This is for my friend and YouTube subscriber Mary E. She asked me for a crock pot recipe using Cube Steaks. After dozens of trials this is one was a winner in my eyes and made the cut. Hope you like it Mary !!!
What I really wanted to do for Mary was make a "dump" recipe, meaning you just dump everything in the crock pot and go. After many attempts nothing met my standards. It is really important to me only to share really good recipes and nothing that would ever be "eh" or mediocre. So back to the drawing board I went. Once I developed the recipe shown above and below I knew I was done!!! 😋😋 Yummy 😋😋
Now cube steaks are very budget friendly. However if you happen to find them on sale even better!!! When I find them on sale and I stock up on them, I will bring them home and lightly grill them to add flavor to them ( Maillard reaction ). After they are lightly grilled I will freeze them in zip lock bags with the appropriate number of cube steaks for a meal. This way when I want to have them to cook with they are ready to go.
Beef & Mushroom Gravy
The recipe for beef & mushroom gravy will make enough to fill six of these large zip loc twist- n-loc containers. This is enough to make 3-6 meals depending on how big your family is and how many people you need to feed. I would much rather make one large batch and have enough to make 3 or more easy meals. Like I always say " cook and clean 1x and eat 2 to 3 times!" If you don't like this make ahead method and just want to make 1 batch cut the recipe and only make 1/3 of what it calls for.
Ingredients:
3 lbs. Jimmy Dean Sausage
6 cups onions, chopped
12 cups mushrooms, chopped
8-12 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, minced
fresh black pepper to taste ( I used a lot )
2 envelopes of Johnny's French Dip Seasoning Mix
3/4 cup flour
2 - 49.5 oz cans Swanson's Beef Broth
Brown the sausage in a large pot. Once browned remove some of the grease but leaving enough behind to make your gravy with and create your roux. A roux is a combination of fat and flour that is used to thicken sauces, gravies, or misc. dishes.
Once the sausage is browned and some of the fat is removed ( see my video for tips on this ), add in the onions, mushrooms, garlic and rosemary. Cook until the veggies are slightly caramelized. Add in the French Dip Seasoning and your flour. Cook for 1-2 minutes to add flavor and remove the flour taste. Whisk in your beef broth and allow to cook until thickened to a desired consistency.
Once the gravy is thickened you and cooled down you can freeze it until ready to use.
Once ready to get your crock pot going, add in your gravy mix. I used 1/3 of the gravy mix or 2 of the zip lock containers full of gravy.