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 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!!
Maybe this will help. I switched from a dial-gauge type meat thermometer to a digital one. Such a difference! Instant read, and not affected by ambient (room) temperature. In USD, a decent one is below $20.00. It’s just far more reliable than the older-style round dial gauge. My patties were just perfect, moist, tender without being raw or overdone. It worked for me.
I am always looking for tasty affordable meals for my family. The Salsbury steak popped up on Facebook. Its as tasty as it looks. My twin grand daughters (18months) loved it and wanted more. – thank you for posting the recipe.
I love your recipes. I will keep on trying them have not been disappointed. Thank you
I made this last night for dinner. I followed the recipe to the letter. While the flavors were great, my patties were falling apart. I used less than 1/2 of an onion as my onion was on the large size. What can I do to correct this? Like I said, I loved the flavors. Thanks.
Hi Lilien, sorry to hear abut your patties! If the mince is too wet, they can sometimes fall apart – try adding slightly more panko if this is the case! ❤️
Thanks, Nagi. I’ll try that next time I make it and let you know how it turned out. Fab recipe.
Thank you for this super delicious creation Nagi! Made it a second time and nailed it! (first time, last year, was so-so. I used premade burger patties. never again.)
Boy are your patties mind-blowing!
Boyfriend cannot stop raving, a rare happening. With that said, this will def go in my collection.
A few things…
I made sure I didn’t overdo the grated onion as I had an xlarge one like Tania. (thanks for the tip!) I only used a quarter of it and the rest went in with the mushroom.
I doubled the gravy since we are sauce lovers in this household. Now, a common challenge for me making sauces…. It never takes just a few minutes (5-7mins) for my sauces to thicken. Even when I made this in the original yield last year, it took what felt like forever to thicken. Same thing happened again.
After some research I did find that roux-based sauces takes approx. 30 minutes to thicken. Correct me if I’m wrong? My heat was on medium high and once it started boiling I turned it down to a moderate simmer until it thickened. Should I have just kept it boiling until it thickened? Would this have cut the time?
I transfered the cooking process into my cast iron after a while of waiting. At that point I noticed it cooked a tad faster.
Lastly, while the meat patties turned out perfect, I did feel lost at one point, not knowing if they were already cooked inside or not. I tried using a meat temp gauge (dial), but at one point it stopped going further than 120F…which in steak cooking standards is practically raw. Being at it for half an hour already, I got nervous and decided to just slice a piece to check for doneness. It was perfectly done. My gauge for sure was not broken. So my question is, is it normal that this patty cooks at this temp? I don’t know my way too well around cooking meats. Based on experience, how long would you say is the ave. time to cook these through? (how about others’ experience?) My patties were about 3/4 to an inch thick.
Once again, thank you for your recipe. We are sure to try your other stuff!
You’re so welcome Chari, I’m so happy you loved it! If you doubled the quantity of sauce, it will take longer to cook – but shouldn’t take longer than 10 minutes to thicken. The patties only require a minute on each side to sear, at this point they should still be raw in the inside – once you add them back to the pan for the final 7 minutes they will cook the whole way through. ❤️
Cool, thanks Nagi!
there’s a good reason why she skipped your comment. It was too long and Americanised. Short and sweet works for us thanks. You’ll have to figure out how you went wrong because you were the one that mucked around doubling the sauce and using the wrong patties. With cooking some foods you can’t always put a time on it as different pots and pans conduct heat differently . Just stick at it and be patient we don’t need the whole experience and your emotions – not nice to hijack someone’s blog with a long outpouring of your sauce experience. original recipes are tried and tested before being published so when you are able master that then maybe play around and tweak it.
Talk about being rude. Your comments are equally unnecessary.
Talk about hijacking
Yum! This was so good! I followed recipe, wondering if my half a onion was too big and made the patties a bit too moist though, because yours looked drier as mine sort of wanted to fall apart a bit, but oh my gosh, the flavor was so good with that sauce! So next time a little less onion, and I will cook the patties a little longer in the frying pan. This will be a keeper! Thank you!
That could possibly be the problem Tania, sounds like too much moisture. But I’m glad you’re willing to use the recipe again!! ❤️
Hi Nagi,tried your recipe for my family and they really enjoyed it.First time trying your recipe made one mistake bought beef broth with no salt had to add lots of salt to the gravy
Hi Ana, I’m so glad you enjoyed it – an easy mistake to make but it sounds like you nailed it!
Loved this recipe, but we didn’t care for the mustard so I just leave it out.
Just omit the mustard if you prefer! ☺️
I’ve used his recipe many times, my husband regularly requests it, it’s one of his favorites! I made homemade buttered egg noodles and asparagus to go with it last night, it was delicious!
Perfect combination! I’m so glad you love it!
Love your recipes Nagi!! ANd Dozer is adorable! Any tips on chopping onions so its not so overpowering and making eyes water?
I wear contacts so I don’t have this problem! 😂
If dicing onions that are strong, I wear a pair of swimming goggles
Hi Nagi! What frying pan are you using? It looks very nice to cook with!
I’m using a non stick pan here, but you can even use a cast iron skillet for this recipe – N x
Making this again tonight – it’s the recipe I will use from now on for Salisbury steak – my family (especially my 17-year old son) loved it!!
I’m so glad you all love it!
Nagi, how is it that every single one of your recipes is absolutely perfect!? Hit it out of the park once again, bravo! This one is definitely going into my regular rotation, yum!
Thanks so much Katie!
Hi! Is it ok substitute beef with chicken for this recipe?
I’m sure that would be fine Nikita!