Reverse Seared Tri-Tip and GrillGrates for the Mini-Max

I about fell over in shock last week when I was strolling through my local grocer and they had a case full of tri-tip.  Big tri-tips.  Of course I bought one.  This isn't a recipe post but here's what I did with this tri-tip that inadvertently wandered East of the Mississippi.

Beef tri-tip reverse seared on a kamado style grill.  That means we slow roast it for even cooking and then blast it with searing heat close to the coals.

I was exaggerating there a bit, but 10 years ago, I almost NEVER could find beef tri-tip in Knoxville.  This is because this was a regional specialty with it's epicenter in Santa Maria, California in the 1950's (Field Guide to Meat pg 66).  According to Green, as recently as 2005, many meat packers still sent all of their tri-tips to the California region and as a result, it was not always easy to find in other parts of the country.  But like with all regional BBQ, several factors (more mobile society, popularity of food television, and Internet) have spread these specialties across the continent and suppliers are starting to respond to the more globalized demand.  

Traditionally, tri-tip were seasoned simply with salt and pepper - maybe garlic and a few other seasonings.  Then they are cooked over coals from red oak on a Santa Maria style grill - meaning it has a food grate that can be raised or lowered over the wood coal.

Example of a Santa Maria style grill by Norcal Ovenworks.  You control the direct heat on the food by raising and lowering the food grates.  Picture courtesy of Norcal Ovenworks.

I don't have a Santa Maria grill.  If you have a charcoal grill with a charcoal tray that moves up and down like the Char-Broil 780 Charcoal Grill, you can start off with the tray lowered and then bring it close to the coals to finish off.   

Today I was using a kamado grill using the reverse sear technique.  This lets me get the tri-tip a perfect medium rare from one edge to the other and then sear it to get the Malliard browning in the crust.  

Instead of using a plate setter for the indirect piece, I used GrillGrates as the indirect piece with a homemade raised grate over that.

Side view of the raised grid.  This is also useful without the GrillGrates for "raised direct" cooking when you want the food to have less radiant heat from the coals and more heat above reflecting off of the ceramic dome.

You can buy various raised grids that are very good.  But the cheapest and easiest is making your own.  The Naked Whiz has great instructions for making your own.  Here I used 3" bolts which seemed to fit perfectly in the BGE Mini-Max.

My tri-tip was YUUUUGE!  They are typically 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 pounds but this weighed in at 3.5 lbs.  A lot of that was because it was untrimmed.  I pulled off the fat cap, trimmed the silverskin, and cleaned them up a bit.

My dry rub was simple - 1 teaspoon each of kosher salt, season salt, and black pepper.  One half teaspoon each of dried parsley, dried oregano, and granulated garlic.

Using a controller for just an hour cook????  Yes!!!!!  First, I just found out that the Flame Boss comes with an adapter for the Mini-Max so I had to play with it.  But more importantly, using a controller for the reverse sear gives you a kick ass advantage when it's time to bump the heat up.  That forced air gets your kamado from low/slow to "holy BLEEP that's hot!" in a flash.  I can't believe I've never thought about that before now. DUH! 

For those of you that don't know, a controller is a small computer controller (typically a PID) that has a temp probe in the cooker and a fan attached to a grill vent.  The computer keeps checking to see if your grill/smoker is at the temperature you want.  If not, it turns the fan on, stoking the fire and raising the temp.  There's a lot more to it than that but that's the short version.  Our BBQ team chose the Flame Boss 200 for our competitions but there are several other good units out there too.

I didn't use any wood other than the lump coal.  I'd like to say that I at least got oak lump...but I just use what I had on hand.  I ran the kamado at 225°f at the upper grate level for right at 1 hour.  I pulled the tri-tip off when it hit an internal temp of 126°f.  The plan is for it to coast up about 5-7°f while resting, putting it in the medium-rare range.  

A Word About Reverse Searing

That's one thing I see that a lot of people seem to miss about the reverse sear.  As originally developed by Chris Finney, the reverse sear meant for the meat to rest after the roast until it's internal temperature has finished rising and actual begins to fall.  Most people I see are slow roasting the meat and then searing just as soon as they can get the grill temp north of 500°f.   I think the resting until the internal temp begins to fall is an important part of the process and produces superior results.  

