Central Coast Tri-Tip

No visit to California’s Central Coast is complete without some Santa Maria-style Tri-Tip. A relatively lean but flavorful cut, Tri-Tip gets its name from its triangular shape and its position at the tip of the sirloin. Though its origins are in California, it is rapidly gaining popularity nation-wide, and rightfully so.

If you are looking for a slice of the Central Coast, look no further – the below recipe can be completed in about two hours.

Equipment

Baking Tray (for prepping the meat/doing the spice rub)
Grill (we use propane, charcoal or pellet would be fine as well)
Smoke Chips/Pellets (oak is the traditional smoke flavor)
Digital Meat Thermometer (for tracking internal temperature)

Ingredients

1 3-5 pound Tri-Tip
1 Tbsp Kosher Salt
1 Tbsp Ground Black Pepper
1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp Onion Powder
1 Tbsp Finely Chopped Rosemary (fresh sprigs are best)

Process

About an hour before you begin cooking, set the tri-tip out so it is room temperature by grilling time. If using traditional wood chips, this is also when you can begin soaking them.
Trim off any excess fat (not always required, some cuts come trimmed, and some untrimmed cuts are perfectly fine. We only remove fat that is flapping off the main body to keep it neat.)
Prepare your grill – you want a very high heat for the searing phase by the time it is ready to cook. You also want to give your wood chips and/or pellets time to activate.
Place meat on a baking tray (or leave on cutting board if you prefer). Combine salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and finely chopped rosemary in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
Pour a third of the spice mixture on the meat-side of the cut and rub all over, including cracks and crevices. Pour another third on the fat side and repeat. Use the remaining third, and any significant amounts that have slipped off into your tray, to fill in the gaps.

**NOTE – the longer the meat is exposed to the rub, the better the flavor. 6-12 hours is the ideal, though an hour before grilling is perfectly fine as well.

Your grill should be quite hot by now and smoking. Sear each side of the tri-tip for four minutes, fatty side first. (If you can’t balance the tri-tip on its narrow sides, that’s fine – at least do the broad sides front and back.)

**NOTE – once you flip to fatty side up, be wary of grease fires, as a lot of fat will drip into your grill during these four minutes.

Once seared, shut off one or more of the burners, move meat to an upper rack, insert digital meat thermometer (two probes is ideal), and cook low and slow on indirect heat until an internal temperature of 120 degrees (F) is reached. The thermometer on our grill is broken – nothing fancy here – but this normally takes about an hour to complete.
Allow meat to rest for at least 10 minutes, filling your kitchen with the smell of grill smoke and roasted rosemary.
Slice against the grain and serve hot.

**NOTE – tri-tip technically has two grains, with intersect near the tip of the “triangle”. We get hungry and normally just slice it the same direction all the way down, but with patience you can do it properly.

For those who prefer a visual instruction, see below step by step:

About an hour before you begin cooking, set the tri-tip out so it is room temperature by grilling time. If using traditional wood ships, this is also when you want to begin soaking them.

Trim off any excess fat (not always required, some cuts come trimmed, and some untrimmed cuts are perfectly fine. We only remove fat that is flapping off the main body to keep it neat.)

Prepare your grill – you want a very high heat for the searing phase by the time it is ready to cook. You also want to give your wood chips and/or pellets time to activate.

Combine salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and finely chopped rosemary in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

Pour a third of the spice mixture on the meat-side of the cut and rub all over, including cracks and crevices. Pour another third on the fat side and repeat.

Use the remaining third, and any significant amounts that have slipped off into your tray, to fill in the gaps.

Your grill should be quite hot by now and smoking. Sear each side of the tri-tip for four minutes, fatty side first. (If you can’t balance the tri-tip on its narrow sides, that’s fine – at least do the broad sides front and back.)
**NOTE – once you flip to fatty side up, be wary of grease fires, as a lot of fat will drip into your grill during these four minutes.
Once seared, shut off one or more of the burners, move meat to an upper rack, insert digital meat thermometer (two probes is ideal), and cook low and slow on indirect heat until an internal temperature of 120 degrees (F) is reached. The thermometer on our grill is broken – nothing fancy here – but this normally takes about an hour to complete.
Allow meat to rest for at least 10 minutes, filling your kitchen with the smell of grill smoke and roasted rosemary.
Slice against the grain and serve hot.
**NOTE – tri-tip technically has two grains, with intersect near the tip of the “triangle”. We get hungry and normally just slice it the same direction all the way down, but with patience you can do it properly.