How To Grill Tri Tip

Bobby Flay Shows How To Grill Tri

How to Cook Tri-Tip on the Grill

Bobby Flay explains how he’s going to cook a couple of tri-tip steaks, and how butchers know that tri-tip steak comes from the bottom part of the sirloin, a cut that has a lot of flavor. He seasons the tri-tip steaks with salt, pepper and granulated garlic. Bobby tells how when he was on the Central Coast of California, he saw a grill with a crank for raising and lowering the rack. The grill allows for the cook to control how much direct heat is used when the rack is in the lowered position. He adds hardwood charcoal and red-oak chips, a staple of Central California Coast barbecue he recommends soaking the chips for at least two hours before using them. The grill works as both a live-fire grill and as a smoker. The red-oak chips create smoldering smoke, adding flavor to the steaks. Bobby lowers the grill rack to give the steaks more direct heat until they develop a nice crust on the outside. He then raises the rack to slow the cooking time, which is true barbecue: low and slow. The goal is to slowly cook the meat through. Bobby points out that you need to be careful to not overcook the meat as there’s no going backwards once it’s overdone. Bobby inserts a meat thermometer into a steak and pulls the meat off the grill to rest. It’s important to find the grain of the meat, then cut across the grain when slicing it up. The meat has a pink center and is juicy. Bobby admits it’s making his mouth water.

But First What Is Tri

A tri-tip roast comes from the bottom sirloin and is called tri tip because of the three different points on the ends of the crescent-shaped cut of beef. It has big beefy flavor, and is a very lean cut of meat.

Most tri-tip roasts typically weigh between 1.5 to 3 pounds, although you can find some that are even a little larger than this. Tri-tip is easy to find in any grocery store or butcher shop on the West Coast, but I’ve heard that in other parts of the country you might need to ask your butcher to keep it whole for you rather than cutting it into steaks.

The grain of the tri-tip goes in two different directions, which is important to know because you need to slice the meat against the grain after it is cooked to a perfect medium-rare in order to get the most tender bites.

Unlike other roasts that you cook low-and-slow to break down connective tissues , Santa Maria-style tri-tip barbecue cooks fast over an open flame until medium-rare.

Traditionally, it’s cooked over red oak, which is plentiful around the Santa Maria area of California, but this tri-tip is still delicious even if all you have is a gas grill.

Tri-tip leftovers make the most delicious salads and sandwiches, so I always try to make sure we have enough for extra. It’s easy to scale up and make more than one tri-tip depending on the size of the group you are planning to feed, but one tri-tip typically feeds our family of 4 for 2-3 meals depending on how we use the leftovers.

The Secret To Making The Best Tri Tip On A Traeger Grill

The tri tip roast cut of beef is the triangular shaped muscle that sits just below the sirloin. Tri tip is a fairly lean piece of meat. Many butchers will grind the tri tip and add it into a lean hamburger blend. This roast is a more affordable cut than say a rib roast or tenderloin.

Many home cooks do not know what to do with a tri tip roast, as it has not been a commonly prepared protein until recently. There should be no fear of this very tasty roast. It is especially good when cooked over smoke or fire. Slow smoking in a Traeger grill is an excellent way to cook this particular cut of beef.

When shopping for tri tip you may not see it in the butchers display case or packaged in the meat aisle. You may have to ask your butcher if he or she has this in the back. Ask for either a tri tip roast or a triangular roast. Do this before it ends up in a ground beef mix.

Pro tip: There is often a fat cap on the tri tip. Ask your butcher not to trim that off, as it adds flavor and moisture to the roast while it is cooking. You can either eat this charred treat or slice the fat off after the meat has rested if you dont care for it.

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How To Grill Tri Tip Steak Strips

How To Grill Tri Tip Steak Strips? Today, treat yourself to something new. Tri-tip steak is a juicy, tasty, and reasonably priced alternative to standard steak cuts. Its triangle form, which gives it its name, makes it a very easy cut to cook since it retains the thickness required for optimum softness. It also has just enough marbleization to keep the juices in. To improve the flavour of an already tasty cut, all you need is a simple rub, sauce, or marinade. Did you know this cut is so soft that it slices like butter? So, if you havent tried it yet, follow our lead and youll be the grills queen or king. So, how should you cook tri tip steak strips? Let us discover out

How To Cook A Tri Tip On A Propane Grill

Labor Day Grilling
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  • Prepared properly, tri tip offers up many the flavors and textures that grilled beef lovers crave — a rich beefy and buttery taste, a kiss of smoke, a crusty exterior and melt in your mouth juiciness in the center — all in an inexpensive beef cut. Traditionally, tri tips are cooked over smoldering red oak wood chunks on Santa Maria-style grills — which are basically a large fire box or pit over which a heavy metal grate is hung. You can, however, get a nice, smoky barbecue taste and aroma for your tri tip on a propane grill by adding woodchips in a smoker box or pouch to the hot grilling grate.

