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Tender and juicy, this Sous Vide Picanha is so flavorful and easy to make. You’ll love how you can cook your steak to the exact level of doneness with the sous vide, giving you to perfect picanha every time.
The picanha is a very popular cut of beef in Brazil that is extremely flavorful and comes out absolutely perfect cooked sous vide. A quick sear on the fat cap to render the fat results in the most amazing cut of beef!
Cooking steak in a sous vide is the most amazing way to get extremely tender and juicy, beef that’s never overcooked, like this sous vide chuck roast, sous vide london broil, sous vide tri tip or sous vide flank steak! I am just in love with this method of cooking.
However, note sous vide is also great for more tender cuts like this sous vide duck breast or sous vide filet mignon!
With the sous vide, you can easily prepare it in the morning, pop it into the sous vide, and in six hours, your steak is done. Do a quick sear to brown the outside, and it's ready to serve - no resting required! Easy peasy.
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What is Picanha?
A popular cut of beef in Brazil, picanha is an extremely flavorful cut of beef that has a thick layer of fat on top of it called a fat cap. While not a typical cut in the grocery store, you can more than likely find picanha at the butcher.
Picanha is the cut of beef taken from the top of the rump that might also be labeled as rump cover, rump cap, sirloin cap, or culotte steak. The picanha cut is quite tender as it’s not an overused muscle.
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Why This Recipe Works
- Thanks to the sous vide, the cooking is mostly hands off. Simply sear the picanha at the end to get that beautiful crisp exterior.
- Picanha is rich in flavor and you’ll love that it’s a relatively budget-friendly cut.
- It’s the perfect steak to make ahead of time. Add it to your sous vide, go run some errands or work, and have it ready to finish off in six hours.
The Ingredients
For this sous vide picanha recipe, you won’t believe that you only need a couple of simple ingredients!
Picanha — You want a cut that’s two to three pounds. Be sure there’s still a fat cap on it.
Limes — To let the flavors of the picanha shine, we are using lime to make a simple lime juice dipping sauce.
Salt & Pepper — A classic combination to help bring out the flavors in everything.
The full list of ingredients can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Step By Step Instructions
Step 1: Heat a sous vide water bath to 131F degrees for rare to medium rare (recommended). Cook 134-140F degrees for medium, and 145F degrees for medium well.
Remove, slice against the grain and serve with chimichurri sauce or lime juice mixture.
How to Make Lime Juice Dipping Sauce
Combine the salt, pepper and lime juice in a bowl. Adjust for flavor preference.
Expert Tips
- The picanha steak can also be sliced in strips and skewered to cook on the grill like traditional picanha.
- I recommend cooking at 131F degrees for the best results.
- Try serving with my Chimichurri Sauce.
- Sear the fat side first to let the fat render.
- Don’t cook the beef below 131F degrees. For cooks over 2 hours, beef needs to be cooked at 130F degrees to stay within food safety standards.
Packaging Picanha For the Sous Vide
An essential part of cooking sous vide is putting ingredients in an air-tight bag or container. You can do this by using either vacuum sealing or the water displacement method.
A vacuum sealer removes all the air and seals the contents of a plastic bag through a vacuum.
Having the bag sealed airtight prevents it from floating, which can result in uneven cooking and possible contamination with bacteria. I use a FoodSaver to seal my food.
How to Reheat Picanha
You can reheat this picanha steak in the microwave, just be careful to not overcook it. Microwave for 20 seconds at a time until barely warmed.
You can also heat a water bath to 130 degrees and place the steak (in a freezer bag) in and cook for 10-15 minutes until heated through. This is the best way to reheat it - I don't like reheating meat in the microwave.
Common Questions
Here are some delicious side dishes to go with your sous vide picanha: Baked Parsnip Fries, Instant Pot Wild Rice, Baked Sweet Potato Slices, or my Spicy Mac and Cheese.
You can sous vide steak from frozen. Add an extra 60 minutes to sous vide your picanha from frozen.
Sous vide steak at 131F degrees for tender juicy, just pink picanha.
