Slow Cooker or Instant Pot Tri-Tip with Coriander Gravy

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In this simple recipe, Tri-Tip Steak is cooked in a rich gravy flavored with fennel, coriander, and paprika until it's so tender that it falls apart. It's a deeply comforting meal that's satisfying in a heart warming, soul gratifying, stick-to-your-ribs kind of way.

The recipe includes instructions for cooking trip-tip in a slow cooker or an Instant Pot.

A white plate loaded up with Tri Tip steak smothered in fennel and coriander gravy, mashed potatoes, and brown sugar cooked carrots.

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Why This Recipe Works
Ingredients Needed to Prepare this Recipe
Step-by-Step Photos and Instructions
What to Serve with Tri-Tip Steak and Gravy
FAQs and Expert Tips
More Warm and Comforting Recipes:
📖 Recipe
💬 Comments

"I’m still in shock! The recipe serves four but it didn’t last beyond the two of us in one sitting." - Mike

Why This Recipe Works

Tri-tip is a lean, flavorful cut of beef that comes from the tender, triangle roast that's right in front of the hind quarters. It tends to be quite a bit less expensive than other types of steak, especially for the amount of flavor it delivers.

Typically, recipes call for tri-tip to be cooked quickly on a grill, under the broiler, or in a super hot skillet. But, it's also the perfect cut of beef to cook low and slow in a slow cooker or under pressure in an Instant Pot.

Cooking tri-tip in a slow cooker or instant pot creates tender, flavorful chunks of beef that beg to be smothered in gravy. Which is exactly what's happening here.

Ingredients Needed to Prepare this Recipe

Before you begin, gather up all your ingredients:

A 3-pound Tri-Tip Roast
Salt and pepper
Vegetable oil or extra virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion: Peel the onion and cut it into ¼-inch slices
2 or 3 cloves of garlic: Peel the garlic and roughly chop each clove into 3 or 4 pieces
Ground coriander
Fennel seeds
Smoked paprika
Dried oregano
4 anchovy fillets
32 ounces chicken broth - or any other kind of broth. You can even just use plain water.
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Wait... anchovies? Yes! Paprika and oregano add some smokiness and depth to the sauce, and anchovies add that wonderfully intangible sense of umami that makes this dish extremely satisfying.

In this delicious gravy, the anchovies are literally blended up in a blender with the other ingredients. They contribute depth and flavor the the sauce without interfering with the creamy consistency.

The fennel and coriander gravy in this dish is actually just the broth the meat cooks in, boiled down and thickened with a bit of cornstarch. Both fennel and coriander are extremely aromatic and flavorful, and add a unique brightness to both the meat and the gravy.

Step-by-Step Photos and Instructions

#1. Brown the Meat

The first step in this recipe is to cut a 3 pound Tri Tip roast into three pieces and brown each piece in a hot skillet.

Browning the meat is about creating flavor. Searing meat at high heat sets off something called the Maillard reaction. At around 285°F, amino acids and sugars rearrange themselves, creating a brown hue, and new flavor and aroma compounds.

Cutting the meat into three pieces will help it cook a bit faster, and create more surface area for browning.

After cutting a Tri-Tip Roast into 3 pieces (steaks), pat them dry with paper towels. Dry meat browns much better than meat with excess moisture on the outside. Sprinkle it with salt and then place it into a hot skillet that contains a bit of oil.

Let the meat brown on one side, then flip it over and allow it to brown on the other side as well. When the pieces are brown on both sides, remove the meat from the skillet and place it in the bowl of a slow cooker or instant pot.

Three Tri Tip steaks sizzling in oil in a frying pan.

Someone using tongs to turn Tri Tip steaks in a hot frying pan to brown the outside of the meat.

#2. Make the Fennel and Coriander Gravy

Add the onions to the hot skillet and cook until they are just beginning to brown. Add the garlic, coriander, fennel, paprika, oregano, and about a teaspoon of ground black pepper to the onions and cook, stirring for about another minute.

