We’re cooking up Salisbury Steak with Onions and Gravy. It’s one of those traditional Southern comfort food items you’ll find on the menu at Mom and Pop style restaurants and diners throughout the South. Fresh ground beef, caramelized onions, and rich brown gravy make this one more delicious item to serve to your family and friends. All you’ll need to make it even better are some mashed potatoes. Now we’re talking!
Now, don’t go thinking this will taste like one of those cheap frozen dinners you might find in the frozen foods section of your local grocer. Those little trays with plastic on top just can’t compare to homemade. This one is just about as quick and easy to prepare…except for making the caramelized onions. That takes a little bit of time but it will be well worth the added effort.
I must admit though, I’ve had my fair share of the imposters. When you can buy a packaged meal with meat, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn and a brownie, all for one dollar, it’s difficult to not pop one or two in your grocery cart. Still, I hope you will give this little recipe a try soon.
Some may claim this to be hamburger steak. We’ll be adding a recipe for hamburger steak later. Hamburger steak is usually not served with gravy like the salisbury steak is served. Instead, it’s served as a fried or grilled meat patty and may include some grilled onions on top. You can add your favorite steak sauce to it if you so choose. It’s most often served with mashed potatoes as well, topped of course with…gravy.
This is a pretty straight forward recipe. Just don’t rush the onions too much and it will be quick and easy. We’ll cook up the patties first, caramelize the onions, and then simmer it all together in a rich brown gravy for about 15 minutes. While that’s cooking, we’ll whip up some mashed potatoes and get ready for some real meat and potatoes Taste of Southern home cooking. Ready?
Let’s Get Cooking!
Here are the ingredients you’ll need. I’m using Ground Beef Round in an 80/15 mixture. I’m showing a two pound package in the photo, but I’m only using half of that in the recipe which will give me four servings.
I just divided the package in half and placed about one pound in a mixing bowl.
Use your hands or a fork to break it up a bit.
Begin by adding 1/2 teaspoon of Black Pepper. We’ll just go ahead and add the first few ingredients, and then we’ll mix it up.
Add 1 teaspoon of Salt.
Add 1/2 teaspoon of Garlic Powder.
Add 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire Sauce.
Add one whole egg, minus the shell of course. (Smile)
Add 1/4 cup of dry bread crumbs. I used bread crumbs like mama always used. I took one slice of white sandwich bread, and crumbled it up in my hands really fine. It’s easier with bread that is a day or two old. Of course, you could use store bought bread crumbs or even saltine crackers if you desire. The bread just serves as a binder for the mixture to help hold things together. We didn’t know anything about store bought bread crumbs around our house.
Now, jump right in with both hands, and mix it all together. I folded it, mashed it, squashed it, and folded it some more. Just mix it all up well and have fun. Cooking should be fun, so go ahead and squish it through your fingers.
Divide the mixture into equal parts. I made four patties from the pound of beef. Shape it into patties, like you would hamburgers, only shape it into more of an oval than something round. For some reason, Salisbury Steak patties always seem to be oval shaped.
Place your “I Don’t Have A Paula Deen,” regular and well used skillet on medium heat. Let it warm up for a minute or so, and then add 2 Tablespoons of REAL Butter. Always use the real stuff instead of margarine. It’ll just naturally taste better. Ask Paula Deen, she’ll tell you.
Place the patties in the skillet. Don’t overcrowd them though, give them some space. I could only get three of mine in at the beginning, but once they cook down some, I’ll add number four. Let them cook for about 4-5 minutes.
While the patties are cooking, let’s get started on the onions. Begin by slicing a whole onion in half and removing the outer skin.
Slice each half into about 1/4 inch slices. Set aside.
After about 4-5 minutes, you’ll start to see the bottom edge of the patties start to turn brown like the two in the upper right. Now, you’ll need to flip them over, and brown the other side for about the same length of time. They don’t have to cook all the way through; we’re just browning both sides for now, to seal in the juices.
Even with only a 15 percent fat content, the patties will shrink. After I’d turned all three, I had enough room to add my fourth patty. You just need to watch the first ones and don’t let them burn. Take them out when they have browned completely on both sides.
Remove the patties from the pan and set aside. Again, don’t worry about them being cooked all the way through. We’re going to continue to cook them some more in just a few minutes.
Don’t discard those brown bits left in the pan. They are full of flavor and we want to save all of them.
Place your sliced onions in the pan, right on top of all those browned bits. Reduce the heat just a little, and let the onions slowly cook until they are clear and caramelized. Don’t rush them. Let them cook low and slow, stirring occasionally, until they turn nice and brown in color. This step may take 20 minutes or longer, but its well worth the time. If they cook too fast, they will burn, and you don’t want that to happen.
The onions will start to turn clear or translucent, and then they will start to brown. We’ll continue to cook them some more as the recipe continues.
Now, sprinkle the 2 Tablespoons of Flour all over the top of the onions.
Stir the flour and onions together. Then, let this cook for about 2 minutes longer to brown the flour. If you don’t allow the flour to cook and brown at this point, you’ll get a raw flour taste in the finished dish. Just keep stirring it for about 2 minutes.
Slowly add 2 cups of warm water. It’s just warm water straight out of the faucet. If you were using a cast iron skillet, you’d never want to add cold water to a hot skillet as it could cause it to crack. Stir the water and onions together.
Add 2 teaspoons of beef bouillon granules. I highly prefer the granules as opposed to the cubes. The cubes always seem to take forever to dissolve. You could certainly use about 2 cups of beef broth if you had that instead. This will pump up the flavor of the gravy.
Stir the mixture well, and then bring the heat back up to about medium.
Carefully place the meat patties back into the gravy mixture.
Cover the pan. Let the whole thing simmer on medium or just a notch below medium, for about 15 more minutes. They just need to simmer lightly and not be at a rolling boil. You also might want to turn the meat patties over about half way through.
After about 15 minutes, it’s all ready to serve. Man, I’m hungry right now. I’m a true meat and potatoes kind of guy and love this Salisbury Steak.
We cook a lot of dishes with gravy, or gravy and onions, here in the Taste of Southern kitchen. It seems like most all of them just go best with mashed potatoes served as a side dish. You could also serve them over a bed of rice if you prefer. Add some whole corn or maybe some green beans, and a piece of cornbread, and you’ve got yourself a real meal for lunch or dinner any day….even on Sunday.
Enjoy!
