Whiskey Smoked Tri-Tip Sandwhich

Grab your Tri-Tip and spread an even coating of Kosher, make sure to cover every side. Does not need to be the full cup, be cautious of over salting meat. This step is important in creating the dry brine. After you have salted, spread an even layer of pepper on the meat, make sure to cover every side.

Place seasoned Tri-Tip on a cooling rack or on a cookie tray under plastic wrap (cooling rack does not need this) inside of the refrigerator for about 2.5 hours (Do this overnight or start earlier in the morning for more flavorful meat).

Heat your saucepan under medium-high heat. Once heated drop the 2tbsp of beef tallow, vegetable oil, or other fat into your pan. Quickly pour your chopped onions in after. Cook for 6 minutes or until Onions are translucent.

Once your onions are translucent. Drop you chopped garlic cloves into your sauce pan and cook for an additional 4 minutes.

After the 4 minutes is up, you then put in your 1 cup of light brown sugar and begin stirring with a plastic or wooden spoon. You keep stirring your sugar until it caramelizes and becomes like a glaze.

Drop your ketchup, mustard powder, salt, pepper, and smoke paprika at this time and begin stirring until you notice a color change then bring it up to a simmer. Let sit in this state for 5 minutes or until the sauce is thick.

After the sauce has thickened, stir in your Worcestershire sauce. Once stirred in, let the sauce simmer for one more minute.

Transfer sauce into blender and blend on high until all of the onions and garlic has been blended into the sauce. Pour sauce into the large bowl with an airtight lid, seal it and let it sit out until it has cooled to room temperature.

After about 2 hours of waiting, begin warming up your smoker/oven to about 275F. While your smoker/oven is heating up, pull your Tri-Tip from the refrigerator and let it begin warming up to room temp for the next 15-30 minutes (often times this isnt enough to raise the temp of the meat straight out of the fridge but it is alright to put it in between this time frame).

Once your smoker/oven is warm and your meat has warmed up in the open for about 15-30 minutes, put the Tri-Tip in your smoker/oven. I recommended cooking the Tri-Tip on a cooling rack in your oven with tinfoil on the bottom of the oven in order to ensure that it is cooked evenly around. An issue that is not held by conventional smokers.

Maintain the temperature at about 250F for the next hour and do not open the cooking chamber.

After maintaining temps for an hour, without opening your cook chamber, begin ramping the temperatures up to 275F. Once you ramp your temperatures, head back to your now cool BBQ sauce and take out 5 tbsp and place them into your small bowl. Reseal your large bowl and place in fridge. Take your small bowl and pour about 1 shot of your favorite bourbon/whiskey in and mix. You now have your bourbon/whiskey BBQ basting sauce.

When the internal temperature of the biggest part of the Tri-Tip hits the internal temperature of 100F (about 1.5 hours of cooking) begin basting your Tri-Tip with your Bourbon/Whiskey BBQ sauce that you just made and dont be afraid to apply a liberal coating.

Once your done with that let the Tri-Tip continue cooking for about another 30 minutes at 275F.

Once you hit the 2 hour mark or start getting within 10-7F of the internal temperature that you want, begin heating up your cast iron fry pan/skillet on your stove and place the heat on high.

Right before you pull your Tri-Tip out of the smoker/oven, drop 1 tbsp of unsalted butter into your pan. Remove your Tri-Tip and begin cooking all sides of it (butter should be melted by now).

The Tri-Tip should spend, at most, 1 minute on each side in order to give it a nice sear and crust. Once all sides are done, baste with butter for 30 seconds and then take off.

Allow meat to rest for at least 15 minutes. This allows the meat to finish cooking as well as buying you time to finish any sides you may have yet to finish.

Serve with Tri-Tip itself on the bun or with a dab of BBQ sauce on the top bun. My favorite way to eat it is to place coleslaw on top of the meat with a dab of BBQ sauce on the top bun. Use the BBQ sauce you made as the pepper should pair nicely with the savory taste that the whiskey and smoke bring. If you try it with coleslaw, it brings a cool element and really helps balance out the flavors even more.

Enjoy! Remember you can store your homemade sauce I fride for upto a month.