Garlic Butter Tri Tip
Reverse-seared tri tip basted in foaming garlic-herb butter, then sliced into the drippings. Rich, savory, steakhouse style.
Steakhouses finish a ribeye by basting it in foaming garlic-herb butter, and tri tip takes to the same treatment. You cook it gently to just under temperature, then finish it in a screaming cast-iron skillet with butter, garlic, and woody herbs, spooning the butter over the meat until the crust sets.
Reverse-searing first is what makes the baste work. By the time the tri tip hits the pan it only needs a minute or two a side, which is just enough to brown the outside and infuse the butter without overcooking the interior.
Pour every bit of the garlic butter over the sliced meat. Between the herbs, the toasted garlic, and the beef drippings, it is a finishing sauce you didn’t have to make separately.
Ingredients
- 1 whole tri tip roast (2-3 lbs), trimmed
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 6 cloves garlic, smashed
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 1 tablespoon neutral oil
Instructions
- 1
Season the tri tip with salt and pepper and let it sit uncovered in the fridge for at least an hour, or overnight.
Salting ahead and leaving it uncovered dries the surface, which is the single biggest thing standing between you and a good sear.
- 2
Cook low first: set a grill or oven to 250 degrees F and bring the tri tip to about 115 degrees F internal, 45 minutes to an hour.
This is the reverse-sear backbone. Gentle heat first gives you edge-to-edge pink with no gray band.
- 3
Get a cast-iron skillet ripping hot with the oil. Sear the tri tip 1 to 2 minutes per side until deeply browned.
Cast iron holds heat better than a grate and gives the butter baste somewhere to pool.
- 4
Drop in the butter, garlic, thyme, and rosemary. As it foams, tilt the pan and spoon the butter over the meat for 1 to 2 minutes, until it reaches 130 degrees F internal.
Foaming butter means the water has cooked off and it is hot enough to brown. Keep basting and don’t let the garlic burn.
- 5
Rest 10 minutes, slice against the grain, and pour the garlic butter from the pan over the slices.
That pan butter is the sauce. Don’t waste it.