Juicy Smoked Tri Tip

Name: Juicy Smoked Tri Tip
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 75 min
Total time: 95 min
Ingredients: 1 tri tip; 2 tablespoons olive oil; ½ tablespoon salt; ½ tablespoon black pepper; ½ tablespoon garlic powder; ½ tablespoon smoked paprika; 4 tablespoons salted butter

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Put this ultra juicy smoked tri tip on the dinner menu when you need a meal that's sure to impress! In just 90 minutes with only a handful of simple ingredients and very little hands-on preparation, you can put the most flavorful, tender tri-tip steak on the table after smoking to absolute perfection. Bring your appetite because you and your guests will savor every succulent bite.

The smoked tri tip on a wooden cutting board with fresh cilantro surrounding it and the spice mixture sprinkled around it.

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What Is Tri Tip?
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Ingredients
Step-by-Step Instructions
Final Internal Temperature Range
Serving Ideas
Recipe FAQs
Expert Tips
Perfect Pairing
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📖 Recipe

What Is Tri Tip?

Named for its triangular shape, the tri tip comes from the bottom sirloin subprimal cut of a cow. You may have even heard this beef cut referred to as Santa Maria Steak or California’s Cut, thanks to its West Coast roots.

Traditionally, tri tip was ground into hamburger meat or trimmed into stew meat. But that all changed when Bob Schutz, owner of Santa Maria Market, began serving this beef cut as a juicy, tender steak in the 1950s. This style remained more of a food staple on the West Coast, but it’s been gaining popularity and availability over recent years. One bite and you’ll see why.

While this is a lean cut of beef, it’s still full of flavor. In this recipe, we’re using the whole roast, but we then slice it into pieces to make more of a tri-tip steak. Once sliced, it will look similar to a prepared skirt steak, but it’s a much higher-quality cut.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Easy for beginner and expert pit masters alike: First time smoking meat? No problem here. A tri-tip roast is truly one of the simplest smoking recipes, and we don’t have to mess with fussy ingredients.

Versatile for a casual summer meal or holiday dinner: During the summer months, there’s nothing like firing up the smoker and enjoying a relaxing, low-key meal on the patio. But don’t feel like you can’t prepare this meal throughout the year. With its steak-like presentation, a smoked tri tip is elegant enough to make a beautiful holiday dinner. As a bonus, that means one less item that takes up oven space when you’re trying to make all those delicious side dishes and holiday desserts.

Loaded with flavor after a short smoking session: A slow-smoked brisket is always delicious, but it takes a lot of time to cook. When you don’t have 15-plus hours to spend smoking, grab a triangle tip and prepare this wonderful beef cut in a fraction of the time.

Related: For other elegant smoker recipes, try this smoked leg of lamb roast and smoked prime rib.

Ingredients

Tri tip: We’re looking for the whole roast here as pictured. Some butchers and grocery stores serve the roast trimmed, but it’s very possible to pick up an untrimmed cut. I bought an untrimmed roast from my local grocery store, so we’ll walk through the process to show you how simple it is to take care of this step if necessary.

Spice mixture: Let’s keep it simple here. We only need salt, black pepper, garlic powder and smoked paprika. While you’re more than welcome to use a dry rub with more seasonings, I’m a big believer in letting the beefy flavor shine. Other popular seasonings include brown sugar, onion powder and chili powder, or you're welcome to use your favorite steak rub.

Olive oil: This helps our spice mixture adhere to the meat, and I find it also promotes more browning.

Butter: We use this in the final stage to reverse sear the meat. Since we’re smoking at a low temperature, the reverse sear gives us a nice crust. And, hey, butter makes everything better.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: If the tri tip is untrimmed, it will have a large layer of fat on one side and likely additional fat spots on the other side (photos 1 and 2). We take a sharp knife and slice underneath where it meets the beef to remove the large fat cap and continue cutting until all the fat is removed like so (photo 3). We flip the fat side and trim any other large pieces. If we see any silver skin, we’ll want to trim those spots too.

Pro tip: Even if the main layer of fat was trimmed, take a look at the beef to make sure no excess fat patches or silver skin remain. If they do, simply slice off those spots as detailed.

A collage showing the process of trimming both sides of the tri tip on a wooden cutting board.

Step 2: Now we pour the olive oil onto the triangle roast and use our hands to coat it on both sides (photo 4).

Pouring the olive oil from a small glass bowl on a whole tri tip on a wooden cutting board.

Step 3: With our beef coated, we rub the tri tip seasoning all over the meat (photo 5). At this point, we can move on to smoking if you’re short on time, or you’re more than welcome to cover it in plastic wrap and allow the tri tip to dry brine in the refrigerator.

