Steak with Red Wine Compound Butter

Elevate your favorite grilled steak with a deliciously easy, and elegant red wine reduction butter sauce recipe. This compound butter takes a few minutes to prep ahead of time and transforms your favorite red meat recipes into a fancy and flavorful dish.

Well hey there steak lovers! Are you looking to take your steak game to the next level? Whether you making a cast iron seared steak or throwing down on the grill, making a red wine butter to top it all off at the end is a total game changer.

Red wine and red meat pair very well together. In fact, I’m sipping on a glass of pinot noir (#researchanddevelopment) as I write this today. It’s been a while since I cooked with red wine, like I did here with this reverse seared steak.

That’s because I typically enjoy my steak by itself. The flavors from searing or grilling do it enough justice in my opinion, but every now and then having a good compound butter recipe just ties it all together.

I think the best part is adding a beautiful pad of the butter mixture right to the top of a perfectly cooked, medium rare steak. It melts across the top to form an incredible red wine butter sauce that drips all over your plate and makes each bite extra delicious.

Get the complete recipe below and read through the post for helpful step by step tips to creating this easy to make recipe.

“School” Supplies:

Small Sauce Pan
Hand Mixer
Rubber Spatula
Knife & Cutting Board
Measuring Spoons
Plastic Wrap or Parchment Paper

“Class” Notes-

Use the information I’ve outlined below to help guide you through this recipe.

What is compound butter and what do I use it for?

Compound butter is one of the easiest things to make at home and is really versatile. You can buy pre-made flavored and seasoned butter mixtures at the store but its so cheap and simple to recreate, so I highly suggest making your own at home.

Compound butter is essentially room temperature butter, mixed with herbs and spices, and re-rolled into a log shape and solidified before using. Compound butters are great for red meat, fish, or over rolls and bread too. Use it anytime you want to jazz up a recipe where you would actually be tasting and enjoying the butter on whatever you are eating.

How do I make homemade compound butter?

Any compound butter recipe requires softened butter. Leave a few sticks out of the fridge for several hours or overnight on the counter. I highly suggest avoiding the microwave on this one, because you want it soft enough for mixing but hard enough to be able to form into a log.

This butter is a little more unique than other versions I have made in the past because of the red wine addition. You can make this specific butter with out reducing the red wine but I find that it makes a larger mess and ends up being slightly watery at the end. Reducing the wine down concentrates the flavor and helps it mix better into the butter mixture.

Begin by adding the red wine into a small sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce the heat after it begins to cook and let it reduce in half, this could take about 20 minutes.

While the red wine is concentrating down gather and prep the rest of the butter. In a bowl combine the softened butter, fresh minced garlic, sea salt and pepper (I used a pinot noir salt I had), minced chives and parsley together with a hand mixer or food processor.

Let the reduced red wine cool before adding it to the butter. Whipping it is essential to incorporating the wine mixture, so I don’t suggest mixing by hand with a spoon or spatula. Place the mixed butter onto parchment paper or plastic wrap in a rectangular shape and wrap and roll it up, twisting the sides to create a nice log shape. Place in the freezer until ready to serve.

How to use compound butter on a grilled steak?

I prefer to grill steaks with a reverse sear method . Lightly add olive oil to the both sides of your steak and season with salt. Place the steaks on the cooler, indirect side of the grill. Once the steak hits 110-115 F over indirect heat, remove it and sear it over direct heat for a few minutes per side until it reaches your desired temperature (I shoot for 130-135 F).

Remove the steaks from the heat and allow them to rest. During the resting period (essential for letting the juices in the meat redistribute), place a pad of the cold compound butter over the top and cover lightly with a large piece of foil. Let it rest 5-10 minutes before serving.

When serving the steak after resting, the butter should have melted over the top and the flavors from the wine, butter, and herbs meld together and create a rich and delicious bite. Serve your steak with this amazing Roasted Garlic Herb Butter Cauliflower Mash and some Easy Blistered Green Beans for the perfect dinner!

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