---
title: 'My Favorite Steak You''ve Never Tried'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=an0vbCkj2Lk'
video_id: 'an0vbCkj2Lk'
date: 2026-07-01
duration_sec: 751
---

# My Favorite Steak You've Never Tried

> Source: [My Favorite Steak You've Never Tried](https://youtube.com/watch?v=an0vbCkj2Lk)

## Summary

This video demonstrates how to grill a Greek marinated tri-tip steak paired with a flavorful Greek orzo salad. The host shows techniques for marinating, smoking, and searing the tri-tip, as well as building a vibrant orzo salad with a vinaigrette dressing.

### Key Points

- **Greek marinated tri-tip** [0:03] — Use tri-tip or picanha. Marinade: olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, Dijon mustard, honey, fresh oregano, thyme, rosemary salt. Score fat cap for better absorption.
- **Marinating time** [2:21] — Marinate 3-4 hours (or overnight) with herbs left large; scrape off before grilling to prevent burning.
- **Thermometer and smoking method** [2:36] — Insert probe (Thermapen/meater) to thickest part, target 125°F. Use indirect heat with lump charcoal and wood, aiming for 325°F. Smoke until 125°F, then sear directly over coals.
- **Skip smoking with oven instructions** [3:15] — Oven instructions for those without a smoker will be in the description.
- **Wireless thermometer (Tyfor Sync Gold)** [3:23] — Sponsored tool with dual probes, six sensors each, tracks ambient and internal temps. Smart base allows control at grill without phone.
- **Greek orzo salad dressing** [4:48] — Same vinaigrette as marinade but without rosemary salt, plus chili flakes and chopped fresh oregano. Add honey to balance sourness.
- **Salt pasta water lightly** [6:09] — Avoid the TikTok trend of over-salting; too much salt makes pasta inedible and ruins the water for later use.
- **Pro trick: dress hot pasta** [7:13] — After draining orzo, let steam dry 5 min, then toss with 1/3 of dressing while hot. Pasta absorbs the flavor. Spread on sheet pan and cool in fridge.
- **Rest the tri-tip** [9:17] — Rest for at least 20 minutes. Cut thick slices on a bias; juice retention is excellent.
- **Final verdict** [11:47] — Tri-tip is underrated, versatile, affordable. The orzo salad is the star of the meal.

### Conclusion

The host emphasizes the balance of a well-marinated, hot-smoked tri-tip and a flavor-packed orzo salad that 'steals the show'. Both cuts and cooking methods are flexible for home cooks.

