BBQ Tri Tip Bottom Sirloin Beef Roast

I decided to barbecue something different yesterday and since I've never cooked Tri Tip Beef before, I picked up a 2 1/2 pound Tri Tip Beef Roast at the local meat market. Tri Tip is also known as "Bottom Sirloin".

Santa Maria Tri Tip is really more a particular style of grilling than an exact recipe, but if you do a quick Google search for Tri Tip Recipes, you'll find at least a hundred web sites that detail the Santa Maria style for cooking this particular cut of beef. Most recipes recommend using a a bbq grill with an adjustable grate and oak wood for flavor. I decided to use my Weber Smokey Mountain.

I prepared a simple beef rub and liberally seasoned the meat.

Tri Tip Rub

2 tbsp Kosher salt

2 tbsp garlic salt

2 tbsp onion powder

2 tbsp black pepper

I prepared a 225 degree fire and added some apple chunks for seasoning.

I placed the tri tip roast on the lower grate in the WSM. The tri tip was cooked for 15 minutes on either side to help seal the juices. I inserted a temperature probe and cooked to an internal temperature of 145 degrees, which took about 45 minutes.

BBQ Tip: Tri tips are not a well marbled as a brisket or pork butt, so you'll get better results if you cook this cut quicker than you would typically cook using the WSM. I opened the bottom air vents and let the cooker temperature rise to 300 degrees.

If you want a medium rare tri tip, you may want to pull the meat off the grill a little earlier because the meat continued to cook while resting. By the time I sliced it open, the tri tip was closer to medium well than medium rare, which is what I actually wanted anyway.

I sauced my tri tip with Ole Ray's Apple Cinnamon Barbecue Sauce.

If you try this recipe, you'll want to flip the meat periodically to ensure it doesn't burn on either side. I flipped it about every 20 minutes in the WSM and it came out perfectly.