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!
Made this for supper last night with mash potatoes, mint green peas and sweet carrots. Absolutely divine! Thank you for your inspiration Nagi!
Sounds divine Desiree!!
I made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious! I have tried Salisbury steak before but the patties always turned out to firm for my liking. These are perfect. I will try a few more of your recipes
Thank you!
I’m so glad you loved it Petra, thanks so much for letting me know!
Sorry to keep commenting on some of your older recipes, but I just found your site. How do you keep up with all of it? Am loving your recipes. This was wonderful. I cook for two and am freezing the left overs. I noticed comments that some were having fall apart patties. Mine did not completely fall apart. two broke in half while the other three remained whole. Nagi, in the US ground beef is sold in differing degrees of leanness. I used 85 % lean. Could this have something to do with the problem of falling apart. I also used 1/3 cup of regular bread crumbs. Didn’t matter. Every last little bit was delicious.
Hi Nancy, sorry some fell apart on you – they are quite soft patties and need to be treated with a bit of care. The fattiness of the beef definitely plays a part in how the patties hold together!
I made this for dinner tonight. It was delicious! I didn’t see where to add the water, and I didn’t end up using it. The only thing I struggled with was when adding the flour, it seemed like the mushrooms kind of ended up in a ball in the middle of the pan, so that felt a little weird. I thought the gravy would be lumpy, but it wasn’t. I needed a bigger skillet, but I made it work!
Hi Teresa, the water goes in at step 5. I’m so glad you loved it though!!
This was really REALLY good. I had to make some changes based on what I had or actually what I didn’t have. .I didn’t have exactly what was called for in the recipe but made due with what was on hand and I will definitely keep this in rotation and in my recipe book. My husband liked it a lot. I don’t cook with onions bc husband doesn’t like them but used all onion powder. Used the beef bouillon cubes with water instead of broth bc I didn’t have any beef broth and used stone ground mustard instead of Dijon..again didn’t have any and it turned out great. Had no leftovers… thank you for such an amazing recipe….
So good! I tend to be lazy and just make beef patties in canned gravy – but never again. This is easy and very very good.
Never again!!! I’m so glad you love it Heather!
Hi Carol – sorry to hear you had problems with this. Did you use beef? Did it have the consistency of normal beef mince / ground beef, like pictured in the video? That’s the only thing I can think could have gone wrong if it was mushy – that’s an odd texture for cooked patties like this to end up like. 🙂 N x
I am eating this RIGHT NOW and it is delicious! The flavors are perfectly balanced and the gravy came out just with right amount of thickness and is not heavy or greasy. The only tweak I made was substituting a few splashes of steak sauce and balsamic vinegar for the bouillon cube as I didn’t have one. I will definitely be making this again.
I’m so happy it worked out for you Leticia and you loved it!
Hi Nagi,
Was wondering if this can be cooked and warmed up the next day
Hi John, You sure can! I hope you love it!
Yes you could cook the meat part and when you make it the next day make the gravy.
I followed directions except I omitted the bouillon cube because I didn’t have one and they came out perfectly. I feel like if I would have left out the water the gravy would have been too thick. U was proud to serve this to my family. This is my third recipe from Nagi and all came out superb!
I’m so glad it still worked out for you Valerie!
Made this tonight for dinner & it was a hit. Maybe not to my 3yo but the 11yo & my husband (who can’t stand mushrooms) loved it. Thanks Nagi. Your website has been my go to a lot lately when I’m stuck for ideas. You’re a hunger saver.
I’m so glad you loved it Claire!!
I’m trying it tonight.
I’d love to know what you think Lupita!
Made this for my husband and son, had to tweak the ingredients a bit based on what’s available in my pantry but followed the cooking instructions to a tee and it turned out wonderful. Deep flavor and very comforting – we ate it with rice i stead of mashed potatoes (coz we’re Asian like that haha!)
I hear ya! Totally on board with the rice idea 😂
Just made this for dinner tonight , it is FABULOUS !!! wow…. was a bit skeptical on the mustard, but the dish came together with amazing flavour.
I’m so glad you loved it Courtney!!
Hi Nagi, i want to make this but have no beef broth. What can I replace with? Non alcoholic please!
Hi Ruby, you can reconstitute beef bouillon cube to make broth ☺️
Made this for dinner and it was excellent! Will definitely be making it again. It’s super easy and so delicious!
I’m so glad you loved it Debbie!
This is delicious and easy! Perfect for a toddler mama. The whole family loved it!
Wahoo!
Excellent
Thanks so much Anne!
Delicious recipe for Salisbury steak with mushroom gravy. We enjoyed every last drop. ThNk you for posting
Great Hope!!
I made this tonight and it tasted delish! My only problem is the steaks didn’t stay together. I omitted the water from the gravy based on other reviews and that was a good choice. Perfectly smooth and great consistency.
Hi Tara, Oh no! Sorry to hear you had issues with the steaks, if they are too soft I tend to add a little more panko to help them stay together – N x