Learn to cook filet mignon like the best steakhouses. Start by pan-searing it briefly in a cast iron skillet, then finish cooking it in the oven. Fast and easy, it makes perfectly juicy and tender beef filet steak—our favorite special dinner recipe.
🐄Ingredients
Beef tenderloin filets—6 to 8 ounces, about 1 to 1 ½ inches thick
Butter—or oil
Seasoning—Kosher salt and black pepper. Or seasoning of your choice.
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Featured Comment from Gary:
"This is my go-to recipe for Filet Mignon. They are always perfect."
The best way to cook beef tenderloin filets combines two time-honored techniques. Pan-searing on the stovetop will create a tasty Maillard reaction for flavor. Then, cook in an oven to your perfect final temperature.
Learn to sear and bake filet mignon at home. My beef tenderloin filet recipe is perfect for a date night recipe; just follow the simple step-by-step photo instructions.
👨🍳How to Cook Filet Mignon—Step-by-Step
1. Preheat the oven to 400°. If you have time, rest at room temperature for 30-60 minutes.
2. Pat dry well with paper towels and season to your taste.
3. In a cast iron or oven-safe skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of butter over medium-high heat.
4. When hot, sear both sides of the filets for 2-3 minutes.
5. Transfer to the preheated oven. Cook to your desired internal temperature minus about 3°-4°. Medium-rare takes about 9-11 minutes to reach an internal temperature of about 135°- 140°.
6. Remove from pan, tent lightly with foil on a plate, and rest for 5-8 minutes before serving.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
⏰How long to cook filet mignon
The oven time for a medium-rare 1-inch filet in a 400° oven is about 5 to 7 minutes, plus 4 minutes of searing, for a total cooking time of 9 to 11 minutes. Remember to allow an additional 5-8 minutes of rest after cooking.
Approximate cooking times in a 400° oven are estimated for planning only. The estimated times are for 1-inch thick filets; thicker filets take longer.
- Rare—cold red center(125°-130°)—4-minute sear and 4 to 5 minutes oven time for about 8 to 9 minutes total cooking time. Please see the caution below for rare.
- Medium rare—warm red and soft center(130°-135°)—4-minute sear and 5 to 7 minutes oven time for about 9 to 11 minutes total cooking time.
- Medium—pink and firm (140°-150°)—4-minute sear and 8 to 10 minutes in the oven, for about 11 to 13 minutes total cooking time.
- Medium well—minimal pink(150°-155°)—4-minute sear and 12 to 15 minutes oven time for about 16 to 19 minutes total cooking time—not recommended.
- Well done—firm and brown(160°+ )—4-minute sear and 15+ minutes oven time for about 19+ minutes total cooking time—not recommended.
Actual cooking time will vary by thickness, rest time, searing, and oven temperature—NEVER COOK BY TIME ALONE, and use a thermometer.
Pick the internal temperature you want when served. Remove the steak a few degrees less and tent lightly with foil. The filet temperature will rise 2°-4° while resting. You can not uncook meat but can always cook it a bit more. Be sure to check your temperature early,
WARNING FOR RARE: For rare, it may be only a few minutes in the oven. If you did an intense sear with a rest to room temperature or if your filets are thinner, check the temperature of the meat when it goes into the oven if you want it to be rare. It is hard to hit what you want, so observe and remove it early. You can always cook it a bit more later.
Tips and options to get it right every time
Quality matters—buy prime grade if you can afford it, or well-marbelized choice grade. If you have questions, talk to your local butcher—they love to discuss their products and have a wealth of knowledge.
The thicker the steak, the more important the precooking rest at room temperature becomes to achieve the final internal temperature you want. If the steak is over 1 ½ inches thick, see the FAQ section for the reverse searing cooking method.
Skipping the rest before cooking will increase the cooking time by as much as 50% and adversely affect the surface.
If you don't have a cast-iron skillet, any oven-safe skillet that can move from stovetop to oven will do. Most skillets will be oven-safe but have a temperature limit set by the manufacturer.
How to season tenderloin filet steaks
A good shake of Kosher or sea salt and black pepper is enough. We like to use my All-Purpose Seasoning Salt, which adds garlic. Other seasoning options include rosemary or a sprig of fresh thyme. Try some homemade Steak Butter with garlic, blue cheese, and herbs of your choice.
Real butter adds some excellent flavor. If you have issues with smoking butter, then in the future, use high-quality vegetable oil.
If you want to use fresh herbs, like thyme or rosemary, put them on top of the steaks with a pat of butter as you move them to the oven.
