Tri-Tip in the crock pot could not be easier. There is no browning, no trimming the fat, just season and walk away. But finding Tri-Tip in the grocery store here in Oklahoma used to be a challenge. Or maybe it was just my own personal challenge because I do not have cuts of meat memorized. Imagine that! If I chose not to memorize my own mother's phone number because I can always look it up on my cell phone then why in the world would I memorize cuts of meat?? I always knew that all I needed to do was press the call button at the grocery store and ask the butcher but what if he asked me if I wanted sirloin or roast? (see, I really have no idea if those are a location on the cow or a names for a certain cut of meat) I did not feel like I could answer a single question the butcher might ask except to repeat my request for Tri-Tip with "I had it when I lived in California and I know it is very inexpensive."
Tri-Tip was originally used only for ground beef and was shipped primarily to California to be used as a cheap cut of beef. Here go read about it. When we would visit my ex-husbands uncle in Santa Barbara his uncle would always make it and act like it was meat of the gods. He would load up a spray bottle and spray it with a soy sauce, oil and water mixture about every hour. All the while telling me that I was going to have the best piece of meat served in Santa Barbara. He also told me some cockamamie story that the name Tri-Tip came from where Santa Barbara was located in California. (Google fails to mention that) I later found out it was a super cheap cut of meat and the reason he had to cook it all day and keep it marinated was to make it edible.
Fast forward to now. Now, I try to cook at home almost every night and since I work full time I need to use my crock pot as much as possible otherwise it would be chicken nuggets and fries in the toaster every night. (Not that there is anything wrong with that, uh huh, no way, just raising my own bar)
When we made our monthly trip to Sam's Club I spotted huge packages of Tri-Tip, cheap. We bought a couple packages and I split it up into family meal portions and froze it. I made some of it the other night and Oh my! It was delicious and flavorful. It is very versatile after it has been cooked. We have had it plain with just the seasoning it was cooked with and it has been made into BBQ sandwiches. Just think, if I wasn't such a twit I would have been making this all along just by asking the butcher. I do live in the state of Beef Producers after all they could have given me some before they shipped it off to Cali.
If you want to try a great beef dinner that does not take any browning and is not quite a roast, not quite a flank steak, not quite a brisket then drop the pride and ask your butcher for Tri-Tip if it is not in your meat counter.
- 2-3 lbs of Tri-Tip. (mine looked like 4 big boneless ribs not sure if that is normal or not. ASK YOUR BUTCHER)
- 1/2 cup of Beef Broth or 1/2 cup of water with dry beef broth mixed in
- 2 tbls of Worcestershire Sauce
- 1/2 packet of Dry Italian Dressing mix (Sam's needs to make this in a big bottle like the Ranch)
- Generous sprinkling of Garlic Salt
- 1 tbls of Ground Mustard
- 2-4 dashes of Hot Sauce
- drizzle of Olive Oil
Before adding the Tri-Tip mix the broth/water and Worcestershire together then put the meat in the Crock pot. Generously sprinkle the meat with Garlic Salt and Ground Mustard then sprinkle half the packet of Dry Italian Dressing Mix all over. Add a few dashes of your favorite Hot Sauce and drizzle lightly with Olive Oil. Cook on low for 8 hours. Serve it how you want as a sandwich, as a BBQ meat, as a meat side with it's own au jus, or just plain with a baked potato. It's all good!
(Link to recipe print out)
Oh, Sounds so good.. Thanks for sharing.. Hope you are having a great weekend....
Oh that sounds SO good. Yum!
your June 10th post about dinner is so heart warming ...I am sooo glad you enjoyed it.
tresh
Thanks for the tip, I'll tri it :)
Trying this tonight! I needed to find out how long to cook it in a crockpot and googled it, then found your post. Thanks for the info. Every time I've tried it in the oven, it was tough. I'm hoping the crockpot method is much more tender.
I've only had tri-tip on the BBQ. This is awesome in the crockpot. Thanks for sharing! --Ojai, CA
I didn't have any italian dressing mix so I just poured on some italian dressing. It was so yummy! We used to live just near Santa Barbara so we've always always grilled tri tip before this. We shredded this and ate it over mashed potatoes. BTW, a tri-tip roast is usually rather triangular with it thicker near the wide end.
Tri-Tip is awsome! I don't know why people shy away from it. If you cook it right on the BBQ is delicious. But more then often people don't know how to cut the meat against the grain. I cook Tri-Tip all the time in the crock pot to make taco's.
I have been having Tri-Tips now for about 15 years. Actually they are a roast. They can be sliced into thick steaks but they are a small roast. I usually use a good dry rub on them and then seal them in a tight ziploc bag overnight and then BBQ them. Awesome! I've also marinated them in homemake Teriyaki overnight and BBQ'd them. Today though I'm going to crock them for the first time and then make enchiladas with them. Yumm!!