Filet mignon is considered as the most expensive and leanest steak available in the market. Although there are various recipes available to prepare it, it’s best when served bacon-wrapped along with some light seasoning. You need to bear in mind that your filet mignon needs to be seared first. You can do this over an open flame with a skillet or grill pan. Furthermore, we will make a Shiraz Sauce for our Filet Mignon.

Ingredients

Filet mignon – 4 filets, center-cut, 2-inch thick, trimmed of silver and fat

Black pepper (freshly ground) and kosher salt to taste

Olive oil

For the Shiraz Sauce (it will be tasty without, too)

Black pepper (freshly ground) and salt to taste

Butter – 3 tbsp, unsalted, cut into pieces, cold

Sugar – 1/2 tsp

Tomato paste – 1 tbsp

Thyme (optional) – 2-3 sprigs, fresh

Rosemary (optional) – 2-3 sprigs, fresh

Beef stock (homemade is preferable) – 1 cup

Shiraz (other bold red wine will also do) – 1/2 cup

Shallots – 1/4 cup, finely chopped

Preparation

First of all, take your filet mignon steaks out of the fridge and let them rest until they are about room temperature. Dry them a bit using paper towels. Afterwards, lightly coat them with olive oil (Extra virgin is recommended). Afterwards, season both sides with pepper and salt to taste (use your fingers to press the seasoning into the meat). Keep the pressure light, though and continue pressing until the meat is about 2 inches thick.

Set a cast-iron skillet on a baking sheet with rims. Put both sides on the oven rack. Adjust the position to lower-middle. Proceed in heating the oven to a temperature of 500 degrees F. After about 15-20 minutes, just when the oven reaches the needed temperature, remove your skillet and transfer to the top of the stove which is set over high heat.

Immediately put the filets in the skillet. Be careful not to let the steaks touch each other. Each side must be seared for about 2-3 minutes without disturbing them or until both the steak’s side have a nice crust and well-browned. Use tongs for turning and for transferring the filets to a hot baking sheet in the oven.

If you prefer rare, roast filets for about 4-6 minutes (warm throughout and red in the center); for medium rare, 6-8 minutes (fairly hot and pinkish-red color in the center); for medium, 8-10 minutes (hot throughout, the surrounding being grayish-brown and pink in the center). It’s advised to undercook your steaks by taking them away from the oven before desired temperature is reached since meat would still continue cooking even after it’s taken away from the oven.

When the steaks are cooked to your desired doneness, transfer them to a large plate. Loosely cover with foil and leave to rest for about 5-10 minutes. Slice and serve as individual steaks on a plate.

Shiraz Sauce

After you’ve transferred the steaks to the oven, melt butter in the same skillet where the filets were cooked to make use of the residual fat it was cooked in. Toss the shallots and cook in heat which is over medium-low. It should be cooked for about 2-3 minutes until they become tender.

Raise the heat to medium-high, add the wine and bring to boil. Use a spatula or wooden spoon for stirring. Scrap so that the brown bits which are stuck to the skillet would be loosened and be incorporated into the sauce. When the wine is barely there, add stock, sugar, tomato paste and herbs (just use a pinch if you’re using dry herbs). Bring the mixture to a boil. Cook until desired consistency is reached.

Remove from the heat. Put in the remaining cold butter until it melts and the sauce is glossy, smooth and thickened. Correct seasoning with pepper and salt. Spoon the sauce over the cooked filets then serve.

