Mustard Tri Tip
The simplest tri tip there is: French’s yellow mustard, a heavy coat of kosher salt, and a hot grill. The mustard cooks off into a deep, savory bark.
Cooking for a bigger table? The tri tip serving calculator sizes the roast for any head count.
California isn’t really on the national barbecue map, and maybe that’s how we like it. Texas owns beef, Kansas City and Memphis fight over pork, and out here we lay claim to one cut that’s truly ours… the tri tip. This is the simplest way I know to cook it, and it is a crowd favorite.
Yellow mustard, kosher salt, a hot grill. That’s the whole thing. I honestly can’t tell you exactly where I first learned it. Two different guys I worked for, TR and Ted, both out of Ventura, cooked their tri tip almost this same way. Ted’s was good. TR’s was more effective and more consistent, and that’s the one that stuck with me.
The mustard trick throws people off, but it works. The mustard flavor itself cooks off completely, leaving behind a tacky surface that grabs the salt and builds a real crust. Don’t reach for anything fancy. Plain yellow French’s is the move.
The make-or-break step is the slicing. Tri tip’s grain changes direction partway through, so rest it a full 10 minutes, find the grain, and cut thin across it. Get that wrong and even a perfectly cooked tri tip turns chewy. Skip the BBQ sauce and serve it with pico de gallo instead, the SoCal way.
Which cooker to use
Charcoal grill This is the recipe as written. The mustard needs direct flame to cook off and set into bark, so don’t shorten the five to six minutes a side even when it looks dark early.
Santa Maria grill Low over the coals is your direct heat here, and raising the grate is the only indirect you get. Build the bark down low, then raise it well up to finish and give it a few extra minutes, since an open grate loses the heat a closed lid keeps around the meat.
Smoker A light smoke suits a rub this plain, since there’s nothing in it to compete. Keep the wood sparse and the cook short, because salt and mustard give smoke nothing to hide behind and this one turns acrid faster than a heavily rubbed roast would.
Oven You’ll get the salt crust but not the bark, because the mustard wants flame to caramelize and not just heat. Run it under the broiler for the last couple of minutes if you want anything close to the grilled version.
Sous vide The bark is the entire recipe and a bath can’t make one. Searing afterward gets you color but not the tacky mustard crust, which needs the whole cook over fire to build.
Ingredients
- 1 whole tri tip roast (2 to 3 lbs), trimmed
- French’s yellow mustard, enough to coat the roast (about 2 to 3 tablespoons)
- Kosher salt, a liberal coat (about 1 to 1.5 tablespoons)
Instructions
- 1
Pat the tri tip dry, then coat it all over with a liberal layer of French’s yellow mustard. Work it into every surface with your hands until the whole roast is covered.
Plain yellow mustard, not Dijon. French’s is what this recipe is built on. It goes on as a binder first and a flavor second.
- 2
Season the whole roast heavily with kosher salt, right over the wet mustard. Do not be shy with it. Let it sit about 30 minutes at room temperature while the grill comes up to heat.
Salt is the only seasoning here, so use more than feels normal. The mustard helps every grain grab and hold.
- 3
Build a two-zone fire. Sear the tri tip over direct heat about 5 to 6 minutes per side, until a dark, crusted bark forms.
The mustard browns fast. Pull it at a deep mahogany, not black.
- 4
Slide the roast to the indirect side, close the lid, and cook to a medium-rare 130 degrees F, about 20 to 25 minutes depending on thickness.
Tri tip is lean and keeps climbing after it leaves the grill, so pull it a few degrees early and let the rest finish the job.
- 5
Rest the tri tip 10 to 15 minutes, then slice it thin against the grain. The grain changes direction partway through the roast, so cut it in two where the lines shift and slice each piece against its own grain.
Skip the BBQ sauce. Serve it with pico de gallo instead, the SoCal way, the way TR did.
Nutrition Facts
Per serving
- Calories
- 350
- Protein
- 42 g
- Fat
- 17 g
- Sat. Fat
- 7 g
- Carbs
- 1 g
- Fiber
- 0 g
- Sodium
- 700 mg
- Cholesterol
- 105 mg
Values are estimates based on standard ingredients and serving sizes.
Join the BBQ Tri Tip Newsletter
Recipes worth firing up the grill for, products I actually use, and any new BBQ Tri Tip news that comes my way. A couple of emails a month, from Luis Ramirez.