California Santa Maria Barbecue Tri-tip Recipe (2024)

One thing I'll miss about about New York is you can get just about anything here, although not always without effort. Case in point, tri-tip. I've been aware of this staple of central coastal California "barbecue" for a long time, but it's not a cut the common butcher or supermarket will carry in New York. Due to the inconvenience of searching for, and then traveling to get tri-tip in this city, I never tried making it myself, but last summer I decided it was high time I get off my lazy ass and took on this complex cut with a couple different recipes, the first being done in the vein of traditional Santa Maria-style.

First thing was first though, actually procuring this hard to locate meat within the vast city. I found only one butcher that consistently had it, and of course the hours were such that it would have been hard for me to get there on my schedule. So I looked for another back-up option and read that Trader Joe's was known to stock tri-tip fairly regularly, and since they were open in the evening when I could actually do my shopping, they won out the butcher by default. I got lucky that fateful day—Trader Joe's had a few tri-tips laying in wait for me, so I picked up two to take advantage of my easy find.

Tri-tip is cut from the bottom sirloin from the hip area, making it a muscle group that works the hind legs. Untrimmed tri-tips come with a layer of fat covering one side of the cut, but most that you'll find on shelves are fully trimmed, leaving this lean cut somewhat devoid of fat. Without a ton of the intramuscular fat that drives a lot of flavor in beef, tri-tip is a mild cut that benefits from extra seasoning and only being cooked to medium rare, otherwise you risk both loss in flavor and tenderness.

The traditional Santa Maria-style has the tri-tip cooking over red oak on an open grill with an adjustable grate so the meat can be raised higher above the coals to cook it more slowly, and then lowered to get a nice sear. Without having one of these excellent rigs in my backyard, I had to improvise with my kettle to get a close approximation. This began with building a two-zone fire, with all the coals nestled on to one side of the charcoal grate and adding a chunk of oak on top.

I then placed the tri-tip, which I had seasoned earlier with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, on the cool side of the grill and covered it. For the most even doneness, I wanted to roast the cut first, then sear it. So I let the tri-tip sit until it was 10°F shy of my target temperature of 125°F.

At this point, the outside moisture was gone and the beef had already developed a nice mahogany color. Next I slide the tri-tip over to the hot side the grill and let it cook it until that sear intensified to a deeply browned crust.

I then let the sucker rest on a cutting board for ten minutes before slicing in. As you would with most cuts, you want to slice the tri-tip against the grain to create shorter strands of muscle, which results maximum tenderness. With a tri-tip, this is a little trickier since the grain shifts in different areas of the cut, so more attention is needed to know when to adjust the knife to keep the slices against the grain.

As I sliced in, I was greeted by a beautiful rosy red interior with a pretty consistent doneness from one edge to the other. The meat was incredibly juicy and super tender, although it was lacking in the flavor department for someone like me who's so fond of beefier cuts like brisket and skirt steak.

Luckily I had put together a salsa to go with the tri-tip that added the perfect compliment. The salsa was also Santa Maria-style, which mixed in celery, scallions, green chili, balsamic vinegar, and red wine vinegar with the standard players of tomatoes, onion, cilantro, and garlic. It added freshness and tang that didn't overpower the slightly smoky tri-tip, but made it feel more complete. Taken as a whole, it had a lightness and freshness I'd equate with west coast cooking, which made it easier to keep eating piece after piece of this delicious combo. In the end that probably negated the idea that I was eating something not as bad for me as my usual heavy barbecued items like brisket, pork shoulder, or ribs, but it was a nice change of pace that made searching out tri-tip well worth the effort.

Published on Tue Jun 23, 2015 by Joshua Bousel

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