The timing of any salt is important. Do not put salt on the meat for more than a few minutes before cooking unless you do it for 60 minutes or more. Between those times, it will pull water out of the meat but not allow enough time to reabsorb back into it.
Other steak recipes
Grilled Filet Mignon
The perfect Filet Mignon Recipe uses the tried and true sear and oven bake method to get the best filet mignon every time—moist, tender, and flavorful.
Check out some other great steak recipes, such as Grilled New York Strip Steaks, Seared and Baked Strip Steak, and Grilled T-bone Steak.
🍽️What to serve with filet
Filet mignon goes with almost anything you like with a nice meal. Our favorites are crusty bread, Oven Roasted Baby Red Potatoes or Parmesan Baked Potatoes, and a side salad or hot vegetables like Green Beans with Almonds or Roasted Asparagus.
Choose a red wine like Merlot, Pinot Noir, or Cabernet for a wine pairing.
🍳Why use cast iron
The best choice is a cast-iron skillet. Its flat bottom transfers heat over its surface without hot spots, making cast iron the best option for pan-searing meat. It is cheap, and every cook should have a skillet or two.
❓FAQs
No. You must monitor the temperature correctly, or you will ruin your expensive meat. Please do not try to cook by time alone.
An instant-read meat thermometer will serve you well with this and many other recipes.
Resting before cooking will elevate the internal temperature of the meat before cooking. This helps prevent overcooking and drying of the surface of meat while getting the correct internal temperature.
30 to 60 minutes will do a good job, but even 15 minutes will have some benefits. Without this, cooking will take longer, and you may overcook and dry out the outside of the meat—significantly if cooking a thicker filet.
Resting after cooking is probably the biggest secret to a great filet most people skip. It is essential since it will allow the fluid that escapes the cells during cooking to migrate back into the cells and make for a moist and tender filet.
I like to tent the cooked filets with foil for about 5+ minutes before serving.
For steaks 2 inches thick or more, use a reverse searing method.
1. Rest the steaks at room temperature for 30-60 minutes.
2. Oven roast at 250° in a cast iron or other stovetop and oven-safe pan for about 45 to 60 minutes to a target temperature of 10° under your desired final temperature.
3. Move the pan to the stovetop and sear over medium-high heat for about 2 minutes per side to brown to your preferred color.
🐄About Filet Mignon
Use only prime or choice-grade filet mignon steak. An 8 oz. of filet mignon is a nice serving size. That will usually be between 1 to 1 ¼ inches thick.
Filet Mignon steaks are sometimes called filet steaks or beef tenderloin steaks. It is part of the psoas muscle of the cow. Since the psosis does very little work and is not weight-bearing, it is the most tender cut of beef.
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
📖 Recipe
Pan Seared Oven Roasted Filet Mignon
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Video Slideshow
Ingredients
- 2 beef tenderloin filet mignon - about 1-1 ½ inch thick and about 6-8 oz
- 1 tablespoon butter - or oil
- salt and pepper or other seasonings - to taste or 7:2:2
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°. Start with 1 to 1 ½ inch thick filets, about 6-8 oz each, and trim well. Rest at room temperature for 30-60 minutes if you have time.
- Pat dry well with paper towels. Season all sides to taste with the seasoning of your choice. Just kosher salt and black pepper or All-Purpose Seasoning is enough.
- In a cast iron or oven-safe skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of butter over medium-high heat.
- When hot, sear both sides of the filets for 2-3 minutes—sear, flip, sear, and give them a final flip before putting them into the oven.
- Transfer to the preheated oven. Cook to your desired internal temperature minus about 3°-4°. Medium-rare takes about 9-11 minutes to reach an internal temperature of about 135°- 140°. If you want the meat rare, check the internal temperature when it goes into the oven. Also, check the temperature a few minutes early to prevent overcooking.
- Remove from pan, tent lightly with foil on a plate, and rest for 5-8 minutes before serving.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- An 8 oz filet will be about 2-3 inches in diameter and 1 ¼ to 1 ½ inches thick. Quality matters a lot with filets. Use prime if you can, but choice grade will work.
- Resting at room temperature will help you get the final internal temperature you want without drying the surface of the meat.
- Try to season one hour before cooking or just before cooking.
- You may use butter or oil in the pan. Butter has a lower smoke point, but I have never had an issue.
- Pan and butter should be hot, and the meat should dry and seasoned before starting to sear.
- Sear each side to approximately the final color you want and do a final flip just before going in the oven.
