What is Tri-Tip?
First, a short bit about the noble Tri-Tip. The tensor fasciae latae is a small triangular muscle located in the bottom sirloin cut of the animal. Historically ground up for hamburger meat, it started to gain popularity as a standalone roast in the 1950’s in the Central Coast and Central Valley of California. Although it’s a relatively lean piece of meat, the Tri-Tip is incredibly juicy (if not overcooked) and very tender if sliced against the grain. You’ll see it as a mainstay in Santa Maria style BBQ, seasoned simply with black pepper, salt, and garlic, and cooked over red oak. That being said, it’s a versatile cut that you can successfully cook a variety of ways.
Ok, ready to cook this thing? Let’s get down to business. 5 easy steps and you’ll be eating good.
Ingredients
- One 4-6 lb Tri-Tip Roast
- Olive Oil or Hot Sauce
- Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder, or Your Favorite Beef Rub
Equipment
- 1 Offset Smoker, Pellet Grill, Ceramic Grill, or Charcoal Grill
- 1 Cast Iron Skillet
Trim the Tri-Tip
Don’t skip this crucial (and easy) step! Ensuring your Tri-Tip is properly trimmed makes a HUGE difference in your final product. Most of these cuts will already be trimmed of the large, hard chunks of fat and membrane once they find their way to your home. However, taking a few minutes to really clean them up will guarantee that every bite is tender and you don’t get stuck gnawing on a hard piece of chewy fat. Check out my post here for how to properly trim a Tri-Tip.
Handy Meat Trimming Knives
Season the Tri-Tip
Now that the Tri-Tip is trimmed and beautiful, it’s time to put your favorite flavors on it. The best part about this step? It’s impossible to screw it up. Tri-Tip is an incredibly versatile cut of meat, and pairs nicely with almost any seasoning or rub. So, feel free to go crazy with your most exotic spice blend, or keep it simple with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Additionally, you might choose to use a binder before applying your dry seasoning, which just helps the spices adhere to the meat. Popular binders include oil, mustard, or hot sauce. I typically go with a light coat of extra virgin olive oil. Make sure you’ve got a nice, even coat of spice or rub, and you’re ready to hit the grill.
Best Dry Rubs for Tri-Tip
Beef can pair nicely with just about any flavor profile, but try some of these big and bold flavors. They’ll go great with the natural flavor of the meat and all that beautiful smoke.
Kosmos Q Dry Rub Texas Beef BBQ Dry Rub, Bottle of…
$17.95 ($1.30 / Ounce) (as of May 11, 2024 13:53 GMT +00:00 – More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Terry Black’s Barbecue Beef Dry Rub
Cattlemen’s Cowboy Rub, 27.25 oz – One 27.25 Ounce…
Kosmos Q Texas Beef BBQ Dry Rub, 16 oz
$22.95 ($1.43 / Ounce) (as of May 11, 2024 12:22 GMT +00:00 – More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)Smoke the Tri-Tip
Get your smoker set to somewhere between 175° and 225°. The exact temp is not crucial, but the goal at this stage is optimal smoke. We’re going to smoke the Tri-Tip until an internal temp of about 130° – 135° (for medium-rare, which is ideal for Tri-Tip). Keep in mind that the higher our smoking temp, the faster the meat will reach our desired internal temp (duh), but it also means that we’ll have less time to form a nice smoke ring.
The great thing here is that it means our cook time can be fairly flexible. I typically start off at the lowest smoking temp and BBQ there for as long as possible. This let’s the meat absorb as much of that good smoke flavor as possible. Then, if my guests are arriving or my wife is getting impatient, I can always increase the smoke temp to get to internal temp faster.
Quick note about wood: I’ve cooked Tri-Tip with a variety of woods, and like with seasoning, you really can’t go wrong. Try oak or alder – lately I’ve been using mesquite.
Some of our Favorite Smokers
Sear the Tri-Tip
Once you’ve reached 130° – 135° internal, remove the Tri-Tip from the smoker and set it aside. You may notice that it doesn’t have the most appealing color or texture at this point. We’re about to fix that.
The last step is to quickly sear the meat on both sides. This is going to give us a nice crust, some char, and an awesome color. Take your largest cast iron skillet and get it screaming hot (and I mean as hot as you can get it). The reason this is important is that we’re not trying to cook the meat any more, we simply want to sear the outside for a great texture. If the skillet isn’t hot enough, you run the risk of continuing to cook the inside of the meat past medium rare.
Once your skillet is smokin’ hot (be careful with your hands now) add about a half stick of butter to the skillet. Butter is great for searing, as the milk proteins help to quickly brown the meat. Let the butter melt (shouldn’t take long) and add the Tri-Tip. Let it sear for about 30 seconds on each side. Seriously, if your skillet is hot enough this should not take more than 60 seconds. Remove from the skillet and let it rest on a cutting board.
Awesome Cast Iron Skillets
Slice the Tri-Tip
Alright, last step. As tempting as it might be to start digging in, let the Tri-Tip hang out for 5-10 minutes. Resting lets all those great juices redistribute back through the meat, instead of running out on your cutting board. Speaking of slicing, there’s a technique to this. Tri-Tip actually has 2 different directions of grain, and it’s key to slice against those grains so that every bite is pull-apart tender, and not stringy and chewy. Check out my dedicated post to Tri-Tip slicing here.
