Ingredients:
For the tips:
2.5 lbs Beef Tenderloin Tails
½ cup honey
⅓ cup packed light brown sugar
⅓ cup reduced sodium soy sauce (personal preference here)
⅓ cup Worcestershire sauce
⅓ cup apple cider vinegar
½ tsp red pepper flakes
3 cloves garlic minced
For the dipping sauce:
1 cup mayonnaise
2-3 chipotle chilis from 1 can of chipotles in adobo (more if you want extra spicey but this is plenty for most folks)
Splash of adobo sauce
½ lime juiced
This past Christmas I received a wonderful gift of 10 lbs of Beef Tenderloin Tails. Most folks have no idea what this is so let me explain. A beef tenderloin has 3 parts to it. There is the “Head” which is the much larger end of the whole tenderloin. You can use this for steaks but it would leave you with some inconsistent sizes if you were cutting for weight.
A better use for this piece could be as a roast or even for beef tartare. The next piece is the one most are familiar with, “The Center Cut”. This is where you would cut your filet mignon steaks from. The little known third piece is the “Tail”. It is wide at one end and tapers down so you could not really cut steaks from this but there are many great uses for this amazingly tender piece of meat.
One amazing use is for filet tips. You see you would not want to take a center cut filet mignon and dice it up for this, but the much less expensive tail is perfect for it. Check with your butcher on getting these for you because you will not find it in most markets.
Follow this recipe to have an amazing appetizer for your next bbq or just scale it down and make these to eat for yourself in front of the TV.
1. First things first, we need to take the tails out of the packaging and trim off any large chunks of fat you see. This is tenderloin so there should not be much of this but take it off if you see it. Then you want to dice the tails into ¾ to 1 inch cubes. No one is going to put a ruler up to these so perfection is not needed but you do want to try to stay consistent because it will help when grilling them for even cooking. Put them all in a bowl and then mix up the marinade.
2. For the Marinade whisk together the rest of the ingredients (not the dipping sauce ingredients) in a bowl and pour over the beef cubes. I like to put mine in a large zip lock bag and then back in the bowl in case the bag leaks and throw it in the refrigerator. I recommend letting this marinate for at least 2 hours. I think 4 hours is really optimal and I would not go to much longer than 6 because you don’t want to take too much away from the wonderful taste of the beef.
3. Fire your grill or bbq up nice and hot. For this cook I actually was bringing these to a party and had to use the gas grill to cook them which is not my favorite way to cook but what could I do. If at home I would have my Big Green Egg burning really hot to get a good sear. While the BBQ is heating up take the meat out of the refrigerator to take the chill off of it.
4. Once the grill is hot put take the beef cubes out of the marinade and put them on for 2 to 3 minutes per side. Discard the remaining marinade. Try to get a good crust on all sides. This will not take very long because these are small pieces. Put them in a bowl and serve the with the sauce on the side to dip then watch as they disappear in seconds.
For the dipping sauce:
1. Add the mayonnaise, chopped up chipotle, adobo sauce and lime into the bowl of a food processor or the blender.
2. Process until smooth. The mixture should be a light pink. Give it a taste for spiciness. Add more diced chipotle if needed.
3. Enjoy this on the filet tips or try it on anything because it is really that good. I do recommend making this the day before you are going to use it giving the flavors a chance to really meld together.
Nutrition Facts:
For the Filet Tips per serving (2 to 3 pieces):
Calories 266; Total Fat 13.4g; Carbohydrates 15.7g; Sugars 14.6g; Protein 20.2g
For the Dipping Sauce per serving:
Calories 29; Total Fat 3.2g; Carbohydrates 0.1g; Sugars 0g; Protein 0g