Cabernet Filet Mignon Recipe – Variation 1

Ingredients

For the marinade

Black peppercorns – 1 tsp, coarsely cracked

Olive oil – 1/4 cup

Rosemary – 4 sprigs, bruised

Garlic – 2 cloves, crushed

Balsamic vinegar – 2 tbsp

Beef filet mignon – 6 steaks (7 ounces each), trimmed

Salt

For the sauce

Black pepper and salt to taste

Roasted chicken stock or veal stock – 1 1/2 quarts

Cabernet – 2 cups

Red wine vinegar – 1/4 cup

Balsamic vinegar – 1/4 cup

Tomato paste – 2 tbsp

Bay leaves – 2 pieces

Garlic – 2 cloves, crushed

Olive oil – 1/4 cup

Celery – 1/2 cup, chopped (1-inch pieces)

Carrot – 1/2 cup, chopped (1-inch pieces)

Onion – 1 cup, copped (1-inch pieces)

For the garnish

Chive batons – 2 tbsp, 1-inch length cut

Preparation

Cabernet & Filet Mignon

Combine black peppercorns, olive oil, rosemary, garlic and balsamic vinegar to make the marinade then use it to coat your filet mignon steaks. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours or overnight. Take away from the fridge 1 hour before you cook the steaks. Wipe off excess marinade from the steaks.

Sauce Preparation
Use a pot that is heavy-bottomed and put over medium-heat. Put olive oil until hot then cook the celery, carrots and onions until well-browned. Add the tomato paste, bay leaves and garlic. Cook for about 1 minute while stirring. Add the Cabernet, red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar bringing everything to a boil. Simmer until the liquid is reduced by about 2/3. Add the chicken stock or veal, bring liquid to a boil and simmer. Skim occasionally until liquid is reduced by about 2/3. Use a strainer that is fine mesh. Cool the sauce and refrigerate if it won’t be used immediately.

Put the sauce back to the heat. Let it simmer until it lightly coats the spoon’s back. Season it with pepper and salt. Keep the sauce warm.

Filet Mignon Cooking
Light your grill and allow the coals to heat down to a medium-hot fire. Liberally season your filet mignon steaks with salt. Grill to your preferred degree of doneness. For medium rare, you just need to grill for about 4 minutes on each side. Serve on a plate and keep warm. Pour the juices obtained from the filet mignon steaks to the sauce. Spoon the sauce around and over the steaks. Sprinkle with batons of chive and then serve immediately.

Filet Mignon with Cabernet Sauce Recipe – Variation 2

Ingredients

• Cabernet Sauvignon – 1/2 cup
• Filet mignon- 2 1-inch thick steaks (4-6 ounce)

Pan-Searing

Use cast-iron pan and set over medium-high heat. Pour 2 tbsp olive oil. Sear the filets when oil is already hot enough, use tongs to move them to keep the steaks from sticking to the bottom. The required cooking time is just about 5-6 minutes for each side.

When the steaks are already crusty-charred and done according to your preference, remove from the pan and loosely cover with foil. Let the steaks sit for about 5-10 minutes before serving. The meat will still continue cooking during this time (temperature of the meat usually rises to 5-10 degrees right after you take them away from the pan).

Meat Thermometer Guide

• 120 degrees – rare
• 125 degrees – medium rare

Cooking thermometers measure steaks’ internal temperature while they’re being cooked. This is very convenient considering that you don’t have to guess whether your meat is already done or not.

A lot of the recipes which are used for the beef tenderloin can also be used for filet mignon and vice versa. When you start looking for recipes for those tasty steak cuts, make sure that you would also search for ones for Beefsteak, Tournedos and Chateaubriand. Browsing our categories will yield you quite a lot of recipes. Yet, you still should try this marinade with filet mignon, first:

Ingredients

Pepper and salt

Bacon – 2 slices, quartered

Mushroom – 6 pieces, sliced

Filet mignons – 4 filets (14 oz.)

For the marinade

Vegetable oil – 1 cup

Burgundy – 1 cup

Brandy – 1 cup

Garlic – 5 cloves

Allspice – 1/2 tsp

Bay leaves – 3 pieces

Black peppercorns – 1 tsp, crushed

For the sauce

Whole mushrooms – 16 pieces

Marinade – 1 cup

Beef stock – 2 cups

Flour – 3 tbsp

Butter – 1/2 cup

Directions

Filet Mignon is probably the most tender steak in the world and does not need a marinade at all. Yet, a good marinade, applied with some care, still can add additional flavor to your Filet Mignon. So here we go:

Create two slits 3-inch long in each steak, not quite reaching the underside. Stuff the bacon pieces, pepper, salt and mushroom slices.

