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Steak Tips au Poivre

By America's Test Kitchen

Published on August 23, 2013

Time

30 minutes

Yield

Serves 4

Steak Tips au Poivre

Ingredients

1 ½ pounds steak tips, cut into 2-inch chunks (see note)1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper Salt 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 shallot, minced½ cup red wine ½ cup low-sodium beef broth ½ teaspoon minced fresh thyme

Before You Begin

We prefer to buy flap meat and cut our own steak tips. The browned bits left in the pan after cooking the steak tips, are essential for this recipe and give complex flavor to the pan sauce. To release them, deglaze the pan with a combination of wine and broth

Instructions

  1. Pat steak tips dry with paper towels. Rub all over with pepper and season with salt. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Cook steak tips until browned all over and cooked to desired doneness, 6 to 10 minutes. Transfer to platter and tent with foil.
  2. Add 1 tablespoon butter and shallot to empty skillet and cook until softened, about 1 minute. Add wine, broth, and thyme to skillet. Simmer, scraping up any browned bits, until slightly thickened, 5 to 7 minutes. Off heat, whisk in any accumulated steak juices and remaining butter and season with salt. Spoon sauce over steaks. Serve.
Steak Tips au Poivre

Steak Tips au Poivre

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By America's Test Kitchen
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Time

30 minutes

Yield

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 ½ pounds steak tips, cut into 2-inch chunks (see note)
1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
Salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 shallot, minced
½ cup red wine
½ cup low-sodium beef broth
½ teaspoon minced fresh thyme

Ingredients

1 ½ pounds steak tips, cut into 2-inch chunks (see note)
1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
Salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 shallot, minced
½ cup red wine
½ cup low-sodium beef broth
½ teaspoon minced fresh thyme

Ingredients

1 ½ pounds steak tips, cut into 2-inch chunks (see note)
1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
Salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 shallot, minced
½ cup red wine
½ cup low-sodium beef broth
½ teaspoon minced fresh thyme

Why This Recipe Works

This French dish of pepper-coated steak often results in a scorched skillet, underbrowned meat, loose peppercorns, and a lifeless pan sauce. To ensure our version of Steak Tips au Poivre came out perfect, we made sure the pan was very hot before adding the steak tips. Heat the skillet over medium-high heat with a bit of vegetable oil until the oil smokes. Cooking steaks in a pan that wasn't properly preheated lead to meat that overcooked before developing a good crust. If the fond—the browned bits left in the pan—became too dark, we found we could spread the shallots over the area of the pan that was in trouble. The juices released from the shallots kept the fond from burning. Using unsalted butter for the pan sauce helped regulate saltiness. We seasoned the pan sauce with salt right before serving—doing so before the sauce had reduced resulted in overwhelming saltiness.

Before You Begin

We prefer to buy flap meat and cut our own steak tips. The browned bits left in the pan after cooking the steak tips, are essential for this recipe and give complex flavor to the pan sauce. To release them, deglaze the pan with a combination of wine and broth

Instructions

  1. Pat steak tips dry with paper towels. Rub all over with pepper and season with salt. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Cook steak tips until browned all over and cooked to desired doneness, 6 to 10 minutes. Transfer to platter and tent with foil.
  2. Add 1 tablespoon butter and shallot to empty skillet and cook until softened, about 1 minute. Add wine, broth, and thyme to skillet. Simmer, scraping up any browned bits, until slightly thickened, 5 to 7 minutes. Off heat, whisk in any accumulated steak juices and remaining butter and season with salt. Spoon sauce over steaks. Serve.

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