BBQ Guide: A Complete Comparison With Other Equally Great Grilling Methods
Spend enough time around asados in Argentina and you quickly realize something: the Argentine grill is only part of the equation.
The parrilla matters, of course. But what really defines Argentine grilling is the relationship between the grill, the fire, the embers and the person cooking.
Iโve lived in Argentina for more than 23 years, and in that time Iโve cooked on and eaten from all kinds of parrillas. Iโve seen enormous brick grills built into quinchos, small backyard parrillas, adjustable grills with big hand wheels, fixed-height grills like my own, V-shaped grates, round steel bars, charcoal fires and wood fires.
There isnโt one piece of equipment that suddenly makes a grill โArgentine.โ
Instead, there are a collection of design principles that have developed around the way Argentines cook asado.
An Argentine grill, or parrilla, is designed primarily for cooking over controlled embers rather than an active flame. Instead of setting a temperature on a dial, closing the lid and waiting, the asador controls heat through the quantity of embers, their position beneath the food and, on many parrillas, the height of the cooking grate.
That simplicity is precisely what makes the Argentine grill so effective.
And once you understand how the different parts work together, you begin to understand why Argentines have been cooking this way for generations.
Search for an Argentine grill online and youโll probably see a familiar design.
There will be a large open grill, often constructed from brick or steel. A wheel or crank raises and lowers a heavy cooking grate. The grate may have V-shaped channels, and somewhere alongside it youโll often see a fire basket.
Those are all characteristic features of many Argentine parrillas.
But they arenโt rules.
My own grill, for example, has a fixed cooking height. I use round steel bars rather than V-shaped channels. My cooking surfaces are interchangeable, and I have a separate brasero for producing embers.
Itโs still unmistakably an Argentine parrilla.
What connects these different designs is the cooking philosophy behind them.
The parrilla is designed around embers rather than flames. You establish your fire, allow the wood or charcoal to burn down and then move mature embers beneath the food.
That gives you a much more predictable heat source.
Thereโs no temperature dial.
If an area is too cold, add embers. If itโs too hot, remove or redistribute them.
On an adjustable parrilla, you have another option: increase the distance between the food and the heat.
Argentine asado is traditionally an open cooking process. Youโre constantly watching the meat, checking the fire and moving embers. The interaction is part of the technique.
A long asado can run for hours.
Rather than establishing one fire and hoping it lasts, many parrillas allow the asador to continuously produce additional embers as theyโre required.
Thatโs where the brasero becomes so important.
One of the most recognizable features of a commercial Argentine grill is the V-shaped grate.
Instead of using conventional round steel rods, the cooking surface consists of steel channels shaped roughly like a V.
As meat cooks and renders, those channels can help collect and direct some of the fat away from the embers. Thatโs useful because fat dripping directly onto extremely hot coals can create flare-ups. And flare-ups are something we generally want to control during an asado.
But thereโs an important point here:
You donโt need V-shaped grates to cook Argentine asado.
I donโt use them on my main grill.
After cooking with different systems, I personally prefer round steel bars approximately 6โ10 mm thick.
There are three practical reasons.
First, sufficiently thick solid steel bars develop excellent thermal mass. Once theyโre hot, they retain heat well and transfer it directly into the meat.
Second, theyโre incredibly easy to maintain.
Iโve found that V-shaped channels can accumulate fat and residue in the crevices. If that isnโt properly cleaned, the residue can burn during future cooking sessions and contribute to exactly the kind of flare-ups youโre trying to avoid.
With round bar, cleaning is straightforward.
Finally, I simply prefer the result.
There is something incredibly satisfying about pulling a vacรญo or steak from the parrilla with clean, narrow grill marks running across it.
Neither system makes somebody more or less Argentine.
Theyโre simply different ways of solving the same problem.
This is probably the feature most people outside Argentina associate with an Argentine grill.
The cooking grate is connected to a mechanism, usually operated with a wheel or crank, that allows you to raise and lower the entire cooking surface.
Itโs a wonderfully simple form of temperature control.
