Published December 19, 2024. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
This fantastic mushroom bordelaise is a full-flavor sauce of roasted mushrooms finished with a tasty red wine demi-glace. Once you try this, you will want to serve it with everything, and itโs that good.
Whether itโs on a steak or a simple open-faced sandwich doesnโt matter. We are a sauce family and love to complement what we eat with plenty of it. If youโre similar, then definitely try my pesto or peri peri sauce
Mushroom Bordelaise Sauce
Mushroom bordelaise is a derivative of the classic bordelaise sauce consisting of pan-roasted wild mushrooms mixed with bordelaise. It is an unbelievably tasty sauce loaded with umami flavors that would go excellent on steak, pork, or chicken. The brown sauce itself is a reduction of wine, shallots, herbs, and demi-glace.
We served this sauce with chateaubriand at one of the restaurants I worked at, and to this day, it is one of my all-time favorite accompaniments to steak. If you canโt quite get to making a bordelaise sauce, see my notes below on how you can use stock to achieve excellent flavors.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Bordelaise โ This is the classical sauce needed to make this. To make it, you need demi-glace. However, it does require a much longer recipe to get to this sauce, and in that case, veal stock or beef stock can be used when adding the demi. It would be best to thicken the sauce to get to the right consistency using a roux, beurre manie, or slurry.
- Onion โ A shallot is the only traditional onion used in the sauce. However, a white, yellow, red, or sweet onion may be used. In addition, I added a smashed whole garlic clove to it as well, which is optional.
- Wine โ Good dry red wine like Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, merlot, or Shiraz.
- Butter โ I always prefer unsalted butter to control the sodium content instead of the butte company.
- Herbs โ Fresh thyme and a ยฝ bay leaf are used while cooking the sauce down. A ยฝ teaspoon of dry thyme leaves can be substituted.
- Mushrooms โ Any wild mushrooms can and will work for this recipe. I used baby Bellas and buttons, but cremini, porcini, portabella, shiitake, oysters, trumpets, etc., are all good for this.
- Seasonings โ Coarse salt and roughly cracked peppercorns are used to flavor this.
How to Make a Mushroom Bordelaise
Add the oil to a large frying pan or rondeau pot over high heat until it smokes lightly.
Once smoking, add in the mushrooms and spread them out across the pan.
Stir the mushrooms every 2 minutes or so for 10 to 15 minutes or until they are golden brown on all sides.
Scoot the mushrooms to 1 side of the pan, and then on the other side of the pan, add the butter, shallots, and garlic.
Cook the shallots and garlic in the butter for about 1 minute while constantly stirring.
Next, stir the cooked shallots, garlic, butter, and mushrooms until combined.
Pour in the bordelaise and adjust any seasonings.
Try serving it over my New York strip roast, ribeye roast, or reverse sear steak.
Make-Ahead and Storage
Make-Ahead: You can make this up to 3 days in advance. Let it cool completely after cooking, then transfer it to an airtight container and store it in the refrigerator until itโs time to serve.
How to Store: Keep it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw the frozen gravy in the fridge overnight before reheating.
How to Reheat: Reheat your desired amount of mushroom bordelaise in a saucepan and heat over low to medium heat, stirring occasionally, until warmed. If the sauce is too thick, add a splash of stock or water to loosen it up.
Chef Notes + Tips
- Use a carbon steel, cast iron, or stainless-steel skillet to get the best roast on the mushrooms.
- If you are going the alternate route of using beef stock, pour in the 4 cups of stock and cook for 15 to 20 minutes over medium heat. Then, stir in a ยฝ recipe for beurre manie until it becomes thick. Reduce the heat to low and cook for an additional 10 minutes.
- When using just beef stock, you can reduce it down until itโs about 1 cup without using a thickening agent. This amount of reduction will make the sauce naturally thicker.
- Never soak the mushrooms in water. Theyโre like sponges and absorb extra liquid, making them waterlogged and soggy. Clean the mushrooms by wiping them with a damp paper towel.
- If you are making this for a holiday meal, I highly recommend the bordelaise sauce the day before.
- Deglazing adds liquid (like wine) to a hot pan to loosen the flavorful browned bits stuck to the bottom. This adds depth to your gravy, so donโt skip this step.
- If this sauce seems a bit too complicated, given what you need, feel free to try my scaled-back version for mushroom gravy.
More Sauce Recipes
Mushroom Bordelaise Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons avocado or olive oil
- 1 pint thinly sliced button mushrooms
- 1 pint thinly sliced baby bella mushrooms
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 peeled small diced shallot
- 2 finely minced garlic
- 1 bordelaise recipe, about 4 cups
Instructions
- Add the oil to a very large frying pan or rondeau pot over high heat until it begins to lightly smoke.
- Once smoking, add in the mushrooms and spread them out across the pan.
- Stir the mushrooms every 2 minutes or so for a total of 10 to 15 minutes or until they are golden brown on all sides.
- Scoot the mushrooms to 1 side of the pan and then in the other side of the pan add the butter, shallots, and garlic.
- Cook the shallots and garlic in the butter for about 1 minute while constantly stirring.
- Next, stir together the cooked shallots, garlic, butter, and mushrooms until combined.
- Pour in the bordelaise and adjust any seasonings.
Mushroom Bordelaise Sauce