Cast Iron Tri Tip Roast
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Cast Iron Tri Tip Roast is a perfect, quick, and easy dinner idea. Tri Tip is a super flavorful, tender, and delicious cut of beef! This recipe has just a few ingredients and is easily cooked on a stove top in cast iron or a skillet.
What is Tri Tip
Tri Tip is a lean, boneless triangular cut of beef that is super tender and juicy and usually comes in 1.5 to 2 pounds. Cut from the Bottom Sirloin.
It can be slow roasted, grilled, smoked or cook it in a nice cast iron skillet as demonstrated in this recipe. Tri tip is easy to cook and goes far to feed your family.
Tri tip is doesn’t need to be cooked for hours. This tender cut can be quickly cooked and sliced against the grain for a simple way to get some deliciously cooked steak on the table!!
Recommended Equipment
How to Cook Tri tip Steak in Cast Iron
Picture yourself and your loved ones sitting down to a perfectly cooked steak for dinner. This recipe makes a restaurant quality steak with very little effort on your part. Let’s walk through how to cook a tri tip on cast iron.
- Prepare Tri Tip– before you do anything, take the tri tip out of the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes to bring up the temperature. Ideally, you want it to be at room temperature, this will help it cook quickly.
- Season the Tri Tip– prepare the spice rub mixture by combining sea salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Season the tri tip liberally, I mean really layer it on all sides, pressing the seasoning into the meat as you go.
- Heat the Cast Iron– place the cast iron pan on the stovetop over medium high heat. Heat it for 1-2 minutes until it is hot. Pour in the avocado oil and swirl it around the bottom of the pan to coat.
- Brown the Tri Tip– place the tri tip into the cast iron pan and brown it on all sides, about 3 minutes per side.
- Cook the Tri Tip– once the roast is browned with a nice crust on both sides, turn the heat down to medium and continue to cook, turning every 3-4 minutes. Depending on the thickness of your steak, it should take about 5-7 minutes per side to cook to 125º F.
- Add More Flavor– for the last minute of cooking time, melt the butter in the pan and add in the garlic, shallots, and rosemary. Use a spoon to drizzle the melted butter over the tri tip.
- Rest– lastly, once the tri tip has reached your desired doneness temperature, remove from the pan to a cutting board and rest for at least 10 minutes to allow the juices to redistribute within the steak.
What Temperature for Tri Tip
You can easily adjust this recipe for your own family! We like our steaks at a nice Medium temperature, so I plan on cooking to about 130ºF.
I will remove it from the pan and allow it to continue to come up in temperature while it rests for about 10 minutes. The meat will continue to cook after being taken out of the cast iron pan.
The following is a guide for what final temperature you would cook it to from Rare to Well Done. Please note that at 10º prior to removing it from the pan, you will add the shallots, garlic, butter, and rosemary, and at 5º prior to your desired doneness you will remove it and allow it to rest.
- Rare: Final temperature 115ºF
- Medium Rare: Final temperature 125ºF
- Medium: Final temperature 135ºF
- Medium Well: Final temperature 140ºF
- Well Done: Final temperature 150ºF
The best way to check the doneness of your steak is with an instant read thermometer.
How to Slice Tri Tip
Tri tip needs to be sliced against the grain. Cutting against the grain helps it stay tender, otherwise it will be chewy and hard to eat.
Because of its shape, the muscles run in different directions, it is easiest to slice the two pieces apart and then slice those against the grain like in the photo above. Slice into 1/4 inch slices and serve while still warm!
Other Cast Iron Recipes to Try
If you love cooking with cast iron pans like I do, let me suggest some of our favorite recipes to make. These are all easy meals that I hope your family will love too.
What to Serve With Tri Tip Steak
This is easy to make into a complete meal. Serve this steak with a side of garlic butter asparagus, roasted potatoes, or even a watermelon salad. I have a ton of side dish recipes that all would be a perfect addition to this steak.
If you are looking for other Family Friendly meals or desserts follow along with me on YouTube or Facebook where I share simple recipes to help you with Feeding Your Fam! Make sure to subscribe so you will be notified when a new recipe is shared.
Cast Iron Skillet Tri Tip Roast
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2-3 pounds tri tip roast
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 shallots sliced
- 2 rosemary sprigs
TRI TIP RUB
- 1 tablespoon sea salt
- 1 tablespoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
Instructions
- Remove the tri tip from refrigerator and allow to come up in temperature about 30 minutes while you prepare other ingredients.
