Savory, tender, juicy steak smothered in a delicious homemade onion-filled gravy. The perfect mid-weekday dinner.
This delicious, easy, and savory smothered steak recipe is the perfect midweek dinner. Perfect any time of year… and one of my all time favorite meals as an adolescent. I sends my taste buds up the wall everytime.
You talking about an old fashioned, old school, classic southern soul food dish right here. This as old school as they come and it never disappoints, as long as you got the right kind of steak that is. Lol! We’ll get into that later.
But if you’ve been craving steak and wanted to make a delicious steak and gravy dish for dinner tonight, or simply looking for something to make to dinner for tonight and haven’t had steak in a while, this recipe is the one for you.
With nothing but simple ingredients and ribe eye steak, you can have dinner done in no time without the hassle of doing a major search for each ingredient like some of these other fancy recipes out here on these google streets.
So scroll below and print the recipe, it will not disappoint and I’m sure you’ll be making this again for dinner for the family some time soon. But first, let me get into what made me a fan of this dish, which is a modification of my grandma, Val’s husband McCloud’s recipe.
McCloud made me a fan of Smothered Steak
Those of you whose been following me for a while know that there are 3 people who I mention a lot. Those 3 being Alice Mae, my nana… Gwen, my faternal grandma, and McCloud, my maternal Grandma, Viola’s husband.
You may find that I especially bring him up when I do smothered meat recipes, such as this dish here. That’s because he’s the one who made all these lovely dishes for my Grandma and I growing up.
Everything from smothered pork chops and chicken to steak. McCloud was clearly a fan of food smothered in gravy, which is no surprise because this is an old-fashioned Southern type of dish, and he was an old fashioned dude from North Carolina.
He’s would cook every night… and least 2 nights out the week, we were eating something smothered. Lol! It may have been fried pork chops smothered in a tangy mushroom sauce, fried chicken with gravy on the side, or turkey wings or baked chicken in gravy.
He obviously was a gravy man and he made me one too. So whenever you see me post a smothered (this) or smothered (that) recipe, know that he is in someone responsible for inspiring the dish.
What makes this a good recipe?
- Easy and simple: This isn’t a hard or difficult dish. You simply fry the steak after seasoning it, and letting it simmer in a homemade gravy made using the slurry method.
- Crowd pleasing: Everyone loves steak and so this is definitely a dish you could make for big business dinner or dinner for let’s say friends of family traveling from out of town.
- Filling and hearty: The thing I love about this dish is it’s very filling. Im greedy but with this dish, a one plate and just 2 or 3 small pieces of steak will do the job for me. You can make it all year round but it’s especially a nice dish for a cool fall evening.
Recipe Ingredients:
- Ribe Eye Steak: You can use another tender, flavorful type of steak, such as top sirloin steak or flat iron steak. Flat Iron steak is well marbled, meaning it’s high in fat and has a rich beefy flavor, just like rib eye steak. It’s the 2nd most tender steak after Top Sirloin steak.
- Seasonings: Salt, garlic and onion powder, black pepper, and Italian seasoning & Thyme. Your favorite steak seasoning is an option but make sure to use a herb.
- Worcestershire: This adds depth of flavor and helps to bring up the beefy flavor of steak
- Flour: Use all-purpose flour. We use all-purpose flour to lightly coat the steak and fry it.
- Oil: I use vegetable oil to fry the steak. You can use canola oil, avocado oil, clarified butter, or any oil with a high smoke point.
- Butter: We’re using butter to saute the onions and minced garlic. Im using unsalted butter to avoid a dish that’s too salty.
- Onions: Yellow onions are the way to go because the flavor is potent, and they caramelize well.
- Minced Garlic: You can use minced garlic or paste… paste is probably the better option because it will dissolve while the steak is simmering.
Gravy Ingredients
- Water: You can use broth, but since I love using it better than bouillon, which is a form of broth, I use water so that the gravy isn’t too rich and beefy because the flavor may be too overwhelming.
