I know, BBQ sauce is high in sugar, but that doesn't stop us from ordering meat dripping in that sweet molasses and spices goodness when we go out, even if there is Atkins-Friendly Grouper on the menu. At least at home you can control the amount you use, and it makes it easier to opt for the healthier choices when you go out.
Because Smart & Final had trimmed tri-tip on sale for $3.99/pound on Monday when I went to buy something for dinner, and it seemed like the best deal going without walking to another store, Julie and I had tri-tip that evening.
If you buy a 2 to 3 pound tri-tip for two people, you should expect to have leftovers, even if you do painstakingly trim off as much extra fat as you can before cooking it.
We had well over a pound of meat left after dinner. Rather than just wrapping it up and refrigerating it as is, I like to cut it into bite-sized pieces that can be stir-fried with vegetables or used to make barbecued beef. After all, I already have the cooking dish and knife out, and using them to cut the remaining meat won't add anything to the clean-up time.
As I've mentioned before, we don't like to eat the fat, so even though the tri-tip had been trimmed by the butcher and by me before cooking, as I trimmed and discarded any fat from the edge or rippled into the meat as I cut it up. This is easy after the meat has cooled following dinner, and it means a lot less prep work when it comes time to transform the leftovers with Q-CC magic.
When I pulled the bag out of the refrigerator, I tried to decide if I should use it for two meals or one. I decided to just cook it all in barbecue sauce rather than saving half to stir-fry. Based on the amount we ate, this proved to be a good decision.
The recipe is really simple and obvious. Add enough barbecue sauce to cover about a third of the meat. Add about the same amount of water as sauce, and stir it up. The more barbecue sauce you use, the higher in calories the dish will be. I'd say about a third of a cup of BBQ sauce and of water per pound of meat is right, but use your own judgment. Keep in mind that some of the liquid will evaporate while cooking.
Does it matter exactly which barbecue sauce you use?
Perhaps it does to you, and feel free to use that special bottle you bought at Bar 3 or Hula Grill, but as long as you didn't mistakenly buy some really terrible brand from a bargain bin, whatever you have in your refrigerator or pantry should be okay. I buy about any name brand (except Kraft, which I tried because it was cheap and didn't like) I happen to see on sale. I already had a bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's open, but it was down to the point where I had it sitting upside down in the fridge so as to allow the rest of its contents to drip down by the time I used it, so there was only enough for about a third of the meat. I also had an open bottle of Bull's-Eye Texas-Style sauce, but knowing Julie finds that one a little spicy, I added only the same amount of that as the Sweet Baby Ray's so as not to overpower it. For the final third of barbecue sauce, I added KC Masterpiece Original. For those of you who consider region more than brand name, that would be 1/3 Chicago, 1/3 Texas and 1/3 Kansas City. It wasn't necessary to bring one all the way from Memphis.
Put it on medium heat until it is boiling, then cover and reduce it to simmer for a couple of hours or more. You can taste the meat every twenty minutes or so, and you'll see that what starts as beef dunked in barbecue sauce grows more tender as it is cooked, eventually becoming very tender, barbecue-flavored beef in sauce.
The better the bread you use, the better the sandwich will be. You can add things like pickles or coleslaw to get some veggies in the meal. We ate it on Sara Lee Delightful sliced bread, which is low in carbs but definitely not as stable or tasty as a crusty sourdough roll. Julie toasted hers so it would have enough strength to hold together as a sandwich, but I ate mine open-faced with a fork, which had the added benefits of allowing me to use twice the meat as a regular sandwich would use.
We ate on the balcony looking at the ocean for a great summer-evening al fresco meal. Kona Longboard Lager proved to be the perfect accompanying drink pairing.
Is this a groundbreaking recipe? No. But it does make a tasty meal with an easy clean-up.
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