Make your marinade in a dish or pan by mixing the vegetable oil, burgundy, brandy, cloves of garlic, allspice, bay leaves and peppercorns. Put prepared filet mignon slices in the mixture. Keep refrigerated for 24 hours or more, if desired.

Remove filets from mixture and drain when you’re ready to cook them. Grill according to your desired doneness.

To make the sauce cover the steak, melt butter in a saucepan. Stir in a bit of flour until it turns brown. Blend in the marinade and beef stock until smooth. Put in mushroom then heat through.

Pour the sauce over the steaks. You can use onion rings and parsley as decoration.

Tips

A high quality olive oil (Extra virgin) is a somewhat more expensive, yet definitely the best choice when it comes to marinades.

Ingredients

Filet mignon – 4 filets (6-8 ounce)

Baby spinach – 2 bags (6 ounces each)

Pine nuts – 3 tbsp

Olive oil (for the spinach) – 2 tbsp

Olive oil – 1/4 cup

Juniper berries – 2 pieces

Dry vermouth – 1 tbsp

Vodka (made from grain) – 1/3 cup

Garlic – 2 cloves, minced

Chives – 2 tbsp, finely snipped

Parsley – 2 tbsp, finely chopped, fresh

Black pepper – 1 tbsp, coarse

Sea salt or kosher – 2 tbsp, coarse

Preparation

1. Rub pepper and salt on the filets. Put them in a big plastic bag that’s sealable and add the olive oil, juniper berries, vermouth, vodka, garlic, chives and parsley. Mix everything well. Make sure that the bag is sealed well before you place the marinated mixture in the refrigerator. Leave it to chill for about 20-30 minutes
2. For the time being, get a medium-sized pan where you can sauté the spinach. Have the pine nuts and olive oil close by. (The spinach should be sautéed as soon as the filet is taken away from the grill, which will give the meat about 2 minutes to rest.)
3. Remove steaks from the marinade. Since it won’t be needed anymore, you can discard the marinade anytime. Start grilling the steaks. Cover them in the process. If your desired doneness is medium rare, you only need 3 minutes of cooking time for each side. Put the steaks on a platter.
4. In a medium-sized sauté pan, pour olive oil and heat over medium-high heat. Put in the pine nuts. Cook for 1-2 minutes until they turn light brown. Add spinach. Toss so that all the spinach will be lightly coated. Heat through for about 3-4 minutes.
5. Serve each of your filet mignon steak with sautéed spinach and enjoy!

Tips

This recipe for marinated filet mignon is best to be served with a French, dry red wine. I strongly prefer Bordeaux.

You need to know that this cut of meat has very little amount of fat when you consider cooking your filet mignon roast. For all that tenderness, you do have yourself a tradeoff; unlike other cuts of meat, filet mignon doesn’t have a strong beefy flavor. To make up for this, it’s ideal to coat filet mignon with a flavorful rub or serve it with gravy that’s made from drippings.

Ingredients

For the Beef

Whole beef tenderloin – 1 piece of 4-5 pound trimmed tenderloin, tied every 3 inches, tail end that’s tucked under

Kosher salt – 2 tsp, coarse

Ingredients for the Sauce

Beef stock – simple, homemade

Tawny or Ruby Port – 1 cup

Black pepper – 1 tsp, coarsely cracked

Rosemary – 1 fresh sprig

Brandy or Cognac – 3 tbsp

Shallots – 1/4 cup, finely chopped

Unsalted butter – 4 tbsp (half stick), chilled, divided

Ingredients for Roasting

Extra-virgin olive oil – 2 tbsp

Black pepper corns – 2 tbsp, coarsely cracked

Preparation

For the Beef

Sprinkle kosher salt on the whole surface of your beef tenderloin. Set beef on a rack set over a baking sheet which is large-rimmed. Keep it uncovered and refrigerate for about 24-36 hours.

