GrillinFools
With this Tri Tip Chimichurri Sandwich, we find that chimi isn’t just a dipping sauce. It makes for a mean condiment. Add in some thin sliced, reverse seared tri tip and a thick layer of gooey pepper havarti and this could be on the Mt. Rushmore of sandwiches. Truth be told, I came up with this sandwich as part of a promotional campaign for an outdoor pellet heater made by Even Embers. The tri tip sandwich was one of those things that just sounded good, but it was beyond good. It was amazing so I decided to add it to the website scroll down to see how I cross hatched that sourdough loaf. Yeah, I cross hatched my sourdough.
My deal with Even Embers did not include this recipe post. But I wanted to explain why I was sporting a Hawaiian Shirt on a 31F degree day in St. Louis. Here’s the video we shot:
Tri Tip Chimichurri Sandwich Ingredients:
- 1 tri tip, approximately 1.5 – 2.5 lbs
- Your favorite beef seasoning, I used Prime IV black garlic seasoning
- 2 loaves of sour dough bread, unsliced
- 1 stick of salted butter
- 1 teaspoon black garlic seasoning
- 1 teaspoon chipotle seasoning
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- Pinch of fresh ground nutmeg
- Pinch of fresh ground cinnamon
- 8 ounces of pepper havarti
Chimichurri Sauce Ingredients:
- 1 cup flat leaf parsley
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- A handful of turns of a pepper grinder
- 1/2 cup olive oil (don’t worry about it being extra virgin because 99% of us can’t really tell the difference with all these other bold flavors included)
First up is the beef tri tip. I’m not sure what was going on with this one. It was almost like my grocery store is cutting them in half. Normally there are two muscles that meat in the middle of the tri tip and thus the muscle fibers run in two different directions making them a tiny bit tricky to slice across the grain. I’m also not sure this was much more than a pound. Did I mention it was pre-marinated? I prefer it not pre-marinated so don’t sweat that if yours is. Remove it from the package and trim off any heavy fat pockets:
The orange coloring is the marinade it came packaged with that I washed off. Before we go any further, let’s explain a few things.
What is Tri Tip?
Tri Tip is a beef roast from the bottom of the sirloin primal cut. After the sirloin was carved into the various cuts, there was this weird triangular shaped piece at the bottom that was usually ground into burger which is a whisker better than being discarded. The tri tip typically runs between 1.5 and 2.5 pounds. Cowboys in the Santa Maria region of California rescued them from the grinder and started cooking them over open fire and found that sirloin slow cooked in a roast like this yielded much better beef than they got from the typical sirloin steak and now we see them all over the country. They are a phenomenal way to feed 4-6 people. Just be careful of the grain of the meat. Being two muscles meeting in the middle, the grain of the meat runs two ways and requires it to be sliced two different ways.
Season the sirloin roast with the beef seasoning. We used some Prime IV Black Garlic which I highly recommend:
How to Reverse Sear Tri Tip:
Place our seasoned tri tip roast on a smoker and cook until it reaches 110F-115F. Then remove the roast from the grill and crank it up to 500F with a cast iron pan. Once the pan reaches north of 400F, place the tri tip in the cast iron and sear on each side until some nice tasty char appears. Remove tri tip from the grill/cast iron and allow to rest for a few minutes. Cast iron is optional. 400F+ grill grates will also work, but cast iron gives the best char. See below for picture-by-picture instructions
Once the tri tip is seasoned on both sides, I placed it on my pellet smoker at 300F:
See! It looks tiny!
Now head inside and prepare the compound butter and chimi. For the butter, soften a stick of butter in the microwave and them mix in the chipotle, black garlic and smoked paprika:
Mix that in well:
Now grab a microplane or cheese grater and give a nutmeg a few rasps across the metal:
Then repeat with a cinnamon stick:
Some are cringing at the cinnamon and nutmeg. We have the chipotle seasoning in there to counter it as well as that pepper havarti. Trust me.
Then slice the bread lengthwise:
Slather the two cut sides of the bread with that compound butter:
Make sure to get all the way to the edges. The outer edges will burn fastest, particularly without the butter. Also, there should be plenty of butter for a second loaf should you have a normal size tri tip which will necessitate a second loaf.
Also, combine the chimi ingredients in a food processor and whip up a batch in about 20 seconds.
Now out to the grill. I sparked up my gas grill to toast that sourdough:
Once I got some grill marks, I rotated the bread to get cross hatch grill marks:
Yeah, I cross hatch my bread.
