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!
Excellent! This is not like any Salisbury steak I’ve had before. The patties are very tender – and so a bit of a challenge to flip and move around. But the texture is wonderful. I was a bit worried about the amount of Worcestershire and mustard and garlic in the gravy, but the gravy was not overwhelmed by it. The lightness of the meat, the slight sharpness of the gravy, and the comfort of onions and mushrooms make this a go-to dish. Mashed potatoes smothered in this gravy are just perfection. If you want the old Banquet or Stouffer’s fare, this ain’t it. That dish comforted; this one sings.
A classic! Terrific recipe, thanks for sharing Nagi, love your website!
Just what we wanted for a nice Sunday supper! Served with steamed haricot vert. Delicious and easy to make….leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
Thanks Nagi!
Husband wants Salisbury Steak, i run to your recipe and boom, happy husband with a super easy to make dinner.
Thank you Nagi :0)
Made this tonight for Valentine’s Day. We served it over basmati rice, with roasted asparagus. It was a hit with my wife.
I made this 3 weeks ago – loved it !! I made the recipe for 4 and saved the 2 patties that were left with half the gravy. Because of the comments about the dijon and worchc…. I used on about 1/3 of what you suggested and it was perfect for the 2 of us. We thawed and heated up the 2 we saved last night – Bang on once again – just as good as the first feed. Your recipes are terrific 🙂
Didn’t care for this. Made it exactly as written but the Worcester sauce and mustard gave the gravy an odd flavor.
Didn’t care for this at all. Followed the recipe exactly, but that Worcester sauce and mustard just didn’t work. Husband liked it, but he’ll eat anything!
My family loved this. Made recipe exactly as written. Delicious. Thank you!
Oh wow! This is absolutely wonderful! It will be going onto the menu weekly.
Made this for dinner last night but minus the mushies.. I love them but the other half hates them! I did not change anything else.. I did simple boiled spuds and nothing else. Next time will serve with broccoli – definitely need veg! 6 stars out of 5.
Absolutely amazing recipe. I usually tweak/combine recipes but this was perfect out of the gates. The only thing I did was add more mushrooms, because my wife and I love mushrooms. We love to serve this over mashed potatoes, but biscuits would work as well.
We left Sydney harbour in ’68 on the P&O SS Canberra bound for Canada and a new life there. I was only 11 and so, initially, I had to eat at the ‘kids’ early sitting until my parents sorted that out. We had Salisbury steak one night and I was impressed by the name before I even tasted it – even the kids on that voyage had a printed menu and I remember that meal to this day. ( I’m a boomerang BTW, came back in ’84, but that’s another long story) A lot of my memories are linked to food and I’m looking forward to trying this recipe.
The flavors in this recipe are incredible! I made it for dinner tonight, and it was a hit. My husband said it was so good, he wanted to cry tears of joy.
so this is basically meatloaf just cooked in skillet stove top?
Well, no it’s not. You may want to read the recipe one more time 😉
It had good flavor but the steaks didn’t cook in the time listed. I ended up microwaving them to get the temp up inside before serving. Maybe next time I will make them even thinner than the 3/4″ per the recipe and do the initial cook a couple minutes more.
Excellent! Just like I used to make years ago – but better! The grating the onions and soaking the panko was a fabulous way to make the patties a nice texture. To the people who commented about the cooking time not being long enough or them falling apart, it’s a recipe. It’s not set in stone. You can be flexible if you want and add more Panko at the start if you think it’s too wet or just cook it longer.
Made this exactly as instructed. My husband and son both loved it! I didn’t have the issue others had with the meat falling apart, I used a cast iron skillet and a thin egg flipper. I will definitely add this to my rotation!
GIRL! U r my go to for great recipes and this one was so delicious!! Really loved the flavor of the meat, it was a nice texture AND the gravy was so yummy. Thankyou for this will definitely be making it again – I totally understand why it was the gentleman’s favorite 🙂
Definitely a keeper. Have made this three times since mid-September (It’s now Oct 20) The patties are tender and juicy and the gravy is perect. Didn’t change a thing.
I made this tonight, and it was SO good!!! I followed the recipe pretty exactly, and it was a hit with the fam. Will definitely be throwing this one into the rotation. Thanks!