8 Easy Steps For Smoking Picanha on a Smoker

To get the best Smoked Picanha you will firstly want to start your smoker well before you start your cook. This will ensure that the heat is high enough and you won’t have to wait around for the temperature to come up when you place your Smoked Picanha on the grate.

Once your Smoker is up to temp – Go ahead and properly season your Smoked Picanha with Kosher Salt & Black Pepper.

If you do not want to wrap the Picanha during the cook, just leave it as is and place it on the Smoker. Let the Smoker do it’s thing and when the internal temperature hits around 135-145 feel free to pull it off the smoker. 

---

Smoking Picanha – Getting Started:

To get the most amazing Smoked Picanha, there are a variety of items to make sure you are equipped with:

• Picanha Roast with a large FAT CAP
• Smoker 
• Oak Wood and Charcoal
• Thermometer
• Kosher Salt and Black Pepper

---

Smoking Picanha – Picanha Roast with a Large FAT CAP

Why is it important to get a Picanha with a large Fat Cap?

I’ll tell you why… 

Having a Fat Cap on the sirloin (official word for Picanha) ensures multiples things. The first of which is that it will ensure just about every bite you take of the sliced Smoked Picanha will not only TASTE AMAZING but will MELT IN YOUR MOUTH. Basically you’ll have both taste and texture knocked out of the park!

What can be better than that?

Alright, so what does a smoked sirloin cap look like exactly?

Behold:

Now, just take a quick look at that amazing looking cut of meat. Notice that EXTRA LARGE Smoked sirloin cap? Quite impressive! It truly is an amazing piece of meat. A shame not many people know about it!

Here is what the Smoked Picanha will look like BEFORE you even start smoking or seasoning it:

Picture of the Picanha with the fat cap exposed:

Notice the very large Fat cap over that thing? That’s what you want to look for. I know I’m stressing the fat cap, but it REALLY makes a difference in the end product. It’s basically the most featured part of the meat – making it SO UNIQUE!

---

Smoking Picanha – The Smoker

Alright, for this particular cook – I used my Offset Smoker. You honestly could use any smoker, but I was in the mood for doing it on the offset smoker since you have easy access to the firebox – potentially letting me reverse sear the Picanha once I have fully smoked it.

If you’re relatively new to using an Offset Smoker – don’t worry. It’s not as hard as some people make it out to be. That being said, I have an article where I go into detail regarding how to clean one:

I usually try to clean it before every cook to ensure proper seasoning of the metal which will start to prolong it’s life. Taking that into consideration and assuming you have cleaned the smoker – just make sure to get it to the right temperature before actually placing the Smoked Picanha on the grates. 

What temperature should I start smoking the Picanha at?

It’s honestly a really subjective measure, but what I mean is to just let the grate get hot enough to ensure an efficient cook with no wasted time waiting for it to get up to a hot enough temperature. For those that want specificity – just make sure it’s at least 225 degrees Fahrenheit.

---

Smoking Picanha – Oak Wood and Charcoal

Whatever you decide to start smoking your picanha on – make sure to consider the type of wood and charcoal being used. This will play a pivotal role in the flavor profile for your epically smoked picanha! Being in Central Texas, Oak wood is by far my favorite wood to use.

How do I actually start the oak wood and charcoal?

Well, you want to begin with your charcoal. I like to get a bag from HEB (my local grocery store) and pour it into a Weber chimney starter. To get the briquettes to light up – if you happen to have a burner on a propane grill, you can actually just place it on top of it to expedite them getting lit.

Wait a couple of minutes – usually it takes about 10 minutes or so for the briquettes to fully ignite. Once you see an orange tinted set of flames coming from your chimney starter – it’s time to run over to your smoker and pour it in the firebox.InfoWarningTip

Pro tip: make sure you have all of your Smoker doors wide open for maximum airflow!

Here’s what it should look like:

After waiting several minutes for the briquettes to start heating your smoker – go ahead and grab a couple of oak logs. Place them however you like on top of the briquettes and wait another 10 minutes or so. Make sure your vents are wide open – what you want to see when you come back is the wood burning with an orange flame. Better yet, if the wood is starting to get a white ash on it – that is when you know your wood and charcoal are properly started!

---

Smoking Picanha – Kosher Salt and Black Pepper

Kosher Salt and Black Pepper is a staple in Central Texas. Therefore, that is the primary base for which every cut of meat I cook will have. Of course, you can certainly have OTHER types of seasonings – my preference is just this simple recipe. 

As such, below is the specific shaker bottle I use:

Season the entirety of your picanha to ensure maximum flavor! This is something not many do. Don’t worry about over seasoning your meat. I’ve definitely had an under seasoned cut of meat and hardly any that I would classify as over seasoned. 

---

Smoking Picanha – Thermometer

To get a perfectly smoked picanha – don’t forget your thermometer!

I personally love to use the MEATER Thermometer. It’s a fantastic tool that directly integrates with your iPhone or android, and provides you with prompt updates through their app that you can have installed. It measures the ambient and internal temperatures of both your smoked picanha and offset smoker – and even notifies you when approximately the cook will end so you can plan ahead. 

It comes in a lovely bamboo style box that actually charges the utensil. It’s a fantastic piece of equipment and a TOTAL GAME CHANGER!

Where do I place it in the Picanha?

Just find the thickest part of the meat – and slide it in. The thermometer will begin to start picking up the internal and ambient temperature. 

---

Smoking Picanha – Results

The result of your hard work should be an absolutely incredible piece of meat. A smoked picanha should have a savory flavor note from the oak wood, along with a great flavor profile from the Kosher Salt and Black Pepper. Simply amazing.