Idaho Beef

Idaho Beef is an award-winning recipe for grilling Tri-Tip. I created it for a "celebrity" beef cookoff at the Western Idaho Fair in 1999. My family calls this dish Owyhee Beef and the name is a tribute to a part of Idaho history many people don't know about. (The story is below.)

I know, I know, not enough pictures of FOOD here. But thanks so much for indulging me and this memory from back in my TV days. I created this recipe back before I was blogging. But I'll be adding new pictures of this dish in action very soon! In the meantime, here's what makes this entree so special.

Our family calls this Owyhee Beef

And here's why. As Idaho history goes, in the early 1800s fur trading ships brought Hawaiian natives to the Northwest to trap. In 1818 several of the "owyhees" - as it was mispronounced - were sent into the mountains and sadly, never came back. This dish is to help us remember that piece of history and how the name Owyhee came to be in Idaho.

Test for doneness

For best results, when grilling a tri-tip, remove the roast when your thermometer reads 135° for medium rare or 150° for medium. Place the tri-tip on a cutting board and tent loosely with a sheet of aluminum foil. Let it stand 20-25 minutes. Be assured, the temperature will continue to rise about 10° and will reach 145° for medium rare; 160° for medium. Perfection!

How to slice tri-tip

Carve the roast across the grain and in thin slices.

Why this recipe won

When it comes to cooking a fairly thick piece of beef, like a tri-tip, you want to be careful not to overcook it. There was a time I was always guilty of that. For the competition at the Western Idaho Fair, all of us competitors were provided the same size tri-tip, a charcoal grill and an hour to cook. Just one single hour! For everything, except the marinating time.

It was a scramble to get all the fruit prepped and the sauce ready for this Idaho Beef recipe. I remember it was hot summer day, and we had to work fast, so the tri-tip was on the grill only for just under an hour. If I had been cooking at home, I probably would have cooked the meat a little bit longer. But that was the day I learned how delicious and tender a medium rare piece of meat can be!

Recipe

Idaho Beef

Idaho Beef is an award-winning recipe I created for a "celebrity" beef cookoff at the Western Idaho Fair in Boise, Idaho back in 1999. In my family, we call this dish Owyhee Beef and the name is a tribute to a part of Idaho history many people don't know about.

5 from 28 votes

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Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Marinating Time: 2 hours hours

Total Time: 3 hours hours 20 minutes minutes

Servings: 8 people

Calories: 516kcal

Author: Melinda O'Malley Keckler

Equipment

• ▢
  BBQ Grill

Ingredients 

1x2x3x

Marinade and Dipping Sauce

• ▢ 1 16 ounce bottle - Your favorite BBQ sauce, I like Chivers, Spicy Apple @chivers (not sponsored)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger - save 1 teaspoon or sautéing the veggies
• ▢ ½ cup pineapple juice - saved after you drain the pineapple slices from the can, below
• ▢ ⅛ cup mustard
• ▢ ⅛ cup honey
• ▢ 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• ▢ 2 tablespoons olive oil

Tri-Tip and Sides

• ▢ 2 pounds Tri-Tip
• ▢ 2 mangos, peeled and sliced
• ▢ 1 can sliced pineapple - drained and save the juice
• ▢ 2 red peppers - thinly sliced
• ▢ 1 red onion - thinly sliced
• ▢ 3 tablespoons olive oil
• ▢ 2 cups brown rice - cooked
• ▢ Leafy greens for garnish

Instructions

Prepare Sauce and Sides

• Combine dipping sauce ingredients (save 1 teaspoon of grated ginger for later and set aside 1 cup of the sauce for serving). Pierce beef and place with sauce in a zipped plastic bag, marinate for 2 hours in the refrigerator, turning frequently.
• While beef marinates, prep the remaining ingredients for serving. 
• Peel and slice mango and slice the red onion. Cook brown rice (per the instructions on the bag or box.)

Grill and Plate

• Heat charcoals. Once the coals are no longer smoking and are hot, place in the base of your grill. Place beef on the grill, cover and cook for about one hour or until 135 for medium rare.. 
• While beef cooks, heat olive oil in skillet over medium high heat. Once the oil shimmers, add onions and peppers and 1 teaspoon grated ginger. Cook until tender, but still crisp.
• Remove beef from the grill, cover with foil and tented for at least 20 minutes. The internal temperature will rise about another 10 degrees during this resting time, then slice the beef thin. Warm the remaining one cup of leftover sauce in a small pan over low heat.
• Plate the silced beef add peppers, red onions, pinapple and mango to each plate wiht a scoop of steamed rice. Drizzle with the remaining BBQ sauce. Garnish with a few leafy greens.

Notes

For best results, when grilling a tri-tip, remove the roast when your thermometer reads 135° for medium rare or 150° for medium. Place the tri-tip on a cutting board and tent it loosely with aluminum foil. Let the roast stand for 20-25 minutes. The temperature will continue to rise about 10° and reach 145° for medium rare; and 160° for medium. A great side dish for this recipe is Homemade Creamed Corn or Easy Edamame Salad. 

Nutrition

Calories: 516kcalCarbohydrates: 55gProtein: 29gFat: 20gSaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 75mgSodium: 359mgPotassium: 699mgFiber: 4gSugar: 16gVitamin A: 1491IUVitamin C: 60mgCalcium: 59mgIron: 3mg

Please note, the nutrition details are estimated using a food database. The data above is a rough estimate, not an exact science.

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