Remove the sourdough from the grill and head back to the smoker. Oh, I almost forgot the pellet heater. I had this right across from my pellet cooker and, between the two, I wasn’t miserable even in shorts on a 31F degree day that had a windchill of 17:
Back to my tri tip. It has reached about 120F so I pulled it from the smoker and cranked the pellet grill up to 500F and placed a cast iron skillet inside:
Once my cast iron skillet was above 400F, I dropped the tri tip back in to get some char:
It only took a couple minutes:
Evidently the marinade had some sugar in it so I didn’t go for any more char than what you see here on this side.
I charred the other side and once the beef hit 135F-140F we were done:
I know some of you are wondering why I didn’t go rare like I normally do. Because rare tri tip can be stringy. I always take it to medium rare to medium. I know, blasphemy, but in this case I go beyond rare.
I removed the reverse seared tri tip from the grill. I dropped the temp in the pellet smoker back to 300F. I also let the tri tip rest for a couple minutes. At 31F degrees outside, had I waited beyond a couple minutes it would’ve been an steak-cicle:
Gotta test that beef:
\
Be sure to slice thin across the grain:
How to make a Tri Tip Chimichurri Sandwich
Now stack that toasted sour dough with thin sliced tri tip steak:
Then top with the cheese:
Now place the almost assembled sandwich back into the smoker:
Once the cheese melts, the tri tip sandwich is done:
Time for the chimichurri:
Assemble the tri tip sandwich and carve into a bunch of smaller sandwiches, OR, go to town on the full on monster sando:
That smile right there says it all:
Tri Tip Chimichurri Sandwich Recap
This would be an outstanding way to feed a big crowd for say the Super… er… Big Game at the beginning of February. Make a bunch of tri tip sandwiches a couple hours before the game, wrap each on in foil and place in a cambro or wrap in towels and put in an empty cooler. They will be heavenly even after a couple hours.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.
And if you could leave us a great review that would be most appreciated!
Also, you can follow us on our GrillinFools Facebook page, Instagram, and YouTube feeds
Tri Tip Chimichurri Sandwich
Ingredients
Tri Tip Sandwich Ingredients
- 1 Tri tip 1.5 - 2.5 lbs
- Your favorite beef seasoning I used Prime IV black garlic seasoning
- 2 Loaves Sourdough bread, unsliced
- 1 stick Butter, salted
- 1 teaspoon Chipotle seasoning
- 1 teaspoon Black garlic seasoning I used Prime IV black garlic seasoning
- 1 teaspoon Smoked paprika Substitute sweet if that's all you have
- 1 pinch Nutmeg, fresh ground
- 1 pinch Cinnamon, fresh ground
- 8 ounces Pepper havarti
Chimichurri Ingredients
- 1 cup Flat leaf parsley
- 1 tablespoon Dried oregano
- 2 cloves Garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon Red pepper flakes
- ¼ cup Red wine vinegar
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- Fresh ground pepper to taste
- ½ cup Olive oil
Instructions
Chimichurri Instructions
- Combine the chimichurri ingredients in a food processor
- Blend thoroughly
- Set aside
Tri Tip Sandwich Grilling Instructions
- Remove any large fatty sections from the outside of the tri tip
- Season with black garlic (which has plenty of salt so no extra needed)
- Set smoker to 300F
- Place the tri tip on the smoker
- While the tri tip smokes, prepare the compound butter and the bread
- Soften the butter in the microwave
- Add the chipotle, black garlic, paprika, and nutmeg and mix well
- Slice the bread lengthwise and spread the butter on the sliced sides of the bread
- Spark up another grill to medium heat and toast the buttered side of the bread
- Once the bread is toasted on each side pull off the grill and set aside
- When the tri-tip hits 120F remove it from the pellet grill and crank the cooker up to 500F and set a cast iron pan in the grill
- When the cast iron is registering north of 400F, sear the sirloin roast (that's what a tri tip is) on both sides to take it to 135F-140F
- Once the tri tip has seared on both sides, remove it from the cooker to rest and set the grill to 300F
- After a few minute rest, slice the sirloin roast thin across the grain
- Stack the slices of tri tip on the bread and top with the pepper havarti
- Place the open face sandwich and the bread for the top next to it on the grill
- Close the lid till the cheese melts and the bread softens
- Remove the open face sandwich and bread topper and spread the chimichurri over the top
- Assemble the sandwich
- Slice the monster sandwich with a serrated knife and enjoy
Video
Scott Thomas
Latest posts by Scott Thomas (see all)
- Just Keep Flipping Flat Iron Steak - May 26, 2023
- Grilled Steak Crostini Recipe - May 18, 2023
- Traditional Santa Maria Tri Tip - May 5, 2023
