This is definitely one of my favorite sauces. I absolutely love the bright flavor combination of fresh parsley and lemon. The vibrant color just seems to entice me further. Not only is this sauce perfect on beef, it’s great on seafood, chicken, and vegetables. Put some on noodles for the perfect instant side dish. Give it a try, you won’t be disappointed!
INGREDIENTS
For Chimichurri Sauce:
1 cup fresh parsley
4 cloves garlic
2 Tablespoons shallots, minced
1 Tablespoon dried oregano
3 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon
½ cup olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
crushed red pepper, to taste
For beef:
1 tri-tip
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon granulated garlic
olive oil
METHOD
For Chimichurri Sauce:
In a food processor pulse the parsley, garlic, shallots, oregano, white wine vinegar and lemon juice until combined. Remove from food processor and place in a medium sized bowl. Add the olive oil and mix. Taste and season with salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper, to taste.
Note: I don’t add the olive oil to the food processor because I don’t want the chimichurri sauce to have any emulsification of the oil. It takes away from the vibrant appearance of the sauce.
For beef:
Spray stovetop grill with non-stick oil and preheat on medium.
Rub the tri-tip with paprika, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and olive oil. Place on hot grill for about 15 minutes on each side, or until cooked to your liking.
Once cooked, allow meat to sit for about 10 to 15 minutes before carving it. Slice thin, against the grain. Serve topped with chimichurri sauce.
Enjoy!
Since we do not eat beef, will this sauce be great with chicken? Love the vibrant green color and the ingredients used there in.
Hi Anita ~ Chimichurri sauce is great with chicken, seafood, or vegetables. Even to dip some warm fresh bread into. The other night when we had it for dinner, I really enjoyed it with the crispy oven potatoes. I love the fresh flavor of the parsley and lemon combined. Definitely one of my favorite sauces… after all, I am the “Saucy Girl”. lol
Oh you are a girl after my own heart – LOVE how rare your beef is. Perfect! Chimichurri is our favorite sauce, Mr. Gonzo used to make it for us on date nights. I’ll use this recipe to remind him.
Thanks Lisa! 😉
I’ve roasted tri-tip in the oven several times and we love it. Now I finally have the right kind of outside grill to grill one. Chimichurri sounds perfect for that. I use pimentón and garlic in my oven roast rub too, but I roast it with root vegetables and then make a gravy from sauteed mushrooms, shallots, herbs, a little dijon mustard and the pan drippings, and that gets poured over the just-sliced tri-tip.
My husband is not a parsley fan. Have you ever done a chimichurri sauce with cilantro instead? I might have to try both. Maybe I need to get hubby to try both and really make sure he doesn’t like parsley LOL!
Hi Audrey,
Thanks for your comment! I love roasted root vegetables (yum) and your gravy sounds wonderful, too!
Yes, I have made a similar sauce with cilantro. I have an incredible cilantro-jalapeno sauce that everyone is addicted to. I basically just take some pickled jalapenos, that aren’t too hot, and put them in the food processor with a bunch of cilantro (stems and all). Pulse it together, adding water if needed, and a little salt. If I want to make it into a creamier sauce I add some fat free yogurt, sour cream, or heavy cream. Depends if I’m being “good” or not. 😉
Thanks for the cilantro-pickled jalapeño sauce! That sounds wonderful.
I think I’m going to make your grilled tri-tip this weekend. And I’m going to make one parsley-cilantro chimichurri sauce and one cilantro-mint version. We’ll see which we like best.
In my original post I forgot to also tell you that your beef slices looked great. A tri-tip really should be rare like that. That’s what I strive for.
Let me know how your sauces turn out. The cilantro-mint sounds interesting! We have a ton of mint growing in the front yard… you got my mind working on a mint sauce. Or maybe a refreshing cocktail with cucumber and mint? 😉
I didn’t really have enough mint to do the mint-cilantro version justice. My husband ended up liking the parsley cilantro version anyway – he thought the herbs went better with the garlic flavor. So I froze the mint version for when next we have lamb. I’ll just add more fresh mint to it. Also, I used red wine vinegar for both sauces which I always have on hand and we really like.
The tri-tip came out awesome. I pretty much used your rub made into a paste with the olive oil. I grilled it on an outdoor grill – 5 mins on direct medium each side to brown then moved it to indirect medium until thickest part reached 125 degrees. Oh it was beautiful when sliced. And awesome with the chimichurri sauce!
Great ~ sounds like everything turned out fantastic!! I’m glad your husband ended up liking the parsley cilantro version.
I love lamb roasted with lots of rosemary and served with mint jelly. But a fresh mint sauce is something I’m definitely going to try next time… which may be this week! Now that you’ve got my taste buds going in that direction. 😉
Leftovers! We also really enjoy leftovers from a tri-tip roast. Great for sandwiches and steak salads. Yesterday I took some of the left-over chimichurri sauce and mixed it into some store-bought thick ranch dressing from a jar. It made a fantastic salad dressing for steak salad. The garlic-herb-lemon flavors from the chimichurri sauce came out nice and strong, but the acidity had been beautifully mellowed by the ranch dressing.
Your salad dressing sounds great! I’m sure it elevated that ranch dressing.
I always try to use leftovers in some “new” way. I don’t like to waste anything, plus food is so expensive nowadays! Last night we had boiled cabbage, potatoes, carrots with some ham that I had frozen from Easter. It was really good, but of course I made too much. I already have plans for the leftovers as breakfast tomorrow… the perfect hash, all chopped up, then fried/browned and served with a couple of poached eggs on top!
Yum!! I think tri-tip might be one of my favorite cuts of meat. This grilled version looks so delicious, especially with that sauce!
Thanks Jenny! I love grilled tri-tip. It’s even great the next day for steak sandwiches. 😉