As the weather starts to turn towards winter, a dish like tri tip with creamy mushroom sauce feels just right. Just because it’s not warm anymore doesn’t mean it’s not grilling season. At our house, we cook on our Traegers 12 months of the year, and this dish highlights that. This dish features a perfectly-cooked reverse-seared tri tip and a hearty, creamy sauce with mushrooms and herbs. Served with some crispy potatoes and steamed asparagus, it’s gourmet at home and tastes amazing!
TRI TIP IS MY FAVORITE CUT
As you probably know, tri tip is one of my favorite cuts of meat. It’s flavorful, rich, tender and takes on the flavor of the Traeger wood-fired smoke really well. In addition, it’s a big enough cut that it can feed a larger family or provide plentiful leftovers for smaller families like ours. One of the reasons it’s so great for serving to a crowd is you end up with varying degrees of doneness in one roast, simply because of its size and shape.
In the middle of the roast, the meat will be more rare/medium-rare. And on the edges, it’ll be more well-done for those that prefer their meat more cooked. Regardless of where your dinner guests pull their slices from, though, the meat will be flavorful and tender. It’s just the perfect dish!
IT’S GETTING TO BE SAUCE SEASON
Often, we just grill up a steak and serve it as-is, because the flavor of good quality meat cannot be beat. When seasoned properly with good-quality seasonings like my Spiceology blends, a great steak, cooked well and with flavorful fuel like on the Traeger, you need nothing more.
But as the cooler season has started, it also compels us to make recipes that incorporate more rich flavors. It results in warm, comforting and unique dishes that satisfy and keep us fueled up. This creamy mushroom sauce is a good example of that.
I’m not normally much of a mushroom guy, but when cooked up in lots of butter and garlic, and doused in cream, I have a hard time turning it down. For this cook, we made up the sauce on the induction burner that is alongside the Traeger Timberline XL. It’s great to be able to use the grill for all portions of this cook, and it makes clean up a breeze.
Prepared mushroom sauce ingredients Creamy mushroom sauce
SOURCING YOUR MEAT
Tri tip is notoriously difficult to find. Fifteen years ago, it was a cut that you could only get in California. Then it seemed to move east a bit, and we could find it on occasion here in Colorado. Not consistently, but occasionally, and we’d snatch it up. For a while, you could only find it at Costco around here.
No days, we pick up our tri tips from Snake River Farms, which makes terrific meat and amazing cuts accessible across the country. The meat comes frozen solid, and it gives us the chance to make dinner on the fly(ish) by defrosting a roast in the morning for dinner that night. It takes a little planning-ahead, but we’re continuing to work on being better about that!
PRIMARY INGREDIENTS
- Tri tip roast from Snake River Farms
- Seasoning of your choice– we used my Coffee Junkie rub
- Almond oil as a binder
- Butter
- Button mushrooms
- Shallot
- Garlic
- Dijon mustard
- Worcestershire sauce
- Thyme
- Chicken broth
- Half & half
- Salt and pepper
WHY COOKING TRI TIP ON THE TRAEGER WORKS
Like with all steak we cook, reverse seared tri tip on the Traeger cannot be beat. I really believe that the best food is stuff you cook at home, and this is no different. When a food like tri tip is reverse seared, it is given the opportunity to cook slowly and consistently throughout before being seared hot and fast. In doing so, flavor is imbued throughout the meat from the beginning and the juices and flavor are sealed in at the end of the cook.
You don’t have to do a long rest when you reverse sear either, because the slow method of cooking stresses the fibers of the meats less, and juices stay fairly well distributed throughout the roast. A few minutes is all you need before you slice into this tri tip and serve it with creamy mushroom sauce.
For the sauce, we used the auxiliary induction burner on our Traeger Timberline XL to whip up the sauce. While the steak is reverse searing, we put a pan on the induction and cooked up the mushrooms, shallots and garlic in some butter. Once they were browned, we added the cream and chicken broth and the sauce came together in just a few minutes. By cooking this on the Traeger, we kept clean-up to a minimum and flavor to a maximum!
Seasoned tri tip Tri tip on the Traeger
STEP-BY-STEP
- Defrost your tri tip roast, unwrap it and pat it with a paper towel.
- Rub a thin coating of almond oil on all sides of the roast.
- Then season the roast generously with Coffee Junkie seasoning.
- Preheat our Traeger grill to 225* with the super smoke feature enabled.
- When the grill is hot, place the seasoned roast in the center of the rack and close the lid.
- Allow the roast to smoke for about 45 minutes or until it reaches an internal temperature of 120*.
