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Gaucho Beef Ribs with Country Hot Sauce
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Mar 31, 2025
If you like ribs, you’ll go insane for these monster racks of sizzling, succulent, crusty beef ribs roasted upright on metal stakes. Seasoned only with salt and pepper, the meat steals the show. The traditional way to eat grilled these beef ribs in Brazil is with country-style pepper sauce spoon on top, then a sprinkle of farofa (toasted manioc flour) to soak up the juices.
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0:00
Visit the iconic Brazilian steakhouse Fogo de Chão and you'll see dinosaur-sized racks of beef ribs roasting on steaks in front of a bonfire
0:09
But excellent gaucho ribs can be prepared in a charcoal or gas grill
0:13
Forget about fancy seasonings. These bad boys are all about the beef
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First, the ribs. These are beef long ribs. Each section weighs 6 to 8 pounds
0:24
And the first step is to remove the membrane on the inside of the ribs to simply pull it away from the ribs
0:32
And because this membrane is slippery, grab it with a paper towel and then simply pull it away from the ribs
0:43
And you may need to come in at the other end and loosen the membrane here as well
0:51
Why is it so important to loosen this membrane? Well, first of all, it's tougher than the rest of the beef
0:56
And it also impedes the absorption of the smoke and spice flavors
1:10
And that, my friends, is the hardest part of the preparation. Now, generously, and I mean very generously
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season the ribs on all sides with coarse salt. Brazilians call this sal grosso, coarse salt
1:30
And freshly ground black pepper. And rub these seasonings into the meat Turn the ribs over And season the other side
1:55
Using coarse salt like this helps give you a savory crust. Okay, so I'm going to cook two of these ribs on steaks in front of a fire
2:10
fogo de chow style. Fogo de chow literally means ground fire. And to do that, you want to make a starter hole
2:18
using a metal skewer that runs through the ribs. Then, using a rotisserie spit
2:25
insert it through the ribs and secure the meat with the first set of prongs
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Next, place the second set of prongs and secure the meat as well
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And your ribs are now ready for roasting in front of the campfire
2:49
If you don't have a campfire, let me show you how to prepare these ribs on a charcoal grill
2:54
Now, set your grill up for indirect grilling, live-lit natural lump charcoal in the side baskets
3:01
and arrange a couple of drip pans in the center. Place the grill grate on top
3:09
and place your ribs fat-side up in the center. Why is it so important to place the ribs fat-side up
3:19
You want the melting fat to baste the meat as the ribs cook. Last of all, to give you some of that smoke flavor
3:27
you'd get from a campfire, take soaked hardwood chips and place a tongful on each basket of coals
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Cover the grill with the vent positioned between the mounds of coals
3:49
You're going to be cooking at about 350 degrees. Cooking time for a rack of ribs this size, about three to three and a half hours
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Now I'm going to grab our skewered ribs and head out to our fire pit to show you how to cook
4:03
on an authentic Fogo de Chão. What you want to do is just hammer your vertical spits
4:18
into the ground in front of the fire. Now, we formed a fire pit out of these rocks
4:26
built a log fire about two hours ago. We let it burn down to embers
4:31
I'll put on logs every 15, 20 minutes. And we're going to cook the ribs
4:37
using the radiant heat of the fire. And once your steaks are in place
4:43
at this point you can toss another log on the fire. The radiant heat will cook the ribs
4:50
and then the rising smoke from the wood will smoke it. So you're going to get unbelievable flavors
4:54
That's why all I needed was salt and pepper. And just give the ribs a turn every 30 to 40 minutes
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You want them to cook evenly. If the fire burns too hot, simply pull the steak back
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If it burns too cool and they're not cooking fast enough, tilt the steaks forward Heat control Primal Grill style
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And take a look at our gaucho beef ribs. Now, how do you know when the ribs are done
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Well, look at the top. You can see the meat has shrunk back by about an inch from the top of the bones
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And if you look at the back here, the meat is tender enough
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almost to pull apart with your fingers. So this one is done
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So I'll take this one off. And check it out. Here are your galcho beef ribs
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Unscrew the prong. Remember, the screw will still be hot. Then slide the ribs off the spit
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And after you've shown off the ribs, you can cut them into individual bones
6:13
using these gaucho-sized knives. You see the knife glides right through the meat
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So here's the gaucho beef rib. You can take a spoonful of country-style hot sauce
6:28
The recipe is on our website. Mmm. Oh, man. This beef is so tender
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and you'd never dream that it has just salt and pepper on it. Gaucho beef ribs
6:52
Big, bold, and primal. Because sometimes the best way to cook ribs
6:57
is to do as little to them as possible
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