More sous vide beef recipes
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Recipe
Sous Vide Picanha
Ingredients
- 2-3 pounds picanha culotte, top sirloin cap, rump cover
- 1 tablespoon salt
Lime Juice Dipping Sauce
- Juice of 2 whole limes
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Heat a sous vide water bath to 131F degrees for rare to medium rare (recommended for best results). Cook 134-140F degrees for medium, and 145F degrees for medium well.
- Rub the picanha with the salt.
- Place in a bag and use a vacuum sealer to remove all the air. You can also use the water displacement method with a ziplock freezer bag to remove the air (see post above for explanation).
- Cook for 6 hours in the water bath.
- Heat a cast iron skillet, griddle or grill over high heat until smoking.
- Place the picanha on, fat side down, and sear for about 1-2 minutes (until fat is rendered and browned).
- Flip and cook another 45-60 seconds to brown.
- Remove, slice and serve with chimichurri sauce or the lime juice mixture.
How to Make Lime Juice Dipping Sauce
- Combine the salt, pepper and lime juice in a bowl. Adjust for flavor preference.
Expert Tips:
- The picanha steak can also be sliced in strips and skewered to cook on the grill like traditional picanha.
- I recommend cooking at 131F degrees for the best results.
- Try serving with my Chimichurri Sauce.
- Use an ice bath for 20-30 minutes if cooking the beef ahead of time.
- Sear the fat side first to let the fat render.
- Don’t cook the beef below 131F degrees. For cooks over 2 hours, beef needs to be cooked at 130F degrees to stay within food safety standards.
Nutrition
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L. Ellis
I bought a two pack of Picanha at Costco. I followed directions, vacuum sealed individually, no seasoning no salt at this time. Then I Sous vide in two separate containers for 6 hours at 131 degrees water. Unable to put on Blackstone grill to sear that same day so I plunged both packages in ice bath while leaving sealed up. Put in refrigerator overnight, then next day I let sit for an hour to warm up, opened up sealed packages, paper towel dried each steak, sprinkled with only Celtic salt large granules. Seared on Blackstone grill heated on high, for 2 minutes each side and until golden sear. Absolutely the most tender Picanha with perfection of medium rare doneness. I'm saving this recipe for future use. Totally recommend this recipe.
Danielle
I'm so glad you liked it! I really love picanha in the sous vide, it comes out so well 🙂
Edward J Barcik
Made it and it turned out great
Danielle
So glad to hear it!
nitrous
great recipe, but I have a problem with one of your instructions.
One of the benefits of sous vide cooking is to eliminate the need to "immediately plunge into ice/cold water to stop cooking." You're cooking the meat to a precise temperature - from outside to inside. It isn't well done on the outside, progressing to rare or medium rare on the inside. The degree of doneness is precisely controlled from the outset.
There are several reasons to cool the cooked product before searing and ultimately serving, but there is no need to "immediately rush to stop cooking the meat".
Otherwise, first rate! Thanks Doug
Danielle
Thanks for the tips Doug! You are correct, it's definitely not a immediate rush.
Kate
I haven't done much sous-vide cooking before but you make it sound so easy, and the expert tips are really helpful - thank you!
Danielle
It's soooo easy and the food comes out incredible!
Katie
Received a sirloin cap in our Butcher Box. Was unsure how to cook it. This recipe was perfect. No adjustments. Simple and delicious. I really enjoyed the lime juice sauce to cut through the fat. Thank you.
Danielle
I'm so glad you liked it!!
Beth Sachs
Oh my goodness how juicy and tender does that steak look? My mouth is watering!
Danielle
Thanks!
Kylie Archer
We seared it off in the smoker and the flavour was amazing!
Danielle
I'll bet that was delicious!
Gina
This looks amazing and now I wish I had a sous vide! Perfectly cooked and I'm intrigued by this cut!
Danielle
The cut has so much flavor!
Allyssa
Thanks a lot for sharing this very helpful and easy recipe! Love it and will make it again!
Danielle
You're welcome!