- Better than boullion roasted beef base: This is a base… it’s no different than broth or boullion cube it’s just a base. Boullion cubes are solid, broth and stock is liquid, base is the texture of a jam but it’s richer in flavor then the other two which is why I just fell in love with it and prefer to use it over the cubes and broth now.
- Flour: Flour is the thickener. We’re creating a slurry so we’re stirring the flour into the water or broth if you decide to use it and adding it to the skillet with the steak and as it simmer it’ll thicken into a nice finger licking gravy.
How do you clean steak, and is cleaning it necessary?
No! Cleaning aka washing the steak is not neccesary but some people like myself was raised up cleaning it and therefore prefer to do so. I find that as a cook whose been cooking for a long time there foreign undesired things like hair and other forms of debris can be found on meat.
Things you simply dont want on it and that dont belong on it and cleaning it just feels good and ensures nothing isn’t on it that shouldn’t be. This meat is handled and not always in the cleanest ways before it gets to the market and to you.
Some people believe cleaning meat spread germs and whatever bacteria is on it will be killed by the heat. Because of that they opt not to clean it. I find soaking it in the following solutions leave it looking fresh brighter and definitely more appeasing to the eye.
There are a few cleaning common cleaning solutions that are used to clean meat and all these combinations work great: Lemon water, salt water, salt + vinegar water, baking soda water. You can mix 1 to 2 tablespoons of each in a qt of water of enough water to cover the steak by an inch.
You’ll let the steak soak for 20-25 minutes, scrub it with your clean hands, and then rinse and pat dry. Cleaning the meat is just that simple. You can remove any excess dangling fat if any but this is steak and fat is flavor so leave it alone.
How to slice the steak into smaller thinner pieces?
The best way to slice steak is to slice it while it’s frozen because it’s easy to cut into. Steak when soft can be pretty greasy and as a result very hard to slice into the perfect sizes. So if you can freeze it first then slice it, that would be best.
Doing this is not just more convient and make for easy slicing but helps to prevent the knife from slipping and you cutting yourself. Listen, I’ve done it more times than I want to remember. So try to prep this by preparing it hours if not a full day before cooking.
Will the steak taste better if you marinate it and if so, how you marinate it and for how long?
Yes! I try to marinate all my meats, except fish! Marinating food makes a MAJOR DIFFERENCE. You can marinate it by first seasoning the steak with the seasonings and worcestershire sauce. Then cover it with plastic wrap and set it in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight.
How to make smothered steak
- Season the steak: Season the steak and drizzle the worcestershire sauce over it and set it in the refrigerator to marinate for 8 hours or overnight (optional)
- Coat the steak: Coat the flour well with flour and set aside.
- Saute the onions: Slice the onions and then sautee with the minced garlic over medium high heat until soft.
- Fry the steak: Fry the steak after you remove the onions and minced garlic. Fry til nicely brown on both sides, about 4 mins per side.
- Create the slurry: Meanwhile, combine the base with the water and flour and stir until the flour and base dissolves.
- Cook and simmer: Reduce the heat to medium, add everything to the skillet, cover with a lid leaving a crack on the side and simmer until tender.
Tips for best results:
- If for any reason, the steak isn’t as tender as you’d like after 40 minutes, stir in a little more water, about 2 cups, and continue cooking until it’s to your desired tenderness.
- Stir or move the steak around periodically, especially during the last 10 minutes as the gravy thickens, because it has a tendency to stick during the last few minutes.
Serving suggestions:
- Roasted Potatoes: Nothing is more synonymous with steak than steak. When you think of steak the first thing you think of are potatoes. They are a food combo made in heaven because they complement each other so well.
- Mashed Potatoes: Mashed potatoes are still potatoes but they probably go with this dish even better than whole potatoes since they’re mashed, and mashed potatoes are commonly eaten with gravy, and I have the perfect Smooth Mashed Potatoes Recipe.
- White Rice: White rice goes gravy with this. It’s personally my favorite side dish to eat with steak and gravy. It’s a neutral dish which makes it the perfect side dish.