Great Slicing Knives
At this point, hopefully you’re staring at a pile of beautiful, smoky, tender, BBQ’d Tri-Tip. So, stop reading this and get to eating!
More Great BBQ Recipes
Smoked Tri-Tip
Description
Tri-Tip, the longtime West Coast crowd-pleaser that’s made its way across the U.S., is one of the simplest and most satisfying cooks you can do. Below you’ll find my straight-forward method that’s sure to leave you and your guests wanting more (good thing it’s even better as leftovers).
Things You Need
Ingredients
Equipment
Instructions
-
Trim the Tri-Tip
Rinse the tri-tip with cool water and pat dry. Use a sharp trimming or boning knife to remove any loose pieces of meat. Trim away hard fat and silver skin.
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Season the Tri-Tip
Apply a light coat of olive oil or hot sauce to the tri-tip to help the dry rub stick. Sprinkle salt, pepper, garlic powder, or your favorite beef rub evenly to all sides of the roast, and lightly pat it down to ensure it stays.
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Smoke the Tri-Tip
Barbecue the tri-tip on indirect heat at 175-225 degrees for about 2 hours, or until an internal thermometer reads between 130-135 (medium rare).
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Sear the Tri-Tip
Remove the tri-tip from the barbecue and quickly sear for 30 seconds each side in a very hot cast iron skillet with butter.
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Slice the Tri-Tip
Let the tri-tip rest for 5-10 minutes, before slicing against the grain and serving.
Note
This makes for great leftovers! The smoke flavor intensifies after a night in the fridge. Try thin slicing cold leftover tri-tip to make incredible sandwich meat.
SO easy! and a huge hit at my summer bbq
hard to find Tri-Tip where I am!
I know this is over a year later… but I found that Costco has a really good already marinaded/season tri-tip in their packaged meat section.
SO good!
I went on a quest to make the best tri tip, and after a summer of weekends, this is definitely it! Easy enough for a beginner, but it definitely doesn’t taste that way.
leftovers were even better. awesome tip.
Excellent! Do you have a beginner salmon recipe?
I can’t remember where I got this recipe but it’s so easy and came out perfect:
Smoke salmon Dijon
Ingredients
▢1 -1.5 lbs salmon fillet, pin bones removed(we used Atlantic salmon)
▢1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
▢1 teaspoon kosher salt
▢1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
Instructions
Preheat smoker to 225 degrees using fruit wood (like cherry or apple but it comes out great with any kind).
Prep and clean salmon, and pat dry.
Season flesh side of salmon with the Dijon mustard, salt and pepper.(mine was without skin and I seasoned both sides)
Place on smoker and cook until the internal temperature of the salmon reaches 140 degrees (F). If you don’t have a thermometer you can pull back the flesh and make sure the inner portion is pink and not translucent.
Remove from smoker and let sit for 10 minutes. Slice up and serve.
Tasty tasty tasty
Hosted the extended family for the first bbq of the season – what a crowd pleaser! Will definitely be making this again
too salty! but great smoke flavor
West coast represent! love tri tip
thin slice leftovers for sandwich
this has such an awesome flavor!!
absolutely love tri tip!
this was beyond easy and so delicious
just found some in my grocery store! (i’m east coast)
Yes I’ve had the luxury of being close to central coast California,. Tri-tip was local only and extremely cheap, my uncle smoked tri-tip and was the best thing I ever had. 1995 .99 cents per # enjoy your smoker and many of tri-tip to come
easy and so tasty
LOVE TRITIP
save some for day after sandwhiches, the smoke flavor gets even better
so easy! so delicoius!
do not skip the sear. that is really the key
this is my hands down favorite thing to BBQ
LOVE THIS METHOD
sweet bbq sauce goes great with this
Yep, turned out literally perfect!!! Thanks Tomcat!!!
Not even joking, my house almost caught on fire. Got the cast iron skillet piping hot and then threw in the butter when we were ready, the entire pan burst into a huge fire!!! Any idea why this happened? The tri tip definitely got a nice crust 🤣. It was cooked perfectly minus our fire fiasco!
Followed the recipe times and temps and it turned out amazing!
I’m sure my house looked like it was on fire after the butter sear, cause we had to open doors and windows, but it was sooo worth it.
This one is as good as it gets. I strongly recommend this recipe to anyone and everyone.
Great recipe with great instructions. Being from the south I chose to do mustard for a binder and after I seasoned I let it sweat for about 30 minutes. Turned out just as pictured and tasted amazing!
This is so easy and so delicious!
Thank you for sharing indeed great looking !
So good!!! Thin sliced leftovers are the bomb!!
For the rub I used a homemade coffee rub (coffee, kosher salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, ancho chili powder). A prime tri-tip at 2.3 lbs smoked on a Traeger using Signature pellets at 185 F for 2 hours. Pulled at 125-130 and seared on my cast iron griddle. DELICIOUS!