Instead of brandy, deglaze your pan with chicken broth, a cup and a half, depending on how much of a lush you are (see below). Instead of fire, you will get a shit ton of steam and noise. Bonus is that you will not be able to burn your hair off doing this one. While you’re waiting for some of that liquid to reduce, throw some mushrooms and shallots in. How much depends on how much you <3 mushroom and shalloty flavor. Now for super win, pour in about a cup of red wine. You’ve already matched a wine to your steak–give it some extra matching power by cooking your steak sauce with the wine you chose!

Bring the pan of gunk to a boil, then reduce it to low so that you can wait, patiently, for the sauce to thicken. OR, if you’re impatient, enter this cheat code:

1 part corn starch + 2 parts water + 1/4 circle forward stir, then add it to your stuff. The sauce will thicken up gud. Just make sure that you don’t use so much that you destroy your delicious meat + wine flavor.

At the end, salt + pepper to taste.

How do you know you’re a winner? You generally end up with a LOT more sauce than you’ve got steak. Tupperware that stuff and use it the next day on some egg noodles!