Whiskey Peppercorn Beef Tenderloin

The title of this post should be Rye Whiskey, Peppercorn and Garlic, Reverse Seared Beef Tenderloin with Blue Cheese Crumbles, but that is a bit wordy so Whiskey Peppercorn Beef Tenderloin it is because the three main ingredients of this epic recipe are, in no particular order, whiskey, peppercorns and beef tenderloin:

So let’s get after it and show how to make this recipe.

Whiskey Peppercorn Beef Tenderloin Ingredients:

• 1 chunk of beef tenderloin (approximately 2.5 lbs)
• Salt
• 1/2 cup peppercorns
• 1/2 cup minced garlic
• 4 ounces of rye whiskey
• Blue cheese crumbles

How to prepare a beef tenderloin

Start by making sure there is no silver skin on the beef tenderloin and coating it liberally with the salt.

Then roll it in the peppercorns:

Place it inside a 2 gallon resealable bag and add the garlic in, working the garlic around to coat as much as possible.

Then Pour the Whiskey

I know some of you are wondering about this right now. There is no way you are going to pour a half a bottle of expensive rye over a beef tenderloin to completely submerge it in whiskey. I’m not advocating that. Four ounces is about all it takes. Along with a couple turns of the plastic bag in the fridge.

I think I rolled the bag over, redistributing the whiskey all over the beef, three times before I went to bed and a couple more times in the morning. That was all it took to keep the whiskey in contact with the beef while in the bag. With the application of the salt first, this is almost a whiskey brine, so we don’t need a half gallon to impart a lot of flavor.

After spending the night in the fridge absorbing all the flavor from the whiskey, peppercorns and garlic, then pull the bag and let the beef come up to room temp on the counter. It would take half a day or more for the entire beef tenderloin to hit 72 degrees on the counter. The goal here is to get the outside up to temp. That could take a good two hours.

Plan accordingly. And when it is time to smoke it as part of the reverse sear, we take the temp up slowly and we should get a nice even pink or red.

How long do you smoke a beef tenderloin for?

Simply put, smoke the beef tenderloin to 10F degrees short of your desired doneness and then sear the meat at the end to get those last 10F degrees. This is another one of those cook to temp not time. The size of the roast, heat of the fire, fat content and weather conditions can all greatly impact cook times. 

How to Reverse Sear a Whiskey Peppercorn Beef Tenderloin

I set my Green Mountain Grills smoker to 200F and placed the beef tenderloin in the middle of the pellet cooker:

Some of you are wondering about the peppercorns. No, don’t eat them. So why haven’t I knocked them all off? Because cooking them will do it for me.

The tenderloin starts off with all sorts of peppercorns, but after it smokes to about 110F, it gets seared off and pretty much al of them will fall off. I smoked this for about 2 hours at 200F and after it got to 110F, I pulled it from the cooker and tented it under some foil:

At this point I cranked the Green Mountain Grill to 550 and placed some grill grates inside:

Time to sear:

Once the Whiskey Peppercorn Beef Tenderloin is seared all the way around, pull it from the grill:

While the tenderloin is resting, I tossed some asparagus on the grill grates:

For the asparagus recipe, click here, because it is as easy as it is delicious.

Some will argue that the beef needs to rest more than it takes to cook the asparagus.

Don’t sweat the rest.

I’m not as adamant about resting as I used to be.

Finally, time to slice:

Beef Tenderloin Plated with Asparagus and Blue Cheese Crumbles:

Whiskey Peppercorn Beef Tenderloin Summary:

But how was it? The whiskey adds a great earthiness, along with some outstanding nuanced flavors, to the beef and the pepper adds a bit of spice, but not hot spiciness. The earthiness and the subtle bite of the pepper merge very well with the garlic and the creamy savoriness of the blue cheese. This is a meal fit for a king or a queen, or with this much food, both and the rest of the court!

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Recipe Card:

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5 from 2 votes

Whiskey Peppercorn Beef Tenderloin

Beef tenderloin, brined in whiskey, peppercorns and garlic and then reverse seared and topped with blue cheese crumbles.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time3 hours hrs 40 minutes mins

Total Time3 hours hrs 50 minutes mins

Course: Entree

Cuisine: Steak

Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 beef tenderloin approximately 2.5 lbs
• salt
• ½ cup peppercorns
• ½ cup garlic minced
• 4 oz WhistlePig Rye
• blue cheese crumbles

Instructions

• Salt the tenderloin all the way around thoroughly
• Coat the tenderloin with the peppercorns and place in a resealable plastic bag
• Add the garlic and work it around the beef to get good coverage
• Add the WhistlePig rye whiskey and place the sealed bag in the fridge overnight, rotating the bag a few times before bed and again a couple times in the morning
• Prepare the smoker for 200 degrees internal temperature
• Smoke the beef tenderloin until it reaches 110 degrees internal
• Crank the cooker up past 500 degrees and sear the beef all the way around
• Remove from the grill and let rest
• After a few minutes of rest, slice into medallions, plate and top with blue cheese crumbles
• Serve and enjoy

Video

Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.

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This article was initially published on: January 7, 2020