Want to turn your homemade steak dinner into a five-star experience? This red wine pan sauce is the magic touch that’ll have your taste buds singing.
We’ve refined this sauce recipe through countless steak nights, because who doesn’t love a smooth sauce to make a good steak, well, great. We use the the rich flavors (fond) left in your pan after cooking, marrying them with bold red wine, shallot, and fresh herbs. Giving you a silky, complex sauce that beefs up your steak’s natural flavors without masking them.
Table of Contents
- Save This Recipe ✉️
- Why Red Wine Sauce?
- Why you’ll love this Red Wine Reduction for Steak
- Red Wine Sauce Ingredients
- How to make Red Wine Sauce for Steak
- Red Wine Sauce Tips
- How to store leftover Red Wine Reduction Sauce
- FAQs
- What to serve with Red Wine Sauce & Steak
- Steak Recipes to Use with Red Wine Reduction Sauce
- Save This Recipe ✉️
- Easy Red Wine Sauce for Steaks Recipe Recipe
- More Favorites from Girl Carnivore:
Why Red Wine Sauce?
White wine sauce’s more underrated cousin, red wine sauce, is the best kept secret in terms of steak companions. Packed with rich flavor, a classic red wine steak sauce will take your steak dinner to the next level–it’s the ideal accompaniment! Also known as Bordelaise sauce, this classic French sauce is made with simple ingredients. Rather than finding the perfect glass of wine as a beverage, you can simply add the perfect pairing directly into the sauce with your cut of red meat (don’t worry, you can still drink a glass too!).
Why you’ll love this Red Wine Reduction for Steak
This easy recipe for a red wine reduction sauce with shallots is bursting with flavor. You’ll be surprised at how affordable such a seemingly fancy steak dinner is, and this delicious sauce gives you the chance to sneak in some extra veggies with your dinner (if you use the mushrooms).
Red Wine Sauce Ingredients
- Mushrooms, baby bellas are always perfect for steak. However, this recipe works without mushrooms too.
- Olive oil – or your favorite neutral cooking oil
- Salt – we always use kosher salt
- Shallot
- Fresh Thyme
- Freshly ground black Pepper
- Red wine – always use a deep-bodied red wine you’d also want a glass of later
- Worcestershire sauce
- Butter – we always use unsalted butter
Don’t have a shallot but still want a quick and easy red wine sauce for steaks? Just substitute garlic and minced white onion.
How to make Red Wine Sauce for Steak
- Swirl olive oil in a preheated skillet over medium heat. Then add the mushrooms (if using, this recipe works with or without them) to the skillet, sprinkle salt, and toss. Cook until the liquid has been pulled out of the mushrooms and absorbed–5 to 7 minutes.
- Add the shallots and cook until browned (about 2 minutes). Season with the fresh thyme and cook for another 30 seconds.
- Add ¼ cup of the red wine. Scrape up any brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Then, add the remaining ¼ cup of wine and the Worcestershire sauce. Reduce heat and let the skillet simmer until the liquid has reduced by half (about 5 to 7 minutes). If the sauce becomes too thick, add anther ¼ cup wine.
- Take the pan off heat and stir in the butter, one tablespoon at a time, swirling to melt. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Spoon the sauce over expertly cooked medium rare steaks and serve!
Red Wine Sauce Tips
This sauce is best when you use the same pan you just cooked a steak in. The pan drippings help deepend the flavor in big ways! When you deglaze the pan, by scraping up the browned bits when you slowly add the red wine they add a bolder flavor to this sauce than a clean pan would.
How to store leftover Red Wine Reduction Sauce
This red wine sauce is just as good the next day! In fact, it should keep in an airtight container in your fridge for up to four days, and your freezer for up to six months.
How to Reheat
You can reheat this sauce to enjoy with future beef dishes. A shallow pan on the stove is a great option, but the microwave always works in a pinch.
FAQs
Adding red wine to a sauce works to enhance the flavors of all the other ingredients in the sauce, while also dissolving fats (i.e. the olive oil and butter) in order to “unlock” entirely new tastes. A little goes a long way–this recipe calls for just a cup of red wine–to make your meal more rich and savory and make sure the flavor profile is reaching its full potential.
If you want a thicker red wine sauce, try adding flour. Add two tablespoons of flour and ¼ cup of water, whisk until smooth, and repeat until you reach your desired consistency.
Dry red wines with just a hint of sweetness are perfect for a red wine sauce. This includes any variety of full bodied reds like cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir, or merlot. The silky consistency of these wines also give the sauce a lovely texture. And, they also pair perfectly with this meal. Win win.
What to serve with Red Wine Sauce & Steak
This red wine and shallot sauce is delectable with just about any cut of red meat (i.e. a thick bone in ribeye steak, filet mignon, beef tenderloin, New York strip, or even lamb). But there are plenty of opportunities to get creative–you can adapt it to be used as a pasta sauce, or with other lighter meats like chicken or pork. However, we do believe it is best on a meaty red cut.
Steak Recipes to Use with Red Wine Reduction Sauce
Beef Recipes
Grilled Top Sirloin Steak
Beef Recipes
Sous Vide Beef Tenderloin
Beef Recipes
Recipe for Chateaubriand Roast
Beef Recipes
Melt in Your Mouth Eye Round Roast
If you’ve tried my steak sauce with red wine recipe or any other recipe on GirlCarnivore.com please don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know where you found it in the comments below. I get inspired by your feedback and comments! You can also FOLLOW ME on Instagram @girlcarnivore as well as on Twitter and Facebook.
Easy Red Wine Sauce for Steaks Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup mushrooms* stems removed, optional
- 1 tbs olive oil
- salt
- 1 shallot sliced thin
- thyme
- pepper
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tbs butter
Instructions
- Swirl the olive oil in a preheated skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and toss to coat.
- Sprinkle with salt and allow the mushrooms to cook until the liquid has been pulled out of them and absorbed, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Add the shallot and cook until just statring to brown, about 2 minutes.
- Season with fresh thyme and cook 30 seconds longer.
- Deglaze the pan by slowely adding 1/4 cup of the wine.
- Scrape up any browned bits that may be stuck to the bottom.
- Add the remaining wine and Worcestershire sauce, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes until the liquid has reduced by half.
- If the sauce becomes too thick, add another 1/4 cup of wine or beef stock.
- Off heat, stir in the 2 tablespoons of butter, one at a time, swirling to melt. Season with salt and pepper as needed.
- Spoon over cooked steaks when ready to serve.
Video
Notes
If you don’t have a shallow on hand, use minced garlic and mined white onion as a quick substitute.
This recipe works best in a skillet that just pan-seared a steak. The pan drippings add depth to the recipe.
Nutrition
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Just a question. In your first description of how to make this sauce, you write to use first 1/4 cup of red wine and then add the remaining 3/4 cup. So 1 cup total. In the recipe it says 1/2 cup total. It sounds delicious but I would like if you could tell me wether to use 1/2 cup or one whole cup of wine. The results would probably be rather different.
I will try your recipe for the whole beef tenderloin this weekend and would love to also make the mushroom wine sauce. Thank you
Great catch Maj-Britt. We have updated the recipe card to reflect the correct measurements. Your tenderloin sounds delicious. You may want to double this recipe for a whole tenderloin depending on how many people you plan to serve.
Thanks so much for your quick response, Kita. I will double the recipe, thanks for your suggestion. Can’t wait to serve this, I’m sure it will be delicious!