For the Sauce

Get a large saucepan and put it on a stove set on medium-low heat. Melt butter when the pan is hot enough. Add the shallots and sauté for about 3 minutes until tender. Add rosemary, black pepper and cognac. Cook for about one minute or until there’s no more liquid left. Add port and bring to a boil. Add beef stock and boil for about 20 minutes or until the liquid is reduced to 1 1/2 cups. Strain into a medium-sized saucepan. Press on the solids to get as much liquid as you possibly can. Throw away the solids from the strainer.

For Roasting

Let your meat stay in a room temperature for about one hour before roasting. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F. Position rack in the center of the oven. Rub oil all over filet mignon roast and drizzle with cracked peppercorns. Put the beef on the rack for roasting. Cooking time should take about 30 minutes. Take the roast from the oven and leave it to rest for about 15 minutes.

Get your sauce and bring it to a boil. Whisk in the remaining butter. Season the sauce with pepper and salt to taste.

Cut the string off from the roast. Do crosswise cutting on the filet mignon roast, 1/2-inch thick for each slice. Arrange well on a platter with the option of putting garnish. Serve with desired sauce.

Tips

Dry brining or putting salt in advance is commonly done to improve the sinewy cuts of the meat’s texture. But it also work wonders on tender cuts like the filet mignon, increasing the juiciness and flavor. To do this, water is first drawn out from the meat and then reabsorbed. The more flavorful and saltier moisture will help intensify the taste. What’s more, the tenderloin’s exterior slightly dries out, thus, browning is quicker when you cook it in the oven.

The tenderloin is quite lean of fat that’s why it has a tendency of becoming too dry when overcooked. A solution to this problem is by wrapping a piece of bacon on the steak. Usually, the bacon is taken away from the filet mignon and not included in serving. If you’re hesitating about serving filet which is bacon-wrapped, you can always remove it before serving. Otherwise, you can let your guests savor the filet as well as the bacon. Just remember to take away the toothpick holding the filet and bacon together.

Your Guide To Making Bacon-Wrapped Filet Mignon (Recipe)

• Check your meat for any fat or silver skin left around the steaks’ outside part. Use a sharp knife to take it away without taking away any meat in the process. If you’ve purchased the entire tenderloin, the tenderloin’s smaller end is the filet mignon. Trim your steaks and cut them the exact width of the bacon. You need to season the steaks first before wrapping it. Just keep everything simple. Use fresh-crackled black pepper and see salt for season. Gently rub them on the steak.
• After having been seasoned and ready to go, next thing to do is use the bacon to wrap around the filet mignon. Choose quality bacon that’s fresh and wide enough to cover the steak’s entire exterior. There are wide cuts of steak which are also narrower, therefore, you need to make sure that it is even throughout. For one steak, one piece of bacon is enough. You just need to wrap it around firmly but not tight, just snug enough. To hold the bacon in place, stick a toothpick through the portion which is overlapping. You should see that the filets are quite round now. This is one of the added bonuses of wrapping them. The round shape would give an added appeal to your steak.
• Put frying pan on a stove set on a medium heat while the oven is heating up to 400 degrees F. Melt some butter in the pan and keep stirring it until the foam disappears. Once the pan and the butter are ready, lay a couple of filets. As much as possible, there must be as much pan space as the meat. This way, there will be sufficient hot spot where you can flip your steak to. Turn a hood fan if you happen to have one. Otherwise, just open your window for continuous air movement. The steaks should be fried until they become brown or dark brown. Turn them over the unused part of the pan and repeat the cooking process.
• Once all the steaks are cooked, turn the stove off and put back all the steaks on the pan. You will finish cooking your filet mignons in the oven. To have them according to your preference, you can check them with a thermometer as they are cooking. If you happen to have a digital probe which you can place in the oven, much better. If you don’t have one, just remember to check your steaks before you put them in and then intervals of 5-10 minutes once they are inside the 400 degree F oven. The following would serve as a guide for different cooking preference of the meat: 120-125 degrees for rare meat, 140-150 degrees for medium meat and around 160-170 degrees for well done.

