Name: Steak Tips with Mushrooms and Blue Cheese
Total time: 30 min
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 1 1/2 pounds sirloin steak tips, cut into 2-inch pieces (see note); Salt and pepper; 3 tablespoons vegetable oil; 4 portobello mushroom caps, halved and sliced thin; 2 shallots, halved and sliced thin; 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth; 1/2 cup heavy cream; 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese; 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives

Why This Recipe Works

Steak tips, also known as flap meat, can be sold as whole steaks, cubes, or strips. To ensure evenly sized pieces, we prefer to buy whole steaks and cut them ourselves. To ensure a substantial crust, we needed to get the pan very hot before adding the steak tips. Cooking steaks in a pan that wasn’t properly preheated lead to meat that overcooked before developing a good crust. To build layers of flavor in our Steak Tips with Mushrooms and Blue Cheese, we prepared the sauce in the same pan in which we cooked steaks. The browned bits left behind—known as fond—added valuable flavor to the sauce. Whisking half of the blue cheese into the sauce added richness to our Steak Tips with Mushrooms and Blue Cheese and ensured that each bite was packed with blue cheese flavor. We preferred to buy a whole chunk of blue cheese and crumble it ourselves, as precrumbled blue cheese tends to be dry and bland.

Instructions

Pat steak tips dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add steak tips and cook until well browned all over, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to serving platter and tent with foil.

Add remaining oil, mushrooms, and ½ teaspoon salt to empty skillet. Cover and cook over medium heat until softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Add shallots and cook until softened, about 1 minute. Stir in broth, cream, and any accumulated beef juices and simmer, scraping up any browned bits, until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Off heat, whisk in ¼ cup cheese. Pour sauce over meat and sprinkle with remaining cheese and chives. Serve.