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    Tri Tip Temperature Chart

    How to know when tri-tip is done? If you have a meat thermometer, you can check easily if the meat is cooked to your preferred level of done-ness.

    • Rare tri tip is still red inside.
    • Medium rare tri tip is red to pink inside.
    • Medium tri tip is mostly pink.
    • Medium well tri tip has just a slight bit of pink inside.
    • Well cooked tri tip has no red or pink inside.

    Untrimmed Vs Trimmed Tri

    Tri-tip is sold as either untrimmed or trimmed. Untrimmed tri-tip has a nice layer of fat on one side . Trimmed tri-tip will have this removed.

    I like trimmed tri-tip roasts when I am cooking them in the slow cooker, but for roasting, I prefer untrimmed as the fat helps keep the meat nice and moist.

    On rare occasions, I will get a tri-tip that is untrimmed on both sides. If that happens to you, youll want to trim one side. One side of the tri-tip will have a thick, pretty even fat cap. Thats the side you want to keep. The other side will be irregular with some muscle showing through. Thats the side youll want to trim.

    Just use a very sharp knife to slice off the fat and any silver skin . It doesnt have to be pretty! You can see the hack job I did on my tri-tip below.)

    Okay, with that little tri-tip lesson out of the way, are you ready to see how easy it is to cook in the oven?

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    How Long Does It Take To Grill A Tri

    Essentially, your cooking time will depend onhow thick the meat is and what is your preferred steak doneness .Lucky for you, the Tri-Tip doesnt take long on the grill!

    Formedium-rare, grill the tri-tip at 350°F or 176°C and sear for 5-7 minutes on each side on the DIRECT heat part of your grill.

    Once both sides have been seared, move the meat to the INDIRECT heat part of the grill, and let it cook for 20-30 minutes orwhen internal temperature reaches 130°F/ 54.4°C.

    Tip: Use a meat thermometer to get a precise reading of the internal temperature. Its the best way to check for your desired level of doneness.

    Enhancing The Flavor: Marinating Tri

    Grilled Tri Tip | How To BBQ A Beef Tri Tip

    Here is the part where you can get creative: enhancing the flavor of meat. The good news is that tri-tip tastes so deliciously that you wont need much to enhance the flavor. Whether you use a marinade for more flavor infusion, or the dry rub for instant spice, you will still get the flavor you want and crave quite easily.

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    How Do You Tenderize Tri

    Tri-tip doesnt need to be tenderized because its already a naturally tender cut. If you want to enhance its flavor, you can marinate it for two to three hours before cooking it. Adding acidic ingredients like lemon juice or vinegar to the marinade will help break down the muscle fibers, making the steak more tender.

    Instead of trying to tenderize tri-tip, the best way to ensure your steak tastes tender is to slice it against the grain before serving. Slicing meat against the grain shortens the muscle fibers, making each bite easier to chew.

    What I’ve Learned

    I wish my folks were here to enjoy this with us because this is exactly the kind of meal they would love!

    It’s a lean cut that’s very affordable and when cooked correctly it’s tender flavorful. Without a doubt, this is the BEST way to BBQ a Tri-Tip cut! It’s one of my favorite recipes for an easy grilled steak.

    Now I’m not kidding you, this is a grill, thinly slice kinda meal. You’ll have dinner and then spend the rest of the evening sneaking into kitchen and grabbing slices out of the refrigerator.

    It’s that delicious! I love this BBQ Tri Tip Recipe!

    Tried it and love this recipe? I knew you would!! Please share your comments below along with a five-star rating, youll make my day!

    Be sure to tag me on Instagram or #bowlmeover so I get to see all of your great pictures!!

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    What Is A Tri

    Tri-tip steak is steak from a tri-tip roast, a triangular-shaped cut from the bottom sirloin. It may be called bottom sirloin steak or Santa Maria steak because it was popularized in California. The boneless roast is usually cut into one-inch-thick steaks, a perfect size for grilling or searing in a cast-iron pan.

    Like other sirloin cuts, tri-tip steak is lean, so you wont find the same fat cap thats on a ribeye or New York strip. Tri-tip is well-marbled, though, so it should have plenty of white flecks of intramuscular fat. Put it all together and the result is a steak with a rich, beef-forward flavor you wont find in other cuts.

    If you cant find tri-tip steak at the grocery store, use the opportunity to visit your local butcher. They can usually special-order cuts like tri-tip upon request.

    Temperature Beats Time On The Grill

    Grilled or Oven

    If you have been grilling without any type of instant-read thermometer, its about time you elevate your grilling game and stop guessing if the meat is done. Invest in one, it will be a handy tool in the future. Great grilling or barbecuing mainly relies on temperature than time. Use a meat thermometer to be extra precise. If you dont have one, cut into the steak, have a small bite, and use your discretion to decide whether its done or not. In most cases, a rare steak will go to about 145 degrees Fahrenheit, and a medium will range from 150 to 160 degrees. A well-done steak should be cooked to a range of about 165 to 170 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, remember that when the thicker middle part of the steak reaches medium-rare temperatures, the thinner ends will be close to medium.

