Grilled Tri Tip Steak with Chimichurri

Grilled tri tip steak with chimichurri is something our family is really well acquainted with. As I have mentioned before, we own a catering company here in Utah called Rockwell Catering and Events. We do all kinds of events from your corporate summertime party to your cousin’s wedding reception and even your son’s football team banquet. In other words, we do it all. One thing we make loads of is tri tip steak. I am not joking when I say we do thousands of pounds of this stuff a year. And so often, it is served with chimichurri.

What is chimichurri anyways? It’s merely a bunch of herbs, garlic and vinegar blitzed together with some olive oil. If you know how to make a smoothie, you know how to make grilled tri tip steak with chimichurri. It’s also a flexible thing. You can change up the type of vinegar you use or the type of herbs. More garlic, none at all- whatever your preferences are. Chimichurri also keeps in the fridge really well. Whatever I have leftover gets put on fried eggs in the morning or used as a salad dressing for dinner.

Maybe my favorite cut of beef

If I am choosing what kind of meat I am going to put on the grill, I will almost always choose tri tip. It seems to always turn out delicious. It takes on marinades well or tastes fabulous with plain ol’ salt and pepper. It’s low in fat and it cooks quickly. You can put it on a sandwich roll or wrap it in a tortilla for tacos.

I have seen a lot of recipes around the internet for smoking tri tip steak. I wouldn’t do that. Higher fat meats do better with the low and slow smoke method. With tri tip, a long smoke can just turn it into leather. There isn’t enough fat to disperse through the meat. Now you might have had some amazing smoked tri tip once upon a time and that’s great. But for me, I don’t want to smoke it. Instead, I would grill it, just to mark the outside. Then I would put it in the smoker on high heat to finish cooking through to a nice mid-rare.

Notes on preparing grilled tri tip steak with chimichurri

• I have included a seasoning blend for you to season up the tri tip, but you are welcome to use whatever you want. Some kosher salt and ground pepper would work. A store-bought marinade would be delicious. I also love Montreal steak seasoning on anything beef. Do what your family likes!
• Like I said before, leftover chimichurri keeps just great in the fridge. I would say about a week and a half. Toss it with some roasted potatoes, put it in pasta salad, drizzle over some roasted salmon or my favorite- eat it with fried eggs. I really just want fried eggs with anything.
• You have heard it before, but I will say it again. If you can remember to, pull your tri tip out of the fridge before grilling. Let it sit on the countertop for an hour or two. Less cold meat does better on a hot grill. Same idea as room-temperature eggs and butter do better in cookies.

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Cooking equipment used in this recipe

• Shun Classic Chef’s Knife

Listened to while in the kitchen

• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat (the Donny Osmond version is the very best!)