Today I’m throwing back to an old American classic – the Salisbury Steak. Did you know it was invented by a physician named J.H. Salisbury, who was a pioneer in the low carb diet field? Me either – thank you Wikipedia.
My earliest memory of Salisbury Steak was back when we were kids and we’d beg my mom, who cooked everything from scratch, to let us get frozen “TV dinners” as an occasional treat. They came in a disposable aluminum container that had little partitions with a protein, a starch (usually mashed potatoes – instant), a veggie like corn or peas, and a little square of dessert.
Do any of you remember those days? When you had to bake them in the oven because there were no microwaves, and it took FOREVER (like 45 minutes!) for them to be ready!?
The struggle was real.
Anyway, my favorite was the Salisbury steak – mostly because it came with the cherry pie which was my preferred dessert option. The steak itself was basically a hamburger with gravy on it, which wasn’t nearly as offensive as the awful gelatinous round slices of fake turkey with gravy that my brothers usually got (they preferred the apple pie) so I didn’t really mind.
I hadn’t thought about it in years, until I was working as a cook for large groups of volunteers and one of the things on the menu that we made all the time was, you guessed it, Salisbury Steaks!
We were on a tight budget there so it was a good way to feed a crowd, but the name bugged me because YOU’RE NOT FOOLING ANYONE – it’s a hamburger with gravy on it people!!!
Still, we managed to make them tasty and they were usually a hit with a big pile of mashed potatoes.
Here in Belize, it’s not easy to get a good steak – especially on our island, so we’ve been eating more chicken and ground beef lately. Hungry Jr. has always liked steak with mushrooms and onions, so recently I decided to try out a low carb Salisbury Steak on him.
We all enjoyed it – but even he commented, “This isn’t real steak mom, it’s a burger with gravy on it.”
I KNOW.
The misleading name aside, this low carb Salisbury Steak recipe is a great dinner option that works well for the entire family – and it’s relatively easy to prepare because you bake the “steaks” in the oven.
A win/win for those busy weeknights now that school has started up again!
I loved this with my Better Than Potatoes Cheesy Cauliflower Puree, but you could also serve it with buttered zoodles or any other low carb veggie side dishes. Just be sure you have something to soak up that delicious gravy with!!!
If your family isn’t a fan of mushrooms, you can omit them and just use the onions – but I’ll be sad for you.
Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy – Low Carb & Gluten Free
A low carb and gluten free remake of the classic Salisbury Steak! Quick and easy, the patties are baked in the oven making this a great weeknight meal the whole family will love!
- Yield: 6 servings
- Category: Low Carb Dinner Recipe
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
For the Salisbury Steaks:
- 2 lbs ground chuck (80/20)
- 3/4 cup almond flour
- 1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/4 cup beef broth
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 Tbsp dried onion flakes
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
For the gravy:
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 2 Tbsp bacon grease (or butter)
- 2 cups sliced button mushrooms
- 1 cup sliced yellow onions
- 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup beef broth
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
For the Salisbury Steaks:
- Combine all of the steak ingredients in a medium sized bowl and mix well.
- Form into 6 oval patties, about 1 inch thick, and place them on a cookie sheet.
- Bake in a preheated 375 degree (F) oven for 18 minutes.
For the gravy:
- Melt the butter and bacon fat (if using) in a large skillet.
- Add the mushrooms and cook on medium high heat until golden brown (about 3 minutes per side.)
- Add the onions and cook for 5 minutes over medium heat, until golden and soft.
- Add the broth and the Worcestershire sauce, stir and cook for 3 minutes, stirring to scrape any bits off of the bottom of the pan.
- Add the sour cream, stir well, and remove from the heat. (if you want a thicker gravy you can cook it on low for a 5 extra minutes to condense it.)
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve over the warm Salisbury Steaks with extra parsley for garnish if desired.
Notes
In case anybody wants nutrition info separately:
1 Salisbury Steak: 354 calories, 24g fat, 2.5g net carbs, 30g protein
1/3 cup gravy: 103 calories, 10g fat, 2.5g net carbs, 2g protein
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 steak & 1/3 cup gravy
- Calories: 457
- Fat: 34g
- Carbohydrates: 5g net
- Protein: 32g
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I’ve made this a few times and can’t add anything that hasn’t already been said. It’s really good and really easy – I like that it’ll cook itself (in oven) while you can carry on with the cheesy cauliflower puree. I half the recipe but I do make the full gravy recipe since it’s just so good! Thanks!