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    How To Oven Roast Tri

    We dont recommend oven-roasting tri-tip steaks. Home ovens dont get hot enough, so this cooking method just isnt quick enough to cook the steak properly. The steak will become dry on the inside without a proper sear on the outside, so we suggest looking to other cooking methods.

    If you find yourself with a whole tri-tip roast, thats another story. The whole roast tastes fantastic when its cooked in a 400° oven for about 35 to 45 minutes. Be sure to use a meat thermometer to determine when the roast reaches 135°.

    How To Serve Tri

    Tri-tip steak takes on seasonings, rubs and marinades exceptionally well, so you have your choice when serving it. It tastes incredible when seasoned simply with salt and pepper and served with your favorite steakhouse side dishes. You can also fancy it up by using Southwest spices, slicing the cooked steak into long strips and serving it on a bed of lettuce with corn, tomatoes and avocado for a filling salad. You cant go wrong by marinating it in beer and lime juice, either, using the medium-rare steak to make grilled onion and steak tacos.

    One of our favorite ways to enjoy tri-tip steak is to turn it into sandwiches. The lean, flavor-forward beef tastes fantastic on a crusty ciabatta roll with mushrooms, peppers and onions.

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    How To Slice A Tri Tip Roast

    Tri tip is kind of weird because the grain runs in two different directions. You cant slice it in the same direction all the way across. Use the above photo as a guide. The black lines are where you should cut.

    Tri tip should be cut against the grain, and that means your knife should be perpendicular to the lines you can see in the meat. The thick black line that Ive drawn above, where you see that thicker fat, is where you can cut the roast in half. Then slice each section of the tri tip against the grain. Thats why some of the photos on this post show small pieces of meat, and some show super long and thin slices, like this:

    Th Step: Its Grill Time

    How To Grill a Tri-tip Roast

    Youre a step closer to eating, but here is the fun part.

  • With the fat side up, sear the tri-tip on the hot/ direct heat side of your grill for 5-7 minutes. It should develop a dark brown crust.
  • Then turn and sear the other side for 5-7 minutes as well.
  • Move the meat to the cooler side/ indirect heat to continue cooking for 20-30 minutes. Turn the meat as needed.
  • Once your steak reaches the desired temperature, you can remove it from the grill and transfer it to a cutting board.
  • Voila! Youre almost done!

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    How To Grill Amazing Beef Tri

    SDSU Extension

    The beef tri-tip is a newer cut which earned its fame in California and has become increasingly popular in the last several years due to its excellent flavor characteristics. The beef tri-tip is fabricated from the bottom sirloin and was traditionally used as a roast or made into ground beef. This muscle has been regarded by many beef consumers as one of the best cut of beef they have ever eaten because it is tender, flavorful and lean. We have put together a list of tips that will you get started to making a great tri-tip on the grill to utilize your grill and enjoy the nice fall weather.

    How To Carve Tri

    Like I mentioned earlier, slicing the tri-tip is a big part of what makes this meat so tender and delicious. Since the grain runs two ways, if you sliced the entire tri-tip roast in the same direction, half of the meat would be tough to chew. So here’s how you do it so that every bite is tender and wonderful:

  • First, cut the tri-tip in half from the middle point of the crescent. You can actually see where the two different grain patterns meet and that’s where you want to slice to separate them.
  • Then turn each piece of meat half a quarter turn and slice it across the grain from the point to the thick end in thin slices. I shoot for slices that are somewhere around -inch thick.
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    How To Grill Tri Tip

    This article was co-authored by wikiHow Staff. Our trained team of editors and researchers validate articles for accuracy and comprehensiveness. wikiHow’s Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards.There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.The wikiHow Video Team also followed the article’s instructions and verified that they work. This article has been viewed 704,437 times.Learn more…

    Tri-tip is a cut of steak sliced from the bottom sirloin. It is relatively inexpensive, has great flavor, and grills easily. Tri-tip is a lean cut of steak with a mild beef flavor and tapered shape. To cook your tri-tip, add a seasoning rub or marinade, and grill your steak for about 10 minutes on both sides at about 400 °F . Let it sit for 10 minutes, and slice it into thin strips.

    How Do You Keep Tri

    Best Ever Spice Rubbed Grilled Tri Tip Recipe + Tips

    To ensure your tri-tip turns out juicy and delicious, be sure to cook it over very high heat but be careful to prevent the meat from overcooking. Its really best to probe it with an instant-read meat thermometer and pull it from the grill when it reaches 135°. If you want to cook your tri-tip steak further, we suggest it first. The marinade will infuse the meat with extra flavor, building in a little overcooking protection.

    Finally, do not skip the resting step. Thats one of the mistakes most people make that turns a perfect steak into a dry steak! Let your steak rest for five to ten minutes before slicing it to allow the juices a chance to redistribute within the meat.

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