Last Updated on 17th December 2021 by

Steak Diane is an old famous tableside dish, but its taste still rules. This dish is made of beefsteak and beef, and brandy-based pan sauce poured over the steak along with some fresh herbs.

Traditionally, it is made with thinly pounded steak, butter, a cognac, and shallot sauce that is flambeed (alcohol is flamed to cook the dish). They do the flambé step right before serving in front of you for the dramatic experience at restaurants. New York hotels are to be given credits for making the flambé famous.

Diane style means to sauté thinly sliced or tendered meat filet in butter and then flambéing it in a rich Cognac sauce. That sounds like the best thing that could ever happen to the meat. Okay, a little dramatic, but the dish itself has that dramatic appeal to it.

It sounds fancy, but this ‘how to make steak Diane sauce recipe’ is easy, and the ingredients are not that difficult to find.

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How To Make Steak Diane

This recipe will serve four people. You can decrease or increase the ingredients accordingly. This recipe only takes 30 minutes to cook, along with preparation time.

Servings:

Ingredients

For cooking steak

4 (6 ounces) of center-cut beef tenderloin steak/ your preferred cut
2 tbsp of butter
1 tbsp of Olive oil
½ cup minced shallots
½ cup chopped mushrooms
Salt to taste
Freshly grounded black pepper
1-2 tbsp chives (finely chopped)

For the sauce

½ cup beef broth
2 cups of heavy cream
4 tsp of Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp of Dijon mustard
2 tsp of tomato paste
4 tbsp of cognac or your favorite brandy

Instructions

Tender your beef steak with a rolling pin so that it can absorb the flavors and seasoning better.
NOTE: Remove any extra fat from the steak. Some internal marbled fat on the steak is fine; that cannot be removed completely.
TIP: Another good alternative for your steak would be Sirloin Steaks.
Season your steak with pepper and salt and let it sit for 15-20 minutes at room temperature before cooking it.
While the steak is sitting, you can prepare your sauce base for the Diane sauce.
Pour the beef broth in a bowl. Add Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste and dijon mustard.
Stir and mix together.
Now you have all your elements ready so you can start cooking.
Add some olive oil in a skillet/pan.
TIP: Skillet is ideal for giving your steak an even sear on the surface, but a pan will work fine if you don’t have one.
When the oil heats up, add the steak.
Add the butter and cook the steak for 2-3 minutes on each side. Keep splashing the butter on top of the steak to infuse the flavors better.
Check the steak if it’s done and remove it from the skillet or pan.
NOTE: You can check your steak with a thermometer or do a finger test to check the doneness of the meat. A finger test means to compare the surface on your palm that is right below the thumb. Feel it with your other finger while your hand is relaxed and compare it with raw meat.
Touch your thumb to the pinky finger of the same hand and then again feel the same area. The texture on your hand now should be the texture of your cooked meat. It shows that your meat is done; so remove it from the heat.
Into the same pan, add the minced shallots and mushrooms to the grease left in the pan. Add more oil if you feel it’s not enough.
Sauté the veggies until shallots look golden brown.
Add the sauce base to the pan. Let it come to a boil.
Add the heavy cream to the sauce. Again let it cook and come to a boil. When you see the sauce slightly sticking to the sides of the skillet/pan, that is the consistency we are looking for.
Once you get the desired consistency in your sauce, add the steak into the sauce for heating it.
Lower the heat and carefully add the cognac brandy to your sauce and steak.
Flame up the brandy immediately, either by tilting the pan a little or with a lighter. This is called flambé.
Once the flames are over, you can turn off the stove now.
NOTE: This flame will evaporate the alcohol, and only the flavor and taste will subside. This flambe only lasts for a few seconds. So if you need pictures, you better hurry up.

Notes

Here you have it, your Steak Diane is ready to be served. Serve it with chives. Serve immediately and hot; this recipe does not taste as good when served after a while.

Tips On How to Make Steak Diane Sauce Recipe Great

These tips can be used to make your steak Diane cater to your taste pallet more.

You can add or reduce as many vegetables in the sauce as you want.
You can make the recipe alcohol-free, but it misses out on the brandy flavor in the sauce. Just search how to make steak Diane sauce without alcohol; you will find many recipes.
You can replace Dijon mustard with any favorite mustard. Dijon adds the authentic Diane taste.
You can even add paprika to the sauce base for heat.
If you forgot to make a sauce base before cooking your steak, you can mix the sauce base in the pan. It might lead to tomato paste and mustard not mixing up.
You can add more fresh herbs to the steak and sauce.

Alternative Recipe

Let me tell you this; the sauce is the staple in this recipe. It shines because of the specific ingredients used. You can still make changes to it as per your preferences or allergies.

You can replace steak with chicken as well. Chicken goes well with the cognac sauce.
You can also use this sauce with other meats as well.
You can also add this sauce to your leftovers.
This sauce also works fantastic with some pasta.
If you do make this into a pasta dish, then wine or brandy will go great with this dish.

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Pauline

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I'm Pauline, a mother of four grown children, my passion for cooking stemmed from the joy i get cooking for my family. I love to try new dishes, especially when dining out but creating and sharing my own recipes is my favourite thing to do!