- If you want rare, especially if the filet is thinner, check the temperature when it goes in the oven.
- I suggest checking the internal temperature of the filet about 4-5 minutes after going into the oven.
- The time is very variable here, depending on the thickness of the meat, the exact starting temperature, the stovetop, the amount of searing, the exact oven temperatures, and the pan. There are many excellent reasons NOT to go by time. Time estimates are given as guides for time management.
- PLEASE USE AN INSTANT-READ THERMOMETER. DO NOT COOK BY TIME ALONE; YOU MUST CHECK INTERNAL TEMPERATURE.
- Times are provided to help with planning only. You are responsible if you overcook a filet. You can always cook it a bit more later, but you can not uncook an overcooked filet.
- Remove from the oven a few degrees below your final desired temperature. It will rise a few degrees when tented.
- Let rest tented for 5-8 minutes before serving.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Editor's Note: Originally published March 10, 2012, updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Kate says
Thanks Dr. Dan! This recipe made our Easter dinner. It was absolutely delicious! Keep on cooking:)
DrDan says
Thanks for the note
DrDan
Stephanie S says
I have made this twice now, with some great filets from my local butcher. My Father in Law, who swears he hates filet because it's "too dry", now swears it is the best steak he's had since he went to Peter Lugers in the 80's! I won't ruin filets on the grill ever again! This is my go-to for impressing company from now on :-)
DrDan says
You have discovered the secret. It's the quality of the meat. The recipe helps but it's the meat...
Thanks for the note.
DrDan
Dawn says
Made this tonight... Fantastic! Even my 90 year old father in law ate every bite of his!! Thanks for the tips
DrDan says
Great. It is just a simple recipe but comes out so good.
Thanks for the note. Keep feeding it to him.
DrDan
stephanie says
Would wrapping bacon around steak before searing work well?
DrDan says
That is when I would bacon wrap it... if I was going to do it. My trouble with bacon wrapping is that it just doesn't seem to get the bacon done without over cooking the meat. And I like my meat more done than most people. I ruined these several times many years ago before I know better by looking at the bacon to cook. Remember cook to the temp you want and not the bacon looking nice.
DrDan
anon says
I just made this last night (early V-DAY). It's amazing.
I had inch and a half filets.
Cast iron - good and hot. 3 mins each side. 10 mins in the oven for medium rare. The instructions didn't say, but I assumed that I should leave the oven rack in the normal position and it came out wonderful. I used just cooking spray for oil.
The only cast iron I had was a griddle - I ordered a ten inch skillet about 10 minutes after devouring my beef. It was awesome.
DrDan says
It is amazingly good but it is so dependent on the quality of the meat. You had the good stuff.
You will use that 10 inch all the time if you're cooking for two. Great for pork tenderloins and chicken breast.
Thanks for the note
DrDan
Rachel says
When you say to sear for 2-3 mins on each side, does this include the edges around the filet?
DrDan says
Nope just two sides
DrDan
Rachel says
Thanks so much for the speedy reply. I have to tell you--I am not a great cook and I needed something special for my husband for Valentines Day. We just had a baby and couldn't go out for a romantic evening, so I tried to do my best by preparing a special candlelight meal. Being that cooking doesn't come naturally to me--it was so helpful to follow a recipe step by step and very concise. The filets were delicious, thanks to your recipe and good instruction! I will be checking out more soon :)
Thanks again!
Rachel
Bree says
Hi
I want to make this for valentines day but I don't have a cast iron skillet. Woul this be a big problem?
Bree
DrDan says
It does not have to be cast iron. Any oven safe pan that can move from stove top to oven will do. If you don't have that, sear in a stove top pan and move to a different oven safe pan to finish. If using the later technique, I would preheat the oven pan with the oven so the filet goes in a hot pan.
DrDan
Andrea MacDonald says
Man!! I can't believe I don't have a cast Iron skillet or an oven safe frying pan....luckily my birthday is coming up and now I know what I want! hehe. I'm really excited to try this tonight for Vday. We love steak but the bbq is buried in SO MUCH SNOW!! Thanks so much for this recipe! And also for the tips about preheating the pan if we're skilletless! I've been scanning the comments to see if someone asked what I was wondering :)
DrDan says
Thanks for the note and rating. Be sure to cook to the final temperature and not by time along.
Your comment does remind my that others may have the same questions so I copied my instructions into the body of the post.
DrDan
Cotati Station Neighbor says
15 - 20 mins in 400 degree oven would have given us well done filet mignon....simple heresy. We did 5 mins. rare. Yum.