I threw some asparagus (toss in oil, salt, garlic, pepper) on to cook while I seared the tri-tip.

I used Adam Perry Lang's "board dressing" concept and drizzled the cutting board with reduced balsamic, quality olive oil, some herbs, Hawaiian black salt, garlic and pepper. 

The board dressing mixes with the meat juices as you slice and....oh muh gawd! The reason that I have no plated pictures is because we stood at the cutting board and ate it, dredging it through all of that flavor.  It was that good.

On an Instagram pic of the raised grid set up, a follower asked 

"Ok I see you have a cast Iron grate and a top grill. What is the middle thing called and where did you get it. We have a large Egg and just purchased this one curious"

That is a set of GrillGrates.  They are an aftermarket product for just about any grill you can buy that does a lot of things:

1. prevent flare ups, 
2. creates amazing grill marks,
3. provide more even heat distribution, and
4. converts more of the grill's energy to infrared heat.

I saw someone refer to them as a "fad" two weeks ago in a Facebook group.  Well, that "fad" has been going on for over 5 years and keeps growing.  I've been to a few SCA steak cook-offs in the past year and the vast majority of these competition teams are using GrillGrates regardless of the grill they are using.  The proof is in the results.

I think they are a nice accessory for a large kamado grill but for the Mini-Max, I think it's almost a necessity with the coals being so close to the grill grates.  Either that or using a raised grid to add some distance, my sister likes using a Woo rig for that.  

The GrillGrates in my Mini-Max. They make them for just about any grill.

Several folks noticed the different shape and asked about it.  For the BGE Mini-Max, most of them use this model of GrillGrates which is for the Cobb Grill and is the one that appears on the kamado page.  .

I wasn't sure, so I contacted owner Brad Barrett, and he recommended that I get the set for the Smokey Joe.  I think either works fine, just whichever is your preference.  I really like the fit of mine.  The biggest difference is with these fitting snugly, they don't move around when you are trying to scrub them on the grill.

Side view of the GrillGrates.  Yes, it looks like a heat sink if you are into computers, stereos, or other electrical components.  It kind of functions that way too.

Here you can see the GrillGrates after being seasoned.  I grilled a taco seasoned chicken breast (350°f x 4 min a side) and then sliced it up.  We put it on two burritos with lettuce, tomato, sour cream, cheese, taco sauce, and avocado ranch dressing.

You can also flip the GrillGrates for a griddle, although, I prefer just using one of my cast iron inserts or a skillet for that.

So that is what GrillGrates are for those that didn't know - a set of high performance grill grates that stop flare ups, give great sear marks, and converts heat from coals to infrared heat (for a great article on grilling thermodynamics, check in with AmazingRibs). They can fit just about any grill because the company will cut them to custom lengths.

[Standard FTC Disclosure]  GrillGrates and Flame Boss are equipment sponsors for Nibble Me This but we would not use these if we didn't like them.  We use them because they work.  

Product Review: Kingsford Professional Coal and Roasted Garlic Rubbed Ribeye

Kingsford has rebranded their Competition Briquetes* as Kingsford Professional Briquets.  They sent me a bag free to try out so I grilled up this roasted garlic rubbed ribeye.  

Roasted garlic rubbed ribeye with sea salt potatoes

It is the same all-natural briquettes, but they felt the Competition label was limiting when these briquettes are "perfect for any grilling occasion where you want a higher heat, less as or a long, consistent burn".  The new label more accurately describes the purpose for them. 

 

I reached out to 6 time World Champion Pitmaster, Chris Lilly, of Big Bob Gibson's Barbecue about the Professional line and here are his thoughts:

Before I cooked with the Professional coal, I set up an experiment to test the claims.  Although this isn't a lab or anything, I tried to be as careful as possible to be consistent to make true comparisons.  I used the same grill, set up, and did it on a mild day with as few temperature/wind variations as possible.  

I compared the Kingsford Professional against their Original (aka "blue bag") and Royal Oak's all natural briquette - Chef's Select.  

