Churrasco

Churrasco

Typical Brazilian churrasco.
Main ingredients	Meat (beef)

Churrasco (Spanish: [tʃuˈrasko], Portuguese: [ʃuˈʁasku]) is a Spanish and Portuguese term referring to beef or grilled meat more generally, differing across Latin America and Europe, but a prominent feature in the cuisine of Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Nicaragua, Peru and other Latin American countries. The related term churrascaria (or churrasqueria) is mostly understood to be a steakhouse.

A churrascaria is a restaurant serving grilled meat, many offering as much as one can eat: the waiters move around the restaurant with the skewers, slicing meat onto the client's plate. This serving style is called espeto corrido or rodízio, and is quite popular in Brazil.

In Brazil, churrasco is the term for a barbecue (similar to the Argentine, Uruguayan, Paraguayan and Chilean asado) which originated in southern Brazil. It uses a variety of meats, pork, sausage and chicken which may be cooked on a purpose-built "churrasqueira", a barbecue grill, often with supports for spits or skewers. Portable "churrasqueiras" are similar to those used to prepare the Argentine, Chilean, Paraguayan and Uruguayan asado, with a grill support, but many Brazilian "churrasqueiras" do not have grills, only the skewers above the embers. The meat may alternatively be cooked on large metal or wood skewers resting on a support or stuck into the ground and roasted with the embers of charcoal (wood may also be used, especially in the State of Rio Grande do Sul).