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!
Hi loved the flavours in the Salisbury Steak, This is the first time I’ve made them, as I’d never eaten Salisbury steak before College, and not since. I did grate 1/2 the onion into a separate small bowl, squeezed the juices (1-1 1/2 Tbsp) over the panko crumbs and then fried them with the mushrooms, after I’d fried the other 1/2 onion with the garlic. I love cooked onion! I did find the patties to be quite loose, and a bit crumbly. Not sure how to fix that. But will definitely be making these again, as my 10 year old son literally licked the plate clean, it was almost spotless!
2 Thumbs up! I’m tempted to turn this into a meatloaf, as is with just a bit more panko crumbs. I’ll see how it goes browning, i might have to do that under a broiler if it is too big and difficult to turn in a fry pan. Thanks again I now have a new tasty mince recipe to stretch the budget.
Wow, we were astonished at how tasty this was (the recipe was selected as a way to use up some rump steak with freezer burn that I minced up). Have sent the recipe to a bunch of friends already. DIdn’t add the water as I thought there was enough sauce with just the stock (and a little bit of wine) and indeed there was. I was worried that the rissoles would fall apart but they did stay together.
added a bit of fresh cream to the gravy…delicious!
Yum!
Made this tonight just as recipe stated and it was outstanding! Thank you Nagi for posting it. I am in the US in Washington State, in Bonney Lake
This meal is one of my fave so far ! Dijon mustard really make the gravy taste so yum ! I didn’t add the water though, as the broth is way more than enough. Thanks a mill Nagi !!!!
I’m so happy you loved it!
Thank you! Good idea. Am having left overs from last night and there are mushrooms in fridge which I love turn into sauce. Love to hear story’s about Holmes person. Last Wensday was in hospital for check up got good news so I bought my self lunch chicken something Indian meal but not spicy. Half way to my home stop to do banking and there was no less older person on a ground. He was ignored by shoppers but not by me. I’ve giving him my lunch and some money.and up picking the KFC for my self. Fell good about it. Dozer photo is amazing. Thank you.
Made this tonight just as recipe stated and it was outstanding! Thank you Nagi for posting it. I am in the US in Washington State, in Bonney Lake
I hope you’re all recovered Vera! And that’s just so kind of you, I’m sure he was very thankful ❤️
Delicious!
I have never liked hamburgers or patties or rissoles. But I tried this recipe as my husband loves any meat in mushroom sauce and guess who loved it most. I thank you Nagi for introducing us Ozzies the best of American food.
That’s awesome to hear Anne!!
I made this tonight and it was delicious! I doubled the recipe for our big family and used one pound ground beef and one pound ground turkey. I substituted beef base concentrate for the bouillon cube, and beef stock for the beef broth because that’s what was in my pantry. The only thing I changed was the cooking time in the gravy. It took more like 30 minutes to get the gravy thickened enough, and I only used half the water. Otherwise, this was perfect, and it is definitely going to replace my old recipe.
I made this tonight for dinner, and it was a big hit. Everyone was saying that they didn’t know salisbury steak could taste so good. And I definitely agree.
This is a wonderful recipe. The only thing I did differently was that I used a pound and a third of meat, because that is what I thawed out, and it still was lovely.
how do get recipes I love chicken
Hi Nagi,
I pretty much only cook your recipes now… Nothing else cos they’re always so spot on. I gotta say, this was amazeballs! Family absolutely loved it and we’ll definitely be making this a lot more. Thanks for all your wonderful food!
Aww that’s so nice to hear Lely! Thanks so much!
Hi, tried this recipe and it was really delicious, however the meal, as gentle as I was with it, totally fell apart.
Hi Tova, I’m so sorry to hear your meat fell apart! Try adding a little more panko to help bind if you find your meat mix a little too wet ❤️
What skillet did you use? Gonna try this tonight! Thank you!
Hi Marie, this is a cast iron skillet but you can use a non stick pan if you have one! – N x
I haven’t made this yet but could I use ground turkey instead of beef?
Hi Krystall, you sure could!
Thank you for sharing this keeper of a dish. My Wife and Kids loved it. We doubled the ingredients as I had a kilo of ground beef. We had it for 2 meals already. It’s still so good. I used bread crumbs for tempura and crushed leftover cornflakes too :). I used a bit too much mustard (moutarde de meaux) and corrected the slight sourness of the sauce with a bit of soy sauce 🙂 we are definitely doing this again 🙂
Sounds like you nailed it Richie!
Made this twice now. Such a wonderful taste and smoothness to the gravy. So easy, too!
Great!
Love this delicious dish! Can I make ahead and freeze?
First time coming to your website and I must say I am so glad I found it. I made the salisbury Steak for my family and they loved it. so did I. Thank you so much !!!
Awesome Nita!!
Nagi, as always love your recipes and adore Dozer. Made this tonight for the first time. The flavours were awesome but my “steaks” were very soft. Being very careful I was able to keep their shape but next time more panko crumbs, I think, and the powdered mustard instead of Dijon. Great recipe!
Hi Roger, if you find the meat a bit on the wet side, just add a little ore panko to balance it out. I’m so glad you loved the flavours though!!