No need to roast a whole beef to enjoy au jus, roast beef’s main sidekick. Thinner than a gravy, but slightly thicker than a sauce, au jus is the perfect dipping sauce for French dip sandwiches or a decadent sauce drizzle over meat and mashed potatoes. They’re classically made from beef drippings—those little brown bits, fat, and juices leftover in the roasting pan after roasting beef—but this version is engineered to be absolutely delicious with or without the drippings.
What Is Au Jus?
Au jus, which translates to “with juice,” is a classic French sauce mainly used to boost flavor in roasted meat dishes. It’s somewhere between beef broth and gravy and is surprisingly easy to prepare.How to Make Au Jus With Drippings
Although this recipe is intended to be prepared on its own, don’t click away if you’re wondering how to use those precious pan drippings that only continue to boost flavor. Here’s how:Start the recipe in a roasting pan set over a burner on the stove and use a wooden spoon to scrape up the brown bits into the jus on the bottom of the pan as the broth simmers.
If there is a fair amount of fat in the roasting pan to start, skip the butter or decant so you have closer to 1 tablespoon of fat.
What’s the Difference Between Au Jus and Beef Broth?
Au jus is basically beef broth on steroids. Beef broth is made by simmering bones with mirepoix (typically onion, carrots, and celery) and aromatics (like parsley, thyme, and peppercorns) in water, extracting flavor and body. Then, to make au jus you amp up beef broth by simmering it with drippings from roast beef (double beef flavor!) or, here in our recipe, thyme, mustard and Worcestershire.Au Jus Versus Gravy
Both gravy and au jus start with drippings from roasted meat and broth; however, au jus’s consistency is much thinner and more broth-like than gravy because it typically does not use a thickener.Au Jus
Makes 1 1/2 cups- 1 clove garlic
- 4 to 5 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 1/2 cups beef broth
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Melt the unsalted butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring often, until golden and fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the thyme and Dijon mustard and stir to combine. Pour in the beef broth and Worcestershire sauce and whisk to combine. Taste and season with kosher salt and black pepper as needed.
Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the flavors meld, about 2 minutes. If desired, strain the sauce through a fine-mesh strainer into a heatproof bowl or gravy dish, or serve as is.