In episode 23 learn how to make a classic, old school recipe in an even better gluten-free version. Tender gluten-free salisbury steak uses a kitchen-staple, affordable binder instead of bread crumbs and are smothered with a rich and flavorful mushroom gravy that will leave you wanting to lick your plate clean! Join Melissa, gluten-free cookbook author, as she shares many easy, pro tips to make this audio recipe for gluten-free salisbury steak, an easy dinner your whole family will devour!
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Recipes and Resources Mentioned
Recommended Equipment
- Large Saute Pan
- Instant Read Thermometer (Thermoworks)
Recommended ingredients
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Transcript
Hey everyone, I’m Melissa Erdelac, host of the Gluten Free Recipe Challenge podcast and creator behind the gluten free website MamaGourmand. Here we take beloved recipes you thought you’d never enjoy again and transform them into easy copycat versions just as good as the originals.
So my kids are back at school this week, thank God, and I get that better moms probably like having their kids home with them all summer. But you know what makes me be a better mom? Not being next to my kids 24 7.
In celebration of some well deserved freedom, we’re gonna take an old school throwback school lunch, Salisbury steak, and make it into a gluten free recipe everyone in your family will devour and love.
But to be completely honest, I was not one of those kids who lost their shit when it was Salisbury Steak Day. You remember those kids. It just did not look very appetizing to me.
Even at the tender age of nine, I guess I was a food snob. Because there is no way that 250 ground beef patties, sold at a $1.25 each, were made of the highest quality meat. The math didn’t add up.
It wasn’t until I was asked to develop a gluten free Salisbury steak recipe did I realize how damn good it was.
You have this tender, flavorful hamburger patty and it’s smothered in this rich mushroom gravy, which is also the perfect complement to buttery mashed potatoes. It really doesn’t get any more Midwest comfort food than that.
So when making the gluten free version, you have to accommodate for a few things.
First, the meat is usually mixed and bound together with either crushed crackers or breadcrumbs, which you can’t have when you’re on a gluten free diet. But this was an easy fix. I use the same thing I do in my gluten free meatloaf, which is quick cooking oats. Just make sure that they are certified gluten free.
And if you don’t have quick cooking oats, you can use old fashioned oats. I would just pulse them briefly in a food processor before combining it with the other ingredients because the smaller flecks binds the beef mixture better.
And if you can’t tolerate oats because some with celiac or gluten- free sensitivities can’t have oats either, you have other options. You could do a crushed gluten free cereal, such as corn or rice chex. You could use potato flakes, which are like instant mashed potato flakes. You could use gluten free crackers or almond flour, and that would work also for a low carb recipe.
The other things that you have to watch out for are in the gravy. So first I use Worcestershire sauce, and not all Worcestershire sauce are gluten free, because some of the brands contain wheat starch in it. I use and recommend Lee and Perrins original brand. But if you use something else, just make sure you carefully read the labels or check with the manufacturer.
The other thing you will need is beef broth or stock, which could also have hidden wheat in it. Swanson brand broth and stock are clearly labeled and they’re verified to be safe. College Inn has some gluten free broths and then some other brands are Imagine, Kitchen Basics, the Simply Nature at Aldi’s is the one I also use and that is gluten free as well.
The other ingredient I want to talk about is the ground beef. When making Salisbury steak or meatballs or meatloaf or anything that has a tendency to get tough, I always use ground chuck. And that is because it has enough fat in it to keep the hamburger steaks moist, and also the fat makes enough drippings to flavor the gravy as well.
So if you don’t use ground chuck, I recommend using something between 80 and 85% fat in it. If you want to use something healthier like ground turkey or sirloin, you’re gonna compensate both the flavor and the toughness of the meat.
You can use ground turkey, but just make sure it has enough fat in it, so you could use a less lean variety with at least 85 percent fat in it.
There are a number of ingredients in the hamburger steaks just because I really wanted to replicate that Salisbury steak flavor, but all the ingredients should be right in your kitchen, besides picking up some ground chuck.