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Oops…I just saw that at the tippy top of your post that you DID know…sorry! Still, it’s pretty cool to think this kind of knowledge about weight loss has been around for so long.
Did you look up the origin? I Googled it and was all GTFO!
“Salisbury steak was invented by an American physician, Dr. J. H. Salisbury (1823–1905), an early proponent of a low-carbohydrate diet for weight loss; the term “Salisbury steak” has been in use in the United States since 1897.”
Low carbing back in the 1800s. How cool is that?!
One of our family favorites! Like others have suggested, we usually double the gravy.
One of our family favorites! I usually double the gravy
Hi there! I just wanted to say thanks for all your hard work with your recipes! I try a lot of low carb recipes. I always looking for something tasty, quick, and easy without sacrificing the low carb. Time and time again I find myself coming back to your website. I can honestly say I’ve never tried anything bad, and everything always turns out great! For all of this, I just wanted to say Thank you!
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Just made this last night for my family. It was fabulous with the cauliflower puree and some green beans. Love this recipe. Thanks!
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Glad everyone liked it Audra, thanks!!!
I just made this tonight.
It took no time at all and the whole family loved it.
I made extra gravy and was glad I did.
Yummers.
Thanks
Dee
This was SO GOOD!!! I did double the gravy and added about two pinches of corn starch (not enough carbs for me to care) and I ate it on mashed cauliflower with herb butter. Hot dang! My whole family loved it!
YUM!! This is one of our new favorites! I follow the ingredients exactly, brown them, then finish them in the croc pot. (I cooked them with just the broth and Worchester sauce then added the sour cream at the end, before serving.) We had it over roasted cauliflower….so good I didn’t even miss the mashed potatoes!
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I grew up in the states but now live in Australia. Haven’t had Salisbury steak for 20 years. This brought me back to my childhood. Absolutely delicious! I also doubled the sauce. It was a bit too thin for my liking so I added a teaspoon or so of xantham gum. Will be making this again. Love all of your recipes, your my go to!
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I follow your blog for years now. I don’t know how I could’ve missed this recipe. A total game changer. Going to make it for dinner for me and my boyfriend
Making this for supper. Your co,ment about Belize threw me tjough. When i livwd on Belize 30 ueafs ago thw only meat i could find was Dak ham, pigtails (sold in 5 gallon b uckets). I moatly ate langosta or xonch id not fish. (The red meat I had at friends house worried me because I was afraid it was poached I’m not talking about a cooking method )now I wonder if it was because I was too poor to buy meat or if there just wasn’t any available I got anemic and ended up drinking a lot of Mexican iron tonic.
If i wasnt on keto diet now i would go kake rice an beans. Thanks for the recipe and hapoy memoroea your poat recalled.
Is it just my computer? I cannot print this recipe without a great big ad for Visa and another for Pro Enamel right over the top of the instructions!
When you hit the print button it should take you to a printable form that doesn’t show any ads at all – not sure why that’s happening?
Can I use coconut flour in place of almond flour? Do I need to change the ratio?
We make this weekly because it’s so delicious! We serve it over mashed cauliflower for a keto meal. Tonight, I made a double batch of the gravy on its own, with half a tablespoon of tomato paste added in. I served it with sliced steak and tofu noodles for a keto stroganoff. Thanks for the yummy recipe!
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Amazing comfort food! Just perfect! Didn’t have mushrooms, so made it with just onions, and it was fantastic! Thanks for this wonderful recipe!
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FANTASTIC. I took another reviewer’s advice and doubled the gravy and added some sage, thyme, oregano, basil, a touch of red wine vinegar, and some heavy cream to make it more a cream sauce.
Really enjoyed this! Thank you
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Did anyone have an issue with the steaks “swimming” in grease after cooking them on the baking sheet?
Made this tonite. Gravy was delicious. Although I didn’t think there was enough. I’ll prob triple the gravy next time besides the mushrooms and onions. Also I cooked my burgers for 28 minutes. They didn’t seem done enough at 18. Though I do not yet have an oven thermometer to make sure I’m at the temp the dial says. Melissa, your recipes are all delicious and fairly easy. I am super impressed. I have been low carbing since Oct 2014. And sometimes I get burned out and need some fresh ideas. Your website has done that. I also enjoy the stories!! Thanks for all you do!!!!
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Delicious! I’ve seen some recipes that use crushed Fried Pork Rinds in place of flour. Do you think it will work in this yummy recipe? Thanks!
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I made this tonight with the purred cauliflower. It was delicious however I wish there was more gravy for the patties, especially when you are pretending it’s mashed potatoes!😃
Thanks for the low carb alternative!
