Cole Cooks: Big Green Egg Tri-Tip BBQ
Tri-tip is California’s contribution to the BBQ world. Living in San Diego we have become experts over the years in preparing tri-tip. Our preferred method is to cook tri-tip on the Big Green Egg using a form of reverse sear.
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Tri-tip is a triangular cut of bottom sirloin. It is hard to find tri-tip outside California. Many of our visitors from other states are completely unfamiliar with tri-tip.
According to one of our favorite BBQ cookbooks, BBQ USA, tri-tip developed in the 1950s in the Santa Maria Valley area of Santa Barbara county (about an hour north of Santa Barbara proper). Tri-tip is all over southern California, but mainly found in the Central Coast area running from Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo and Monterey counties.
Tri-tip is almost always cooked outdoors on a grill. Over the years we have found that tri-tip can be fairly difficult to cook. It is easy to overcook tri-tip. Unlike traditional BBQ meats, tri-tip is best served rare to medium.
Many recipes say it cooks quickly. This can be true, but we have found a low and slow method works best. Tri-tip generally has a lot of fat that can cause flareups. The fat should be trimmed under any method, but cooking at low heat and searing at the end ensures the meat is not overcooked.
Our favorite method now is doing tri-tip on the Big Green Egg. We start at a very low heat and cook the tri-tip to 120 degrees on indirect heat. At that point we crank the Big Green Egg up to 500 degrees and sear it on all sides (about 5 minutes total).
Go here for general Big Green Egg tips
Slicing is also important. The meat needs to be cut across the grain. A tri-tip steak has two sections with the grain running in different directions where muscles connect. Before cutting it is important to cut the steak at the muscles. It is easy to spot the difference when one knows what to look for. However, speaking from experience, many California BBQs have been ruined when the chef has not properly sliced the tri-tip.
A rub or marinade is an important addition to tri-tip. We have experimented with many different rubs and marinades over the years. Many butchers sell tri-tip with their own marinade.
For the full California BBQ experience serve tri-tip with beans, bread and salsa. You can see our overview of a Santa Maria style barbecue here. Our recipe for Santa Maria style beans is here. The recipe for our garlic bread, aka Texas Toast is here.
Ingredients
- 2 to 3 pound beef tri-tip
Marinade
- ½ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice 1-2 lemons
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Trim fat layer from tri-tip. Mix marinade ingredients, combine with tri-tip and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Heat Big Green Egg to 250 degrees with convEGGtor installed for indirect cooking. Cook tri-tip on grillto 120 degrees and remove (can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 1 hour).
- Remove convEGGtor and heat Big Green Egg to 500 degrees. Sear tri-tip on grill for 2-3 minutes per side. Slice against the grain and serve.
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