As well as with the gravy, you should have everything on hand, except for you’ll need mushrooms, and if you don’t have gluten free broth, you may have to buy that as well.
First, in a large bowl, you’re going to mix together all the ingredients for the hamburger steaks, and that is one pound of ground beef, 1/4 of a cup of the gluten free quick cooking oats, one egg that is lightly beaten already, two tablespoons of ketchup, two teaspoons of Dijon mustard, a minced garlic clove, one teaspoon of onion powder, one teaspoon of Italian seasoning, one teaspoon of your gluten free Worcestershire sauce, three fourths teaspoon of salt, and one fourth teaspoon of pepper.
So just mix that together with a wooden spoon, or you could use your hands. Once you have that mixed, then you want to shape it into four equal patties. To do this, I kind of just press the meat mixture down in the bowl and use a knife and cut it into four equal pieces. Then I grab each piece, pat it out into about a three fourth of an inch thick patty.
If you want to double the recipe because you have a larger family or you want to make more patties and freeze later, I do recommend cooking these in batches, not cooking more than four in a pan at once, just so you have enough room for the heat to circulate in the pan.
Heat a large skillet over medium to medium high heat, and then once it’s hot, then add about a tablespoon of oil to warm.
Then you’re going to cook the hamburger patties about three minutes per side. They should have a nice brown crust on them. And if you find they’re getting too brown on one side, you could reduce the heat a little bit. They’re not, at this point, going to be cooked through and that’s fine because they’re going to cook in the gravy a little bit later.
Once they’re browned on each side, then transfer them to a plate and cover them with foil to keep warm. In that same skillet, reduce the heat to about medium and there’ll be some beef drippings in there and to the beef drippings add about one to two tablespoons of butter. If you have a lot of beef drippings in there, you could just add one. If you need more drippings, then I would add two tablespoons butter to the skillet.
Go ahead and add the mushrooms and saute them until they’re tender, about five minutes. And for this recipe, I use eight ounces of sliced mushrooms.
Reduce the heat again to medium low, and now you’re going to make your gravy for the Salisbury steaks.
In a large measuring cup, whisk together one and a half cups of beef broth, two tablespoons of cornstarch, one tablespoon of ketchup, one teaspoon of gluten free Worcestershire, a half a teaspoon of onion powder, a half a teaspoon of salt, and a fourth of a teaspoon of pepper. Once that’s all combined, then pour it in the pan with the mushrooms and whisk to combine. And you’re just going to continue stirring over low heat until it’s thickened, which is going to take about five minutes.
Now you add your partially cooked patties back to the skillet and nestle them in the gravy. I kind of spooned some gravy over them, too. Cover with a lid and then cook for another 10 minutes. And you want to flip halfway through just to make sure that they’re cooked evenly. I use my instant read thermometer to make sure the hamburger steaks are done and they should have a temperature of 160.
Of course, the classic way to serve this is with mashed potatoes, because you have that gravy. But, you could also do a cauliflower mash, you could do rice. I have a recipe for salt potatoes that the kids really like, or you could just do veggies, like roasted zucchini, brussels sprouts, glazed carrots.
As I mentioned before, you can make these ahead of time, so you could assemble the steak patties and wrap them in plastic wrap and store them in the fridge up to 24 hours or you can freeze them. Before you cook them though, I would just make sure that they’re thawed completely and I would even set them at room temperature for a little bit, just so the outside of the patty doesn’t get overcooked before the inside is done.
If you want to jazz this recipe up a little bit, you could also add a splash of cream or half and half to the gravy, and you can also slice onions and cook those alongside with the mushrooms as well.
So you can check out the full printable recipe on the show notes page and to get to that just click on the link provided in whatever podcast app you’re listening on or you could go to my recipe website which is mamagourmand.com and click on the podcast tab. And the show notes will have the full recipe along with any tips or recommended ingredients or equipment I’ve mentioned.
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