Chrissy Teigen Just Turned This Classic Holiday Dish Into a Weeknight Dinner
Chrissy Teigen just shared her time- and money-saving shortcuts for turning a traditional showstopping holiday entree into an easy meal for any night of the week. Teigen's Meatloaf Wellington, a recipe from her new book Cravings: All Together, is a creative and attainable rendition of the notoriously labor-intensive dish Beef Wellington.
Traditional Beef Wellington, a dish named after an English duke, is a sight to behold. It includes an entire beef tenderloin topped with a fine mushroom sauté called duxelles, and a layer of foie gras pâté wrapped in puff pastry. If you can't tell from the ingredients, this dish is expensive. A whole beef tenderloin commonly costs upwards of $25 per pound, add on a few pounds of mushrooms and super chichi foie gras, and your Christmas dinner entree is suddenly hundreds of dollars. Translation: You'd never make this on Thursday night. But Teigen insists her version is "THE perfect Sunday dinner, or honestly for any day of the week."
Tiegen takes some of the traditional elements of the dish (puff pastry and mushrooms) and combines them with everyday ingredients (ground beef and stuffing) in order to make her recipe accessible for every budget and level of cook. Here's what she kept and what she changed for her Meatloaf Wellington. Plus, check out 30 New Twists on Classic Thanksgiving Recipes.
The traditional elements
Teigen starts by rolling out a package of puff pastry—arguably, the most important aspect of this classic dish—into two squares, one approximately 10 inches and the other 12 inches. She also keeps the finely chopped sauteed mushrooms from the classic recipe for Beef Wellington, cooking them down with one onion and some garlic in olive oil. This will add tons of classic flavor to the dish.
Add stuffing? Sure, why not
Teigen's next addition is certainly not typical of a Beef Wellington, but it's intriguing. She takes a package of Stove Top stuffing mix, "instead of borrrrrring breadcrumbs," and either pulverizes it in the food processor or crushes it in a sealed plastic bag. The stuffing mix will certainly infuse the dish with nostalgic holiday flavors, but if you want to avoid the MSG and preservatives in the mix, you might want to stick with breadcrumbs.
First, make the meatloaf
Teigen adds the sauteed mushrooms, stuffing crumbs, and two eggs to her ground beef and gently incorporates everything together by hand.
Wrap it up
Next, Teigen lays the smaller of the two prepared pastry squares on a parchment-lined baking sheet, then layers the prosciutto over it, overlapping a little. After shaping the meat mixture into a 9×5 loaf on top of the pastry, she wraps the overlapping prosciutto pieces over it. Then, she takes the larger piece of dough and lays it with the pointed parts on the top and bottom of the loaf to make it easier to cover. She moistens the dough and wraps it around the loaf, sealing the top pastry to the bottom as much as possible.
Decorate and bake
The whole loaf is lightly brushed with an egg wash and then scored with one-inch slits to allow the steam to escape. After using the extra dough to decorate the loaf—Teigen creates lovely braids on hers—the whole thing is baked at 400°F for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. She then turns the heat down to 375°F until a thermometer indicates the internal temperature of the meat is 155°F. After a 10-minute rest to redistribute the juices in the meat, your masterpiece is ready to slice and serve.
If you want to make this dish truly special, serve a truffle-infused gravy or red wine sauce on the side. Any green vegetable will work on the, but sauteed spinach and creamy mashed potatoes are, of course, classic.
For the full recipe and complete instructions, head to Cravings, by Chrissy Teigen.
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