Last Night at Chez Bart: Steak with Guinness Barbeque Sauce

This is not a new dish in my repertoire; it's actually one I have made before a few years back. It was given to me by my mother, who learned it when she and a bunch of her gal-pals went down to Canyon Ranch for a week. She had served the sauce over beef tenderloin, and was very impressed.

The first time I tried it out was a month or so after, when I tried to impress two of my lovely gal friends with my culinary acumen. I am not sure if it worked; they said they liked it, but they could have just been being nice. ;o) Anyways, I liked it, so I kind of kept this recipe within my repertoire. Now fast forward to today. When discussing dinner options before heading to the bar, my good friend said she was craving steak, so this recipe came to mind. Voi la!

Store Notes: The sauce itself takes nothing fancy to make. Here is the recipe:

• 1 cup diced red onions
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups Guinness beer
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

An area where one has substantial latitude is the choice of beer for this sauce. Last night, I swapped out the Guinness for Bells Porter, but one could use any quality stout or porter. If I made this again, I would probably use Murphy's Irish Stout, one of my favorite beers from my trip to Ireland over Spring Break 2006.


Now this makes the sauce, which is meant to be served over something. This is where you will find the cost of the dish to vary considerably. I served this yesterday over Delmonico steaks, which are in the upper third of steak cuts. One could cut down the cost by selecting a cheaper cut of beef: sirloin, NY Strip, etc. Of course you can also increase the cost by selecting a better cut; if I made this for a girlfriend, I would most definitely up the ante and buy tenderloin (i.e. fillet Mignon).

Now one doesn't have to use beef for this sauce. In reality, any kind of meat preparation that utilizes a barbeque sauce is applicable. Brush it over grilled chicken, beef or pork ribs, and pork tenderloin will all work.

Prep Notes: To prep the sauce, dice the red onion and mince the garlic. For the onion, I used my newly purchased VeggiChop. It diced it with ease, saving me tons of time. All one has to do is slice the onion up, then throw it in the VeggiChop. Pull the cord a few times, and BAM! Diced onion.

Here I am pounding the garlic.
Just don't push too hard, or you
will smash it!

For the garlic, you can either buy garlic already minced, packed in water, or buy a bulb and do it yourself. A trick to peeling garlic is to place the clove, with skin on, on the cutting board. Laying your chef's knife flat over the clove, hammer the knife with the bottom of your clenched had. This should loosen the skin, allowing you to peel with ease. Remember, when mincing small ingredients like garlic, make sure you hold the ingredient with your knuckles, not your fingers! It will save many bandages. 


To prep the stakes, brush lightly with extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkle with kosher salt. At this time, one can season to taste. For high-end cuts of meat - like the fillet - only salt is truly necessary. Anything further will just detract from the taste of the meat. For lower cuts, I would recommend a bit of pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, paprika, etc. Penzey's makes some really excellent spice blends that I currently use, including Chicago Steak Seasoning and Adobo+Chipotle seasonings. For these Delmonico, I am using the Chicago Steak seasoning blend.

Place the steaks in a ziplock bag, and allow the seasonings to marinate the meat for a few hours in the refrigerator - the longer, the better. Just remember that, before you grill, to pull the steaks out of the fridge so that the meat can slowly be brought back up to room temperature.

Cook Notes: The sauce can be made hours - even days - in advance of the grilling. To make the sauce, I will quote the recipe:

1. Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Sweat onions and garlic until onions are translucent. Add beer, and reduce by half.

2. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until thick. Serve 1/3 cup.

Once the sauce is at a consistency to your liking, remove it from the heat and allow to cool a bit. Then pour into a container for either immediate use, or for refrigeration. It should keep for a few days in the refrigerator, or for even longer if frozen.

The sauce, which has been taken off the burner,
is starting to thicken up.

Since I am cooking the steak on a grill pan (I live in an apartment, so no grill for me!), this will be my frame of reference. This summer, when I am up at the cottage, I will provide the proper narrative for a true grill. Anyways, pre-heat the grill pan to medium-high heat. If you already brushed the meat with oil, you do not have to add any to the pan. If you did not, then I would brush the grill pan with a little vegetable oil. Why vegetable oil? Because it has a higher flash point, and will not degrade over the higher heat required to grill the meat.

After the first flip. Look at those grill marks!

Place the meat on the grill pan, and cook for 5-10 minutes - depending on the thickness of the steak - until a good sear forms. Flip once, and cook for another 5-10 minutes. Remember, ONLY flip ONCE. Flipping multiple times will dry out your steak. Also, DO NOT cut into the meat in order to check for how well done it is. This will allow the juices to escape, thus drying it out. Instead, look at the edges of the meat. Once the pink starts to leave the edges, you know you are close. Otherwise, it is just a matter of feel, which is why chefs at the great steak houses around the world make the kind of money they do. Unlike baking, it is all art and no science.


What I have just provided is for a medium rare steak (in my humble opinion, the only way to cook one). If you like it more well done, cook it longer! Once the steak is cooked to your liking, pull off the heat and let it sit on the plate for 3 - 5 minutes. This will firm up the meat, allowing it to reconstitute the juices within its fibers. It makes it taste better; trust me.

Nice and pink in the center, with plenty of juice; perfectly cooked!

Tasting Notes: The sauce really provides a complex taste profile, You have the sweet from the molasses and brown sugar, spice from the chili flakes, tangyness from the balsamic vinegar, onion and garlic; and nuttiness from the stout. This compliments dry, rather dull meats, like chicken or pork very well. The steak that I prepared was cooked perfectly to a medium rare. The buttery notes of the steak really complemented the array of flavors brought from the sauce. 

Libation Notes:  This is definitely a beer dish. One of the things I like to do is drink the beer that I cook with. In this case, the porter I used for the sauce goes very well with this dish. Its nutty and chocolate notes pair well with the sauce. In reality, any beer would work as long as it is not too hoppy. An over-abundance of hops could really over-power the complex flavors of this dish.

If you really want a wine to serve with this dish, then I would propose a nice malbec or cabernet sauvignon - a wine that again does not over-power the meat with big fruit and lots of tannins. Just recently I had Zolo - a Malbec from Chile - that would be outstanding with this dish.

Plated and ready to be devoured!

Overall: I highly recommend this sauce. It's flavors are complex and varied, thus warranting application on all sorts of meats, from drizzled over fillet to basting slowly cooked pork ribs. Try it; I know you will like it!