In this video, learn how to make Chef John’s Corned Beef Stroganoff! This rich and creamy recipe combines tender corned beef, savory mushrooms, and a luscious sour cream sauce, all served over buttery noodles. Perfect for using up leftovers or creating a hearty meal from scratch.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Corned Beef Stroganoff!
00:08That's right!
00:09I love corned beef!
00:10In fact, I love it so much, I have it once a year.
00:15And while I do enjoy the classic Corned Beef and Cabbage St. Patrick's Day preparation,
00:19once in a while I like to switch things up.
00:22So that's what we're going to do.
00:23And I loved how this came out.
00:26And to get started, we will add a corned beef brisket to a pot, and then we'll sprinkle
00:30over the spice pack that always comes with it.
00:33And while nobody's really sure what's in this, we always add it in, because that's just what's
00:38done.
00:39And then what we'll do is cover this by a couple inches with some cold, fresh water.
00:43And by the way, this is going to simmer for a few hours.
00:46And while it does, once in a while, you might want to add another splash of water to the
00:49pot, just to make sure our meat has enough liquid to simmer in.
00:53But anyway, what we'll do is bring that water up to a boil on high heat, at which point
00:57we'll back it down to low, or whatever setting maintains a nice gentle simmer.
01:01And we'll let that cook for two and a quarter hours, at which point it's probably going
01:05to look something like this.
01:08And what we'll do is turn off the heat, and transfer that into a bowl, where we will let
01:12it cool completely, before we trim it up.
01:15Oh, and do not discard the cooking liquid.
01:18We want to reserve about a cup of that to use in our sauce.
01:21And in the spirit of full disclosure, I did this step the day before, so the meat would
01:25be nice and cold, which makes it very easy to trim.
01:29And by trim, all I mean is cut off the surface fat.
01:32And yes, I am going to remove most of it.
01:34But you can leave a little bit on there if you want.
01:37That is between you and your cardiologist.
01:40And once that's been accomplished, and we're dealing with just mostly meat, we will find
01:44the direction the fibers of the meat are running, and then we'll cut this into like five strips,
01:49going in that same direction.
01:51And the reason we're going to cut this with the grain, as we call it in the industry,
01:55is because then we're going to turn them, and slice across the grain, to produce some
01:59nice bite-sized pieces, that we will eventually add to our sauce.
02:04And as you can see, I went with squares.
02:06But hey, you could go with triangles, or rectangles, OK, that's up to you.
02:11I mean, you are after all the Georgia O'Keeffe, of your stroganoff corned beef, and you could
02:16even do little flower shapes, but that would be a lot harder.
02:20But anyway, the point is, pick a shape, and a thickness, and then stick with it.
02:24And once that's sliced, we can head to the stove, where we will add some sliced mushrooms
02:28to a skillet set over medium-high heat, in which we've drizzled some vegetable oil.
02:32And we'll also toss in a nice big pinch of salt.
02:36And what's going to happen here, is that salt is going to draw out moisture, and the mushrooms
02:40are going to get very wet and slippery.
02:42But eventually that dries out, and they brown nicely, which is where we want to get to.
02:47OK, your mushrooms should have at least this much color, before you add your diced onions in.
02:52Which mine do.
02:53So I'm going to go ahead and toss those in.
02:55And then we'll continue cooking this on medium-high, until those onions soften up, and start to
02:59turn translucent, and begin turning a little bit golden brown themselves.
03:04And once we feel like that's happened, we'll toss a couple tablespoons of butter in.
03:09And we'll stir things around until that melts.
03:12And once it does, we'll make a little space in the center, and we will toss in our minced garlic.
03:17And then we'll cook that, stirring, for just about 30 seconds.
03:20OK, we have to be a little bit careful, since the pan is very hot, and we don't want to
03:24burn the garlic, which can give it an off flavor.
03:27So about 30 to 45 seconds should be plenty.
03:30And once we have sizzled our garlic a bit, we will toss in a couple tablespoons of flour,
03:35and we will mix that in.
03:37And as you well know, whenever we mix flour into fat in a pan, and cook it for a few minutes
03:41before adding our cooking liquids, we call that a roux, R-O-U-X.
