This Beef Cubed Steak Dinner looks like an old-fashioned home cooked meal, but it’s quick and super easy to make. Also super easy to shop for too.
Underachieving Cubed Steak
Equipment
- Beef Cubed Steak, 0.73 – 2.05 lb – Walmart.com
- Great Value All-Purpose Flour, 5LB Bag – Walmart.com
- Knorr Bouillon Cubes Beef Flavor Bouillon/Caldo de Res 3.1 oz, 8 Ct – Walmart.com
- Idahoan Buttery Homestyle� Mashed Potatoes Family Size, 8 oz Pouch (Pack of 8) – Walmart.com
- Great Value Steamable Whole Kernel Corn, Frozen, 12 oz – Walmart.com
Ingredients
- 4-6 Patties of Cubed Steak
- 2 c. Flour
- 2 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Pepper
- 2 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2-3 Cups of Water
- 5 cubes of Beef Bouillon
- Something you can put gravy on / Family Bag of Instant Potatoes
- A vegetable / Frozen Corn
Instructions
- [mv_schema_meta name="Mix Dry Ingredients"]In a large bowl, mix flour with salt and pepper.
- [mv_schema_meta name="Coat the Beef"]Dip the Steak Patties in the flour and coat both sides. Sometimes it helps to think about the problems in your life and smash the meat into the flour, smothering in small clockwise circles. Flip and repeat. Get the whole Steak Patty covered.
- [mv_schema_meta name="Brown the Meat"]In an Electric Skillet (or Stovetop Skillet) over medium high heat, add about 1 TBSP of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and brown both sides of the patties. If you have more patties than you have space, it helps to stack them in what could be the coldest part of the skillet as you brown. As long as you keep the bottom part moving, it shouldn't burn. So place 4 patties, brown one side, flip them, brown the other side, move 2 patties to the top of the other two, add 2 new patties. Flip them, move 2 patty stackers (total of 4) on top of newly placed patties, and add 2 more.
- [mv_schema_meta name="Add Water"]Layer the patties as flat as possible and add water. I usually add enough water that all the patties are covered and just a little bit of meat might be peaking through the water surface. If the skillet I'm using heats up too much or runs hotter than what I'm used to cooking with, I'll add slightly more water. You can also add water later if need be.
- [mv_schema_meta name="Add Beef Cubes"]Add the Beef Cubes (I really do use about 5 of them, whether I make 4 patties or 6).
- [mv_schema_meta name="Bring to a Simmer"]Bring to a slight boil, but it's not that necessary. I just like to make sure the water is hot before I put the lid on and reduce heat. So cover (with a lid), reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 15 minutes. In that 15 minutes, you don't really want the water bubbling the entire time, but you don't want it so far from bubbling that you don't cook the meat. So you kind of aim for maintaining that moment between not bubbling and bubbling, just like making most "Just add meat" pasta dishes, except this time, you want enough water to remain in the pan, not evaporate, to make gravy.
- [mv_schema_meta name="Mix some flour and water"]Grab 2 TBSP of the flour you dipped your meat into, and whisk (fork) it with a little bit of water in a cup or bowl until well blended.
- [mv_schema_meta name="Add Flour Water to Form Gravy"]After 15 minutes of simmering, check your beefy broth and add water if need be. You still want the meat to, for the most part, be covered with the broth. If it's thick enough to be gravy right now, you can skip this next part, but if it's thin, add the flour water mixture and kind of stir. I usually drizzle over all the places between the meat, and with a spoon, just kind of stir that spot. You can always take out all the meat and mix it that way, but I don't like dirtying an extra dish.
- [mv_schema_meta name="Simmer for a couple more minutes"]Simmer a couple more minutes.
- [mv_schema_meta name="Prepare side dishes"]It depends on the veggies you're making, but you probably want to prepare them while it's simmering in this last 5 minutes if you make 5 minute veggies like steps 11 and 12, but if you make different veggies that take longer, allow for that time by starting those earlier.
- [mv_schema_meta name="Prepare Mashed Potatoes"]For potatoes, I usually grab an Instant "just add water" potato, and I usually go with a family size pack (or 2 small one-dinner packs that run about $1 each) as opposed to a huge box because those are already measured. I hate cleaning dry potato crud from my measuring cups. So I put 4 cups of water (directions on packages) in an Electric Kettle. Then I dump the potato spud crud into one of those plastic disposable tupperware pieces (actually mine is Rubbermaid), and I do this because if there's leftovers, you just add a lid and put it away. When that kettle "whistles," mine doesn't actually whistle, it clicks, dump that into the bowl and stir with a fork. For purposes of this meal, it's best to go with "homestyle potatoes." If you can't find that flavor, you can consider adding a TBSP of butter.
- [mv_schema_meta name="Prepare Vegetable"]For the other veggie, I prefer peas with this meal like in my mind, it's supposed to go with peas. But I generally use whatever it is I have. I also prefer to use frozen veggies in a bag where you just stick the bag in the microwave and "steam" for 5 minutes. Because I'm classy, I usually serve the veggies from the bag with a slotted serving spoon (you never know when they have veggie juice at the bottom of the bag).
