🥩🧄🧈 Easy Beef Tenderloin Roast with Garlic Herb Butter is an EASY yet IMPRESSIVE dish that’s ready in under an hour! Roasting beef tenderloin in the oven results in perfectly MOIST and TENDER meat every time, and the garlic herb butter adds tons of flavor without overwhelming the beef. If cooking beef tenderloin intimidates you, follow this straightforward recipe!
Tender Oven Roasted Beef Tenderloin Recipe
If you want to really knock people’s socks off at a holiday dinner, birthday celebration, or anniversary, roast a beef tenderloin!
- Beef tenderloin is one of the most premium cuts of beef you can purchase. That makes it sound intimidating to cook, but with better cuts of meat like this, you’re actually signing up for ultra-tender beef that requires minimal ingredients and effort to prepare.
- When beef tastes this good — and is this pricey! — you don’t want to doctor it up too much with spice blends or sauces. Which is perfect for home cooks wanting to make an impression without having to spend hours in the kitchen preparing a big meal.
- The beef itself is seasoned simply with salt and pepper, while fresh herb and garlic butter is slathered on for flavor and richness. The beef tenderloin roast is seared in a skillet to lock in its juices before being baked in the oven.
This is a great special occasion dinner to serve around the holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, or anytime you want to make a friend, family, or loved ones feel extra special!
Looking for more special occasion dinners?
Try my slow cooker cranberry pork tenderloin and glazed pork loin roast, too!
What Is Beef Tenderloin?
The most tender cut of beef, beef tenderloin, is taken from the back part of the cow, between the loin and sirloin. It’s typically sold whole and is almost always roasted at a high heat so the interior of the beef remains tender in texture and rosy in color. This is a choice cut of beef, and it’s taken from a small section of the cow, so expect to pay for it!
Beef Tenderloin vs Filet Mignon
Beef tenderloin is often confused with filet mignon, which is no wonder since filet mignon is taken from the tip of the beef tenderloin! Both cuts of beef are incredibly tender, with minimal connective tissue or fat. I recommend roasting beef tenderloin for larger gatherings, and saving the filet mignon for smaller dinner parties.
Recipe Ingredients
You’ll need just a handful of ingredients for roasting beef tenderloin. This isn’t a cut of beef you want to drown in spices or sauces. The flavor of the beef tenderloin is incredible, so you want to make sure you can taste it!
Here’s what you’ll need to roast beef tenderloin with garlic herb butter:
For the beef:
- Beef tenderloin roast – Remove the silverskin before you begin by gently using a boning knife to slice it away in thin layers
- Sea salt
- Black pepper
- Olive oil
For the garlic herb butter:
- Fresh garlic cloves
- Fresh thyme, rosemary, and sage – Anytime I am making a fancy meal like prime rib, a whole turkey, or this beef tenderloin, I always use and recommend fresh herbs. Dried herbs just won’t give you the same flavor
- Unsalted butter
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Roast Beef Tenderloin in the Oven
With about 10 minutes of prep time and about an hour of total time, let’s make beef tenderloin.
Step 1: Tie the beef tenderloin with kitchen twine or butcher twine. Yes, you must do this to ensure even cooking. Season all over with salt and pepper. Let it rest on your countertop for about 30 minutes to bring the beef to room temperature so that it cooks evenly in the oven. Don’t skip this! Otherwise, you risk the meat sticking to the pan and cooking unevenly. This also helps the beef roast evenly in the oven.
Step 2: Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Sear the beef on all four sides until golden all over. This adds lots of flavor and also locks in the juices to keep the beef moist.
Step 3: While the beef is searing, combine the herbs, garlic, and softened butter. You can chop and then beat together by hand – or put it in a food processor – whichever you prefer, but I use my food processor.
Step 4: After the beef has been seared, slather it with the garlic herb butter. The excess fat is great for any dry cuticles you may have, haha!
Step 5: Roast the beef tenderloin until the internal temperature reaches 130ºF (this should take no more than 20 minutes).
Step 6: Remove the beef tenderloin from the oven and let it rest for at least 15 minutes. While the beef rests, the carryover heat from the oven will bring the internal temperature up to 135ºF, which is perfectly medium-rare. Slice into roughly 1-inch thick slices when serving, and enjoy with asparagus casserole, Brussels sprouts casserole, or your favorite sides.
What Should the Internal Temperature of Beef Tenderloin Be?
Oven roasted beef tenderloin is best when cooked until medium-rare, which means it should have a warm red center and just be starting to firm up when removed from the oven. This is NOT a cut of beef to cook until well done or until no longer pink in the middle! If you do that, you’ve essentially ruined an expensive cut of beef, and it will taste overcooked.
However, you may cook the beef to your liking. I know some people like their beef practically mooing, while others prefer it more done. Note that the internal temp will rise easily 5 degrees, and more like 10 degrees, while the rest after you’ve pulled it out of the oven.
Exact international temperatures measured with a meat thermometer for cooking beef are as follows:
- Rare — 120°F to 129°F. Cooler and bright red center, soft to the touch.
- Medium rare — 130°F to 134°F. Warm red center, beginning to firm up with red juices.
- Medium — 135°F to 144°F. Warm pink center, brown on the edges, firm with red juices.
- Medium well — 145°F to 154°F. Slightly pink center, completely firm with brown juices.
- Well done — 155°F to 164°F. Very little to no pink, firm to the touch.
Recipe FAQs
While you technically could, it’s not recommended. A slow cooker is the exact opposite of an oven! There’s no searing, no high heat, and nothing short about the cooking time – so make your beef tenderloin in the oven.
