The Best Au Jus Substitutes

If you do a lot of cooking, you must get used to the Au Jus ingredient. It helps to boost flavor and add moisture to your dishes, making your food to another level.

However, what happens in case you lack this thing in your kitchen? How about an Au Jus substitute?

Please sit down and read our article to know more about some typical alternatives that resemble the Au Jus taste. Let’s get started!  

What Is Exactly Au Jus?

Au Jus is a French word for those who do not know, which means juice. It is a popular liquid, called gravy mix, rooted in France and used mostly in their meaty dishes.

Some chefs often consider this type of liquid an incredibly flavourful agent, especially for beef, lamb, and chicken.

To prepare this, you have to use a piece of meat that has been skimmed off extra fat, then mix it with meat juice. You can imagine the result of this process is beef broth.

Apart from being a liquid to cook your meat dish, au jus can be a delicious dipping sauce when you season it with spices and natural herbs.

Flour, soy, corn starch powder, onions, ginger, and garlic are crucial to making this sauce taste better.

Best Au Jus Substitutes For Your Dishes

Your kitchen is not always available in Au Jus; that’s why you should already prepare some alternatives.

Rest assured that it does not take much time while still keeping the extra flavor as much as the original one. Scroll down now.

1. Beef Stock Powder Sauce

Beef stock powder sauce is nearly the most common replacement when you have no Au Jus on hand.

Firstly, you can find this powder available in large numbers on the current market.

Some people almost cannot taste the difference, so there is no need to worry about the flavor that can be affected here.

Only this powder cannot create beef stock powder sauce itself. Instead, you have to mix it with some additional ingredients, like onion powder, garlic powder, cornstarch, black pepper, and dried parsley in a bowl.

Do not forget to add some water and boil the mixture until the texture becomes thick.

Always consider how much powder you want to serve with your meals to prepare the exact quantity.

2. Beef Broth

If you are making a dish of grilled steak or roasted meat and run out of Au Jus to use, let’s opt for beef broth as a great substitute for Au Jus gravy mix.

It is simple and not time-consuming to cook this mixture.

You only need beef bones seasoned with pepper and salt, onions, carrots, celery, and herbs. Put all these things in a pressure cooker, add some water, and leave it alone to boil.

After nearly one hour, you can take the ingredients out and serve the liquid to your delicious meals, like a roast beef dish.

3. Chicken Broth

Do not worry when you do not have beef bones. Using chicken bones to replace a substitute for Au Jus with a beef base sounds amazing.

Chicken broth involves roasting the bones in the oven and simmering them again on the stove. It takes you about one hour to finish the sauce.

The primary ingredients to make this type of broth are similar to the above one, like onions, celery, carrots, and some herbs.

You need to put them all into a slow cooker, bring them to a boil, and wait for the result.

4. Bouillon Cubes

Do not miss out on bouillon cube, the convenient and quick Au Jus mix replacement that most busy cooks highly recommend.

Creating the liquid from these cubes is quite simple by stirring them with some water.

Remember to crumble them, along with onion powder, carrots, parsley, and other flavorings, into a fine powder first.

Bouillon cubes often create a thicker sauce, but it fits any dishes requiring Au Jus well. Hence, you can consider this option when you are short on time but still want to enjoy a similar flavor.

5. Brown Gravy

It is a big mistake if you do not take brown gravy mix into account as a perfect Au Jus mix alternative.

However, the texture of Au Jus is originally lighter and thinner than this one. You had better consider which meals are suitable for this option before cooking as a result.

Beef stock, butter, heavy cream, flour, seasoning, and the Worcestershire sauce helps you do the trick well.

Be careful while making the cooking progress as brown gravy is easy to form lumps, and we bet you do not want this to happen.

First, cook the flour and add the butter, and beef stock to the pan in turn. Remember to stir the mixture evenly until you jump to the stage of a thick and thin texture.

Then you can pour the Worcestershire sauce and some seasonings.

At the final touch, a bit of heavy cream is a must to make your brown gravy mix all ready to serve.