I used a Char-Broil CB500X for the test and built a small pyramid of 14 briquettes on one side.  I lit each sample on 4 corners with a MAPpro gas torch and then closed the lid.

For 2 hours, I recorded the temperature at the grate level on the opposite side every 5 minutes using a reference grade ThermaQ for precision accuracy.  I did this shot just for a picture - the lid stayed closed the entire 2 hours for each sample.

One issue was that the Chef Select weighed much more, almost twice that of a Kingsford briquete.  I tried using an equivalent weight as shown but it would never really get started.  So I ended up just using the same number of briquettes - 14 stacked in a pyramid.

Once the 2 hours was up, I weighed the ash that fell into a collection tray that I put below the charcoal grate.  The scale was zeroed out as to not weight the pan itself, only the ash.

Sorry about the poor rendering.  The red line is Kingsford Pro, the grey is Chef Select, and the blue is Kingsford Original.

Granted this is a small scale test and I don't have the desire to repeat this several more times.  But my informal test results pretty much proved their claims.

Faster Starting

True.  Chef's Select was a close second but Kingsford Professional got hotter, faster.

Higher Heat

True.  Kingsford Professional had both a significantly higher average heat output and maximum temperature during this trial.  

Less Ash

True.  The ash leftover from Kingsford Professional weighed in decidedly less than the other two.

Long, Consistent Burn

Undecided.  Visually you can see that the Professional burns "hotter for longer".  However at the same time, the other two are hotter than the Professional at the 2 hour mark so you could make the argument they burned "longer".  If you go by average deviation, Original has the least deviation in temp but that is a direct effect of the other two being faster starting.  So it's kind of hard to call this one.  

What about lump coal?  I didn't throw that in at first because it brings in so many more variables but I did a trial on that too just for grins and giggles.  I used a brand that I have liked using for a few months.

Since I couldn't count 14 briquettes of lump, I used the same amount by weight - 309 grams.

Stacked it as pyramid-ish as possible and lit just like the others.

 

Sorry about the poor rendering.  The red line is Kingsford Pro, the grey is Chef Select, and the blue is Kingsford Original. Green is the lump.

You can see the lump blew the others away in start up times and max temp but also had wild temperature variations.  This would be different in a controlled air flow environment like a kamado but in a normal grill with less regulated air flow, the lump rages and then burns itself out.  That makes sense because I when I first started and used a cheap offset smoker, I got more stable temps with briquettes and didn't understand why people raved about lump coal. Then I got into kamado grilling and saw the difference.  

As far as burning, I think the Kingsford Professional burns cleanly, even shortly after warm up. It doesn't have any off flavors and imparts a nice smokiness on foods.  

Kingsford Professional should be in stores near you sometime this Spring.  

Roasted Garlic Rubbed Ribeye

Whenever I roll out the kettle grill, I feel like I'm getting back to the basics of grilling. Here's a good basic steak recipe I did earlier this week.  

I roasted a bunch of heads of garlic.  Just slice off the top.  Drizzle with good olive oil, salt, pepper, herbs, butter, whatever.  Roast them indirect on a grill for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

You don't get garlic better than this!  Just squeeze all of the garlic out of the top into a container so you can keep them in the fridge.  Use this to make compound butters, mashed potatoes, pasta sauces, or anything in which you would use garlic.  Rub a clove or two all over your pizza dough.  They're like magic.

I used the Kingsford Professional in my Char-Broil Kettleman grill.

I did a little more than a half chimney of the Pro.  Speaking of fast start up times, using the fast lighting Kingsford Pro in this Char-Broil Half Time chimney, my coals were ready in 8 minutes!  This is one of those "why didn't they think of that before now?" kind of things.

My back to basics recipe - 4 ingredients.  Choice bone in ribeye, kosher salt, black pepper, and roasted garlic. 

Smash a clove and rub it all over the steak.  That's a clove per side.  Roasted garlic is very soft and will smear sort of like a paste.

Rubbed and seasoned with salt and pepper, I put them down for five minutes per side over a hot grill.  

