Bring the steakhouse experience home with these perfectly sautéed mushrooms that capture the exact flavors of Outback’s beloved side dish. This simple yet sophisticated recipe combines earthy button mushrooms with sweet caramelized onions, enhanced by the depth of red wine and savory beef broth. In just 15 minutes, you can create the ideal accompaniment to any steak dinner or elevate everyday meals with restaurant-quality mushrooms that taste like the original.
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Table of Contents
Why This Recipe Works
The magic of Outback’s sautéed mushrooms lies in the perfect balance of flavors and textures. The initial sautéing in butter creates rich browning on the mushrooms through the Maillard reaction, developing deep, savory flavors. Sweet onions caramelize alongside the mushrooms, adding natural sweetness that balances the earthiness. The red wine provides acidity that brightens the dish while adding complexity, and the beef broth contributes umami depth that makes these mushrooms irresistibly savory. The brief reduction concentrates all these flavors into a glossy, restaurant-quality finish.
Outback Sauteed Mushrooms Ingredients
Main Components:
- Unsalted butter – Provides a rich cooking medium and adds luxurious flavor that olive oil cannot replicate
- Fresh button mushrooms – Offer a mild, earthy flavor and a meaty texture that holds up beautifully to sautéing
- Yellow onion – Contributes natural sweetness when caramelized and balances the earthiness of mushrooms
- Beef broth – Adds savory umami depth and helps create the signature steakhouse flavor profile
- Red wine – Provides acidity and complexity while helping deglaze the pan for maximum flavor extraction
Optional Enhancements:
- Fresh garlic – Adds aromatic depth when sautéed with mushrooms and onions
- Fresh thyme, parsley, or basil – Provide bright herbal notes as finishing garnish
- Kosher salt and black pepper – Essential for seasoning and flavor enhancement
How to Make Outback Steakhouse Mushrooms
- Heat butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
- When the butter melts, add mushrooms, onions, and salt.
- Sauté mushrooms until they have browned and started to cook through.
- Add red wine and beef broth.
- Cook for a few additional minutes and allow the liquid to reduce.
Outback Mushroom Recipe Notes
This recipe includes instructions for both fresh and canned mushrooms. I love making these with fresh mushrooms. You may wish to blanch them before cooking to keep their nicer color and shape.
I find that you can get great deals on mushrooms at Costco. So every time I go to Costco, the mushrooms make it into my basket.
I suggest you use an inexpensive red wine for the red wine. When I say cheap, I am thinking something like the Franzia brand. I use their burgundy wine. It comes in a box, and while I wouldn’t drink it, it is fine to cook with. The vacuum bag means it is ok to store and cook with for a long time.
If desired, you can add some chopped fresh garlic to the mushrooms and onions, a few mins after they are cooking in the butter.
For a fresh herb touch, garnish with chopped fresh thyme, parsley, or basil.
How Do You Cut Mushrooms?
After cleaning the mushrooms with a damp paper towel, you must figure out how to cut them. Cutting mushrooms isn’t very difficult, but there is a technique.
- Cut off just the very end of the stem. Many cooks lop off the entire stem, but that is a waste. Try to leave as much of the stem as possible.
- Turn the mushroom on its side with the cap away from you and the stem end facing you.
- Use a small knife or the top part of a chef’s knife to slice the mushrooms into 1/8-inch slices.
What to Serve Outback Steakhouse Mushrooms With
Just about any steak dish pairs wonderfully with mushrooms’ meaty texture and earthy flavors. But don’t stop there. These Outback mushrooms are much more versatile than you think.
- Top a crostini. This quick and easy appetizer is a bit on the fancy side. If you don’t know how to make crostinis, check out this recipe.
- Fill an omelet. If you need help with your omelet-making game, this fluffy omelette recipe and video walks you through the entire process.
- Stuff a sandwich. From grilled cheese to backyard burgers, mushrooms add a new depth of flavor.
Storage & Reheating Instructions
- Refrigerator Storage: Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Cool quickly by spreading on a chilled baking sheet before refrigerating.
- Reheating Method: Reheat gently in skillet over medium heat with 1 tablespoon butter, stirring frequently until just warmed through. Avoid overcooking to prevent mushiness.
- Freezing: Freeze for up to 6 months. Spread on baking sheet to freeze individually, then transfer to freezer-safe container. Can be reheated directly from frozen
FAQs for Outback Steakhouse Mushrooms
Traditional cooking wisdom dictates that you shouldn’t season mushrooms until after cooking to prevent them from drying out.
Although adding salt prior to cooking can cause mushrooms to release moisture, it’s generally not enough to make that much of a difference. Wait a while to season your mushrooms for the best texture, but don’t worry too much about it.
When cooking sliced mushrooms over medium-high heat, it will typically take about five minutes until they are slightly tender and browned. The most important thing to remember is to use a large enough pan to avoid overcrowding.
Jarred mushrooms are acceptable for this Outback Steakhouse mushroom recipe, but you’ll get a much better flavor with fresh ones. You can use just about any variety of mushrooms that you like, but buttons, creminis, and porcinis are particularly good.
Love Outback Steakhouse? Try these copycat side dish recipes!
