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Family Cookbook
Sauce

Creamy Mushroom Sauce with Sherry & Tarragon

Deeply browned mushrooms, dry sherry, and beef stock reduced hard, then finished with cream, Dijon, and fresh tarragon.

Prep 10 minCook 20-30 minTotal 30-40 minAbout 2 cups / serves 4Authored here

Ingredients

Scale

Ingredients

  • 12-16 oz cremini or baby bella mushrooms, sliced about 1/4 inch
  • 2 Tbsp butter
  • 1/2 small shallot, finely diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/3 cup dry sherry
  • 1 cup beef stock
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • 1-1.5 Tbsp fresh tarragon
  • 1/2 tsp fresh thyme (optional)
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • To taste salt and black pepper
  • 1 Tbsp cold butter, to finish

Notes

  • House note: this is the sherry-and-beef-stock cousin of the white-wine version. Dry sherry and beef stock make it darker and nuttier; white wine and chicken stock make it lighter. Do not use cream sherry.

Directions

  1. Brown the mushrooms. Melt 2 Tbsp butter in a wide skillet. Add mushrooms and cook over medium-high heat until deeply browned, 7-10 minutes. Leave them in the pan throughout.
  2. Build the aromatics. Add shallot, garlic, and optional thyme. Cook 1-2 minutes, until fragrant.
  3. Deglaze with sherry. Pour in sherry; scrape up browned bits and reduce until nearly dry.
  4. Reduce the stock. Add beef stock and Worcestershire. Simmer until the liquid reduces to roughly 1/2 cup.
  5. Cream and Dijon. Stir in cream and Dijon. Gently simmer 5-8 minutes, until the sauce coats a spoon.
  6. Tarragon near the end. Stir in fresh tarragon near the end. If preferred, add a small pinch with the cream and most at the finish.
  7. Season and finish. Season with salt and black pepper. Remove from heat and swirl in 1 Tbsp cold butter.

Timing

  • Brown the mushrooms: 7-10 min
  • Aromatics: 1-2 min
  • Sherry: reduce until nearly dry
  • Beef stock: reduce to roughly 1/2 cup
  • Cream simmer: 5-8 min

Texture cues

  • Mushrooms deeply browned, not steamed — give them room in a wide pan.
  • Sauce lightly coats a spoon and looks glossy after the cold butter.
  • Tarragon still fresh and green, not stewed.

Serving

  • Best served warm over steak, chicken, pork, pasta, or roasted vegetables.

Why the Mushrooms Stay In

The mushrooms never leave the pan. Every reduction happens around them, so they take on the sherry and the stock instead of being folded back into a sauce built separately. That is the whole trick — brown them hard first, then build on top.

Two reductions, not one. The sherry goes nearly dry before the stock arrives; the stock then reduces to roughly 1/2 cup before the cream. Skipping either stage leaves the sauce thin and boozy rather than concentrated.

Cold butter last. Off the heat, swirled in whole. It is what makes the sauce glossy instead of merely thick.