Name: California Barbecued Tri-Tip
Total time: 2 h 20 min
Cuisine: CaliforniaAmericanUS & Canada
Ingredients: 1 tri-tip roast (about 2 pounds) , trimmed; 6 garlic cloves , minced; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 3/4 teaspoon salt; 2 cups wood chips , preferably oak; 1 teaspoon pepper; 3/4 teaspoon garlic salt

Why This Recipe Works

Unlike other barbecue recipes, California Barbecued Tri-Tip recipes cook the meat over high heat and season it only with salt, pepper, garlic, and the sweet smoke of the grill. This consistently produces a charred exterior and very rare center—but we wanted the outside cooked less and the inside cooked more. To achieve this, we pushed all the coals in our grill to one side, which created a hot zone for cooking and a cooler one for finishing the meat slowly. Searing our California Barbecued Tri-Tip directly above smoldering wood chips left it tasting like the inside of a chimney, but holding off on the wood chips until after we’d seared the meat and moved it to the cool part of the grill lessened the impact of the smoke.

Before You Begin

If you can't find tri-tip, bottom round is an acceptable alternative. The traditional accompaniments to tri-tip are Santa Maria Salsa and California Barbecued Beans.

Instructions

Pat roast dry with paper towels. Using fork, prick roast about 20 times on each side. Combine garlic, oil, and salt and rub over roast. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or up to 24 hours.

Soak wood chips in bowl of water to cover for 15 minutes. Open bottom vents on grill. Light large chimney starter filled with charcoal briquettes (about 100 coals) and burn until charcoal is covered with fine gray ash. Pour hot coals in even layer over one half of grill. Set cooking grate in place, cover, open lid vents completely, and let grill heat for 5 minutes. Scrape cooking grate clean.

Using paper towels, wipe garlic paste off roast. Rub pepper and garlic salt all over meat. Grill directly over coals until well browned, about 5 minutes per side. Carefully remove roast and cooking grate from grill and scatter wood chips over coals. Replace cooking grate and arrange roast on cooler side of grill. Cover, positioning lid vents directly over meat, and cook until roast registers about 130 degrees (for medium-rare), about 20 minutes. Transfer meat to cutting board, tent loosely with foil, and let rest for 20 minutes. Slice thinly across the grain. Serve.