Filet with a Merlot Sauce Recipe

Directions

In a heavy sauce pan over high heat, combine wine, chicken broth and beef broth. Bring to a boil, and cook until mixture is reduced to 2 cups, about an hour. (This can be prepared a day ahead - cover and refrigerate).
In a small bowl, mix butter and flour. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle steaks with salt and pepper, and saute until medium-rare, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer steaks to a plate.
Stir shallots, garlic and thyme into skillet. Add 2 cups reduced wine mixture to skillet. Bring mixture to a boil, scraping up any browned bits. Whisk in butter mixture until smooth. Boil sauce until thick enough to coat a spoon, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Reviews (62)

VORCHA

Sep. 13, 2007

"This is absolute divine. The main key to having this turn out great is using an excellent red wine that you want to drink. If you don't want to drink it out of the bottle, you won't love the sauce. ..." See more Take the time to find a good wine, splurge a little if you have to. I add sliced mushrooms to the pan sauce."

NMChef1

May. 17, 2005

"I'm still a newish cook, and this recipe entailed several firsts for me: the first time I've cooked with either filet mignon or shallots, and the first time I've ever reduced a sauce. With those cave..." See moreats, I found the results to be a little disappointing, flavor-wise. But I had very high expectations, so this just resulted in this being "pretty good" in my book. The filets with the shallots and garlic were very tasty, but I found my wine sauce to be fairly bland. Step 1 wasn't too clear (to this beginner) about what heat (low, medium, high, boil) to reduce the sauce on. I had it too low, then cranked it up, and it still took me 1.5 hours to get 3 cups of sauce. And I don't think the 2-3 minutes in step 3 was enough to thicken the sauce, either. I may try this recipe again, though - it has a lot of potential, but I've got to get the hang of making sauces like this."

I'm nuts too...

Jul. 23, 2003

"WOW! This sauce has a beautiful presentation, not to mention a wonderful flavor! I scaled it down to 2 & used a small (187ml) bottle of Merlot. I can't wait to serve it to guests. Thanks Melody!!..." See more"

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