazy recipe no Mexican household would use a towel like this.
I personally would not recommend the use of a kitchen towel essentially because of fiber content. Many kitchen towels will not be 100% cotton even labelled as such, many towels are now made of recovered fabric if on lower price point which is ragged clothing and you can have synthetics mixed in although list all natural.