- Egg Noodles: Egg noodles, while not as popular to some, is also a pretty neutral starch side that tastes great smothered in onion gravy.
- Green Beans: Green beans are my favorite vegetable and is one vegetable commonly served as a vegetable side dish to steak and I have a quick Easy Frozen Green Beans Recipe you can try.
- Sweet Corn: Since this is a savory dish, to balance it out sweet corn makes the perfect side vegetable and I have a Sweet Buttery Corn Recipe here.
Storage and reheating
- How to store smothered steak: Place it in a tupperware bowl or something similar and seal it with a lid plastic wrap or aluminum foil and store it in the refrigerator.
- Can you freeze this? Absolutely! Place the steak and gravy in a ziploc bag and make sure it’s tightly sealed to prevent freezer burn.
- How to reheat smothered steak? Remove the steak and add the gravy to a skillet with a few tablespoons of water. Stir with a whisk to loosen the gravy over low to medium heat. Then add the steak and simmer until hot.
Equipment you’ll need:
- Knife: We’re using a knife to slice the steak while frozen into thinner pieces and halves. The knife doesn’t need to be big but make sure it’s sharp!
- Mixing bowl: Use a mixing bowl to season and marinate the steak in. You can also use the mixing bowl to coat the steak with flour in.
- Large Skillet: Use a large skillet so all the steak fits since we’re using a nice amount of steak and gravy. Also, use a skillet that has a lid to get the steak get nice and tender.
- Big Spoon: A spoon is to stir and serve the gravy.
- Tong: A tong is needed to flip the steak when frying once it’s brown on one side. If you dont have a tong use a fork or knife.
- Measuring Spoons: Use measuring spoons to accurately measure the seasonings and other ingredients.
- Measuring Cup: Use a measuring cup to accurately measure the water and flour.
I hope yall enjoy this delicious savory southern classic! This old fashioned southern down home cooking at it’s finest! Give the recipe a shot and if you love it give us a 5 star rating.
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McCloud’s Smothered Steak And Onions Recipe
- Prep Time: 20 Mins
- Cook Time: 40 Mins
- Total Time: 1 Hour
- Yield: 4
- Category: Steak & Beef
- Method: Soul Food
- Cuisine: Soul Food
Description
Savory, tender, juicy steak smothered in a delicious homemade onion-filled gravy. The perfect mid-weekday dinner.
Ingredients
- 1 Lb Boneless Ribeye Steak
- 1 Cup Onions, thinly chopped
- 2 Tsps Minced Garlic
- 1/3 Cup Flour
- 1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
- 2 Tbs Butter
- 2 Tsps Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 Tsp Salt
- 1 Tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 Tsp Onion Powder
- 1/4 Tsp Italian Seasoning
- 1/4 Tsp Thyme
- 1/4 Tsp Black Pepper
Gravy
- 1 Qt Water
- 3 Tbs All-Purpose Flour
- 1 Tbs Better Than Boullion Roasted Beef Base
Instructions
- Slice steak into thinner smaller pieces while frozen. If the steak isn’t frozen and you’re not making it immediately, freeze it until hard, then slice it into smaller peices.
- Once thawed out, remove any EXCESS FAT (not all the fat) and season steak with seasonings.
- Drizzle Worcestershire sauce over it, then cover it with plastic wrap and set in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight to marinate (optional).
- Chop onions into long thin slices or however you want.
- Coat the steak well with flour and set aside.
- Place a large skillet over medium-high heat and add in the butter.
- Saute the onions for 5-6 minutes and add the minced garlic during the last 3 minutes, then remove.
- Add in the oil and preheat for 3-4 minutes.
- Add in the steak and fry for 4 minutes per side, and once done remove the oil.
- Gravy: Meanwhile, combine the water, flour, and better than boullion beef base, and stir well.
- Add the onions and minced garlic back to the skillet with the steak.
- Place over medium heat and pour in the slurry.
- Cover with a lid and simmer for 40 minutes, stir periodically.
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