Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy is a comfort food favourite that’s easy to make. Juicy seasoned beef patties made with ground beef (mince) smothered in an outrageously delicious mushroom gravy, this Salisbury Steak recipe has been tried and loved by readers from all over the world. And now it’s your turn to experience it!
And next time – try Salisbury Steak Meatballs!
Salisbury steak
There’s a man who lives in his car at our local dog park. He’s a valuable member of our community – he knows all the locals, looks after the park like it’s his own backyard, has gun-barrel views over Sydney’s beautiful Pittwater waterways and he tells the worst jokes. 😂
Anyway, the story of this Salisbury Steak recipe is that I regularly take hot meals down to him, sometimes even fancy-sounding things like duck confit. As we approached Christmas one year, I asked him what, of all the meals I took to him that year, his favourite meals were.
And he said “Oh, those burgers with the mushroom gravy were spectacular!” So I made them again for him, then I published the recipe on my site the next day. 🙂
This was back in 2015, and that’s how this Salisbury Steak recipe came to be on my website!
How to make Salisbury Steak
Salisbury steak involves making seasoned beef patties using mince / ground beef, then making a mushroom gravy. In my recipe, there’s just two little things I do differently to the usual Salisbury Steak recipe that I think makes them even tastier:
Grate onion and soak the breadcrumbs in the juices – guaranteed to make the steaks softer and tastier, a tried, proven and much loved method that I use for my classic Italian Meatballs (plenty of reviews substantiating this!). Plus it’s much more efficient than cooking chopped onions (raw onion bits in steak is not nice), and you avoid the risk of the steaks falling apart if the onions aren’t chopped finely enough ; and
Sear beef patties briefly then finishing cooking IN the gravy: I like to sear them in a stinking hot skillet to brown the steaks so they are still raw on the inside, then finish cooking them in the gravy so the juices that seep while they are cooking flavours the gravy. Never waste free flavour! That’s my motto! Plus, the gravy infuses moisture in to the steaks. Double bonus!
What is the difference between a Salisbury Steak and Hamburger patties?
Great Hamburger patties are made with nothing more than good quality ground beef, salt and pepper. Whereas the ingredients in Salisbury Steak patties are more like meatballs – including breadcrumbs, onion and flavourings such as Worcestershire sauce.
Salisbury Steak is pretty much me on a plate. Wholesome, homely, down to earth good food that’s economical, packs a flavour punch but is not fiddly or time consuming to make. Hope you love it as much as I do! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
Sometimes it helps to have a visual – so watch me make this Salisbury Steak!
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Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy
Ingredients
Salisbury Steak
- 1/2 onion (white, brown or yellow)
- 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs (or 1/3 cup ordinary breadcrumbs)
- 1 lb/500g ground beef (mince)
- 1 garlic clove , minced
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp ketchup
- 1 beef bouillon cube , crumbled
- 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 3 tsp dijon mustard OR 2 tsp dry mustard powder
Gravy
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1/2 onion , finely chopped
- 5 oz/150g mushrooms , sliced
- 30g / 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 3 tbsp flour (all purpose / plain)
- 2 cups beef broth / stock , low sodium
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tsp dijon mustard
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
Salisbury Steaks
- Onion grating – Place breadcrumbs in a bowl. Use a box grater and grate the onion over the breadcrumbs. Mix with fingers, leave to soak for a few minutes.
- Mix – Add remaining Salisbury Steak ingredients into the large bowl. Use your hands to mix until just combined. Mix well for a couple of minutes until the mixture becomes a bit "pasty" which will ensure your patties hold together well.
- Form patties – Divide into 5 and pat very firmly into oval patties around 3/4" / 1 2/3 cm thick.
Cooking and Gravy
- Brown patties – Heat oil in a skillet over high heat. Add the steaks and cook the first side for 1 minute or until browned, then gently flip and brown the other side (they will still be raw inside). Remove onto plate.
- Cook aromatics – If skillet is looking dry, add a touch more oil. Add chopped onion and garlic and cook for 2 minute until onions are a bit translucent.
- Cook mushrooms – Add the mushrooms into the skillet and cook for 2 – 3 minutes until golden.
- Make gravy roux – Turn heat down to medium. Add butter. Once melted, add flour and cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly.
- Gravy – Gradually add in beef broth, stirring as you go. Once mostly lump free, whisk in remaining Gravy ingredients.
- Finish cooking steaks – Add steaks along with the juices on the plate. Cook for 5 – 7 minutes, or until gravy is thickened, stirring occasionally around the steaks. If the gravy thickens too quickly, add more water.
- Season gravy – Remove steaks onto a plate. Taste gravy and adjust salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve salisbury steaks topped with the mushroom gravy – over mashed potato is ideal! Sprinkle with a bit of parsley if desired.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Every morning over the summer break. PS He’s leaping to catch sand. No interest in the usual toys!