03:47And as we cook that, stirring, for a couple minutes, you'll notice it sticking to the
03:51bottom of the pan, which might make an inexperienced cook nervous, but there's no need for that.
03:57Because once we've taken that raw edge off the flour, we are going to quickly pour some
04:01white wine in, which is going to deglaze the bottom of the pan, which means to dissolve
04:06and release all that goodness.
04:08Plus, we'll also add that one cup of reserved corned beef cooking liquid we saved.
04:13And we'll stir all that together, while it comes back up to a boil.
04:16And to help that effort, we'll also increase our heat to high, and then we'll let this
04:21cook until it reduces by about half, and starts to thicken up.
04:25And while that's happening, we can go ahead and toss in our freshly ground black pepper,
04:29and maybe a few shakes of cayenne.
04:32And believe it or not, that's pretty much the only seasonings we're going to go with here.
04:35Right, the corned beef, of course, is highly seasoned, so I don't really think we need
04:39anything else, including any more salt.
04:43But of course, we'll adjust later if we have to.
04:45And that's it.
04:46After a few minutes of cooking, stirring, and reducing, our mixture will have thickened
04:50up.
04:51And once that happens, we'll dump in a couple cups of beef broth, and then we'll stir that
04:55in, and let this continue to cook and reduce, until the mixture thickens up again, but not
05:01too thick.
05:02I mean, you can, if you want, make this really thick, but I don't want the sauce to be too
05:06heavy, since it is very rich.
05:09So once mine got to this point, I decided it was just right, which meant I could go
05:14ahead and transfer in my creme fraiche, and then what we'll do is stir that in, and let
05:19this reduce for another couple minutes, or until our sauce returns to the thickness it
05:23was before we added the creme fraiche in.
05:26And the reason I prefer creme fraiche to sour cream, is that we can cook the creme fraiche
05:30in the sauce, whereas sour cream you can't boil, since it will break and separate, and
05:35curdle, which means we have to add it right at the end, which I think is a little trickier,
05:40and not as good as this method.
05:42Plus, the creme fraiche is almost as tangy, but I think has a little more interesting
05:46flavor than the sour cream.
05:48Of course, having said that, I'm going to garnish with some sour cream, so I can have
05:52the best of both worlds.
05:54And that's it.
05:55Once we're happy with the texture of our sauce, we'll reduce our heat to medium-low, and we
05:59will transfer our sliced corned beef in.
06:02And we'll poke those pieces down below the surface, or as close as we can get.
06:07And that's it, as soon as our meat is heated through, and we're happy with the texture
06:10of the sauce, and of course, the seasoning level, which you will check, our corned beef
06:15stroganoff is pretty much ready to serve up.
06:18Although before we do, I'm going to take a spoon and give it a stir, so I can kind of
06:23tease some of the mushrooms up on top, just to kind of show those off, and give this a
06:27little more enticing appearance.
06:29So that's what I did before I served this up.
06:32And then I decided to garnish with some freshly chopped dill, which I thought would work great
06:37with all these ingredients, especially that sour fermented cream.
06:41And that's it, I grabbed a spoon and went in for a taste.
06:44And I had a feeling all these things were going to taste amazing together.
06:47But until you actually try it, you really don't know.
06:51And I'm very happy to report, my assumptions were correct.
06:54And I thought this worked really, really well.
06:57Okay, this really did taste like a proper stroganoff, except it was actually a little
07:01more flavorful.
07:03Which again, is from using a cured, already seasoned beef.
07:06And then as far as service goes, and an homage to the original, I served this on buttered
07:11noodles, and I topped it with a dollop of sour cream, plus a little more fresh dill.
07:17And while this really was tremendous, as I was eating, I was thinking this would be even
07:20better on rice or mashed potatoes.
07:23So I'm going to test that theory with the leftovers.
07:26But no matter what you pair this with, I think you're going to love it just as much
07:30as I did.
07:31Which is why I really do hope you give this a try soon.
07:35So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much
07:39more info, as usual.
07:42And as always, enjoy!