Steaks with Merlot Sauce
photo by Chicagoland Chef du Jour
- Ready In:
- 2hrs
- Ingredients:
- 11
- Serves:
-
4
ingredients
- 1 (750 ml) bottle merlot (of drinking quality)
- 2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans low sodium chicken broth
- 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can beef broth
- 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 thick-cut steaks (filet mignon, or whatever cut you prefer)
- fresh ground black pepper
- 1⁄4 cup chopped shallot (or mix about 1 - 2 T minced garlic and a small chopped yellow onion)
- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic (additional)
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme or 2 teaspoons fresh thyme
directions
- Boil wine along with chicken and beef broths in heavy large saucepan over high heat until it's reduced to 2 cups (~45min to 1 hour).
- NOTE: You can be prepare it to this point in advance, and cover and refrigerate.
- Mix butter and flour in small bowl.
- Heat 1 T olive oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Season steaks with salt and pepper and sauté to your taste (4 minutes per side would result in medium rare steaks).
- Remove steaks to a plate and keep warm (we put it in our microwave to keep the heat from dissipating) To your skillet, add shallots, garlic and thyme and stir 30 seconds.
- Add 1 1/2 c reduced wine mixture to skillet (reserve remainder for another use).
- Bring mixture to a boil and scrape up brown bits.
- Whisk in butter mixture until the sauce is smooth.
- Boil sauce until thick enough to coat spoon, about 2 minutes.
- Drizzle sauce over steaks, and serve remainder in a gravy boat.
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Reviews
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My GF passed this recipe along to me, she makes it every year for her holiday dinner and makes it a day ahead of time. I also made the SAUCE a day ahead for our diner party tomorrow. Nice to be able to get ahead of the game. I am not serving steaks but making a beef tenderloin. My point, it is NOT critical to cook your steaks in a pan to benefit from this delicious sauce. I reduced a full bottle of wine (I think it's important to use a good drinkable wine and reduce the whole darn thing!). Meanwhile.... I melted the butter & EVOO, sauteed the shallots, garlic and thyme and set aside until the wine was ready. Once the wine was reduced, I added the flour to the butter & shallots and combined well. Then added the reduced wine mixture. VERY tasty, a bit salty so next time I will pay more attention to the sodium content of my stocks. I'm not sure it will be an issue if small amounts are spooned on the tenderloin slices. I cannot wait to serve this up tomorrow. Thanks for posting LB!
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Tonight, I made this exactly as posted. It was delicious! Loved, loved, loved the sauce!!! I would cut the cooking time down for the steaks, but I like my meat pink in the middle. I used 1 inch filets, and they were medium well, and I felt they would have been tastier at medium or medium rare. I watched the sauce carefully, since I cut the recipe down to serve 2. I found that I had the required amount of sauce after only 30 minutes of cooking on medium....started at high and then turned the eye down. I really loved this recipe....I think my doneness issues and sauce cooking issues were probably due to cutting the recipe down for 2. I highly recommend this delicious delight! It is fabulous!! Made for PAC Spring 2010.
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I've had this recipe for a long time and made it again last night. Here are my hints from making this several times: 1) I think it's silly that you reduce the liquid to 2 C. but then only use 1 1/2 C. in the sauce - so I use ALL the reduced liquid and then need about 2-3 T. flour to thicken it to my preference. 2). It is SO important to use low-sodium broths!! And even still, the resulting sauce will be very salty. Serve this with garlic-smashed red potatoes and you will be in heaven.
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