Portobello au Poivre is a quick and easy recipe borrowing from the popular French Steak au Poivre. Portobello mushrooms are seasoned with pepper sautéed and finished with an awesome Cognac cream sauce. You’ll never miss the steak!
My inspiration for this amazing recipe came from The New York Times recipe for Portobello ‘Steak’ au Poivre.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
You’ll absolutely love this recipe for the following reasons.
- Quick and Easy: As the name suggests, this recipe is quick and easy to both prep and prepare. Start to finish, it takes less than 5 minutes to prep and less than 20 minutes to cook.
- No Meat: Whether you’re trying to reduce your red meat consumption or are a vegetarian, this recipe has you covered. You’ll never miss the meat.
- Delicious: The sauce is amazing and rounds out the flavor of the meaty portobello.
- Economical: The cost of each portobello is less than $2.00 making this meal extremely economical.
What You’ll Need to Make This Recipe
Most of the ingredients for this recipe are likely already on hand.
- The Mushrooms: Since it’s only the two of us, I used two 3 to 4-inch portobello mushrooms brushed with olive oil.
- The Seasonings: The seasonings are simple – Kosher salt and black pepper. After all, it is “au Poivre” which means with pepper.
- The Sauce: The sauce contains shallots and garlic sautéed in butter and finished with Cognac, heavy cream and Dijon mustard.
How I Prepared the Mushrooms
Preparing the mushrooms was quite simple.
- First, I wiped away any residual dirt from the portobello mushrooms. Then, I removed and discarded the stem.
I’m not a fan of the dark gills on the portobello, so I scraped them away with a spoon. The Master Taste Tester isn’t bothered by the gills, so I left them on his mushroom.
- Next, I brushed both sides of the mushrooms with olive oil.
- Finally, I sprinkled the gill side of the mushrooms coarsely ground black pepper.
How I Prepared the Recipe
Once the mushrooms were prepped, I turned my attention to actually preparing the recipe.
- First, I heated my cast iron pan over medium heat. Then, I added the mushrooms, gill side up and cooked them for about 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes, I flipped the mushrooms and cooked them gill side down for about 3 minutes.
- Next, I reduced the heat to medium-low, flipped the mushrooms to gill side up and added the butter and garlic.
I basted the mushrooms with the butter and garlic until they were tender. This took about 3 minutes.
- After 3 minutes, I removed the mushrooms from pan and added the shallots. I cooked the shallots for about 3 minutes and then added the Cognac.
I stirred the mixture until most of the Cognac had evaporated. This took another 2 minutes.
- Once the Cognac had evaporated, I added the cream, Dijon mustard and salt. I stirred to combine all of the ingredients.
Then, I returned the portobellos to the sauce, gill side down. I cooked the sauce, basting the portobellos until it thickened. This took about 2 minutes.
A traditional way of serving Steak au Poivre is with French fried and watercress. Therefore, I served the Portobello au Poivre the same way, with a glass of Merlot to round out the meal.
This recipe for Portobello au Poivre is a perfect way to enjoy the amazing flavor of Steak au Poivre with the substitute of portobellos for the steak. Yum!
Frequently Asked Questions
I’ve made this recipe many times and like to use portobellos that are between 3 and 4-inches in diameter. Also, I like to use portobellos that have a more pronounced cup appearance as opposed to those that are flatter.
The gills of the portobello really don’t impact the flavor of this recipe. If you leave them on the mushroom, the sauce will be a bit darker and the mushroom will have more structure. On the other hand, If you remove the gills the sauce will be lighter. However, the sides of the mushroom will have less structure. Personally, I think that the gills are gross, so I remove them. The Master Taster on the other hand likes for me to leave them on his serving. Bottom line, it’s a matter of preference.
Feel free to substitute brandy for the Cognac.
You can easily substitute onions for the shallots in this recipe.
Since it’s just the two of us, I prepare this recipe for two servings. However, you can easily double the recipe.
I like to use a cast iron pan in this recipe because of the heat characteristics. However, you can certainly use a regular stainless-steel skillet or a non-stick skillet.
If you’re a fan of portobello mushrooms, check out my delicious portobello mushroom burger recipe.
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Quick and Easy Portobello au Poivre
Ingredients
- 2 large Portobello mushrooms, stem removed, and if desired, gills removed (See Tip 1)
- 2 Tablespoons (1-ounce) olive oil
- 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
- 3 Tablespoons (1.5-ounces) unsalted butter
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 small shallot, finely chopped (about 2 Tablespoons) (See Tip 2)
- 2 Tablespoons (1-ounce) Cognac (See Tip 3)
- ½ cup (4-ounces) heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt, or to taste
- ½ Tablespoon freshly minced chives or parsley for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Clean portobellos of any residual dirt. Brush both sides with olive oil. Sprinkle ½ teaspoon of pepper in gill side of each mushroom.
- Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add portobellos, gill side up. Cook for 5 minutes or until the caps are browned. Turn portobellos, cap side up and cook for an additional 3 minutes. (See Tip 4)
- Reduce heat to medium low. Turn portobellos, gill side up. Add butter and garlic. Baste with butter and garlic until tender, about 3 minutes. Remove portobellos from pan, leaving as much butter in the pan as possible
- Add shallots. Cook, stirring until softened, about 3 minutes. Carefully add Cognac, being careful if Cognac flames up. Cook stirring until Cognac is mostly evaporated, about 2 minutes. (See Tip 5)
- Add cream, mustard and salt. Stir to combine. Return portobellos, gill side down. Baste with cream sauce and cook until sauce is thickened, about 2 minutes.
- Yield: 2 servings (See Tip 6)
Chula’s Expert Tips
- Try to choose portobello mushrooms that are around 4-inches in diameter and have a well-formed cup shape.
- Can substitute onions for the shallots.
- Can substitute brandy for the Cognac.
- May use a stainless-steel skillet or non-stick skillet in place of a cast iron skillet.
- Be very careful when adding the Cognac to the pan. It may flame up, especially if you’re cooking over gas.
- This recipe is easily doubled.
By coincidence, I attended a cooking class at Brown’s Kitchen last weekend, where the same sauce was made with Bourbon – with Cookbook author/chef Albert Schmid. He used chicken cutlets instead of mushrooms but I think boneless pork chops would be good too. Thanks for relieving my kitchen winter doldrums.
Thanks Eileen! I made this a number of times before I thought that I had “gotten it right”. The sauce is amazing – I agree that it would be good on both chicken and pork chops!
Chula