Fancy Beef Tenderloin Tacos

Many chefs would discourage home cooks from using tenderloin in tacos, but I think you should eat whatever you find delicious. I love tenderloin because it is delicious and easy to cook, even though it doesn’t include the same intramuscular fat seen in cuts such as the ribeye.

To make up for the lack of intramuscular fat, the meat is basted in butter after being seared, and served with some melty shredded cheese, caramelized onions, sauteed peppers, and a bright and spicy pico de gallo. It’s almost TOO decadent.

The following recipe makes roughly fifteen tacos.

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Fancy Beef Tenderloin Tacos

Many chefs would discourage home cooks from using tenderloin in tacos, but I think you should eat whatever you find delicious. I love tenderloin because it is delicious and easy to cook, even though it doesn’t include the same intramuscular fat seen in cuts such as the ribeye.

To make up for the lack of intramuscular fat, the meat is basted in butter after being seared, and served with some melty shredded cheese, caramelized onions, sauteed peppers, and a bright and spicy pico de gallo. It’s almost TOO decadent.

The following recipe makes roughly fifteen tacos.

Ingredients

• 3 Roma tomatoes (flesh cut small dice)
• ½ tsp Kosher salt
• ½ red onion (small dice)
• Zest of 1 lime
• Juice of 1 lime (or more to taste)
• 2 jalapenos (finely minced)
• ¼ cup fresh cilantro (roughly chopped)
• 2 Tbsp salted butter
• 3 white onions (cut into uniform slices)
• 2 red bell peppers (cut into uniform slices)
• 1 green bell pepper (cut into uniform slices)
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• 12 oz tenderloin (left whole)
• 2 Tbsp sunflower seed oil
• 1.5 tsp Kosher salt
• 2 Tbsp salted butter (softened)
• 2 cups shredded lettuce (for serving)
• 2 cups shredded cheese of choice (for serving)
• 2 fresh limes (cut into wedges, for serving)
• 1 cup sour cream (for serving)
• 15 flour tortillas (heated and wrapped in foil)

Instructions 

• Cut the tomatoes and place them into a bowl with a small pinch of Kosher salt.
• Allow the tomatoes to sit with the salt for roughly ten minutes.
• After the salted tomatoes have rested for roughly ten minutes, drain the excess water from the bowl.
• Add the diced red onion, lime zest, lime juice, minced jalapenos, and chopped cilantro to the bowl with the drained tomatoes, and mix well.
• Taste the pico de gallo, and add more Kosher salt or freshly-squeezed lime juice, if desired.
• When you are happy with the pico, set it aside for when you are ready to serve.
• In a large sauté pan, add a few Tablespoons of salted butter along with the sliced white onions.
• Cook the onions over medium heat while stirring for roughly fifteen or twenty minutes, or until the onions are golden-brown.
• Add the bell peppers and dried oregano, and continue to cook for an additional ten minutes.
• Remove the sauteed vegetables from the pan, season with some Kosher salt, and set them aside.
• Remove the tenderloin from the fridge roughly thirty minutes before you intend to cook it.
• When you are ready to begin cooking the tenderloin, add the sunflower seed oil to a medium-sized sauté pan.
• Increase the heat to high, and wait until the oil is nearly smoking.
• Salt the tenderloin on the exterior on all sides, and carefully add the meat to the hot pan with the hot oil.
• Cook the tenderloin over high heat, turning to brown the outsides evenly.
• When the tenderloin is cooked on the outside and still rare in the center, add the salted butter to the pan, and reduce the heat to low.
• Use a large spoon to carefully baste the steak with the melted butter for an additional three minutes, constantly pouring the butter from the pan over the surface of the tenderloin as it finishes cooking.
• Remove the steak from the heat, and allow it to rest for roughly four minutes at room temperature.
• When you are ready to serve, slice the tenderloin into thin slices, and add to warm tortillas with some shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, sauteed onions and peppers, pico de gallo, freshly-squeezed lime juice, and sour cream.

Notes

Corn or flour tortillas will work great here. If using corn tortillas, you might want to use two tortillas per taco, as these get a bit messy after being assembled with added lime juice and pico.
There are many cheaper cuts of meat you can use for your tacos, such as flank steak.