Yes! Beef tenderloin roast is perfect at medium-rare, but you can go rarer than that if that’s your preference. Use a meat thermometer and not your eyes to test the doneness of the meat because you want the beef to be rosy!
Count on serving ½ pound of beef tenderloin per person.
If you allow ½ pound of beef per person, a 4-pound beef tenderloin should serve 8 hungry people.
What to Serve with Beef Tenderloin
Beef Tenderloin Roast with Garlic Herb Butter
Ingredients
Beef Tenderloin
- 1 (4-pound) Beef tenderloin roast, center cut, fat trimmed and tied (it’s okay to slice it in half so it can fit in your pan); at room temp
- 1 tablespoon sea salt
- 2 teaspoons freshly cracked black pepper
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
Garlic Herb Butter
- 3 to 4 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme*
- 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary*
- 2 teaspoons fresh sage*
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temp
Instructions
- Prep and season. Preheat the oven to 425F.
- Take the beef tenderloin out of the fridge and gently tie up with butcher twine. Tip – Tying it up ensures the meat cooks evenly so don't skip it.
- Place the beef on a plate and season with salt and pepper. Allow the meat to rest to rise up to room temperature, about 30 minutes or as needed. Tip – It's very important that the beef is at room temp otherwise you risk the meat sticking to your skillet as well as cooking unevenly, so don't rush it.
- Sear the meat. Heat the oil in a large cast-iron skillet or large heavy-bottom oven-safe skillet on medium-high heat until sizzling.
- Add the beef to the hot skillet and sear on each side until golden brown all over, about 6 to 8 minutes per side, turning occasionally as it cooks. While the beef sears, make the herbed butter.
- Mix herbed butter. To the canister of a food processor, add the peeled garlic, coarsely chopped fresh herbs, cover, and pulse a few times until the garlic and herbs are in fine bits. *Note about Herb Quantities – I mention using 2 teaspoons of each of the three herbs but it's hard to tell what 2 teaspoons of rosemary or sage will look like (thyme is a littler easier) until they're actually blended so my advice is to use about 2 large sprigs of rosemary (needles only, discard the stick), about 4 sage leaves, and about 2 long thin sprigs of thyme (flowers only, discard the stick). However, it's all an approximation, use herbs according to your personal preferences. I strongly recommend fresh herbs and not dried.
- Add the butter, cover, and pulse or blend until whipped and combined. Tip – I highly recommend a food processor for this job, although you can finely mince herbs by hand, place them in a mixing bowl, then add the butter, and whip vigorously by hand until combined.
- Roast the beef. Spread the garlic herbed butter over the top of the beef after it's been seared.
- Transfer the skillet into the preheated oven to roast for 15 – 20 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 125F for medium rare, or as desired. Tips – The temp you pull it should be a bit less than your ideal final temp because the temp will rise at least 5 degrees as the meat rests. Therefore, for rare, you can pull it when it reaches 120F or so and it will come up to 125F; for medium rare you can pull it when it reaches 125F and it will come up to 130F; and so on. Do not guess; use a meat thermometer such as a Thermoworks or a thermometer from Amazon or Target. See Notes below for temperatures and corresponding doneness.
- Rest. Remove the beef from the oven and let it rest on a cutting board for at least 15 minutes. Tips – It will continue to cook (the temperature will continue to rise) even while resting outside of the oven as mentioned above. Resting also helps to let the juices settle to keep the meat moist so don't skip resting!
- Serving. Slice the beef into 1-inch wide pieces, or as desired, and serve with your favorite vegetables, potatoes, etc. Tip – See blog post for lots of sides and serving suggestions.
- Storage. This is an expensive cut of meat, and when cooked properly, is so good that it should be eaten when freshly made and don't plan on leftovers. If you happen to have extra beef, it will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days. Rather than reheating it, and thus cooking it more, I suggest slicing it and eating it on the most decadent beef sandwich.
Notes
Exact final international temperatures for cooking beef are as follows:
- Rare — 120°F to 129°F. Cooler and bright red center, soft to the touch.
- Medium rare — 130°F to 134°F. Warm red center, beginning to firm up with red juices.
- Medium — 135°F to 144°F. Warm pink center, brown on the edges, firm with red juices.
- Medium well — 145°F to 154°F. Slightly pink center, completely firm with brown juices.
- Well done — 155°F to 164°F. Very little to no pink, firm to the touch.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Hi Averie! Heathen that I am, I’m one of those people that LIKES my (quality cuts of) beef “practically mooing “. 😁 As we used to say on the farm – knock its horns off and wipe its – uh…butt – though that wasn’t QUITE the word we used. When you know where your beef comes from…I remember my mom making meatballs out of what I now know to be steak tartare. Dad, my sister and I liked the taste so much that we’d steal spoonfuls right out of the bowl, much to mom’s pretend exasperation. It got to where she’d just make an extra pound of the mixture, to feed her “animals”, as she laughingly referred to us.
That being said – what temp would you suggest pulling the tenderloin for bleu?
And – I’m puzzled. It looks like the garlic & herb butter hasn’t melted as I would expect it to in a hot oven. Why is that?
Finally – do you tent with foil when resting the meat?
Thanks, as always!
Sometimes it’s tricky capturing everything on camera with a screaming hot pan, a camera lens steaming up, and trying to get things perfectly captured. This is one of those recipes that’s tricky to photograph. But I can assure you everything melted.
As for tenting with foil when resting, not typically, but you certainly can. Enjoy!
Thanks! Would you roast to 105-110 for bleu?
Today’s bleu is tomorrow’s reheated rare. Hopefully.
I really can’t say but I would cook it as long as you’re comfortable with.