what's up you guys it's Susie from HeyGrillHey.com and today we are
smoking one of my most favorites and probably our family's most smoked cut of beef when
we're cooking at home the humble yet beautiful tri-tip we're gonna reverse here this bad boy
slice it up and have a yummy yummy yummy yummy yummy steak dinner let's do it
now i know a lot of you guys do not live on the western coast of the united states and tri-tip
might not be available in your area but is becoming so much more popular and i think
because a lot of people like you and i the backyard barbecue people
are requesting the tri-tip from our butcher stores
they're becoming more accessible across the united states which is a fantastic thing this cut
supposedly originated in california the santa maria area it is a kind of triangle-shaped roast
that comes from the lower part of the sirloin it is very well marbled it's incredibly delicious
and it cooks like a roast yet eats like an absolutely tender and delicious million dollar
steak and it's really easy to prepare so we've got this bad boy they're typically two to three
pounds a piece and depending on where you get it from it'll either have the fat cap removed
or it won't if you have the fat cap on there and it's a nice fatty tri-tip maybe you should look
up my recipe for tri-tip smoked like a brisket that is my favorite way to use tri-tips that
still have that fat cap on the top for me and for most of you that are buying these at the grocery
store the fat cap will already be mostly removed but you can grab a little fillet knife and kind
of go to town just cleaning up any excess pockets of fat or silver skin on your roast
that is looking pretty good to me now all we really need is a simple seasoning the tri-tip
tastes so delicious you don't want anything that's really overpowering here i think a simple salt and
pepper works beautifully of course i'm going to be using my beef rub this is available in my store
i mean personally i believe it's like the best beef seasoning ever it's a great salt
and pepper base and it works well with a ton of stuff but it's especially delicious on tri-tip
all right that looks awesome to me now this is really like i said a roast that eats like
a steak but because it's thicker and it will actually thicken as it tightens on the cooker
we're gonna cook this low and slow to begin with we're gonna start this at 225 degrees fahrenheit
i love a mix of oak and cherry for tri-tip i think it adds beautiful color
as well as a nice really robust smoke flavor uh we're gonna run this at 225 until the internal
temperature reaches between 115 and 120 degrees fahrenheit these typically take
about an hour to an hour and a half so i would start checking at the hour mark
and then we'll finish with a nice hot crispy cast iron skillet sear
all right tri-tip has been on for just over an hour and we are exactly the temperature we want to
be i will show you on my trusty thermometer we're looking for between 115 and 120 oh look at that
not only is the temperature exactly where we want it but the color on this smoked tri-tip
is ridiculous when i talked about the oak and cherry is my favorite combination for smoking
you can really see that come through in the color of this tri-tip that bright mahogany red brown
color that's from the cherry and it's absolutely beautiful we're gonna let the tri-tip hang out for
a minute over here in a 12-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat i'm melting three tablespoons
of butter i've also got three cloves of lightly smashed garlic and a sprig of fresh rosemary
and we are going to butter baste and sear the outside of our smoked tri-tip bring it
up to temperature for those last five to ten degrees until we hit 130 degrees fahrenheit
and it's gonna taste so good and it's gonna smell so good and it's gonna be covered in yummy butter
and it's going to be smoky and everything is going to be good in the whole world okay
just taking a moment of silence for the sound of this
amazing okay our tri-tip friend is going to head over to our serving platter and i'm going to let
this rest this is a really big roast and i do want the carry-over cooking to finish
cooking this all the way through to 135 degrees we're gonna leave this happy butter over here
and then i'm gonna show you guys the perfect way to slice a tri-tip
we're going to remove our delightfully delicious aromatics that have been resting on top of
the tri-tip we're setting them aside so we can actually kind of serve it all together at the end
but we gotta get into slicing this tri tip because this is a place where most
first time tri-tippers go astray when we cut against the grain it means cutting in opposition
to those long strands so we get nice short muscle fibers that are really tender and easier to chew
but sometimes after you cook your meat it can be really difficult to see where the grain is so i
actually like to pick up my tri-tip and bend it a little bit and when you do that you can see where
it splits and it splits along these grain lines so that's an indicator to me of where the grain is
on the skinny end the grain runs this direction so we're actually going to slice this way and then
when we get to the top if we lift it up again we can see the grain is now running this way so if we
kept slicing in the same direction we'd run into a problem we'd be slicing with those long strands
so we're going to turn our knife at that point and cut at a 90 degree angle to where we were
previously cutting and have some nice short muscle strands with some beautiful slices of tri-tip
oh look at this okay i know i just started slicing but it was so juicy
you can see that pink smoke ring all the way around and what we're not seeing is
stripes you don't want to see stripes in your tri-tip if you see stripes you're going the wrong
direction we want little almost like you're looking into a kaleidoscope and there's all
those little pieces speckled through the end of a kaleidoscope it's exactly what we're looking for
all right we've got ourselves about up to the middle of the roast here where the grain begins
to change i'm just going to turn my tri-tip and start slicing the opposite direction
now one thing that i really love the most is to take my sliced tri-tip and actually arrange it
back in the skillet that it was fried in all of this flavor is sitting here in the skillet
and when you pick up a piece of tri-tip you get a little bit of that garlicky rosemary
butter on the bottom of each bite additionally it's nice and warm in there and so that gives
our tri-tip an opportunity to stay warm and our guests the ability to eat some nice warm steak
i mean okay fine i will try some look at this beautiful medium rare delightful smoke ring i
can already tell you the flavors on the outside from the butter and the rosemary and garlic
are going to take this to a place that i will be very happy about
that's so tender this is a big cut of meat two to three pounds it's perfect for a family gathering
and to have a piece of meat that's substantial in size that still manages to be this tender and
have such a distinct you know traditional steak upscale flavor profile is absolutely phenomenal
no wonder it's such a big deal for us here in the western portion of the united states
i hope it continues to spread all over the place the only way that's going to happen is
if you guys tell your butchers that you want to eat it so the next time you have an opportunity
grab a tri-tip give it a quick smoke at home cook it to a beautiful medium rare
with a butter baste on the outside and i guarantee you you will feel like a backyard barbecue hero
and i can't wait to cheer you on in becoming so we'll see you guys next time you