I give it a quarter turn half way through each side to get cross hatch marks.  The steak wasn't medium rare yet so I shuffled it to an indirect spot on the grill and let it finish roasting up to an internal temperature of 127°f. 

Alexis and I split this with some sea salt and herb potatoes.  

I hope you are having a great Spring and ready to bring out your grills (if you put them up).  I see some of our Colorado friends are getting hammered by snow still - I hope y'all are able to fire them up soon too!

[FTC Disclosure] I received the bag of Kingsford Professional for free but receive no other compensation from them.  I have a content agreement with Char-Broil and get my gear from them for free; however, received no compensation for this post.  I just happened to be using their stuff.  I paid full price for my ThermaQ.  

*Kingsford uses the alternate spelling of "briquetes" while I prefer to use the mainstream "briquettes".  

Next Week Only - The Jordie

I've mentioned It's All So Yummy Cafe on here before.  They are a locally owned and operated cafe that hand makes their delicious soups, amazing sandwiches, and outrageously good ice creams.  Because of that they are one of our favorite places to eat.

For the week of March 28 through April 1st, I am proud to have It's All So Yummy featuring one of my creations - The Jordie.

The Jordie - brisket, BBQ sauce, chili, chips, pepper jack cheese, Asiago cheese, and corn chips on grilled sour dough bread.

The Jordie starts with our competition smoked brisket that we chop up and add just a touch of our friend, Kirk's, Albukirky's Duke City Sweet BBQ Sauce.  Then we add melted pepper jack cheese, asiago cheese, chili sauce (think chili for hot dogs), and corn chips for some crunch - all on crispy grilled sourdough bread.  If you like it spicier we will throw some jalapenos on there for you.  

This is the cool thing.  For every Jordie sold at It's All So Yummy Cafe next week, $1 will be donated to Helen Ross McNabb Center for their Crisis Services, helping people in the community who are struggling with mental health issues. On top of that, we have arranged for a company matching donation.

So come to It's All So Yummy Cafe next week and buy a Jordie (and some soup and ice cream!).  It's located on Ebeneezer Rd and Kingston Pike in Knoxville (click for map). Your stomach will thank you and you will be supporting your fellow citizens.  

[FTC Standard Disclaimer]  We receive no compensation for this post and have no affiliation with It's All So Yummy Cafe other than we love eating there.

Sriracha Orange Sauce for Grilling, Stir Fry, and More

It has been Sriracha sauce week this week (March 7-13).  I'm sorry I didn't get you a greeting card but I got you this delicious grilling, stir fry, and more sauce instead.

For the Sriracha sauce, we just used the popular Rooster sauce by Huy Fong.  You can see that trademark red bottle and green cap in the background.

I was instantly inspired for this sauce at breakfast a few weeks ago.  It's All So Yummy Cafe in Knoxville is our favorite locally owned sandwich, soup, and ice cream place.  Their grilled sandwiches are amazingly good, their soups made from scratch, and their ice cream flavors are creative.  A few weeks ago they started opening for breakfast and Alexis got the Big Orange Stacker.

The Big Orange Stacker from It's All So Yummy Cafe.  They are open for breakfast on Saturdays now.  If you're in Knoxville, check them out.

It's a tower of homemade buttermilk biscuits, avocado, swiss cheese, fresh tomatoes, fried egg, crisp bacon, and an orange sriracha sauce.  I reached over to her plate and dabbed my pinky into the sauce for a little taste.  Damn, I never knew my pinky finger tasted so good. I came home and whipped up this version of the sauce that afternoon.

This sauce is powerful with bold sweetness, a sharp citrus twang, and the mild complex heat of Sriracha.  This sauce is fantastic brushed onto grilled chicken or shrimp in the last few minutes of cooking.  I think it would work on pork tenderloins or BBQ ribs for something different.  It is dynamite mixed with a little soy sauce and tossed with stir fried chicken for Orange Chicken.  I even used it to make a bright citrus vinaigrette.  

