Chef Juliana
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You think chicken hearts are restaurant food or brave-person food. Wrong. Salt, garlic, lime, a hot espeto, and the discipline not to overcook them: that's the skewer everyone eats first.
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Maminha na Brasa
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You don't need a secret marinade. You need maminha, coarse salt, a hot grate, and the discipline to rest the meat before slicing it thin.
Main Dishes
Brazilian
BBQ
Outdoor Dining
Comfort Food
10 min
Active Time
25 min cook•45 min total
Yield4 to 6 servings
You look at a lean piece of beef and hear that little voice: isso não é pra mim. It will turn grey. It will get tough. Everyone at the table will chew politely and lie. Anota aí: meat on the grill is not a gift, it's a sequence. Salt, heat, timing, rest.
I learned this the same way I learned beans, late and with notes in a cheap caderno, because nobody is born knowing where the point is. Maminha is kind to the beginner if you don't fuss with it. Coarse salt seasons the surface. A hot grate gives color fast. Pull it while the center is still rare-pink, because carryover heat keeps cooking while you stand there feeling important.
This is comida de verdade for the Brazilian plate. Put it beside arroz soltinho, feijão with a real refogado, farofa if you have it, and couve or a simple salad. That's the pê-efe doing its quiet work: rice, beans, meat, green. No powder pretending to be flavor. No bottle of mystery sauce rescuing a bad method.
By the end, you'll have beef with a browned salty crust, a juicy center, and thin slices that solve dinner without drama. Cozinhar não é dom, é um aprendizado. Even on the grill.
Maminha is the Brazilian name for the tri-tip, the triangular end of the sirloin, cut from the same rear section that gives churrasco its famous picanha. In Brazilian barbecue, especially in the south and southeast, it is often treated simply with sal grosso and grilled whole or in thick pieces over embers. The cut is less fatty than picanha, which is exactly why timing matters: overcook it and it dries, pull it early and rest it properly and it stays tender.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
whole maminha or tri-tip
Quantity
1 piece, about 2 to 2 1/2 pounds
trimmed only of loose silver skin, fat cap left on if present
coarse salt
Quantity
1 1/2 tablespoons
neutral oil
Quantity
1 tablespoon
for the grate if needed
lime (optional)
Quantity
1
cut into wedges
chopped parsley (optional)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| whole maminha or tri-tiptrimmed only of loose silver skin, fat cap left on if present | 1 piece, about 2 to 2 1/2 pounds |
| coarse salt | 1 1/2 tablespoons |
| neutral oilfor the grate if needed | 1 tablespoon |
| lime (optional)cut into wedges | 1 |
| chopped parsley (optional) | 1 tablespoon |
Equipment Needed
- •Charcoal or gas grill with lid
- •Long tongs
- •Instant-read thermometer
- •Large cutting board
- •Sharp slicing knife
Instructions
- 1
Temper the meat
Take the maminha out of the fridge 30 minutes before grilling and pat it dry with paper towels. The surface should feel dry, not slippery. Wet meat wastes the first minutes of heat boiling off moisture, and then you wonder why it browned poorly.
- 2
Salt the beef
Sprinkle the coarse salt evenly over all sides, pressing lightly so it sticks. Don't bury the meat in salt like you're preserving it for a voyage. Maminha is leaner than picanha, so a steady crust of salt is enough to season it without stealing its juice.
- 3
Heat the grate
Heat a charcoal grill until the embers are red with a thin grey coating, or heat a gas grill to high. Clean the grate and oil it only if it looks dry. You want the meat to sizzle the second it lands, because fast surface browning gives flavor before the center overcooks.
- 4
Sear all sides
Put the maminha over the hottest part of the grill and sear it for 3 to 4 minutes per side, including the fat side if it has one. Look for deep brown patches and a salty crust, not pale beige. If the meat sticks, wait. It releases when the crust forms, like it has a little dignity.
- 5
Finish gently
Move the meat to a cooler part of the grill, close the lid, and cook until the thickest part reaches 52°C (125°F) for rare-pink or 57°C (135°F) for medium, about 10 to 18 minutes depending on thickness. Turn it once. Heat keeps moving inward after the meat leaves the grill, so pulling it early is how you keep it juicy instead of grey.
- 6
Rest before slicing
Transfer the maminha to a board and rest it for 10 minutes. Leave it alone. The juices need time to settle back into the meat; slice too soon and they run across the board while dinner gets drier by the second.
- 7
Slice it thin
Find the direction of the grain and slice across it as thinly as you can, holding the knife at a slight angle. The slices should look rosy in the center with a browned edge. Cutting across the grain shortens the muscle fibers, which is the difference between tender beef and a jaw workout nobody asked for.
- 8
Serve the plate
Serve right away with lime wedges if you like, plus arroz soltinho, feijão from scratch, farofa, and something green. That's not decoration. That's the Brazilian plate doing its job, and it's how a simple grilled cut becomes dinner.
Chef Tips
- •Choose a maminha that is thick and even, with a little fat if you can get it. Very thin pieces cook too fast and give you no room to catch the point.
- •A meat thermometer is not cheating. It's reading. Pull at 52°C for rare-pink, 57°C for medium, and don't let pride turn dinner grey.
- •The Tuesday shortcut is a very hot cast-iron grill pan. It works, and I use it when the sky opens. The cost is that you won't get the same charcoal taste, so don't pretend the two are identical.
- •Skip bottled seasoning mixes and powdered meat tenderizers. Salt, heat, and slicing across the grain do more honest work than any packet.
- •Leftovers are best sliced cold and tucked into rice and beans the next day. Warm them gently if you must, because reheating hard will finish the overcooking you avoided so carefully.
Advance Preparation
- •The meat can be patted dry and kept uncovered in the fridge for up to 8 hours, which helps the surface brown better.
- •Salt the meat only 30 to 45 minutes before grilling, or right before it goes on the grate. A long salting is fine for some cuts, but here a simple surface seasoning keeps the method easy and reproducible.
- •Cook rice, beans, and couve before the meat goes on the grill. Maminha waits poorly once sliced, but rice and beans are patient.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 150g)
Calories
325 calories
Total Fat
17 g
Saturated Fat
7 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
10 g
Cholesterol
130 mg
Sodium
1150 mg
Total Carbohydrates
1 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
0 g
Protein
42 g
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