- Combine the spices and season the tri tip steak liberally on all sides.
- Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat add avocado oil. Place tri tip in skillet and brown on all sides, 3-4 minutes per side.
- Turn heat down to medium and cook tri tip for about 5-7 minutes on each side, flipping every 3-4 mintues.
- When the meat reaches an internal temperature of 125-126ºF (for medium) add in butter, garlic, shallots and rosemary. With a spoon, spoon the melted butter over the roast as it continues to cook and come up to temperature.
- Remove the roast from the pan once it is 5 degrees below your desired doneness, see post above. For this recipe the roast was cooked to 130ºF
- Allow the roast to rest for at least 10 mintues before slicing against the grain.
Video
Notes
- Nutrition Facts are just an estimate
- One of my favorite easy rubs to use is this BEEF RUB from Hey Grill Hey.
- Use an oil with a high smoke point, like avocado oil
- Store any leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Nutrition
Recipe was updated on May 16, 2024, to use avocado oil in the place of olive oil, everything else remains the same.
Hi I am cooking this tri tip at this very moment so I cannot comment on the flavor but I am Sur it will be delectable😄 however I have a question. Is there a reason we are using a cast iron skillet as opposed to a regular skillet??? 👍👋👏😄
Hey Lisa, You can definitely use a regular skillet if you don’t have a cast iron skillet. I prefer to use a cast iron skillet because they are known to distribute the heat more evenly ensuring that meat is browned perfectly. Hope this turned out great for you. Thanks for your comment!
I didn’t see the over temperature listed
This recipe does not require the oven. This is cooked right on the stove.
Looks delicious! One thing though, I scrolled through like 5x and I can’t see/find the video? What am I missing?
Oh no, that is odd. I can see it when I look it up. It is under the ‘Cooking Tri Tip in a Cast Iron Skillet’. I also have it available on YouTube if you still can’t find it on my site. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8c8CSbr0f8
I love this recipe, have used it couple times and we love it!
So happy you like it!! Thanks!!
Tri-tip on the grill has always been our ‘gold’ standard. But we tried tri-tip in our cast iron
last night and it simply ‘rocked!!’ Love your post! We do a very similar method stovetop method for rib-eye steak and salmon. Appreciate the pointers and the only thing we missed last night was the smokey grapevine finish…but we don’t miss the char-infused clothing. Thanks again!
So happy you enjoyed it!! Thanks so much for taking the time to come back and leave me a comment!!
Trying this recipe tonight.
Hope you love it!!
What sides do you serve with this recipe? Do you use a dipping sauce with the meat or eat it like steak? Thanks for your help!
I like to serve this with green beans, asparagus, baked potatoes, fruit or just a simple salad. You can definitely use a dipping sauce if you prefer, my kids like A-1. Personally, I like to drizzle the butter from the pan over the steak, it has great flavor!!
The flavor was amazing! I made this with a side salad and oven roasted baby broccoli.
Sounds like a perfect meal! I’m so happy you enjoyed it!! Thank you for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!! ❤️
i love tri tip…my oven isn’t working so i cook my roast in a cast iron on the stovetop, but no matter the amt of evoo & the med – med-hi flame, my tri tip always gets very charred…why?
It sounds like it is cooking too hot for too long. I would try to cook it maybe on medium low or even low and then turn it up for the last few minutes to get a nice bark on the outside.
even at a low flame, it still gets very charreed…how much olive oil for a 2 12 lbs in a 12 inch skillet maybe a bit more, but not too much oil would help? what do you think?
I would use 2 tablespoons of oil for a 12 inch skillet.
i love your recipe, however, i always have this problem: i have a lodge cast iron skillet in which i make my roast tri tip, but no matter how ‘medium-low’ i make the gas flame, the roast always charrs….every time…why?
just saw that i had left you a similar comment before…it still charrs no matter what.
Always a winning main dish. Thanks for publishing this tri tip cooking method! We’re going to enjoy this tonight with homemade pesto, asparagus, and gluten free pasta with a creamy confit cherry tomato sauce!!
Great recipe! It was easy to follow and came out absolutely delicious. Your instructions, up to how to cut the meat in half first then against the grain was an excellent tip. Thank you!
I’m so happy you liked it! Thanks so much for coming back and leaving a comment!