Someone using a wooden spoon to stir slices of onion cooking in a frying pan.

Cooking onions and spices in a skillet to make fennel and coriander gravy.

Pour in some broth and stir, scraping up all the browned bits clinging to the bottom of the skillet.

Then, scrape everything in the skillet into a blender and puree until it's smooth. Pour the gravy over the meat.

Pouring chicken broth into a skillet with vegetables and spices to make fennel and coriander gravy.

A top-down photo looking inside a blender containing fennel and coriander gravy.

A top-down photo looking into the bowl of an instant pot that contains tri-tip steak swimming in fennel and coriander gravy.

#3. Set the Time on the Slow Cooker or Instant Pot

Instant Pot: Set the pot to cook at high pressure for 35 minutes with a natural release.
Slow Cooker: Cook the meat on low for 8-9 hours or on high for 5-6 hours, until the meat is so tender it's falling apart.

#4. Finish the Gravy

Remove the meat from the slow cooker or instant pot, setting it on a serving platter. Cover it with a piece of aluminum foil to keep it warm while you finish the gravy.

Pour all the sauce from the bowl of the slow cooker or instant pot through a fine mesh sieve into a saucepan. Put the cornstarch into a small bowl and slowly whisk in about ½ cup of the sauce.

Whisk the cornstarch mixture back into the rest of the sauce in the saucepan and set it over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 8-10 minutes, until the gravy has thickened.

Taste the gravy and add more salt and pepper if you like. And that's it. Ready to EAT!

Someone pouring fennel and coriander gravy over a plate full of tender, cooked Tri Tip roast.

What to Serve with Tri-Tip Steak and Gravy

Potatoes, of course. There's something about tender beef and rich gravy that begs to be eaten with potatoes. Here are a few of my favorite options...

If you want to get kind of fancy, Potato Gratin with Smoked Salmon and Paprika Cream Sauce rocks - with or without the smoked salmon. Sometimes I add the smoked salmon and sometimes I don't. It's super delicious either way.
Equally awesome with gravy covered steak is a big bowl of Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes. To be fair, there are very few things not made better with a generous serving of Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes.
One of my all-time favorite super fast and delicious recipes from my Grandmother: 10-minute Au Gratin Potatoes.
Simple, Perfect Roast Potatoes are exactly how roasted potatoes should be – richly flavorful, creamy on the inside, crisp and crackling on the outside.
Crispy Fried Potatoes {Country Potatoes} are soft and creamy on the inside, and golden and crispy on the outside.

I also like to serve this dish with simple Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots and Microwave Green Beans with Bacon.

The whole plate reminds me of something my mother might have cooked for me as a child, leaving me feeling all cozy and cared for.

A white plate filled with cooked Tri-Tip Roast that's smothered in fennel and coriander gravy. A fork with a bite of meat rests on the plate.

FAQs and Expert Tips

Q: What is Tri-Tip?

A: The tri-tip is a triangular shaped roast or steak that’s cut from the bottom sirloin. The best thing about tri-tip is its flavor. It’s a lean cut of beef that also contains a good amount of marbling.

When cooked right, Tri-Tip is buttery and tender. It’s generally best to cook this cut at a very high heat or low and slow in a slow cooker or instant pot.

Q: Is there a difference between tri-tip steak and tri-tip roast?

A: Kind of. The tri-tip roast is part of the bottom sirloin suboptimal cut of beef. Tri-tip steaks are cut from the roast.

In this recipe, you'll start with a 3 pound Tri-Tip Roast, then cut it into 3 steaks.

A fork full of cooked Tri-Tip Roast smothered in fennel and coriander gravy.

More Warm and Comforting Recipes:

One of the most popular Instant Pot and Slow Cooker recipes on this site is Asian Short Ribs. It's popular for a reason! The ribs are melt-in-your-mouth tender, incredibly flavorful, and super easy to prepare.

