I've had Chateaubriand in some excellent restaurants known for their beef, in Wilmington, DE (Constantinou's House of Beef), in Detroit, MI (London Chop House), and in Chicago, IL (Kelsey's). There were other fine restaurants in other locations in the USA and Europe as well, where I ate great Chateaubriand and/or other fine beef filet entree's, too many to remember and too many to list! In short, the meals and great, high quality meat I've been lucky enough to experience set my expectations for when I would make Chateaubriand.
This past year my sweetheart, Peggy, ordered various meats from Kansas City Steaks®, including some Chateaubriand filets. She prepared one using the directions given and the included seasoning packet. She made only one mistake ... serving their version of good Chateaubriand to me. I was appalled with the meat being overcooked and way over seasoned. One might as well have coated the meat heavily with Montreal Steak Seasoning, which is over the top and not suitable for better cuts of meat unless used quite sparingly.
Thus, when I recently decided to make Chateaubriand for us, for my first time, I turned to my food science guru, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt for a Chateaubriand recipe, using the SeriousEats.com website. My, was I pleased to learn what he did, and this recipe is quite similar to his. I am passing this on to you for multiple reasons, not the least of which is for you to understand his excellent creativity in developing new ways to make excellent food taste and look even better.
Kenji uses a technique that he calls Reverse Searing. What that means is the searing of the roast happens at the end of cooking, not at the beginning. The reason? More of the interior of the roast remains perfectly pink, all the way through, without sacrificing a beautiful crust on the outside. In short, you will now learn how to make superb Chateaubriand ... I did on my first attempt, and all because Kenji's method is essentially foolproof and guaranteed to yield great results, including the aromatic herb seasoning, which is not overpowering, but just right to impart some complexity to the beef.
Kenji also recommends serving diced chives and a horseradish cream sauce with the beef. I heartily agree and Food Nirvana has a fine recipe for making the sauce. Use it. We did and we loved having that sauce with the Chateaubriand.
Ingredients: (Serves 3 to 4 adults)
2 lb. beef tenderloin center, trimmed
1 shallot, chopped
6 sprigs of fresh thyme
3 or 4 tbsp. of butter
6 finely diced chives
Kosher or coarse sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Cooking supplies/materials:
Butcher's cord to tie the roast
A baking sheet and a small steel cooling rack
An instant read thermometer
A heavy cast iron skillet, a soup spoon and tongs
At serving time: Sprinkle the chives over the slices of Chateaubriand on a platter and provide the Horseradish Cream Sauce on the side by serving it in a single bowl to be shared by all of the lucky guests (and you).
Directions:
Kenji places the filet uncovered on a plate in the refrigerator after seasoning it with salt. Then he leaves it sit overnight to partially dry the exterior of the meat and to gain the benefit of the tenderizing effect of the salt applied hours before cooking. I bypassed his first step. I simply wiped off excess moisture with paper towels, seasoned the filet with salt and pepper and tied it with butcher's cord around the perimeter once every inch along the length of the filet.
Make Horseradish Cream Sauce using the Food Nirvana recipe. Cover it and keep it refrigerated until it is used.
Set the oven temperature at 230 degrees F. (Note that Kenji uses 225 degrees F and 3 to 4 hours of low temperature roasting. I was more in a hurry due to the long roasting cycle and me not wanting to wait to eat dinner until 9:00 P.M. that night. To point, 3 hours of roasting at 230 degrees F did the trick.)
Wipe off excess moisture from the room temperature filet with paper towels and roll the filet on a flat surface (like a wood cutting board) across a mixture of Kosher or coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Tie the seasoning coated filet with butcher's cord around the perimeter every inch along the length.
Place the filet on a cooling rack on a baking sheet and roast it for 3 hours, checking the internal temperature periodically after the first 2 1/2 hours.
Now is the time to make all the side dishes you plan to serve with the Chateaubriand, during the roasting period. Baked potatoes are a nice side dish (served with whatever toppings you like), as are French Fries prepared immediately before serving the Chateaubriand. A traditional tossed salad with the dressing(s) of your choice is also very nice. Some people like to have soft dinner rolls with butter. A mild red wine makes a fine beverage with the Chateaubriand. Ice cream or gelato make a fine dessert. Or you can go (pardon the expression) "whole hog" and make a sinful chocolate mousse or a decadent butterscotch pudding. My recipe for the decadent butterscotch pudding is in Food Nirvana. There is also a very nice but significantly more complicated recipe for Espresso Panna Cotta Mousse.
After the first two and one half hours, check the internal temperature at the center of the filet with an instant read thermometer. If it measures 135 degrees F the roasting is done. Otherwise continue roasting and checking the temperature every 15 minutes until the interior temperature is 135 degrees F. That will yield a perfectly pink medium rare to medium interior to the roast, all the way through.
Put the filet aside to rest while you prepare the large (12" diameter) cast iron skillet for the searing step.
Chop/slice the shallot and strip the leaves from the thyme stems.
Dice the chives that will be used as a garnish at serving time.
Melt the butter in the skillet on high heat and continue heating it until the foam subsides and it starts to turn a nutty brown color. Then add the shallot and thyme ingredients and mix them with the butter.
The skillet is now hot enough to sear the filet. Do adjust the heat down if necessary during the searing process to avoid burning the butter or having smoke from the skillet set off your home smoke detectors. I use an exhaust fan to eliminate smoke.
Put the filet into the hot buttery skillet and spoon the shallot and thyme and butter mixture all over the top.
After one minute turn the filet about one eighth of a turn (with tongs) to sear the next area and repeat dispensing the shallot and thyme and butter mixture over the top with a spoon.
Continue turning and searing and dispensing the other ingredients on top of the filet until the filet has been seared all around. The total searing time is roughly eight minutes with no area being seared for more than one minute. Note once again that during searing you may have to reduce the heat to keep the butter from getting too hot (burning/excessive smoking).
Serve the filet hot on a preheated platter and sliced into pieces 1/2" thick and sprinkled with the diced chives. Be sure to provide coarse sea salt, freshly ground pepper and the horseradish cream sauce on the side.
Serve the prepared side dishes, and possibly some soft dinner rolls with butter, as well.
Yes, a mild red wine like Merlot goes very well with this meal, along with glasses of ice water on the side.
If you serve a mousse or the decadent butterscotch pudding for dessert be sure to also serve hot freshly made coffee.
Enjoy!