## Transcript

What's up, dude? Today we're making one
of my favorite backyard meals, which is
a perfectly grilled Greek marinated
tri-tip steak paired [music] with the
most amazing Greek orzo salad that might
just steal the show.
>> Now, let's go.
>> For this recipe, I'm going to be using
this absolutely beautiful piece of
tri-tip that I found. If you can't find
tri-tip, my other choice would be
picanha. That's also incredible for this
style of cooking. And growing up in
California, tri-tip is a very popular
cut, but sometimes it's not called
tri-tip. You might see it under triangle
steak, triangle roast, bottom sirloin
triangle, bottom sirloin butt, Newport
steak if it's cut into steaks and not
served whole, and finally Santa Maria
steak, but you'll mostly see that in
California. And what we're going to be
doing today is making a simple Greek
style marinade for this. It's just going
to be absolutely delicious out on the
grill. And we're starting with olive
oil, or as Gordon Ramsay would say,
olive oil. Little red wine vinegar,
lemon juice, got to have it. Some
garlic, and I'm just going to microplane
it in. If you don't have a microplane,
you really should. Cheap tool. I'll put
a link for this one in the description.
Basically, just makes a fine mince out
of things like garlic or ginger. That's
what I use it for mostly. I also use it
for nutmeg. Little bit of Dijon mustard,
and just a touch of honey. We don't want
too much so it doesn't burn too easily
out on the grill.
>> Some Sergeant Gilbert reporting for
duty.
>> And I'm going to go fairly coarse with
the pepper. Some fresh herbs here,
oregano and thyme. If you can't find
them fresh, just use dried. That will
work as well. And some rosemary salt. If
you know, you know. And if you don't
know, I will put a link to this recipe
and video down in the description
underneath this one. Highly suggest you
make it, but you could just use regular
salt. Now, we're just going to work all
of this together. Man, I can't tell you
how good this smells. It would be
amazing on lamb, chicken, I think even
pork. Really all-purpose. And one move I
really like to make with tri-tip as well
as picanha, or really anything that has
that fat cap on one side, is to simply
score in about a third of an inch. And
this really helps the marinade get in
for one, as well as get that nice like
crackling. Just works better out on the
grill. And I'll flip it, and we'll go
this way to make these nice little
squares all the way down. Something like
this. Doesn't need to be perfect. Nobody
and nothing is. And then, what I'm going
to do is get in here and just have a
happy little time with my beef. And
you'll notice I left these herbs big.
It's cuz I'm just going to scrape them
off before it goes on the grill. If I
chop them really small and I leave them
on there, they're just going to burn and
then fall off on the grill, which is
also okay, I guess. But you might as
well do it like this. I'll just cover
this up and leave it to marinate for
like 3 to 4 hours. You could go longer
if you want, but it's quite a potent
marinade, so you don't really need to.
But if you want to do overnight, more
power to you, my friend. Into the
fridge. We are now ready to get this out
on the grill. I just scraped away those
herbs, which was extremely easy since
they were so big, and I'm inserting my
probe thermometer here from Typher into
the thickest part of this tri-tip. And
then, what I'm going to do here is just
set my target temp to 125, and we can go
and get it out on the grill. And what I
have going on here is lump charcoal and
wood just on one side of my grill. It's
a grill/smoker, so I can cook this on
indirect heat over here, and I'll bring
it up to 125, and then I can basically
just rotate it over the coals like that
to char it up a little bit and just get
that fat nice and crispy. And so, on
with the lid for now, and we're just
going to let this smoke away. It's
probably going to get up to like 325°.
I like smoking things kind of hot and
fast. I'm not really that low and slow
guy. I don't really have the patience
for it, to be honest. And if you don't
have a smoker, I'm going to put oven
instructions down in the description so
everybody can pull off this recipe,
which is also great. On another note,
you know what's way more stressful
[music] than cooking for yourself?
Cooking for a bunch of people and trying
to time everything perfectly. Today,
I've got this tri-tip out on the smoker,
and instead of checking in on it every 5
minutes, I'm using the Typher Sync Gold
wireless thermometer from the sponsor of
today's video, Typher. And I'll tell you
what, I've had it in my kitchen for a
few years now, and it is an absolute
[music] blessing. It's really helped me
nail everything from thick steaks and
large roasts to whole chickens and
turkeys every single time. And one
feature I really love is the smart base,
[music] which lets me view and set
temperatures right at the grill without
having to pull out my phone. The best
part is I can actually walk away. I can
prep sides, hang out with friends, grab