Where did I get this Recipe?
My mom. She made this my whole life except she put more effort into the side dishes. But even with the extra effort of dirtying extra pots and pans, she still considered this one of the easiest, low-effort, last-second dinners to make.
Also, for years I couldn’t get mine to taste like hers, and I realize after 30 years it’s because she kept leaving out cream of mushroom soup as one of her ingredients. I’m going to give you how I make it. Some day I’ll put a different recipe up for mushroom soup.
Ingredients for Beef Cubed Steak Recipe
Basically, you need the following ingredients…
- Cubed Beef – Family Pack
- 2 cups of flour
- 2 tsp salt and pepper
- 5 beef bouillon cubes
- 2 TBSP olive oil
- 2-3 cups of water
Generally the meat is called Beef Cubed Steak, but I’ve used Minute Steak meat before and it was ok.
You may decide to adjust ingredients depending on taste and amount of cubed steak you have. I, for the most part, eyeball this. If you are trying to reduce sodium, you may decide not to use as many beef bouillon cubes and instead find a low sodium or sodium free beef broth, bouillon, powder…
Total Grocery Spend Full Dinner: $14.31
includes main ingredients (minus salt, pepper, olive oil & water) + corn and instant mashed potatoes
Exact Ingredients I use! No affiliate.
How to Make the Beef Cubed Steak
Really, you coat the raw meat in flour, fry to brown, add water and simmer 20 minutes.
Step 1 – Mix Dry Ingredients
I usually fill a medium sized bowl halfway up with flour, and I add about 2-3 teaspoons of salt and pepper.
Then I smash the steaks into it. Covering every inch. Both sides.
Step 2 – Brown Meat
I generally use an electric skillet because it fits so much more into it, but you can pan fry these in a huge skillet or chicken fryer. Put some olive oil, any oil, vegetable oil is fine, in the pan. Get it hot.
Add the beef steaks. Brown both sides a bit. You may have to do some shifting and stacking.
Then fill with water enough to cover most of the cubed steaks. Add some beef bouillon cubes. I usually try to at least do one cube per cup of water. I suppose you could just fill it with beef broth.
Step 3 – Simmer about 15 minutes
Then bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover with lid and simmer about 15 minutes.
Step 4 – Make the Gravy
Then, I like to mix some of the leftover flour with some water in any cup or bowl. I generally do about 2 TBSP of the flour, add just enough water to mix it not a paste but a white clouded liquid, and then mix thoroughly with a fork. If you don’t do this part, the flour may clump funky and you will have biscuits.
Then I dump the flour water into the pan with the cubed steak and gravy. You can remove the meat and add it and mix it together. OR you can keep the meat in the pan, and kind of drizzle the water over so that it’s evenly distributed. Give it 5 more minutes on simmer to thicken into a gravy. If the gravy is still too thin, you can do 2 more TBSP of flour with a little water.
Make it Keto Friendly
Instead of using regular flour, you can use almond flour to coat the meat.
But it’s difficult to get a gravy vibe with almond flour. Instead of using regular flour, use a teaspoon of Xanthan gum into the beefy water.
Additionally, choose low carb side dishes like Cauliflower (which may go well with gravy).
Sides
The easiest sides are …
Instant Mashed Potatoes Just Add Water
There are several varieties of Instant Potatoes, but the best one is “Just add water” usually in packets. A family pack is enough for 4 people, or 2 regular packs of what I’m about to show a picture of… Aim for Buttery Homestyle.
Let me tell you why these are amazing. You can heat up water in an electric kettle. Dump the potato pack in a plastic storage container (Glad or Ziplock or Take Along Rubbermaid) and then add the water. Mix with a fork. You’re done. That was it.
Don’t have an electric kettle? You should because a kid can make Ramen with those. But if you don’t, you can fill the bowl with the recommended water (usually 4 cups for the family pack), microwave it, and then dump the flakes into it.
The reason this side is great with the cubed steak is because the gravy we made above is super delicious, and you want any reason to use it.
Any Vegetable you Microwave “This Side Up”
Pretty much every frozen food section has bags of veggies or steamed veggies that you can cook from the bag. Like the instructions are place unopened bag in microwave this side up, cook on whatever minutes, and done.
With this Beef Cubed Steak recipe in particular, the family favorite has always been PEAS. At least with me growing up. But now that I have kids, they prefer corn. So much for family tradition. Eh.
If you have canned vegetables, you can always dump those in a Ziplock / Glad / Takeaways container and microwave them.
Of course, the old school approach is to grab a pot, dump the veggies in there, add water if necessary, bring to a boil, simmer for a few minutes, drain, season and serve. To me that’s just way too much effort for a side dish.
Doctor up veggies by adding butter. Also Sazon is a great option.
If you liked this recipe, you’d help me out by pinning it.
