As I mentioned in my Holiday Giveaway Winner post, my favorite Christmas tradition is our Christmas Eve meal.  My family would all get dressed up for church, gather in the living room for drinks and appetizers, and then have the most delicious meal in the dining room before heading off to the Candle Light service.  Sometimes we would invite over another family from church and sometimes it would just be the three of us (or four once my husband joined the picture). I love the formality of celebrating this way on Christmas Eve, and now, it’s just not the same without it.  And this meal, well mainly the meat, is just the best thing you’ve ever tasted.  One year, we had a family from church over to join us for dinner and the husband spent the ENTIRE night talking about how this was just the best meat he’s ever had.  And, let me tell you, he’s not wrong.  My husband has come to love this tradition for probably no other reason than this beef tenderloin. So I just had to pass along this recipe.

This Royal Beef Tenderloin in from the Southern Living Christmas cookbook (I think pg 22) and passed along to me by my mom.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of the one that I made last year pre-Glow of Grace and Instagram, so I found this and it looked the most similar to what ours turns out like.  Just click on the image to lead you to that particular recipe from food.com.  I’ll sub out my own picture after the holidays so that I can pin it.  This recipe is definitely pin-worthy in my mind!

Ingredients for the Tenderloin:
1 cup soy sauce
2/3 cup vegetable oil
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 green onion, chopped
1 (5-6lb) beef tenderloin

Ingredients for the Horseradish Sauce:
Sour Cream
Horseradish
Salt (to taste)

Directions:
– Combine all ingredients to create the marinade.
– Place tenderloin in a large zip lock bag, pour marinade over meat and let sit for 4-5 days in the fridge.  Flip each day.

– Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
– Place tenderloin on shallow roasting rack and bake for 40-55 min until a meat thermometer reads 145 degrees for medium rare or 160 degrees for medium.
– Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.
– Serve with horseradish sauce for dipping.

Tricks & Tips to a Perfect Tenderloin:
– Use (low sodium) Kikkoman soy sauce for the marinade.  Literally no other soy sauce can compare. Take it from a girl who has been to the Kikkoman factory and who uses soy sauce almost daily.  ALWAYS buy Kikkoman.
– If you don’t have a meat market near by, get the trimmed beef tenderloin from Costco.  Seriously, their meat is phenomenal.  The trimmed version is a little pricier, but well worth it not to have to trim it yourself.
– If you want to make this for your Christmas Eve or Christmas dinner, go buy your meat tomorrow.  The longer it marinades, the better.
– I know the cook time is kind of a large window, but it really depends on your oven.  So at 40 minutes, start watching that thermometer carefully.  We always serve ours medium rare.
– The amount of sour cream for the horseradish sauce will just depend on how many people you’re serving.  Use your best judgement, and don’t worry, it’s not really something you can mess up.  Add in horseradish depending on taste.  Start out small because, just like your eye shadow, you can always add more, but you can’t undo what you’ve done.  Well you can, but you need more sour cream.

The side dishes seem to vary from year to year, but they’re always delicately flavored.  The tenderloin is the clear star of the meal, and you want your sides to complement its wonderful flavor rather than overpower it. This year, I’ll be serving it with lemon shallot green beans, roasted red potatoes, and a butter lettuce salad with goat cheese, orange segments, toasted almonds and champagne dressing.

Now that I’m drooling and eagerly anticipating this meal, I think I’ll just start counting down the minutes until we’re devouring all of this deliciousness.  I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family does!

Best & Blessings,