If the meat is cooking too aggressively, raise it.
If you need more heat, lower it toward the embers.
There is no electronics, thermostat or burner adjustment involved.
Youโre simply changing the physical distance between food and heat.
No.
My parrilla is fixed at approximately 20 cm / 7.9 inches above the hearth.
Instead of moving the food toward or away from the heat, I move the heat.
If I want a hotter section, I add more embers beneath it.
If I want a cooler zone, I spread them out or remove some.
Personally, I prefer this approach. Once youโve learned how your grill behaves at a consistent height, youโve eliminated another variable from the cooking process. You begin learning that a certain quantity of embers beneath a certain cut produces a predictable result.
An adjustable grill gives you greater flexibility, particularly when youโre learning or when the grill doesnโt have a separate fire area. A fixed grill forces you to become very good at ember management. For me, thatโs all part of the enjoyment.
If I were designing an Argentine parrilla from scratch, the brasero would be one of the features Iโd think about most carefully.
A brasero is essentially a fire cradle.
Wood or charcoal burns inside the cradle, and as the fuel breaks down, hot embers fall onto the hearth underneath.
You can then take those embers and distribute them beneath the cooking grate.
This creates an important separation:
One area produces heat. Another area uses it.
Thatโs incredibly useful during a long asado.
Imagine youโve got vacรญo, ribs, chorizos and perhaps some mollejas cooking at different speeds.
Two hours into the cook, you need more heat. Without a separate fire, you might have to introduce fresh fuel close to the food.
With a brasero, the main fire has been producing fresh embers the entire time. You simply move more underneath whichever section needs them.
My own brasero also incorporates a small separator that helps prevent sparks and flames from the active fire reaching the meat beside it.
Itโs a small detail, but after years of cooking, these are the little things you begin to appreciate.
Thereโs a romantic image of Argentine asado that involves enormous pieces of hardwood burning beside the parrilla.
And yes, wood-fired asado is fantastic.
But donโt fall into the trap of thinking that charcoal somehow isnโt authentic. Youโll find both.
What matters is understanding that you generally arenโt trying to cook over roaring flames.
Youโre trying to create good embers.
Wood takes longer and requires more fire management, but it can bring additional character to the entire cooking experience.
Charcoal is convenient, predictable and considerably quicker to get going.
Iโve used both, and which one makes sense depends on what Iโm cooking, how much time I have and the type of asado Iโm preparing.
The quality of your fire management ultimately matters more than trying to prove your authenticity through your choice of fuel.
If you want to explore this further, Iโve put together a separate guide comparing charcoal vs. wood grilling.
Argentine and Santa Maria-style grills are sometimes grouped together because both traditions make use of live fire and adjustable cooking surfaces.
There are similarities, but they shouldnโt be treated as interchangeable names for the same thing.
The Argentine parrilla comes from the broader culture of asado, where different cuts of beef, sausages, offal and other foods can slowly make their way across the grill over the course of several hours.
Santa Maria-style grilling developed from a different culinary tradition and has its own techniques and foods.
Then thereโs the enormous category of what people call an โAmerican grill.โ
A charcoal kettle, offset smoker and propane BBQ are completely different cooking systems, so there isnโt really one American grill against which the parrilla can be compared.
The more useful distinction is how the cook controls heat.
With a gas grill, you might turn a burner down.With a kettle, you might adjust vents or establish direct and indirect zones. With a smoker, you may regulate airflow and combustion.
On an Argentine parrilla, youโre typically manipulating the embers themselves, the distance between the embers and food, or both.
Thatโs what makes cooking on one feel so different.
Youโre physically managing your heat source throughout the asado.
โBetterโ depends on what youโre trying to cook.
I wouldnโt tell somebody that a parrilla is objectively better for every form of outdoor cooking.
If you want to smoke a brisket for 12 hours, there are grills specifically designed to make that easier.
If you want to cook a couple of burgers in 15 minutes on a Tuesday evening, turning on a gas grill is undeniably convenient.