I love your methods of cooking. Straight to the point and easy to follow. Thank you so much for sharing.
You’re so welcome Sookie – thanks so much for the great feedback! N x
This is the best Salisbury Steak recipe I have ever tried. It is delicious!
Made this with out bread crumbs and it was very good
This was delicious! We had it for dinner tonight and was so tasty and comforting. Served with roasted fingerling potatoes with a little minced parsley on top. This will definitely be in the rotation and is just the right thing for company. I must add, though, just over an hour from start to serving, so I would count on spending quite a bit more than 15 minutes on prep and then again on cooking. But, that aside, I would encourage everyone to try this … you will not be disappointed!
These were really good. I like the shaved onion/panko combination. They didn’t dry out. Also I finished it, covered, in the oven. Definitely a keeper
This was a great recipe and My hubby loved it.
I will definitely be making it again.
Thank you!
We loved this Salisbury Steak!!!
Perfect consistency – flavor –
You are the best!!!!!
Hi Nagi, I am trying to modify this recipe for my use because at the moment I can’t use allium vegetables (all onions and garlic). I think I can work around the onion and garlic in the patties by trying carrot, celery, and anchovy. But almost all bouillon cubes contain alliums and besides I’d rather not use something with MSG in my house because of issues. What would you suggest in its place? I’d try with mostly miso with a bit of anchovy paste and a smidge of soy sauce and balsamic vinegar.
What do you think?
How about making your own beef stock? Also I’ve been seeing a lot of beef broth/ bone broth organic lately- maybe you can find one that doesn’t have the additives you can’t have?
My Mother can’t eat onion or garlic either. She is on the FODMAP diet. My sister researched and found that Massel brand (hope I got the spelling right) is clear of onion and garlic – at least the chicken ones are recommended. They are also a good quality stockcube. Good luck
I made it without the bouillon cube and it was just fine.
Try the 7 brand of stock cubes in Australia. They are fodmap friendly and do not contain onion.
Hi Didina, sorry the beef stock powder is what makes up this gravy, it sounds like you need a completely different recipe unfortunately! N x
Yeah, this recipe is just not a good fit unfortunately…
I’ll go hunt some more.
I’ve had great success lately with your Mexican-ish recipes even without onion or garlic.
My next feat would be making good meatballs with tomato sauce. I used to use some sausages or mortadella together with the meat, but unfortunately now I have to be careful about even small quantities of allium so…I don’t think I can eat any kind of sausage/mortadella/etc
It’s a bummer! But this diet is teaching me a lot in the kitchen
Thanks anyway Nagi
Didina
I love this recipe. So easy and delicious. I’ve made this a few times, and no doubt will make again.
Made this tonight with ground turkey as that was what I had on hand. Had to double the cooking time for the patties in the gravy so they were no t pink in the middle. Did everything else as written. DELICIOUS!! Even my picky eater loved them. Great recipe. Thank you!
Is there a certain lean beef should use? I have 85%
Loved this tonight! Made it step by step no tweaks needed at all. Husband loved it too. thank u for sharing!
I personally do not like mushrooms–at all– but my husband does… And so I will make a dish with mushrooms from time to time for him. This was by far the best salisbury steak recipe I have ever made-very tender meat and very flavorful. The gravy was so good (I picked the mushrooms from my portion, though😆).
Don’t hesitate to make this if you have a family member who won’t eat mushrooms. Strain the gravy for that person and they will not taste mushroom in the gravy because it has so much flavour from the other ingredients.
Made this tonight. Used mustard powder in the mince and Dijon mustard in the gravy, Used red wine instead of water and added a teaspoon of dried porcini powder in the gravy. Very tasty, as are all of your recipes, Nagi.
Hi! Is there a substitute for the bouillon cube? That’s the only thing my husband forgot to grab at the store 🙈
Try a dab of “Better than bouillon” in jar. I like it better than bouillon cubes. Melts faster too.
What a wonderful story! You’re one of the good ones Nagi, thanks for being you!
The recipe is fantastic as well. I’ve made salisbury steak several times but always cruise the web to see what I may have missed. Thanks for the power tweaks!
Thanks again and best of luck!
Best Salisbury steak recipe ever! Made it last night and loved it. Thank you
Absolutely the best sal steak recipe I’ve ever made. Husband said it was fabulous. Bookmarked your site after checking out other recipes. Thanks!
Wowsers i just made this recipe to a tee and omg it was ridiculously amazing so happy i tried it thanks for sharing was delishes
I’m a retired novice at cooking man its a little harder to double ingredients but i think i have done it will let yall know later
If you need to reduce (Or double) the servings you can get the recipe to automatically adapt by hovering over where it says Servings and moving the slider to the number of servings you want