We have tried 5 different brands of orange marmalade for this, from Smucker's off of the shelf to small batch versions that have to be mail ordered.  For off of the shelf, Smucker's worked better than the more expensive gourmet brands at the store.  But the hands down winner for this recipe was Sarabeth's Blood Orange Marmalade.  It has a much more organic texture, you can actually pour it, compared to pretty much all of the rest that are gelatinous marmalades that you have to spoon out of the jar.  The major difference was taste, the sweetness seems more natural from the oranges than added sugar.  

Our preferred marmalade after trying several.

I couldn't wait to try it so I grilled a couple of chicken breasts on the BGE Mini-Max kamado grill.  It was excellent, exactly what I was looking for. 

This past weekend was gorgeous and Springlike, so I rolled out the Kettleman grill to do some "old school" grilling like when I first started barbecuing.  

A kamado grill is my preferred weapon of choice so people are sometimes curious why I use different grills, if the kamado grill is really that good.  In business there's a saying that if the only tool in your toolbag is a hammer, you treat every opportunity as a nail.  Same with grilling, I like to use a variety of grills because:

1. it challenges my skill set,
2. it helps me keep an open mind,
3. it helps me connect better with my audience - only about half are kamado users, the rest are using kettles, gas grills, and such, 
4. and most importantly, sometimes I just feel like it.  

Sponsorships?  Sure, it's nice to have them but I have used a variety of grills (Brinkman SnP, Brinkmann Professional Charcoal Grill, Smoke Hollow gas/coal combo unit, and more) since the start of this blog and long before sponsorships were rolling in.  

I used about 1/2 chimney of briquettes.

I made a simple rub of 1 tablespoon salt, 1/2 tablespoon Lawry's Seasoned Salt, 1 teaspoon granulated garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon dried parsley.

I spritzed 3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves with spray butter and then seasoned them with the rub.  The butter acts as a binder for the rub but also oils the meat to help prevent sticking and get a nice crust.

I arranged the coals in a single layer and left room for an indirect area.

My target for grilling chicken breasts, whether grilling on a kamado or kettle, is in the 350-400°F.

If I'm doing thick breasts (not butterflied), I typically do about 6 minutes per side directly over the hot coals.

 

After 12 total minutes, I brush them with the sauce on both sides and then shift the chicken to the indirect area that is not directly over the coals.  I close the grill lid and let them finish cooking until they hit an internal temp of 160°f.  That's usually about 10 minutes.

The indirect heat bakes the sauce on without burning it.

Since we were putting this chicken on salads, I let them sit for 15 minutes or the hot meat would wilt the lettuce and veggies.

We had sauce leftover so I decided to whisk up a vinaigrette for our salad with the sauce.

Sriracha Orange Vinaigrette

1/3 cup Sriracha Orange Sauce

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon sriracha sauce

2/3 cup olive oil

Mix together the sauce, vinegar, salt, pepper, and Sriracha.  Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while whisking vigorously.  Or briskly.  Whatever your whisking style is, just do it fast and the oil slow.

We put together a salad of mixed greens and Swiss chard, onions, avocado, Mandarin orange segments, homemade bacon, and rice noodles.  Then we sliced the chicken breast and topped that with the vinaigrette.

I still call this bunny rabbit food, but it's damn good bunny rabbit food!  

Sriracha Wings

Speaking of Sriracha Week, our friends Brian and Marilyn at Hot Sauce Daily posted this recipe post for Garlic Sriracha Chicken Wings based on one of our favorite wing recipes by Michael Symon. Click on over there to check it out.

Sriracha....BEER?

Also, did you know that there is a Sriracha beer?  Rouge Ale and Spirits has brought to market a Sriracha flavored stout beer.  The tell-tale rooster and green cap are a nod to Huy Fong's brand of Sriracha sauce.

I like beer but I'm not sure that this one is for me.  I mean I'd try one if you had it in your fridge but I wouldn't go out of my way to buy one.  How about you - would you try it?

Happy Sriracha Week!  Errrr....well there's only 2 days left.  Happy Sriracha Weekend! 

[FTC Standard Disclaimer]  I received no compensation for this post.  We paid full price for the Sarabeth marmalade and Rooster sauce.  I bought the BGE Mini-Max.  I got the Char-Broil Kettleman as part of my sponsorship package last year.  I have no affiliation with Huy Fong or Rogue Ale.