another drink, whatever I want. And
thanks to the dual probes, I can track
two different cuts of meat at the same
time. Each probe has six sensors that
track both ambient and internal
temperatures [music] for the best
accuracy. So, I'm not guessing when this
thing is done. If you've got a dad who
loves cooking or you're hosting backyard
cookouts and game day parties this
summer, this is one tool you will
absolutely love to have. Tyfo Zinc Gold
is available right now at the lowest
price of the year, so check out the link
in the description and use code that
dude PD 26 before the deal ends.
It's kind of cool. Like, why don't
people do that more often, you know? So,
if you do that with something that's
bigger, will it go longer? Like, if that
bowl was this big, or will it go
shorter? I don't know. Shoutout Euler's
disk. Now, while that cooks outside,
this is the perfect time to make our
dressing and start building our Greek
orzo salad, which is going to be the
side today for this tri-tip. And let me
tell you, this salad is the stuff that
dreams are made of. It literally has
summer written all over it, and I'm
Guys, I've been pretty tired, pretty out
of it lately. I don't know about you.
Let me know in the comments if you're
feeling the same way, but I should have
just doubled the amount of vinaigrette I
made in the beginning of the video.
[music] I mean, technically, I guess
it's a marinade since we put it on beef,
but it's literally a vinaigrette, and
it's the exact same recipe pretty much
for the dressing. So, that's just my
bad, but here's how we do it. But, there
is a few subtle differences. We're
starting with olive oil just like
before, and I'm making a little more
than I actually need for the salad, and
you'll see why soon. Red wine vinegar
next, lemon juice, salt, no rosemary
salt this time, just regular. And you
don't have to, but I like Dijon in
there. It really helps it bind as well.
And this is my wife's signature salad.
She always puts chili flakes. I don't
think it's really like traditional, but
I'm going to put them in. I like it.
Little bit of honey as well just to cut
through that sourness. And I'm doing
fresh oregano again, but this time
chopped up. But, honestly, dried [music]
is perfectly fine here. Sergeant Gilbert
back in action. And then last but
certainly not least, more microplane
garlic. Got to have it. Going in. And
all we got to do is give this a really
good whisk. Now just give it a quick
taste. See how the balance of fat and
acid is in here. Absolutely delicious. I
might just put one more little splash of
olive oil and we are good to go. Now
moving on to the orzo, I'm just going to
salt up my water here. I recently saw
this video on TikTok where all these
food network dudes were showing how much
salt to put in your pasta water. And
they were doing absolute handfuls of
salt, man. Like honestly, it just really
pisses me off because if you do that,
whatever you cook in there is going to
be too salty and then you can't use the
pasta water either. So like when I taste
this water,
it's lightly salted. This is This is
what you want. Trust me, it is. I used
to put way more salt in it earlier in my
cooking career and every time I made a
pasta with that, it was just way too
salty. So I'm going in here with my
orzo. I'm doing like a little more than
half a pound. Seems like whenever you
cook a pound of pasta, it's always a
disaster. Something about half a pound
or a little more always seems to work
better. Just give this a little stir. No
need to add any olive oil in there or
anything like that. Let's just let it
cook. And here we are after 7 minutes.
Orzo cooks pretty quick. Just want to
taste one. A little longer. And because
we're not finishing this pasta like in a
sauce, we need it all the way cooked
through. There we are, my friends, 9
minutes. I'm going to strain this off
and then I put it in a strainer back
over the pot
>> [music]
>> and I'm just going to let this steam dry
for about 5 minutes and just let it drip
out any excess water before I show you a
little pro trick that I use for pasta
all the time and especially when I'm
making like a cold pasta salad or room
temp pasta salad, anything room temp
with pasta, really. Now here's the
trick, my friends, and it's why I made
extra dressing. After the 5 minutes has
elapsed, instead of putting just like
olive oil on this, I'm putting on like
about a third of that dressing straight
onto the hot orzo. And we're putting
that on while it's hot because this orzo
is now going to literally absorb all
that flavor-packed dressing and it's
going to make each bite in the finished
salad just that much better. You'll be
surprised how much hot pasta can absorb
liquids. It's really incredible,
actually. So, it's just sucking all that
up right now. Oh, we'll just let that
sit here a few more minutes. It's been
sitting here for a few minutes now, and
it's over a strainer, so you would think
like, "Oh, did I waste all that
dressing? Didn't it just fall through?"
Well, no. None of it went through.