Famous for its tenderness, filet mignon is a signature dish on dinner menus for every special occasion like birthday celebrations, anniversaries, Valentine’s Day and many more. The translation of the French word mignon is sweetheart, darling or dainty. Even the name itself suggests romance.

Surprisingly, it’s quite easy to cook perfectly seared filet mignon tenderloin in your home, making it a practical and economical choice for special night-in dinner. A pound of beef tenderloin is sufficient enough to serve two people.


Preparation Time: 45 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour and 10 minutes
Serving Size: 4 servings

Ingredients:

Juiced lemon – 1/2

Large shallot – 1 piece, minced

Roma tomatoes (plum) – 3 pieces, chopped

Small Avocadoes – 4, peeled and mashed

Water – 2 tbsp

Black pepper – 1/4 tbsp, freshly cracked

Celery seed – 1 tsp

Coriander seeds – 1 tsp, crushed

Button mushroom – 1 package (4 ounce), sliced thin

Yellow bell pepper – 1 piece, tut in thin strips

Red bell pepper – 1 piece, cut in thin strips

Corn oil – 1/4 cup

Chicken broth (low-sodium) – 1 cup

Corn chips – 1 package (16 ounce)

Beef tenderloin – 4 filets (6 ounce) kept in room temperature

Olive oil – 2 tbsp

Sea salt – 1/2 tsp

Unsalted butter – 1/4 cup, cut in cubes 1/2-inch

White wine vinegar – 2 tbsp

Water – 3 1/2 cups

Garlic – 3 cloves, smashed

Shallot – 3 large pieces, sliced

Corn oil- 3tbsp

Directions

1. Mix the jalapeno pepper, minced shallots, roma tomatoes, lemon juice and avocado in a bowl. For great melding of flavors, allow the bowl of mixture to chill in the refrigerator.
2. Put a small-saucepan on stove with the heat over medium-low. Pour chicken stock and let it simmer until it’s reduced to only about 1/2 cup.
3. Heat corn oil in a skillet placed over medium heat. Cook the yellow and red bell pepper in hot oil for about 5-7 minutes until it becomes tender. Throw in the mushrooms and season with black pepper, sea salt and coriander seeds. Add water and the reduced chicken stock. Stir and cook for another 5-7 minutes until moisture is absorbed. Put mixture in a plate which is lined with paper towel (this will absorb the grease).
4. Heat olive oil in a medium sized saucepan. When the oil is hot, throw in the sliced shallot, stir and cook for about 3 minutes until it’s softened. Put the crushed garlic, stir and cook for an additional 3 minutes. Pour the water and bring the mixture to a boil until it’s reduced to about 1 cup.
5. Using a strainer with fine mesh, strain the mixture. Put the strained liquid back into the saucepan. Maintain the medium heat. Pour in the white wine vinegar. Bring the mixture to a boil until liquid is reduced to 1/4 cup. Whisk the butter in quickly until it melts. Continue constant whisking. Remove the new mixture from the heat but still keep it warm while you’re preparing the steaks.
6. Put cast-iron skillet on the stove and allow it to get hot over medium-high heat. Pour oil in the skillet. When the oil is hot enough, put the steaks and cook them until they become firm, juicy and reddish-pink in the center. Cooking time for the steaks is just about 5 minutes for each side. If you have an instant-read thermometer available, it should read 54 degrees C (130 degrees F) when inserted into the center of the filet mignon. When you’re done, put the steak on a plate and cover with 2 layers of foil. Let it rest in a warm area for about 10 minutes.
7. In the center of each of your serving plate, place a mound of your bell pepper mixture. Slice the steaks in half and put 1 slice on top of each mound. Get your butter mixture and put a few spoonfuls onto each plate to surround the stack. Serve this with corn chips and chilled guacamole.