Mini Beef Wellington Bites Recipe

Known for being an intricately-built dish made with tender beef, savory mushroom duxelles, and flaky puff pastry, beef Wellington has an elegant reputation, and rightfully so. Also notorious for being particularly difficult to master because of its many delicate layers, beef Wellington is a dish often reserved for only the most experienced chefs or special occasions. Luckily, although it may be a complicated entree, it can be a fairly simple appetizer with just a few small changes. Wrapping seared pieces of filet mignon in flaky puff pastry and garnishing with tangy mustard, the dish becomes a stunning and delicious miniature hors d'oeuvre — and there's no reason that appetizers can't be just as elegant as the main course.

This mini beef Wellington bites recipe, developed with Michelle McGlinn, uses bite-sized pieces of tender filet mignon to replicate the buttery beef tenderloin of a traditional beef Wellington roast. Wrapped in herb-seasoned mushroom duxelles and flaky puff pastry, the bites become miniature versions of beef Wellingtons that guests can eat in a single bite, making them the perfect appetizer for elegant evenings and holiday gatherings.

To make mini beef Wellington bites, you'll first need beef. Because beef tenderloin is the ideal cut of beef for beef Wellington, the best cut of beef to use for a miniature version is the filet mignon, which is a similar cut better suited for slicing and searing. You don't need a lot of beef to fill the bites, so one large filet or two smaller filets will work. From there, you'll need salt, pepper, and grapeseed oil to sear the beef, then butter, mushrooms, shallot, garlic, parsley, thyme, and rosemary to make the duxelles. To finish the bites, grab a puff pastry sheet, some Dijon mustard and mayonnaise, an egg, and a splash of water, which will be used in the egg wash to brown the pastry.

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Season filets with ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper on either side.

Heat the grapeseed oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat.

Sear the seasoned steaks until dark brown on the outside and medium rare on the inside, about 3 minutes per side. The steak should be underdone.

Remove the steaks from the skillet and place onto a plate. Once cool to touch, wrap in plastic and chill in the refrigerator while preparing the duxelles.

Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat.

Add the mushrooms, shallot, and garlic and cook until mushrooms are tender and glossy, about 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Stir in the parsley, thyme, rosemary, and ¼ teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Remove the duxelles from heat and set aside.

Remove the filets from the refrigerator and slice into 1-inch cubes.

Unroll the puff pastry onto a floured surface and slice into 1x2-inch strips.

Dollop a spoonful of mushroom duxelles onto the center of each strip.

Place a piece of steak on top of the mushrooms.

Whisk egg and water together in a small bowl.

Brush egg wash on one end of each puff pastry strip, then wrap the puff pastry around the filling to enclose, using the egg wash to seal.

Transfer the bites to a parchment-lined sheet tray and brush with egg wash.

Bake the bites until crispy, puffy, and browned, about 20 minutes.

While the bites are baking, mix the mayonnaise and mustard together in a small bowl.

To serve, dollop each bite with the mustard mixture and garnish with parsley.

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The reason beef Wellington is perfectly pink and buttery tender when sliced is because it is traditionally made with beef tenderloin, a cut of beef that becomes meltingly tender when baked as a whole roast. Because it is a cut that is usually roasted whole, not sliced into pieces, it wouldn't work as well for the bite-sized portions in this recipe. That's why we use filet mignon, the quick-searing equivalent of beef tenderloin, which can also be purchased in smaller portions, making it slightly more affordable.

Both cuts, being delicate cuts sliced from the tenderloin of the cow, are expensive cuts of beef. While using them for beef Wellington is necessary for the size, shape, and tenderness of the finished result, the bite-sized version is much more flexible. You can use any quick-searing cut of beef — in other words, any cut that doesn't need to be slow-roasted or braised to become tender. You can use strip steak, ribeye, or a cheaper cut like tri-tip, searing each until just browned before wrapping in puff pastry.

Unlike a full beef Wellington, these mini beef Wellingtons are bite-sized, making them perfect for handheld appetizer portions. To make the portions bite-sized, the steak has to be sliced before being wrapped in puff pastry; otherwise, the pieces would be the same size as a traditional Wellington. This means that building the bites is a little more tedious than wrapping a full beef Wellington, but also a little more foolproof, being that they aren't as prone to getting soggy or falling apart.

If you're short on time and want to make the bites faster, there are a few ways to change the process. You could slice the filet mignons vertically into long, thin pieces (about ½-inch thick) and wrap into miniature beef Wellingtons, to then be sliced and egg washed after wrapping. You can also wrap the pieces differently, slicing the puff pastry into small squares and placing the mushrooms and steak in the middle to be covered by each of the four corners. Either way, we recommend slicing each bite before baking to ensure each piece is flaky and not crumbling apart.

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