Beef, It's What's for Dinner

On Friday night, Ian and I had our parents over for dinner and some poker action. We were going to do our usual carne asada taco night till it turned out to be a yucky day and BBQ didn't seem to be an option. I perused my collection of "must try" recipes and found one for a baked tenderloin. I couldn't believe how amazing the meal turned out. Honestly, one of the best I've ever done. Ian went as far as to say it was the best meat he'd ever had!! I'm sure a lot of it had to do with the primo cut of beef from Costco, but even still, it was so perfectly tender you could cut it with your fork. So I thought I'd share the super easy recipe straight out of the magazine Cooking Light.

Thyme and Spice-Rubbed Roast Beef Tenderloin au Jus

Yield: 7 servings (serving size: 3 ounces beef and about 2 tablespoons jus)

Ingredients
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme, divided
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 3/4 pounds beef tenderloin, trimmed
Cooking spray
1/3 cup brandy
1/4 cup minced shallots
1 1/2 cups fat-free, less-sodium beef broth

Preparation

Combine 2 teaspoons thyme, salt, pepper, and allspice in a small bowl. Rub mixture evenly over all sides of beef. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 400°.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add beef to pan; cook for 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Transfer beef to a roasting rack coated with cooking spray; place rack in roasting pan. Bake at 400° for 26 minutes or until a thermometer registers 135° or desired degree of doneness. Remove from oven, and let stand for 10 minutes before slicing. Pour brandy into roasting pan, scraping pan to loosen browned bits; set aside.

Heat skillet over medium heat. Coat skillet with cooking spray. Add shallots to skillet; cook 4 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add brandy mixture, broth, and remaining 1 teaspoon thyme to skillet, scraping pan to loosen browned bits; simmer until reduced to 1 cup (about 4 minutes). Serve with beef.

*My notes - Since I hadn't caught the "refrigerate 24 hours part", I just made a little extra rub, sliced some garlic cloves to insert into the meat and only let it sit for a few hours. It was SO tasty I can't even imagine how good it'd be if it sat overnight. There also weren't many drippings in the roasting pan so for the sauce, I used the skillet that I'd browned the meat in to get brown bits. I served this with a cheesy potato bake, garden salad and bread. For dessert, mocha toffee brownies.