Oak Smoked Coffee Crusted Tri Tip

To my surprise Patti found a large Tri Tip in the freezer. I had wanted to do a long slow smoke on one for some time now. So, I bet you can already guess what happened. We smoked up some of Patti’s stuffed potato balls, bacon wrapped asparagus, stuffed mushrooms and a garlic skillet along with that beautiful Tri Tip roast. Patti had wonderful dreams about a casserole of leftovers.

We put a nice coffee crust on that big chunk of meat and smoked it for 5 hours with oak pellets. You can see in the picture above how it came out. Tender, rare and just layered with flavors of the smoke, the coffee rub and the rich beefy taste of the Tri tip. We can’t wait to do my next one.

The Royall 3000 Wood Pellet Grill / Smoker is what we use most. You can do things on it you just can’t do with gas or charcoal. I like that it takes all the “difficult” out of smoking. No fire to start or coals to fool with and maintain. You can just choose the type of wood pellet you want for your smoke flavor (there are 14 that I know of) and turn it on. You can set the temperature from 80 – 425/450 degrees put on your meat or whatever and shut the lid. The pellets burn to a 2% ash, so clean up is so simple and you just turn it off when you are done. You’re cooking with 100% natural wood, clean and full of that old fashioned wood fired BBQ taste. Wonderful flavor, simplified.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 5 hours @ 180

Grill: Royall 3000 Wood Pellet Grill

Pellets: Oak

Ingredients:

Tri Tip roast

Injectable marinade of choice, Patti likes to use wine or different juices

Dry Rub of choice (recipe for the coffee rub is on our web site)

Looking Good on the Royall 3000

Directions:

I injected a Creole Garlic marinade putting in as much as it would hold. Then, we let it rest overnight in the fridge. Do this to your taste and liking, but it is by no means necessary for this piece of meat. Then, I put a good coat of my coffee rub on it and worked it into the meat as best I could with my fingers. Repeating the process again after I pulled the meat from the fridge to get it to room temperature. You want to put steaks and roasts on the grill at room temputure so that they cook more evenly. Whereas burgers you do cold because they hold together better.

Cooking Directions: Royall Wood Pellet Grill

Open the lid and set the dial to “Smoke”180 , turn it on. After about five minutes you can shut the lid. Give it about 10 minutes to heat up. Patti has lined the drip pan with foil for me, it makes for easier clean up.

Place the Tri Tip directly onto the grill and just let it hang out in the smoke and get happy for 5 hours or so. This is referred to as “smoking”; the temperature is around 165-180 degrees.

I had a remote temperature probe in it set for 130. When the meat reaches an internal temp of around 130 pull it off, cover it and let it rest for 10 minutes before serving. This will be rare to medium rare. Keep in mind that the meat will continue cooking for another 10 degrees after you pull it off the grill. So, for medium, pull it at 140 and overdone 160. USDA SAYS 140 degrees, I think that will ruin this cut of meat.

Note: I get a lot of questions about the kind of pellets you can use with a recipe. Keep in mind that a recipe is just an outline. Some you need follow closely like when you are making bread, but most you can do anything you can dream, our favorite way to cook. Feel free to mix and match the pellets until you find a combination you really like. Also, you are only smoking at temps less than 250 degrees, anything higher is cooking and there will not be much if any smoke so it does not matter what kind of pellet you are using.

Directions: Gas Grill

Just can’t do this on a gas grill…

Preparing Charcoal Smoker

Get the smoker ready, you will want your temperature of around 180 degrees. Remember, you are going low and slow here. This will take all day (5-6 hours); make sure you have plenty of cold beer.

Cooking In the Oven:

180 degrees’ for 5 hours

We have been getting requests for recipe conversions for the oven. I tell folks all the time that cooking on a Royall Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker is just as easy as cooking in your oven. Just about anyone can do it and do it well. Think about it. You set your control knob to the temp you want, put your meat in and leave it for a set time.

It is the same thing, time and temp. is what it is all about. The Royall is just like your oven, except it uses wood pellets and has wheels.

If you want to smoke in your oven they sell oven smokers for that. I, myself, would not spend the money on one of those when you can make your own out of foil.

Foil smoke packets. (Two handfuls wet chips and one dry, fold foil into a packet, poke holes in it with a fork and you’re good to go.) Just set it in the oven. You might want to make sure you turn on your vent fan or your house will fill up with smoke. You will give your alarms a good work out.

5 hours @ 180 on the Royall Wood Pellet Grill / Smoker

About our Recipes

We do our recipes on our patio where we have a lineup of grills, including Royall Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker, Traeger, Char Griller side box smoker, Charmglow, Char-Broil, The Big Easy, Brinkman and Weber. I call it our “Wall of Grill”. Our grilling styles are healthy and low fat and will fit pellet heads, gas, natural wood and even charcoal purists. Almost any of our recipes can be done on any kind of good BBQ.

The important thing to keep in mind is TIME & TEMPERATURE. You can even do some of them in the oven or crock pot, but, then you lose all the flavors you get from cooking outdoors. But sometimes it does rain.

Remember that a recipe is simply an outline; it is not written in stone. Don’t be afraid to make changes to suit your taste.

Take it and run with it….

Live Your Passion,

Ken & Patti

http://datenightdoins.com