I’m always on the lookout for easy meals, especially for weeknights. I love to cook, but even I have my limits. An elaborate meal after working all day is not on my to-do list. That’s partly why I decided to try this Honey Bourbon Steak Tips recipe. That and I have never blogged a recipe for steak tips. I think I have made steak tips in the past but not for a long, long time. No clue why not, but that needs to change, and I think I have found a good reason with this recipe. Not only are they easy to make, but they will fulfill my periodical red meat and bourbon cravings. Plus mushrooms and a bunch of other tasty things that sound delish. Let’s find out if this recipe is as good as it sounds!
Honey Bourbon Steak Bites are seared in a cast iron pan until charred on the outside but still juicy on the inside. They are both sweet and salty with the wonderful flavor of bourbon.
The Ingredients
A pre-shopping trip pantry check showed me I didn’t have many of the ingredients for this recipe. I normally keep a lot of the ingredients on hand, but I was either out of very low on them. I only had honey, red pepper flakes, garlic, and vegetable oil. That meant I had to top up my light brown sugar, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, bourbon, and butter.
I also needed to buy mushrooms and steak, and both were easy to find in a single trip. The type of mushrooms isn’t given, so I chose portobello mushrooms. They only came in 8-ounce containers, so I used the whole thing. I also chose sirloin for the meat since it was the most budget-friendly.
The Process
There are 2 parts to this recipe: Marinating the steak and actually cooking it. It marinates for only a few hours, so I was able to do everything in 1 day.
Marinating the Steak Tips
The steak needed to be cut into chunks and marinated for a few hours before cooking. This part was quite easy to do. Tip: I added the marinade ingredients directly to a gallon-size ziplock bag and massaged it to mix them before adding the steak. The recipe says to mix the marinade in a bowl first, but why create a dirty dish when you don’t have to?
The recipe says the steak tips can be marinated for 2 to 4 hours. I split the difference and went for 3 hours. I usually go with the longest marinating time to max out the flavor, but I didn’t have enough time to do that. But no worries, there was plenty of flavor!
Cookin the Steak Tips & Mushrooms
When it was time to cook, I pre-heated a 10' cast-iron skillet for 5 minutes before adding the first batch of steak tips. Then I added the butter right before I began cooking so it would not burn.
Tip: The recipe doesn’t say what to do with the marinade, but it does mention searing the steak. Searing is done with high heat and just some oil in the pan, and liquid prevents that from happening. I used tongs to remove the meat from the bag/marinade to keep the liquid at a minimum.
I also cooked the steak in 2 batches to avoid crowding the pan. Despite my efforts, a lot of liquid built up in the pan. I can’t say either batch of steak tips truly seared, but they did cook up quickly.
Next came the quartered mushrooms that I prepped while the steak was cooking. At first, they soaked up the excess liquid, but they released it as they cooked some more. I can’t say they were truly browned because of the liquid, but they did absorb the flavors of the marinade and still cooked up nicely.
In the end, I wound up with steak tips that were cooked to medium and soft mushrooms with tons of honey-bourbon flavor. The liquid also ended up thickening enough to use as a dipping sauce which I served on the side.
Timing
The recipe lists 2 hours to prep, 20 minutes to cook, and 2 hours and 20 minutes total. Here’s how my time was spent:
- 7 minutes to prep the steak
- 3 hours to marinate (the recipe lists 2-4 hours to marinate)
- 7 minutes to preheat the skillet
- 7 minutes to cook the steak tips
- 8 minutes to cook the mushrooms
- 3 hours 29 minutes total
It looks like the prep time listed uses the minimum time to marinate of 2 hours. If I deduct the extra hour I marinated the steak, I’m close to the total time listed—only 9 minutes over.