- While the tri tip cooks, prepare the ingredients for the sauce.
- Rinse and slice the mushrooms.
- Slice the shallot thinly.
- Crush the garlic and wash the thyme.
- As the steak is approaching an internal temperature of 120, preheat your Ranger grill (if using) to get it very hot. If you’re using the same grill for low cooking and searing, add grill grates or a cast iron plate to the grill to begin preheating as the steak cooks.
- When the steak reaches 120* internally, pull it from the grill and tent it loosely with foil.
- Turn up the grill temperature to high and allow the grill grates or cast iron to get very hot.
- Then, add the steak to the grill and sear it for about 90 seconds per side, until the internal temperature reaches about 130*.
- Pull the steak from the grill and put it on a plate, tented again loosely with foil.
- While the steak rests, make the sauce.
- In a big saucepan, melt the butter on the induction burner.
- Add the sliced mushrooms and shallots to the butter and allow to cook.
- Stir in the garlic, mustard and worcestershire sauce.
- Once the mushrooms have begun to brown, stir in the chicken broth and half and half.
- Stir constantly to prevent the half and half from scalding.
- Cook the sauce, stirring frequently, until the liquid has reduced by half.
- Add the thyme and lots of freshly cracked black pepper.
- Season to taste with salt and remove from the heat.
- Slice the tri tip to serve and plate alongside the creamy mushroom sauce.
OTHER WAYS TO COOK TRI TIP ON YOUR TRAEGER
- Tri tip is one of my favorite things to cook, and here’s a unique take on cooking tri tip cooked like a brisket results in delicious tender bites but a smaller size so you’re not overwhelmed with leftovers. Tri tip smoked like a brisket.
- Leftover tri tip is one of the best pizza toppings around. Give this recipe for pizza a try!
- You can also marinate a tri tip before cooking it, like this recipe recommends.
- A great simple reverse seared tri tip with bourbon sauce.
- There’s also a tri tip in my cookbook, which you can pick up here.
Products used in this cook:
- Traeger Timberline XL
- Traeger Ranger
- Snake River Farms tri tip
- All Clad skillet
- Meater thermometer
- Coffee Junkie rub from Spiceology
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Traeger Grilled Tri Tip with Creamy Mushroom Sauce
Equipment
- Traeger Timberline XL grill
- Traeger Ranger
- Knife and cutting board
- Large flat-bottomed skillet
- Aluminum foil
- Meater thermometer
Ingredients
- 1 Tri tip roast about 2 pounds
- 6 tbsp seasoning of your choice we used my Coffee Junkie rub
- 3 tbsp almond oil
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 pound button mushrooms
- 1 small shallot
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 1/2 cup half & half
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Defrost your tri tip roast, unwrap it and pat it with a paper towel.
- Rub a thin coating of almond oil on all sides of the roast.
- Then season the roast generously with Coffee Junkie seasoning.
- Preheat our Traeger grill to 225* with the super smoke feature enabled.
- When the grill is hot, place the seasoned roast in the center of the rack and close the lid.
- Allow the roast to smoke for about 45 minutes or until it reaches an internal temperature of 120*.
- While the tri tip cooks, prepare the ingredients for the sauce.
- Rinse and slice the mushrooms.
- Slice the shallot thinly.
- Crush the garlic and wash the thyme.
- As the steak is approaching an internal temperature of 120, preheat your Ranger grill (if using) to get it very hot. If you’re using the same grill for low cooking and searing, add grill grates or a cast iron plate to the grill to begin preheating as the steak cooks.
- When the steak reaches 120* internally, pull it from the grill and tent it loosely with foil.
- Turn up the grill temperature to high and allow the grill grates or cast iron to get very hot.
- Then, add the steak to the grill and sear it for about 90 seconds per side, until the internal temperature reaches about 130*.
- Pull the steak from the grill and put it on a plate, tented again loosely with foil.
- While the steak rests, make the sauce.
- In a big saucepan, melt the butter on the induction burner.
- Add the sliced mushrooms and shallots to the butter and allow to cook.
- Stir in the garlic, mustard and worcestershire sauce.
- Once the mushrooms have begun to brown, stir in the chicken broth and half and half.
- Stir constantly to prevent the half and half from scalding.
- Cook the sauce, stirring frequently, until the liquid has reduced by half.
- Add the thyme and lots of freshly cracked black pepper.
- Season to taste with salt and remove from the heat.
- Slice the tri tip to serve and plate alongside the creamy mushroom sauce.
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