When making steaks at home, a nice unctuous, salty, and savory sauce poured over the top can take it to the next level. You can go with a store-bought steak sauce, just know there is definitely a hierarchy — some simply aren’t up to par. When making a steak sauce with your drippings, aromatics are key for a supercharged kick of flavor. A pan sauce with just butter, garlic, Worcestershire, and dry vermouth is simple to make and will come out super delicious. But, for even more flavor, one of the most classic, hearty, and umami-rich steak sauces has got to be a mushroom-based steak sauce.
But to get that great umami flavor that only a mushroom can offer — with a nice browned exterior on the shroom — it will take a little time. And the mushrooms will expel quite a bit of moisture as they cook, so you need even more time to let it evaporate and cook the liquid down. If you’re used to making your steak sauce right in the skillet you cooked the steak in, this will take a couple of extra steps, but it’s definitely worth the work. You just need to make sure your mushrooms are cooked properly before you dive into the sauce proceedings. It’s not that hard, you just need time it right.
How to prepare mushrooms for an amazingly rich steak sauce
You’ll want to saute the mushrooms first, before they go along with the rest of the sauce ingredients. It will take about five to seven minutes to get them nice and tender and browned on the exterior (and ready to go into the sauce). Depending on the size of your steak, you can start sauteing your sliced mushrooms in oil five to 10 minutes before the steak is done cooking, or start cooking the mushrooms while the steak is resting after it’s cooked. Button mushrooms are easy to handle and slice nice and thin. But this will work with portobello, shiitake, oyster, or cremini mushrooms.
Once the mushrooms have browned, you can add some butter, Worcestershire, steak drippings, and maybe some red wine to start the sauce. The full time to cook down the mushrooms and thicken the sauce will be about 15 minutes. While the sauce is cooking down, you should salt and pepper it to your palate preference. A bit of garlic is always a good idea, and fresh or dried Italian herbs will go great with this preparation. The steak sauce should end up nice and thick, with the mushrooms a bit chewy and pretty well dehydrated from their original spongy form.
For a spicy sauce, you can add red pepper flakes. If you like it nice and creamy, heavy cream will do the trick, or even some shredded or grated cheese, like Parmesan or a tangy gruyere. If you’re having trouble thickening it, try whisking in a spoonful of flour. It takes a little more time to prep this steak sauce, but you’ll be happy you did. And it works equally well with pork chops, chicken, or almost any savory protein.