- Fresh Steamed Green Beans
- Outback Mac and Cheese
- Salt Crust Baked Potato
- Baked Sweet Potato with Honey Butter and Brown Sugar
Best Mushroom Recipes
- How to Fry Mushrooms
- Fried Portobello Mushrooms
- Seafood Stuffed Mushrooms
- Truffle Mushroom Soup
- Tuna Mushroom Casserole
- Mushroom Pot Roast
- Gluten-free Mushroom Soup
- Hibachi Mushrooms
You can find more easy side dish recipes and the best Outback Steakhouse copycat recipes here at CopyKat.com.
Outback Steakhouse Sautéed Mushrooms Easy Copycat
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 16 ounces fresh small white button mushrooms or 2 cans/jars (8 ounces each) of small whole mushrooms (plus the juice from one of the cans/jars)
- 1/2 cup diced onions large dice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 10.5 ounces beef broth 1 can
- 1/3 cup Burgundy wine
Instructions
- Heat a skillet over medium heat and add the butter.
- When the butter melts, add the mushrooms and onions, sprinkle with salt, and sauté until the mushrooms are browned and cooked through.
- Add the beef broth and wine and cook for a few additional minutes to allow the sauce to reduce.
I do mine the same way….with butter added. I also use half burgundy half port and let them simmer for hours. I have also grilled fresh mushrooms then added them to the mix. The smokey taste is awesome. This works well with portabella mushrooms as well. Baby Bellas are much better than button mushrooms. But its all a matter of taste. You could use a variety of mushrooms at once and get some good earthy tastes.
The easiest is get a bottle of a good Marsala cooking wine. Saute mushrooms and chopped onion with some butter. Then in a appropriate sized sauce pot add beef broth and Marsala and simmer covered for an hour then remove lid and simmer another 10 to 15 minutes. I always use fresh mushrooms. Store leftovers in fridge in a sealed container and they are even better next day. Or I sometimes make them the day before.
I substituted fresh mushrooms and simmered very low for about an hour to concentrate the flavor. Excellent. Also season with salt and pepper.
Great idea, I will have to give your version a try soon.
They actually use a boxed Cab Sav for this recipie. Simmer the wine, onions, wet broth base, and a bit of butter as well. Once the onions start to get soft and the alcohol burns off, top the fresh mushrooms in a sealed bowl with the mixture. In the store these are then placed into a small crock pot to reheat and actually “cook” in a small. That slower process is what gives the mushroom the flavor and ensures the mushrooms are fully cooked with the broth.
Thanks for the tips, its sounds like you are in the know.
What’s burgundy wine? That’s a region, not a grape. Sweet? Dry? Red? White? Please be more specific.
Here is a simple suggestion. http://www.gallofamily.com/our-wines/hearty-burgundy.html
If you don’t want to use this, would use a merlot, or perhaps even a shiraz. These are both reds, I prefer both of these with a spicier note to them and a little on the dry side. I hope that helps.
Stephanie
Excellent! I’ll try the recipe this weekend with Merlot. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Thanks!
Burgundy wine is made in the burgundy region of France with (usually) pinot noir grapes. Try substituting your favorite pinot for the burgundy.
I am getting ready to make these with fresh mushrooms and I am going to sautee them afterwards.
Fresh mushrooms are always too big.
Yes but they will shrink. At your better produce stores you can ask for button mushrooms.
We were looking forward to this recipe because we love these mushrooms so much when we go to Outback. However, after following this recipe exactly they tasted NOTHING like the ones from Outback. There seems to be something missing. Anyone who has worked there might know if there is something that’s missing in this recipe????? Please????
I’m also in the ‘retaurant biz’, and am a classically trained chef, and I can tell you that this recipe was great, but I agree with you that it was missing something, THEY WERE SAUTEED IN CLARIFIED BUTTER FIRST! Anyone can make the butter, if yoiu want to learn email me and i’ll write you a detailed email about how to. You will be pleasantly surrised at how easy!!
Can you please share the recipe
Can you teach me how to make clarified butter? Thank you so much!!!
Kelly, Do you still send an email explaining how to saute the mushrooms in clarified butter first? My email is jkkonklin@hotmail.com I am interested in making the mushrooms like the restaurant in the future. That is Outback Steakhouse. I don’t check my email that often but I will make a point of looking for your email sometime in the near future. I am hoping that you still send people that information. Thank you.
Shallots. And well seasoned! We used a Pinot noir and let the liquid reduce. No broth.
Sauté a diced shallot in olive oil, add fresh mushrooms (we had baby Bella’s on hand) sauté a minute or so on med high stirring shrooms into oil and shallot. Barely cover with any red and leave your heat kinda high to reduce liquid. 15-20 minutes and perfect. You can turn heat to low and simmer as long as it takes to prepare dinner 🥩🍄
Not everyone is in the resturant industry. This is a simple and easy way for people like me too cook and it still tasted wonderful. Thanks.
Canned mushrooms? Once again, I don’t agree.
Don’t people know how to clean and saute fresh mushrooms anymore?
You are correct. I guess they don’t think. I’m in the resturant bizz and canned or jarred shrumes are more expensive too.
Oh how I agree with you! Canned and bottled mushrooms are rubbery.
These mushrooms were great on my steak last night and so easy to make! I will cook them next time I have company over!