Smoked Tri Tip: Recipe and How-to Guide - Barbecue FAQ (2024)

Tri-tip is a cut of meat often confused with Brisket or Picanha. While you can cook it like a brisket, it’s actually a steak.

Meaning, you can reverse sear it and slice when it reaches medium-rare. The result is a super flavorful, tender, cut of meat.

What is Tri-Tip?

The tri-tip is a cut of meat sourced from the bottom of the sirloin. It is so-called because it is triangular shaped with a tapered tip; Hence tri tip.

Historically, the muscle was ground up for hamburger meat. It wasn’t until the 1950s when Bob Schutz of Santa Maria Market decided to grill it like a steak.

You might also see it referred to as California cut, Newport Steak, Santa Maria steak, and sometimes a “poor man’s brisket.”

Scientifically it is the tensor fasciae latae muscle.

I typically reserve “poor man’s brisket” for chuck roast, as tri-tip is a steak, not a roast (like actual brisket).

In my opinion, it also tastes significantly better when cooked like a steak.

Tri-tip is relatively lean piece of meat and honestly doesn’t need much trimming. However this also depends on how you buy it.

Like brisket, you can remove silver-skin, ragged nodules, and excess fat.

When cooked like a steak it is incredibly juicy and can be made tender when sliced against the grain (more on that below).

Ingredients for Smoked Tri-Tip

• Tri-tip (mine was 2.62 lbs)
• Kosher Salt (specifically Morton’s)
• Freshly cracked black pepper
• Lawry’s Seasoned Salt

Whenever I cook any steak I typically just use kosher salt, pepper, and Lawry’s seasoned salt; I’ve yet to find a person who dislikes this combination.

Most folks have kosher salt and pepper on-hand, however if you don’t have Lawry’s seasoned salt (can be a little expensive), garlic powder is a great option too.

I especially like Burlap and Barrel’s purple stripe garlic powder.

Tri-tip is a very versatile cut of meat. It truly pairs well with most seasonings or rubs and you’d be hard pressed to over-season the meat.

Meaning, if you’re a beginner with a heavy-hand, don’t fret.

I’m a big fan of actually tasting the beef too. In my opinion, things like smoke flavor and dry-rub only exist to further elevate the meat.

Equipment for Smoked Tri-Tip

• A smoker – I used a 22″ Weber Kettle
• Charcoal – Either lump or briquettes
• Post oak wood chunks or similar hardwood
• Something to sear the steak with*

*For this guide, I opted to sear the smoked meat on top of my charcoal chimney with grill grates. I’ve seen a few folks do this and figured why not give it a try; It actually worked surprisingly well and I’d do it again.

Setup pictured below:

If I didn’t do it this way, I would of used my cast-iron skillet with grapeseed oil and butter (process outlined below).

Smoking the Tri-Tip

Since we’ll be cooking the meat like a steak, your goal with smoking tri tip is to offer as much smoke flavor as possible – that is, up until the internal temperature reaches 125F (medium-rare).

In order to do this, you want to run the smoker temperature lower – around 225F; Somewhere between 180F to 250F works fine.

The reason you want the smoker temperature to be lower is because the lower the temperature, the slower the meat reaches the desired internal temperature and the more smoke flavor.

For most cuts of beet that I smoke – like brisket for example – I usually use post-oak. However, you’d be safe smoking with a wood like Hickory.

Even factors like thin blue smoke don’t tend to matter much here as the smoke interacts with the meat for only 1-2 hours.

At 225F on the smoker, it took roughly 1 hour and 30 minutes for the internal temperature to reach 125F internal.

When the meat reached 115F internal at the thickest part of the steak, I got my charcoal chimney going with roughly a half chimney of charcoal.

By the time the steak reached 125F internal, the chimney was done (typically takes 15-20 minutes to fully ash over).

At this stage, the outer surface of the meat likely isn’t too appealing. However, this is fixed when you sear.

Searing the Tri-Tip

There are a few different ways you can accomplish the sear.

For this recipe, I opted to sear with my charcoal chimney and grill grates.

Once the temperature reached 125F at the thickest part of the meat, I took the smoked tri tip off the smoker and placed it on the searing grates. Essentially this was just 1 minute on each side.

However, if I didn’t have a charcoal chimney and extra grill grates, I would of finished the steak on my cast iron skillet with grapeseed oil and butter.

If you’re using a cast iron skillet, I have an article that goes over how to build crust on steaks; Be sure to check it out here.

To provide some bullet-points from that article:

1. Get your cast iron skillet hot.

Note, it doesn’t need to be “screaming” hot.

Once the skillet is hot, add your cold oil (I prefer grapeseed). Wait for the surface to shimmer, just before the oil begins to smoke.

Then add your meat; Tap the surface of the meat to ensure even contact with the cooking surface.

2. Either use timed intervals or flip as you see fit – usually flipping every 15-20 seconds is ideal. In either case, you’re only searing for roughly a minute on both sides (total).

3. Once each side is seared, take the skillet off the heat source. Note, the skillet will still be hot.

Then add a few pats of butter. Wait for the butter to froth and begin basting the meat with the frothed butter – again, off the heat.

This basting process will cause the internal temperature to rise rapidly. Only baste for for roughly 10-30 seconds each side.

Resting Tri-Tip

I’m not a big “believer” in resting meats like steaks. I think it’s something a lot of people over-exaggerate to the point where you’re degrading the meat through carry-over cooking; The juice loss is also insignificant.

At most, I rested the meat for five minutes, i.e., taking it inside and setting my dinner table.

As soon as you take the meat off the heat, it’s technically resting. Allowing the meat to rest for a long time causes the outer surface (the hottest part of the meat) to carryover to the inside of the meat.

As you can imagine, you can quickly take your steak from medium-rare (130 – 135F) to Medium (140 – 150 F).

If you’re someone who does believe in resting, at most, rest for 10 minutes.

Do not cover in aluminum foil as this just ruins the outer crust you created when searing. Simply allow the tri-tip to stand on a plate.

Slicing Tri-tip

The way in which you slice meat is vitally important. If you slice it incorrectly, you can take a tender piece of meat and make it tough and chewy.

The tensor fasciaelatae muscle is unique in that it has two grain directions; One is oriented vertically, the other horizontally.

The best way to tackle this is to slice the meat in half where these grain patterns meet.

Once you’ve done this, you can slice against the grain (slice perpendicular) on both halves.

Pictured below in dotted green lines is how these halves would be sliced against the grain:

For a more nuanced break-down of slicing against the grain of tri-tip, be sure to check out this article.

Slicing against the grain effectively shortens muscle fiber lengths which makes it easier for your teeth to separate the meat – hence being “tender.”

If you slice with the grain, your teeth have a much harder time doing so which folks then refer to as “chewy.”