Smoked Tri Tip Recipe

Video - How to smoke a Tri-tip steak

Why Smoke Tri Tip?

Smoking a tri tip before turning the heat up and grilling it like you normally would gives it a great smoked flavor. That's the reason we all bought smokers, to smoke.

A nice dry bbq rub of common spices and a hint of smoke really makes this smoked tri tip recipe stand out.

Tri-tip steak

Tri tip is a great flavored cut of beef. It's also known as bottom sirloin butt or Santa Maria steak, where it was first made popular. Tri-tip isn't as common as some other steak cuts such as NY Strip or Ribeye.

With that said, you can find tri tip at your local grocery store or butcher. Sometimes it will come already seasoned, just like pork tenderloin often does.

You can smoke up an already seasoned steak or if you can find one not seasoned, let's season it and smoke it up!

The smoker

This tri tip recipe was smoked on my Rectec 590. The Traeger Pro Series 780 will smoke this steak perfectly as well.

Looking to use a traditional smoker? No worries, using an offset smoker like this Oklahoma Joe's Longhorn is a great option as well.

Prepping the tri-tip

Trim any fat cap that is on the surface of the steak. Most of the time the steak will come already trimmed, but if there are layers of fat or silver skin on the meat you will want to make sure to trim that off before smoking.

A dry rub of sea salt / kosher salt, fresh cracked black pepper, onion, garlic, and paprika is my go to when making smoked tri tip. Season both sides and edges of the beef and allow to rest at room temperature while pre-heating the smoker to 180°F.

How to Smoke a Tri-Tip Steak

I am NOT a huge fan of smoking steaks at low temperatures until finished, they come out tough in my opinion. The best way to smoke a steak is at low temperature for a short time and then finish it off at a high temp, 400°F or higher.

Temp - Low then HOT

Place the tri tip roast on your favorite smoker for 20 minutes at 180°F. After 20 minutes, remove the steak to a plate and tent with aluminum foil.

Turn the temperature up to 425°F. When cooking a tri-tip on a pellet grill, I like placing my grill grates inside the smoker to get those nice sear marks on the steak.

Let the grill grates warm up with the smoker, either side of the grates will work. I used the ridged side, place tri-tip onto the grates when the smoker reaches 425 degrees F to reverse sear.

Grill to temperature

Grill the steak to 10°F below your desired doneness, cooking time should take about 7-9 minutes a side when cooking to medium. Make sure to check the temp with an instant read thermometer, I use a Thermopro thermometer which is very accurate.

The reason you want to pull it off the grill 10 degrees below your desired internal temp is because the cooked steak will continue to keep cooking for a short time after the steak is removed.

So if you are wanting a medium steak, pull the steak off when the tri-tip reaches 135°F. That way when resting it will rise to the desired 145°F internal temperature.

Rest & slice

Let this cooked tri tip steak rest for about 10 minutes before slicing to allow the juices to redistribute within the meat. This will help the steak stay nice and juicy. Now let's slice the meat.

Slicing

Slicing a tri tip steak is a little bit more involved than slicing any other steak, such as a tomahawk steak, because it's grain runs in two different directions. Look at which way the lines (grain) within the meat run, we are going to slice perpendicular to those.

About ⅓ of the steaks grain is going to run one way and the other ⅔ of the meat will run in a slightly different direction. Below the black lines show which direction the grain of the meat runs.

Slicing perpendicular to the grain will make sure the meat is tender. If sliced in the same direction of the grain will result in a tougher chew, and no one wants a tough steak. Leave the chewy beef to when you make beef jerky.

Old pro tips

• Buy an already seasoned tri-tip steak for an easy preparation
• Use hickory blend pellets or a competition blend for best taste
• Top with a tablespoon of butter after cooking for even more flavor
• Using freshly cracked black pepper elevates the pepper flavor as well

Best side dishes

Stick to the staples as a side dish when smoking up a steak. Nothing too fancy, but just great flavored side dishes. For me, I love having a potato and a green to accompany my steak.

• Smoked baked potato
• Roasted asparagus
• Smoked Corn on the cob
• Baked beans

FAQ

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