How to make it
The meat is browned after being dusted with flour and spices, which intensifies its already delicious, rich flavor. Tip: Don’t crowd your pan during this step. Doing so causes your meat to steam rather that brown. We’re looking for that browned bit goodness here.
The meat is browned and then combined with some sautéed onions, drenched with wine and brandy (this makes me smile), and submerged in beef broth.
Simmer for an hour and a half, or until the meat is almost tender. To really bring those flavors together at this point, we’ll add some sauteed mushrooms to the mixture and let them stay for 30 minutes.
When the dish is ready to be served, add more salt, pepper, and nutmeg after tasting for seasoning.
- Mustard: Toss in a small amount of dijon or yellow mustard to your cooked dish.
- Alcohol-free: You can omit the wine and brandy from this recipe. To balance out the rich, creamy sauce, just add a few glugs of Worcestershire sauce to add a hint of acidity.
- Ground Beef or Ground Turkey: You can use ground beef or ground turkey in place of the chuck roast. You won’t need to simmer for the extended time. Just toss the tender, browned meat into the velvety mushroom sauce and dig in!
- For a quicker version of this dish, try my Easy Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff.
Wines for the components of a Beef Stroganoff
Beef stroganoff is believed to have originated in Russia and was named after an affluent Russian family named Stroganov. During the 1960s and 1970s, it gained popularity in Great Britain and became a common dish served at middle-class families’ dinner parties. Since then, its renown has declined, despite the fact that numerous contemporary chefs have created recipes for beef in cream sauce, also known as stroganoff.
The primary components and the wines you might typically select for each one separately are:
- beef: Given the short cooking time and the desire for tender meat, this should be a good lean cut. While a bottle of Bordeaux may tempt some, fattier cuts of beef pair much better with the wine’s tannins and oak. There will be some umami flavor from the meat’s caramelization in a stroganoff; this flavor, along with the lean beef, usually go well with red wines like a Cru Beaujolais that have low tannin levels and minimal oak influence. If you must have a Bordeaux, it should be a mature wine with well-integrated oak flavor and softened tannins.
- mushrooms: these are typically added to beef stroganoff, but they can also be used in vegetarian or vegan versions of the dish in place of the beef. Given that mushrooms are a savory, earthy vegetable, they tend to make some wines seem more acidic and less fruity. For most mushroom dishes, I usually choose a savoury red wine with lower acidity, such as a Pinot Noir, Barolo, or Nebbiolo.
- Cream, especially sour cream, has a high fat content, which can mask a wine’s delicious acidity. Therefore, you should start with a wine that has a good acidity level. Additionally, this will help cut through the fat and keep the meal from appearing overly decadent. Rich white wines such as Chenin Blanc, Semillon, or white Burgundy are the ones that pair well with creamy sauces.
- While it’s not always used, mustard gives beef or mushroom stroganoff a little spiciness and heat while keeping the cream from overpowering the meal. Wines with good acidity to match the mustard’s acidity and relatively high tannins, as the mustard will soften them, would pair well with a dish that primarily tastes of mustard. A low-tannic wine may taste flat and lose its fruity flavors. If your food mostly consists of mustard, you could try a young Bordeaux, a Syrah, or a Sangiovese.
In addition to the four basic ingredients listed above, some people add nutmeg, brandy, and lemon to the mixture to cut through the cream similarly to how an acidic wine would. These extra ingredients give the dish more depth and complexity, which also makes choosing a wine more difficult.
Which are the best wines to drink with Beef Stroganoff?
So many wine suggestions for the main ingredients—Cru Beaujolais, young or mature red Bordeaux, Pinot Noir, Barolo, Nebbiolo, white Burgundy, Semillon, Chenin Blanc, Syrah, or Sangiovese—how do you even begin to choose a wine that will go well with the dish once the ingredients are combined?
First and foremost, consider the composition or intensity of the main component of any dish and make an effort to align it with the wine’s structure. Even though there isn’t much cream added, it still makes a significant appearance in this dish. Very light wines won’t pair well with stroganoff because the cream will make it fairly heavy.
The richness of the sauce needs a wine with good acidity as mentioned above – though not too high given the mushrooms. You might not consider drinking white wine with beef dishes but a rich, mature & full-bodied Chardonnay that has acquired a buttery taste and a creamy texture from fermentation and / or ageing in oak barrels really does work well. Semillon or Chenin Blanc would also work but they too must be fairly rich and full-bodied with good acidity as that will cut through the creamy sauce making it seem less fatty. These wines will also complement the umami and savoury flavours of the red meat and the mushrooms.
If you must have red wine, choose a youngish, fruity Beaujolais or Burgundy; older, fine wines pair better with simple foods due to their softer tannins and more complex flavors. On the other hand, more complex dishes like stroganoff pair better with younger wines that are not meant to age or have not yet aged. These wines’ primarily fruity flavors go nicely with the caramelized beef, and the tannins’ sharpness will cut through the creamy sauce like a palate-cleanser.
When making mushroom stroganoff, you can use a wine with higher tannin content, such as a young Barolo, because the mushrooms will mitigate the tannins, which are particularly strong in a young Barolo.
Additionally, I’ll include a surprise: Cabernet Franc. Even though it’s not often seen on its own, when you come across a bottle of 20100% Cabernet Franc, it should be full of juicy fruit flavors enhanced by good acidity and mixed with herbs and green pepper notes that go well with the mushrooms (and onions) in the sauce. But it must be a good Cabernet Franc!.
