You most certainly have leftover meat if you attempted our smoked tri tip recipe. Let’s get creative with the leftovers and make an incredible tri-tip sandwich for a hungry audience.
In this post, we’ll teach you how to prepare a substantial steak sandwich using leftover tri-tip.
Contents
- What is Tri-tip?
- Sandwich time
- Prepare your tri-tip
- Ingredients and equipment
- Cooking and assembling the tri-tip sandwich
- FAQs
- What goes well with tri tip steak?
- What cut of meat is best for steak sandwiches?
- What cut of steak is best for steak and cheese subs?
- What’s the difference between tri-tip and tri-tip steak?
- Can you eat tri-tip as a steak?
- Do you cook tri-tip fast or slow?
- Why is my tri-tip so tough?
- Is tri-tip sandwich the same as brisket?
- What meat is used in Philly cheesesteak?
What is Tri-tip?
If you like grilling, you’ve probably heard of tri-tip. Tri-tip is a boneless steak that is about an inch thick and has a lot of marbling while staying lean and tender.
Here you may discover all there is to know about tri-tip, including where to acquire it and how to prepare it.
Sandwich time
Tri-tip is an excellent choice for a steak sandwich because, although it is rather lean, it has enough intramuscular marbling to prevent it from drying out on the griddle.
You could slice the tri-tip like roast beef and make a cold-cut sandwich, but we’re striving for a greater bang here.
For a cheesesteak-like sandwich experience, we’ll thinly slice the tri-tip, grill it on the flat top with melty cheeses and caramelized onions, then cover it with a sauce.
Try our leftover brisket grilled cheese for another sandwich option.
Prepare your tri-tip
This is a variation on our reverse seared tri-tip dish, which is first smoked and then seared over high heat.
You may cook your tri-tip anyway you like, but smoking adds a depth of flavor to the meat that roasting or grilling does not.
Once you have a cooked or smoked tri-tip, allow it to come to room temperature before refrigerating it for a few hours or overnight.
Refrigeration will enable you to slice the meat as thinly as possible. We were aiming for virtually lunch-meat thin pieces, approximately a quarter-inch thick. The grain on a tri-tip may be problematic, so for a thorough lesson, see our page on how to slice tri-tip.
Ingredients and equipment
Let’s go through the ingredients and any unique tools we’ll need to prepare this sandwich.
Frying pan or griddle
If you want to utilize your stove top, youll need a big frying pan, ideally 14 16 in diameter. Even better, a griddle like the Pit Boss 4-burner gas griddle or the 36 Blackstone griddle would be excellent.
Spatula
Longer spatulas are excellent for this since they assist flip the sandwich and contents when needed. 8 griddle spatulas are plenty. The punctured ones should be avoided.
The bread
You’ll also need a decent hoagie or sub roll. A delicious sandwich requires the right bread. The sandwich will fall apart if the bread becomes too firm. It will get soggy if it is too soft. Amorosos, an Italian roll, is ideal for this. I made this sandwich on a 12 roll.
Feel free to get anything from the grocery store or a nearby bakery. Potato-based rolls work nicely as well.
The veg
This isn’t your average steak sandwich. We’re going to complement the meatiness of the tri-tip with caramelized onions and add funk with spicy kimchi.
The acidity of the kimchi melds with the juiciness of the meat as both sink into the soft interior bread. This kimchi improves our steak in the same way that pickles do for sandwiches.
Kimchi is now available in most supermarket shops in the refrigerated Asian department. For this meal, any brand and heat level will suffice, just make sure it’s the cabbage kind and not the radish type.
The cheese
Topping it all off, you’ll need high-quality cheese. A soft, melty cheese works well since it penetrates into all of the sandwich’s nooks and crevices.
We used deli sliced provolone and havarti in this dish. The salty provolone complements the creamy havarti and binds the sandwich together.
The sauce
A creamy sauce, such as horseradish or mayonnaise, complements our tri-tip sandwich. We combined the best of both worlds by using Terry Hos Hot Yum Yum sauce.
Cooking and assembling the tri-tip sandwich
Heat a skillet or griddle over medium heat. Mix in two teaspoons of healthy cooking fat. We utilized ghee made from clarified butter.
Add a quarter cup of minced onion after the ghee has rendered and begun to boil. Season the onion with salt and swirl to coat with the ghee. Allow the onions to sweat and brown, stirring every few of minutes to avoid scorching.
When the onion begins to caramelize, add two garlic cloves and swirl to mix. Cook for two minutes, then whisk in half a cup of kimchi. Allow the kimchi to simmer for 5-7 minutes, stirring often.
Increase the heat to medium-high and add another tablespoon of ghee. To the pan or griddle, add 1.5 pounds of thinly sliced tri-tip. Season with salt and coarse ground pepper to taste. Incorporate the beef with the kimchi and onion combination.
As the meat heats, split it up into smaller, bite-sized pieces using two spatulas.
If you don’t have metal spatulas or don’t want to harm the pan’s nonstick coating, transfer the hot mixture to a cutting board, chop with a chefs knife or cleaver, and return to the hot pan.
Once the meat has been well cooked and combined with the onions and kimchi, divide it into two heaps in the pan, about the length of your bread rolls. On top of the meat, alternate slices of provolone and havarti.
Pour in two tablespoons of water to produce steam and begin melting the cheese. If you have a cover for the pan, it will speed up the process. When using a griddle, a nice melting dome or an upside down stainless steel bowl would suffice.
While the cheese is melting, cut the bread lengthwise but not through. Remove the cover and arrange the bread on top of the steaming mounds of meat and vegetables. The steam heats the inside of the bread from the inside out, providing a pillowy soft inside while keeping the crust on the outside.
Slide your spatula beneath the meat after 30 seconds to a minute. Flip the sandwich right way up while holding the bread steady with your other hand. Repeat with the other meat pile. Scrape up any meat and cheese that fell out of the skillet during the flip and add it to your sandwich.
Place your sandwich on a cutting board and top with scallions and spicy yum yum sauce. If you’re sharing, cut into parts. A 12 sandwich serves 3-4 persons comfortably.
There are so many levels of taste in this cheesy tri-tip sandwich. The smokiness of the pork, the tanginess of the kimchi, the gooey cheese, and the soft bread all compliment each other not just in taste but also in texture. Enjoy!
