Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy is a comfort food favourite that’s quick and easy to make. Make it once and this will be a recipe you’ll treasure it forever!
Juicy seasoned beef patties drowning in an outrageously delicious Mushroom Gravy, this Salisbury Steak recipe has been tried and loved by readers from all over the world… now it’s your turn! 🙂
Salisbury Steak
There’s a homeless guy who lives 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, 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 tartare, confit duck. 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 takes these up a notch:
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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
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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.
The homeless man and I have very similar tastes! – Nagi x
More Classics we’ll love forever
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Meatloaf – a family favourite forever and ever!
Suggestions: On the Side
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Magic Broccoli – so easy and so good, it’s like magic….
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Broccoli Salad with a lighter creamy dressing
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Everyday Cabbage Salad – one of my favourite standby salads!
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 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!
Loved the recipe!
But I am confused – whose hands are those in the video ? 😛☺️
I thought exactly the same. Then I remembered Nagi doesn’t roll meatballs so maybe this falls into this category and a substitute was brought in off the benches.
This recipe turned out amazing!!! Recipetineats.com is always my go to place to find the best recipes!
This one is definitely going into the rotation of favorites
Made this AGAIN tonight. As always it was a winner😃. I also LOVE that each time I cook it in the Victorian Mallee, I think of the guy in the park down the road from you in NSW and wonder how he’s doing. I’d love him to know how much we also enjoy his choice of favourite meal and would like to thank him for inspiring you to put him and the recipe on your blog all those years ago ❤
Made this recipe 3 times. First two were delicious, but steaks fell apart to varying degrees. Third time’s a charm. I let the liquid drain from the onion before adding to the panko, used 1 and a half eggs, waited ’til the oil started to smoke in my cast iron skillet before adding the steaks which I dusted lightly with flour and added no more stock/water to the cooking liquid than needed. Delicious again and held their shape nicely.
This recipe was excellent and will be added to our regular rotation.
I made the Salsberry steak and my 12 year old daughter who does not like beef loved it!!!
My brother said it was great. Bless the cook. That’s rare for him
Worse recipe ever. Too much mustard. Steaks fell apart. Never make again..
I found this recipe of yours quite some time ago. My family loves it! I love it because it’s super easy and doesn’t take long but is still delicious! Oh yeah and fairly inexpensive. I usually already have all of the ingredients at home.
recipe was awesome and easy doubled i omitted the onions and instead of mushroom i used a bouquet of peppers for my gravy and it was amazing…
dont be afraid to mess around if you want something but dont like all the standard ingredients 🙂
Nagi,
You’re recipes are great, but in the Salisbury steak recipe, you describe yourself as homely. In the US, homely means unattractive, and you’re not.
Homely in other countries such as Australia and England is the same as Homey in the US
Perfect weeknight dinner! It was easy and delicious. From prep to table I spent 45 minutes (including making my own mashed potatoes). Next time I’ll serve with biscuits or dinner rolls too.
I normally love your recipes but this one was a disaster for me.
THe timing was all wrong and the salisbury steaks came out totally raw inside.
How do I prevent this in future?
I make this fairly regularly for my family and it’s been cooking alright for us. I haven’t needed to adjust the times (but then I have a gas stove it burns very hot). Make sure you are searing high heat first and then going through cooking it the remaining 7 mins in the gravy over medium heat. Flatten your patties down so they aren’t super thick if they turned out raw last time. And of course make sure you are using a large burner size since this recipe needs a large pan and that your burners are heating correctly and don’t have maintenance issues
You just made your patties thicker/needed to cook longer in the gravy! (Or turn up your heat.)
Longer cook it/probably better flavored gravy too.
🙂
(Hers are fairly thin and she practically blackens them in a screaming hot pan!)
Next time, make enough to have a test patty…
Get a thermometer and use it to determine when the meat is done, 135F or higher.
Hello Nagi😊 i was just wondering if there’s a way this could be turned into a meatball oven baked dish similar to porcupine meatballs?, Do you think that would work?
thank you so very much for sharing your recipes, i always recommend your website to my friends.
I made this recipe using 1/2 ground chuck and I/2 ground venison. My husband loved it, but I did find the gravy somewhat runny. I will use 2.5 cups of beef broth next time and omit any water.
Made this last night and totally agree…found it a tad too soupy.
Add more flour or use corn starch!
This Is A Great recipe I use 1/2 Pork Mince to 1/2 Beef And Its a great mix tastes Great Top Recipe Nagi
This is one of my partner’s favourite meals! The flavours works so well together. It’s so simple but tastes like you’ve been slaving away at the stove for hours. Grating the onion is a game changer for moisture. When I’m in a pinch, I use frozen beef patties that I’ve defrosted in lieu of the ground beef.
I made the Salisbury steak w/ mushrooms and onions, gravy for my family last night and they loved it. Thanks for my new recipe.
Made it! My family LOVED IT! The second and subsequent times I’ve served with a couple of tweaks, I used 1 tbsp ketchup and 4 tsp mustard.
Yummy for the Tummy… Delicious!!! I’ll be preparing this entree again … everyone’s plate was clean as a whistle!
Excellent recipe! I left the Dijon mustard out of the gravy and put mustard power in the steak.
I told my husband I was making a new recipe for Salisbury Steak. He didn’t say much until we sat down to eat. He said, “Wow! This tastes great. Last time I had this dish it was a dried up hamburger patty with a spoonful of brown gravy & mushrooms served by a cafeteria lady. I love this meal!”