Essentially, dry brining uses salt to pull moisture from the meat, and then after resting, the salt reabsorbs to make an even more flavorful, tender beef. For best results, you want to give a large piece of meat, like tri tip, 12-24 hours to let the process work its magic.

The beef coated in the spice mixture on a wooden cutting board before going on the smoker.

Step 4: To cook, we place the tri tip directly on the grill grates with a water pan at 225 degrees F, insert a leave-in meat thermometer and allow it to smoke until it comes within 5 degrees of our final desired internal temperature (photo 6). As the meat comes close to finishing, begin heating a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until it’s blazingly hot.

The triangle roast on a vertical pellet grill with a leave-in thermometer stuck in the middle of the meat.

Step 5: Now we melt butter in that heated cast-iron skillet and reverse sear the tri tip on both sides until browned (photo 7). This won’t take long. About two to three minutes per side is all we need.

Melted butter in an cast-iron skillet with the roast searing in it to give it a crust.

Step 6: For our final step, we allow the meat to rest for five to 10 minutes (photo 8) and then slice against the grain on a cutting board. To do this, we place our knife perpendicularly on the grain and then slice. We want to slice against the grain rather than with it to prevent it from being overly chewy. Keep in mind that tri tip has grains running in two different directions, so you’ll want to rotate the meat when slicing.

The triangle roast resting on a wooden cutting board before slicing with fresh herbs surrounding it.

In just a few easy steps, you now have the perfect smoked tri-tip roast. Serve with your favorite sides, like these smoked baked beans and smoked mac and cheese, and maybe even some smoked lobster tails for a little surf and turf action. Now enjoy one delicious meal.

Final Internal Temperature Range

We want to smoke the tri tip to our desired level of doneness, which is based on the below internal temperature of the meat. For the juiciest, most flavorful tri tip, I recommend smoking to no more than medium rare with medium being the absolute highest internal temperature. Remember, you want to pull the tri tip when it’s about 5-10 degrees lower than these final temperatures.

Doneness	Final Temperature
Rare	125 degrees F
Medium rare	135 degrees F
Medium	140 degrees F
Medium well	155 degrees F
Well done	160 degrees F

Serving Ideas

Of course, you’re more than welcome to simply cut the beef into thin slices and serve, but that’s just one idea. Here are a few of my favorite ways to use tri tip — both freshly smoked and leftovers work well here.

Use as a protein in this mac and cheese
Stuff into a hot, cheesy sub sandwich
Spread on top of nachos
Stir into a queso
Serve as a filling for tacos, enchiladas or burritos
Add to make one epic grilled cheese

Recipe FAQs

What is the best wood for smoking tri tip?

Red oak is traditional on the West Coast, and you can’t go wrong there. That said, I also love smoking a triangle steak with mesquite. Both woods infuse bold, smoky flavor, and since we’re dealing with a short smoke time, I especially like bigger wood varieties here.

How long does it take to smoke?

We want to smoke to the internal temperature rather than time. Every cut of meat is different, and so many factors play into smoking time that it’s not an accurate gauge. That said, you can expect it to take closer to an hour for rare or up to an hour and a half to two hours for well done.

What kind of smoker can you use?

This recipe works just as well on any type of smoker. An electric smoker, pellet smoker, propane smoker, charcoal smoker — you name it. You can use it in this recipe.

How many people does a tri tip serve?

Expect to feed four to six people with one tri-tip roast. If I’m serving a heavy dinner with lots of appetizers, side dishes and dessert, I’d lean toward six people. For a lighter meal, plan for four people. Of course, this is not an exact science here, so use this suggestion as a guideline.

A close-up shot of the tri tip cut into slices on a wooden cutting board with chopped cilantro to the side.

Expert Tips

Don’t skip trimming: The fat cap on top will not break down during the cooking process. It absolutely needs to be removed. Also, trim the meat right after removing it from the refrigerator. Cold meat is stiffer and much easier to trim.

Avoid overcooking: You will lose so much flavor and juiciness, and it’s just not as tender if you overcook it. I highly recommend not going above medium rare.

Allow the meat to rest: This gives the juices time to redistribute in the meat. If you cut into it too soon, you’ll be left with a dry piece and have wasted all that time, effort and money. You deserve better than that.

Use a leave-in thermometer in the thickest part of the meat: With this type of thermometer, you can constantly check the internal temperature without having to open the smoker and lose all that heat. Plus, it ensures you never overcook your meat.

Perfect Pairing

You’ll enjoy a brown ale. The light, caramel-like malt nicely contrasts the smoky notes, and its medium body works well with the lean tri tip. We don’t want an overly heavy beer here. An amber ale also makes a nice option.

If you’re looking for a wine, try a zinfandel. You’ll love how the peppery zinfandel plays with the rub and smoked-infused meat, and those jammy berry notes counter the spice rub.

Cheers!

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