If you love Indian food, you'll love this easy slow cooker Indian Butter Chicken recipe. The dish includes tender pieces of chicken floating in a creamy curry sauce and makes it easy to come home to a satisfying meal that's better than takeout.

If you have an air-fryer or an Instant Pot Vortex or Instant Omni, this air fryer roast beef is crazy good and takes all the guesswork out of perfectly cooked roast beef. Serve it with cream cheese mashed potatoes or country fried potatoes for the ultimate satisfying meat and potatoes meal.

Smoked shredded pork tacos are a party in your mouth, easy to scale up for a crowd, and can also prepared in the instant pot, slow cooker, oven, or even in a dutch oven over the campfire.

Around my house, there's pretty much total consensus that double crust chicken pot pie is the very definition of comfort food. I've been making it on the regular for over 20 years and none of us are even close to being tired of it. And a conversation about comfort food is never complete without really good classic meatloaf and cream cheese mashed potatoes.

📖 Recipe

Yield: 4 servings

Slow Cooker or Instant Pot Tri-Tip

In this simple recipe, Tri-Tip Roast is cooked in a rich gravy flavored with fennel, coriander, and paprika until it's so tender that it falls apart. It's a deeply comforting meal that's satisfying in a heart warming, soul gratifying, stick-to-your-ribs kind of way.

The recipe includes instructions for cooking trip-tip in a slow cooker or an Instant Pot.

Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Ingredients

3 pound Tri-Tip Roast (Tri-Tip Steak; see note)
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons vegetable oil or extra virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion, peeled and cut into ¼-inch slices
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 teaspoons dried oregano
4 anchovy fillets
32 ounces chicken broth
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Instructions

Cut tri-tip into three pieces. Dab each piece on all sides with a paper towel to absorb excess moisture. (Damp meat will not brown.) Sprinkle a generous amount of salt on all sides of each piece.
Add the oil to a 12-inch skillet and set it over medium high heat. When the oil is hot and shimmery, add the pieces of steak. Let them cook on one side until a rich brown crust forms. Turn each piece in the hot oil to create a brown crust on both sides.
Remove the pieces of steak from the skillet, setting them into the bowl of a Slow Cooker or Instant Pot.
Leave the skillet on the stove, but turn the heat down to medium. Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, until they are light golden brown. Add the garlic, coriander, fennel, paprika, oregano, and 1 teaspoon ground black pepper to the onions and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute longer.
Add 1 cup of the chicken broth to the skillet and use a wooden spoon to scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen any brown bits. (There's a lot of flavor in those brown bits!)
Pour everything in the saucepan into a blender and add the anchovies. Puree until smooth, about 20 seconds, and then pour the gravy over the meat. Pour in the remaining chicken broth.
Slow Cooker: Cook the meat on low for 8-9 hours or on high for 5-6 hours, until the meat is so tender it's falling apart.
Instant Pot: Set the Instant Pot to high pressure and the timer to 35 minutes with a natural release.
Remove the meat to a serving platter and cover to keep warm. Pour the sauce through a fine mesh sieve into a saucepan.
Put the cornstarch into a small bowl and slowly pour in about ½ cup of the sauce, whisking constantly as you pour to prevent lumps.
Whisk the cornstarch mixture back into the rest of the sauce in the saucepan and set it over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 8-10 minutes, until the gravy has thickened.
Taste the gravy and add more salt and pepper if desired. Serve the gravy with the meat.

Notes

"Tri-Tip Roast" and "Tri-Tip Steak" are sometimes used interchangeably in packaging:

The tri-tip roast is part of the bottom sirloin suboptimal cut of beef. Tri-tip steaks are cut from the roast. I have found that in supermarkets, both terms can sometimes be used interchangeably. What you want to look for is cut that is about 3 pounds in weight.

If all you see in the supermarket are smaller pieces of Tri-Tip, they are probably steaks. That's ok. Just get three pounds of steaks and ignore the step in the recipe instructing you to cut the 3 pound roast into smaller pieces.