Asado

Fire and grill

Two things make an asado. The first is the fire. The cook, called the asador or parrillero, lights charcoal and prefers wood from native trees such as quebracho or algarrobo, since pine and eucalyptus carry strong-smelling resins. The second is how the meat is held. Around a ground fire it can be spread on metal crosses, a method named al asador. Over coals it goes on a grill, which is a la parrilla. In Uruguay cooks often leave charcoal aside and grill directly over embers or hot coals.

How a meal unfolds

Small pieces come first while the larger cuts are still cooking: sausages, blood pudding, offal such as chitterlings and sweetbreads, and grilled provoleta cheese. A sausage tucked into bread is a choripán. Ribs are served next. Later come chicken or kid, along with cuts such as flank steak and matambre. Salads are traditionally the women's work, made at the gathering or brought from home, and an ensalada rusa often appears. Fresh fruit finishes the meal. Beef, pork, chicken, chorizo and blood sausage may all be cooked on the same fire.

Across South America

Brazil knows the same cooking as churrasco and works faster, cutting salted meat into strips for the middle of the table, or passing it around on a spit so that each person takes a turn, a service called rodizio. Chile's southern version is cordero al palo, a whole lamb tied to a spit and turned beside a wood fire for about five hours, eaten with pebre, a fresh mix of tomato, coriander, garlic and hot pepper. Mexico has parrilladas and carne asadas: marinated steaks, chicken and sausages grilled over charcoal, with spring onions, nopales and corn. In Paraguay, boiled manioc comes to the table beside two corn bakes, chipa guasu and sopa paraguaya.

Other ways of cooking

In the countryside of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, cooks use two other arrangements. The asado al disco turns a worn plough disc into a grill: legs are welded to the concave metal, coals or wood burn beneath, and the food is laid in a spiral so that fat runs to the middle instead of burning. Peppers and onions sit at the rim and drip their juices onto the meat. The asado al horno de barro uses an adobe oven, called tatakua in Paraguay, which mostly bakes bread but also roasts suckling pig or lamb. A chulengo is half an oil barrel, sheltering both meat and fire from Patagonian wind.

The same word elsewhere

Asado in the Philippines means something else entirely: two braised dishes, one a savoury stew of meat and vegetables called asado de carajay and the other a sweet pork asado in the manner of char siu. Grilled Philippine food is called inihaw, sinugba or inasal. Portugal has an assado of roasted fish with sausages and bacon. In Goa, roast beef goes by assad, a word borrowed from the Portuguese. South Africans grill over fire and call it a braai, and a whole carcass cooked in the manner of the asador is a spit braai or spit roast.

How Asado is kept

The host or the appointed cook lights the fire and lets it burn down to coals. Guests arrive and wait, because the cooking is not rushed. Small items are handed round first, since they are ready soonest, and the cuts that need longer stay on the grill. Meat is salted before or during cooking rather than marinated. The asador watches the fire, keeping it gentle so the meat cooks slowly, and keeps fat from dripping onto the coals, which would make smoke and spoil the flavour. Salads are prepared alongside. Home asados are often eaten on their own, cut from the board while the cook keeps working.

When and where

Asado has no fixed date. It happens when a household or a group of friends decides to gather, and the sources attach it to no festival or season. The cooking itself runs about two hours, though a whole lamb on a spit can take five, since the heat has to stay low and steady.

Asado is kept most strongly in Argentina and Uruguay, where it is a traditional event. Brazil's version belongs to Rio Grande do Sul. Chile and Paraguay have their own. Patagonia is known for whole animals roasted on a stake, and restaurants in Argentina increasingly serve pamplona, pork and Patagonian lamb.

What Asado means

An asado turns a fire into an occasion. The roles are shared: one person answers for the meat, others see to the salads, and everyone eats from the same grill and often from the same board. Meat is salted rather than marinated, so the care shows in the cooking, not in the seasoning. Chimichurri and salsa criolla are kept for the offal, not the steaks, which says something about how plainly the best cuts are meant to be eaten. The fire is the centre, and people arrange themselves around it.

On the table

Flavours: Black pepper Paprika Garlic Coriander Chilli

Questions people ask about Asado

See also

JāņiAn annual Latvian summer solstice celebration of bonfires, singing and woven wreathsKopitiamA neighbourhood coffee shop where Southeast Asians share meals, drinks and newsCaffèItaly's daily coffee habit: espresso taken standing at the bar, and moka coffee at homeHong Kong tea cultureMorning tea with dim sum and milk tea through the day, in Hong Kong's teahouses

Good reading and sources

• Asado on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.