DrDan says
Thanks for the remark. You RARE people out there, pay attention I have edited the post a little since most of the issues seem related to rare.
DrDan
Daniel says
I followed everything and it was awesome!!!!!!
Thank you!!! I will be doing this again and again.
Daniel
DrDan says
Thanks Danial (ummm great name...) It makes the cost of good meat worth the price when you know it will be great.
DrDan
DrDan says
Sounds great... Don't you love cast iron.
DrDan
Michelle says
No need to look any further for a perfect pan seared recipe. I used the classic cast iron skillet, a grind of sea salt and seaweed, black pepper, and garlic. The base was garlic coconut oil and butter, simply because I had the garlic coconut oil in the pantry and was eager to use it. Got the pan super hot, butter nice and frothy and off we went. Perfect Med-rare after the 15 mins. in the 400 degree oven. Thanks very much for great results without tons of steps!
L Ann says
Tried this recipe tonight. Excellent method for preparing filet. It's a keeper!!
DrDan says
Thanks for the comment. I think I will do this again this weekend.
Dan
mbpruitt says
DrDan...nice of you to be so professional to Rob. Not quite sure why Rob had such a problem with a basic recipe like this.
What made me laugh was how bitter and angry you got at DrDan...especially where you call him an idiot. Ironic considering you were driven to visit this site as a backup plan because you...wait for it...RAN OUT OF CHARCOAL! LOL...seriously dude who buys top shelf meat and then just runs out of charcoal. Anybody who prides themselves as masters of the flame always has extra coals and/or extra propane.
You sound like amateur hour at best. Keep working on your skills but think twice before you openly call someone an idiot after telling us all how unprepared you were to grill.
DrDan...recipe is solid. I stuff mine w a lump crab mix and its phenomenal.
DrDan says
Thanks for the defense...
I try not to get insulted or insulting. I do have a rule about comments and maybe should have deleted it but decided to let it go. Everybody can have an opinion. Although this one was not very constructive.
It is a fairly simple recipe, get a Maillard reaction for some great taste and then finish to temp in an oven. I have had the same technique taught at a cooking school. I suspect he wanted rare and cooked only by time. If you cook by time only, you will have things like this happen. Always cook meat to temperature not time. I give times for general guidance only. Oh well.....
Happy Holiday to All (including rob)
DrDan
DrDan says
Sorry it didn't work for you. It has for me many time and others also.
DrDan
rob says
absolutely awful, delete this from your recipe list. we ran out of charcoal and had to resort to A method I don't normally use. we tried this, I cut the recommended times down by 1/3 and our beautiful filets came out worse than any meat I've ever attempted. this guys an idiot, worse than shoe leather.
save your self the let down and embarrassment and go to another site. AWFUL!!!
DVan says
^This person did something wrong. This recipe ALWAYS turns out great for me.
vincent says
I tried this recipe tonight and have done it before with great results before I read this one. I did it before very similar to this one because the grill was buried in a snow drift. Frankly it is better than what comes off the grill. Maybe you shouldn't be buying horse meat for starters.
DrDan says
Thanks Vincent,
There is not much you can do with people like this. The horse meat comment may be accurate but he states he cooked by time.... really how many times did I say not to do that. By the way I have a great grill filet recipe at.https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/grilled-filet-mignon-gas-grill/. The secret for grill is to rest the meat before cooking so you don't have to overcook to get to the right temp. Plus not cooking at too high of temp.
Thanks again
DrDan
Jen says
It’s for a skillet to oven, not for a grill. Wow.
Chris says
Said the s******* cook ever....
John Rusling says
I think ol Rob has an anger management problem, Dr Dan. Now if I had ended up with shoe leather and 30 or so cooks followed the same recipe with fabulous results, I would like to think that I would conclude that maybe “I “ screwed up somewhere. Anyway, I’ve used this technique for years with very good results. Works well for those fat, Costco pork chops also. I think Rob is one of those California millennials who think the rest of us just don’t get it.
DrDan says
Thanks John,
I probably should have just deleted that comment (I would today for several reasons) but readers graciously came to my defense so I have left it. It does more to call out behavior like Rob's than anything else so it does serve a purpose to remind us all about civil discourse.
Thanks so much for the note and have a happy holiday
Dan
Shan says
Ours were great...I don’t grill (Husband does that) so I followed the directions very carefully. I love my small cast iron skillet...goes right in the oven. We loved them, added garlic and usd butter. Thanks.s
Foxy Brown says
I'm actually cooking this as I type........ So far everything looks & smellsmfantastic!!!!