But for the style of cooking that defines Argentine asado, the parrilla is beautifully suited to the job.
It gives you enormous control without adding enormous complexity.
There are no complicated settings.
The sophistication comes from the person operating the grill rather than the grill doing the work for you.
Thatโs the part Iโve come to appreciate most after more than two decades in Argentina.
The parrilla doesnโt necessarily make the decisions easier.
It makes you better at making them.
If youโve reached this point because youโre considering getting an Argentine grill at home, there are essentially two routes.
You can buy one, or you can build one.
If youโre planning a permanent parrilla at home, itโs worth thinking beyond the grill itself and considering the entire Argentine outdoor grill station as a cooking system. In my own setup, the fixed grill frame, interchangeable round-bar and mesh sections, steel griddle and brasero all have a specific purpose. Iโve broken down each of those components, including my measurements and why I prefer round bars over V-shaped grates, in my complete guide to the anatomy of an Argentine outdoor grill station.
There are now plenty of Argentine-inspired grills available outside Argentina, ranging from portable steel parrillas to substantial built-in outdoor cooking stations.
Before buying anything, Iโd focus less on whether it looks โArgentineโ and more on the features youโll actually use.
Think about your cooking surface, whether you want fixed or adjustable height, where youโll produce your embers, how youโll clean the grill and how much cooking space you realistically need.
Alternatively, you can build a parrilla around the way you want to cook.
Thatโs exactly why Iโve created a separate guide to building your own Argentine asado grill.
If youโre still deciding which equipment makes sense, you can also explore my guides to charcoal grills and gas grills for Argentine asado.
But donโt feel as though you need the perfect parrilla before you can start learning asado.
The grill helps.
Understanding the fire matters more.
Iโve spent more than 23 years living in Argentina, and one of the things Iโve learned is that asado is remarkably difficult to reduce to a piece of equipment.
Iโve eaten incredible meat cooked on sophisticated parrillas.
Iโve also eaten incredible meat cooked on grills that look like theyโve been sitting in somebodyโs backyard for decades.
The common denominator is usually the person standing beside the fire.
A good asador understands when the embers are ready, where the heat needs to be, when the meat should move and, perhaps most importantly, when to leave everything alone.
Thatโs why I think the Argentine grill is such a fantastic cooking system. Itโs simple enough that nothing gets between you and the fire.
But mastering that simplicity can take a lifetime. And thatโs exactly what keeps me coming back to the parrilla.
An Argentine grill, or parrilla, is designed around cooking over controlled embers. Many models use adjustable cooking grates, V-shaped channels and a brasero for producing embers separately. However, these arenโt mandatory features. The defining difference is the emphasis on manually controlling heat through ember distribution, cooking distance or both.
You can use both. Wood provides a traditional live-fire experience and allows you to continuously produce embers, while charcoal is quicker and convenient. In either case, the goal is generally to cook over mature embers rather than uncontrolled flames.
That depends on how you like to cook. If you enjoy live-fire cooking, larger cuts of meat and actively managing heat, an Argentine parrilla offers exceptional control. If convenience and quick cooking are your priorities, a conventional charcoal or gas grill may be more practical.
A brasero is the fire cradle used to burn wood or charcoal and produce hot embers. Those embers can then be moved underneath the cooking surface as required, allowing the asador to replenish and control heat throughout a long cook.
No. V-shaped grates are common because they can channel rendered fat away from the fire, but many Argentine parrillas use other cooking surfaces. I personally use round steel bars because I find them easy to clean, effective at retaining heat and excellent for producing clean grill marks.
Discover the first-ever English-speaking Argentine Asado DIY Building Guide, a digital experience designed to help you build your own authentic Asado grill, master the craft of Argentine grilling, and join our community that lives and breathes fire, food, and tradition.
Key Takeaways One of the questions I get asked surprisingly often is whether you should use wood or charcoal for Argentine asado. If youโve watched enough videos of asado in Argentina, youโve probably seen both. One parrilla might have large pieces of hardwood burning alongside the meat, while another has a bag of charcoal sitting [โฆ]
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