Preheat the oven to 400° and set the baking rack in the middle.
Pat the tri tip dry using a paper towel.
Coat the roast with olive oil and tri tip seasoning or your favorite seasoning mix and place on the baking sheet fat cap up.
Next, cook the roast to 5 degrees below desired final temperature. For best results, use a meat thermometer and begin checking a few minutes before it should be done.
Then, remove it from the oven, cover with foil, and let rest on the baking sheet for 10 minutes.
The roast will continue cooking and the temperature will rise by approximately 5 degrees as it sits. (see time and temperature chart below)
Slice to the desired thickness, and serve with your favorite side dishes.
Notes
Tri Tip Temperature Chart
Doneness
Temp Removed FromOven
Rested/Final Temp
Cooking Time Per Pound
Rare
120°
125°
13 Minutes
Medium Rare
130
135°
15 Minutes
Medium
140°
145°
16 Minutes
Medium-Well
145°
155°
17 Minutes
Well
155°
165°
18 Minutes
How to Cut Tri Tip the Right Way
The most important thing to remember when slicing tri tip is to cut against the grain. This can be a little bit tricky because the triangular shaped roast will have grain running in two directions.
The first step is to identify the grain direction. You can do this by turning the roast over and looking at the bottom side where it is more defined.
Then, place your knife perpendicular to the grain and slice to the desired thickness. When I serve tri tip as the main dish, I cut ¼ inch slices. You can go thicker to have more steak-like pieces or thinner for tri tip sandwiches.
Why cut tri tip against the grain?In the picture below, I’ve cut a piece with the grain to compare it to a piece cut against the grain.You’ll notice that the piece cut with the grain still has the long fibers still intact. The long fibers are stronger and harder to chew. The piece cut against or perpendicular to the grain has short, easy to chew fibers. The knife easily cuts through meat doing the hard work for you.How many people will a tri tip serve?This will depend on how big the tri tip is and how big your appetite is. I recommend around ⅓ of a pound raw weight per person. A two pound roast will serve up to six people.