6. Onion Mixed Soup

When you have no time to prepare several ingredients to cook a complicated substitute for Au Jus packet above, you can end up with onion mixed soup.

There is no problem with taste despite its quick preparation. Onions are not too pungent to alter the taste of the dish.

On the contrary, its caramelization contributes greatly to the rich flavor of your soup. If this still matters to you, here is an instruction on how to neutralize onion taste in food.

It takes about ten minutes to mix all the crucial ingredients in a pan and cook it until everything is ready to serve.

They include onion flakes, celery seed, dried parsley, paprika, seasoning, beef bullion, and water.

Salt can help improve the taste if needed, and you can enjoy a nice liquid mixture that tastes as superiorly as the original Au Jus.

7. Vegetable Stock

Sometimes we are sick of meat-based liquid and seek another healthy alternative; then vegetable stock/broth comes to our mind.

This substitute for Au Jus mix might taste differently, yet it is delicate and delicious enough to use with lots of meat recipes.

All the veggies and herbs you should have to cook in this stock are onions, mushrooms, carrots, celery, leek, parsley stalks, bay leaves, and thyme.

8. Demi-glace

Let’s move to demi-glace, a French ingredient that many cooks highly recommend as an Au Jus packet substitute. Its thick and flavorful sauce can surprise you every time you try it.

Demi-glace involves the process of reducing the broth until you get the perfect level of liquid. The primary stock here can be chicken, beef, or vegetable.

Do not forget to prepare additional onions, carrots, celery, bay leaf, parsley, dried thyme, peppercorns, and flours to make this.

Apart from the depth of flavor, its long-time preparation of up to eight hours can make you say “wow” again while hearing this thing.

Obviously, demi-glace is not an easy-to-go option for lazy and busy home cooks.

9. Homemade Au Jus

Listing all the potential substitutes for Au Jus does not mean that you cannot cook the homemade Au Jus at home. Follow this recipe if you aim at the perfect level of Au Jus taste.

Add some butter and flour to a saucepan and put it on medium heat until there is a paste texture. Stir it with red wine continuously, and the purple color will appear at that time.

After you do not smell the alcohol anymore, pour the beef broth and keep whisking to make the mixture blend well.

In the last five minutes, Worcestershire sauce is helpful to thicken the liquid. Now, it’s time to enjoy your mouth-watering homemade Au Jus.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Au Jus Substitute Necessary?

Of course, yes, in any case. Au Jus substitutes are undoubtedly a convenient and time-consuming option.

You do not have to make an effort to figure out the required ingredients that are not always available in your kitchen to make Au Jus.

Moreover, they resemble the original flavor without ruining your culinary meals as well.

How Do You Thicken Au Jus?

It is simple to thicken Au Jus as long as you have flour in your hands. We prefer corn or tapioca starch to the normal wheat flour as it reduces the gluten content in your meal.

You can consult a whole wheat flour substitute to see which one can replace this product in your recipes.

Add a small amount of flour to your Au Jus and let it cook so that the raw taste can go away quickly.

What Is The Difference Between Au Jus And Beef Broth?

As mentioned above, Au Jus is quite similar to beef broth; that’s why some people get confused by these two. However, they do have some noticeable differences that you must know.

The unique making process tells them apart first. Au Jus is a thick sauce made from meat juices and flour, butter, or cornstarch.

Meanwhile, beef broth is a soup-like consistency that boils only water and spices.

There are many ways for chefs to serve Au Jus in a meal. For example, they can pour it on top of meat or use it separately with side dishes like sandwiches or French fries.

On the contrary, beef broth is important to use with main dishes, which is nearly the base for gravies, soups, or sauces.

In Conclusion

Au Jus takes much time to prepare; that’s why Au Jus substitute comes in handy in your kitchen. Thankfully, there are a lot of excellent candidates for you to consider depending on your meals.

Now that you have gained enough confidence to cook like a professional and serve your appetizing beef meals with these Au Jus replacements to the guest.

Good luck with your culinary show.