Onion Mushroom Cube Steak

Seared mushrooms give this cube steak dinner fantastic flavor. One skillet is all it takes!

Onion Mushroom Cube Steak Is Comfort Food

Cube steak just lends itself to comfort food!

This is a meal I think most home cooks have in their arsenal. Everyone seems to make it differently, but most employ the use of some flavor of condensed cream soup.

I have absolutely nothing against condensed cream soup because I often use it as a shortcut for gravies and sauces in skillet and slow cooker meals.

In this onion mushroom cube steak, the main flavor for the gravy comes from searing the mushrooms and deglazing the pan to pick up all that lovely flavor.

Secret To Great Tasting Mushrooms

The secret to getting mushrooms to taste fabulous is really quite simple. High heat is necessary. That’s it!

A lot of people are loathe to cook anything on high heat, but with mushrooms it’s absolutely necessary. I would advise not using a non-stick pan for several reasons. First, Teflon cannot take high heats because it will ruin the coating. Secondly, it seems to do a poor job at searing things. Ceramic non-stick pans are better because they can be used at high heats and searing is improved over their Teflon counterparts.  However, for this job, I strongly suggest using a stainless steel skillet. Stainless does an excellent job at high heats and browns very well.

You have to pre-heat your pan.  Get the pan good and hot before adding the oil. When you add the oil it will begin to smoke, but that’s exactly what you want! Quickly add the mushrooms and stir them around to coat them with the oil. It won’t take long before they begin to brown around the edges. When they’re very golden, they are done. One curious thing to remember is NEVER add salt until the mushrooms are browned. If you add salt when you add the mushrooms to the pan, the mushrooms will not brown properly.

Stock Quality Is Important

Your stock is an important part of this dish. Use only the best quality.  Homemade is the best to use, but a high-quality store-bought one is equally as good.

I also tend to use low-sodium or unsalted stocks. Remember, you can always correct the seasoning in a recipe if it needs more salt, but unfortunately the reverse is not true. Best to stick to products where you control the seasoning.

The Recipe

Onion Mushroom Cube Steak

 

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Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

40 mins

Total time

1 hour 10 mins

 

Author: Judith Hannemann

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 4-6 large beef cube steaks
• 8-10 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced thickly
• 1 medium onion, sliced ¼-inch thick
• 6 tbs olive oil, divided
• 1½ cups high-quality beef stock
• Seasoned Flour: (see NOTES)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp pepper
• 1 tsp salt

Instructions

1. Mix the seasoned flour ingredients together. Place about ½ cup on a plate and dredge the cube steaks.
2. Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add 2 tbs of the olive oil (it will smoke that's OK). Quickly add the mushrooms and stir until mushrooms are golden. This will take about 3 minutes. Remove mushrooms from the pan.
3. Reduce heat under skillet to medium-high. Add 2 tbs olive oil to the pan and brown the cube steaks. You will probably have to do this in shifts because you don't want to crowd the pan. Repeat this step for the remaining shift. Remove the browned cube steaks from the pan. Deglaze the pan with the beef stock.
4. Place the browned steaks, mushrooms and onion in the pan. Bring to a boil then reduce heat, cover and cook for 30-40 minutes, or until steaks are tender.
5. You have two choices to thicken the juice:
6. Remove the steaks and veggies from the pan, increase heat to high and reduce juice 50%
7. Remove steaks and veggies from the pan. Mix 2 tbs of the leftover seasoned flour with ¼ cup water and stir the flour/water mixture until there are no lumps. Add to the pan and stir constantly until gravy is thick. Cook for 5 minutes.
8. Add everything back to the pan and heat through.

Notes

You won't use all the seasoned flour. What's not used can be put in a container and stored indefinitely for the next time you need seasoned flour. Just make sure you don't contaminate the whole batch by dredging the meat in the entire amount. Take out what you need and store the rest.

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