That's That's like a demonstration in
just how pasta absorbs stuff when it's
hot. And now, I'm going to get it out
onto a little sheet pan cuz we want to
cool this down to room temp, obviously,
before we make our salad. And I'm going
to accelerate that process by putting it
in my fridge. It's not going to destroy
your fridge. So, we'll just [music]
spread this out. God, I love orzo. Look
how it's plumped up. Beautiful. And
another little pro trick, just do some
little lines like this. Just helps for
air flow a little bit. Here we are after
50 minutes. That's 5 0. A lot of times
on social media you say 50 and people
think 15. Like, I don't know. They are
similar, but essentially now, it's at
about 126, 127° inside. The Tyfor set
off a couple minutes ago, so we're just
outside now. And now, what I'm going to
do is go ahead and pull the thermometer.
And as you can see, it needs a little
color on the bottom. So, what I'm going
to do here is just rotate over the
coals. And this is the reason I pulled
it at 125 cuz I want to finish it over
the charcoal. And even if you didn't put
this over the charcoal, it's still
coming up to like 133, probably, with
carryover cooking. So, always just aim
on the lower side to protect yourself
from overcooking it. There we go. I'm
going to flip it over. Got a little dark
right there, but absolutely fine. When
you do it on the fat side, you got to be
so quick, right? It will burn like
pretty much immediately. But, you know
what? A little charred flavor is good
here. I mean, it's personal preference.
Like, literally, guys, I'm going maybe
10 seconds on this. And I think that's
good. I don't want any more charring
than that. For me, this is good. That's
literally all she wrote. We're going to
get it out to rest. All right, my
friends, let's finish the salad. So, I'm
just dropping all of this into the
leftover dressing, cucumbers, tomatoes,
feta, red onion, Kalamata olives,
parsley, Italian, Greek parsley, and our
orzo here. Now, depending on the ratio
you want, you might not need all this
orzo. I think I'm basically going to do
it all. Maybe I'll save like a little.
Just hit it with a little bit of salt,
too, as I'm mixing here. I mean, there's
a lot in the dressing and on the orzo
and from the pasta water, so you
shouldn't really need much. Now, let's
just give it a [music] good mix. Oh my
god. I've been dreaming about this for a
while. I love love love orzo and I love
love love Greek salad. And so, natural
combination, my friends. Oh my god, yes.
You know what? I'm going to go ahead and
add all that orzo. Since it's a half
pound for this recipe, you can take it
and just give it I'm just going to stand
here and just give it a very thorough
mixing. If there's a salad that has
summer written all over it, man, it's
got to be this, right? Look at that. So,
our tri-tip has been resting for 20
minutes now. I really think you should
rest this longer than you think. It's
just like picanha. If you cut it too
soon, it loses a lot of juice. So, I'm
going to make my first cut right here.
This tail will probably be overcooked
because it's just a little tail.
Although, it looks pretty freaking nice.
And so, I'm going to cut this nice and
thick on a bias. You know you've done
well when you can just see like the
rivers of juice. You guys see that? Just
moving through there. It looks Isn't
that crazy looking? It looks like it's
alive. See that? That's the more than 20
minutes of resting, guys, and it's like
it's still putting out like a lot of
juice.
I'm doing pretty thick slices here.
They're like little steaks. [music]
And as you can see, like even 20 minutes
of resting, look at all the juice. It
just goes to show when you're doing a
bigger roast, just rest it longer than
you think, you know? But I just move it
on to a paper towel, so when I serve it,
I just don't get all that juice on the
plate. There's only one thing left to
do, my friends. Let's plate it up
[music] and give it a taste with
Marquis.
>> [music]
>> I think real quick we got a flashback to
like 10 seconds ago when that meat was
[music] just It was just like just
rivers of juice coming out. Marquis
center cut. Oh, nice. Okay. No, don't
No, don't He's just slapping it. Don't
you guys hate this?
Don't you love salt that's just
completely touched somebody's elbow?
>> [screaming]
>> The fat cap does it for me. It's got
that grilled summery taste. Tri-tip is
delicious. I would rate it number two
under picanha. I prefer picanha, but
tri-tip is still very good and highly
underrated and one of the cheaper cuts
in terms of like something you can cook
like a steak. It's also pretty
versatile. You can slice it up, make
sandwiches. Let's [music] see if this
orzo salad can steal the show.
I think I might like the salad more than
the steak.
Orzo is such a good way to change
something without doing anything
different. Your pasta salads, your tuna
mac salads, anything just throw this in
and it's like a different experience
completely. Delicious. I don't know what
else to say, my friends. This is a
summer hit. Make it.
>> [music]