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Those photos are just wonderful! The food looks delicious!
Made this tonight and my fiancé and I absolutely loved it. I also made the pureed cauliflower to go with it (it’s a staple in our house). As a matter of fact, every dinner I’ve cooked this week had come from your site! Thanks for the tasty recipes!
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Made this tonight and Wow it was amazing!!!
My Mother made these and depending on the ingredients called it, salsbury steak, pepper steak or would make almost individual meatloaves. She worked 2 jobs, and these were often frozen and she would grab as many as she needed and fix what was needed.
I remember the tin foil TV dinners, but we didnt much have them.
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Omg, yes, I have the same memory! My parents would only buy TV dinners when they were going out and we were staying with a babysitter, we thought it was such a treat. I always thought the desserts were wonky but I loved the Salisbury steak. This looks like a perfect recipe for my family of 6!
This looks incredibly delicious! I loved salisbury steak growing up and until recently had no idea that it was made of ground beef. I’m excited to make this and reminisce on my childhood – Thanks for the great recipes and inspiring us day in and day out.
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First off, thank you. I’ve made your Green Chicken Enchilada Cauliflower Casserole probably about 15 times already, it is so easy and delicious.
So I tried this the other night, measured everything exactly because I am not a good cook. The patties were not juicy, maybe my oven just cooked them for too long? Also my gravy was just barely enough to plop onto each patty so I’m wondering if I let it get too thick? or like the other suggestion, maybe I should just double it.
This was really good, I ate the final patty the next day with some melted provolone and guacamole spread on top!
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Very delicious! I made this last night for dinner and it was amazing! Made a coupl little tweaks though! Didn’t have Worcester sauce so I used a bit of soy sauce, didn’t add the parsley because I didn’t have it and lastly, I cooked the steaks in my cast iron and finished them off in the oven, then used some of the drippings to make the gravey. Big hit in my home and still delicious the next day as left overs! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Kat, love the soy sauce idea – I always assume I have Worcester sauce in the fridge but every once in awhile I’ll have run out and forgot, this sounds like a good substitute!
Mellissa, this was delicious!!! I hate that I have to share with my non-keto family. Lol! Thank you for sharing your passion for food with people like me. You are such a blessing.
PS…I made double the gravy and it was great.
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When I told everyone what we were having for dinner and then sat the plates down in front of them my husband said, “isn’t this just a big hamburger patty with gravy on it?” Lol! Yes, and it’s delicious! I used portabella mushrooms because those were on sale and they are awesome so why not? It was a great dish and everyone loved it.
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I made this tonight and it was easy and also very delicious! My husband, who was a kid in the 70’s and came from a family of 9 said, “My mom would’ve served this dinner for the bunch of us!”
However, when I was in the middle of making it, I opened up my container of sour cream only to find a lovely green fuzz beginning to form on the top :(. EWWW! I happened to have some whipping cream on hand and so I substituted a splash of that instead. It tasted great fine!
This was DELICIOUS! I too loved the tv tray salisbury steak dinners. This was amazing. The whole family loved it! I did not use ground chuck as I had ground turkey in the house, and it was still delicious. Next time I would double the gravy recipe though. This recipe is on the weekly rotation for yummy-ness and ease as far as a weeknight meal goes.
I made this and it was awesome! I’m pretty new to LC and I’m also trying to track my carbs in Myfitness pal. I found some of your recipes in my fitness pal. Do you submit them or do others? I couldn’t find the Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy nutrition in the app.
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I do not, but others have – please be aware that MFP is notoriously inaccurate at counting carbs due to relying on averages across multiple brands and errors in their database though!
I don’t know how you got a low carb on this dish? I ran it through myfitnesspal.com and came up with 31 carbs. The Almond flour alone is 18 carbs.
Net carbs subtracts the fiber.
Why do you need flour at all in this recipe?
You can omit it, but it works like breadcrumbs would to lighten up the patties so they aren’t hockey pucks. But a high percentage of fat in your meat will keep them tender so go for it if you want to.
Yummy! The gravy sounds so good!
Just a tip, to prevent the sour cream from curdling when adding it to the hot gravy…..first stir a small amount (1/4 to 1/2 cup or so) of the hot liquid into the sour cream, stir well, then add the sour cream mixture into the gravy.
Can’t wait to try this, sounds delish!
I made this last night and it was delicious. Perfect for a rainy evening!
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You literally read my mind! I just googled this recipe two nights ago and was ready to make someone else’s version but now I will make yours instead because your recipes are always spot on. Thanks!
Thanks Claudine, hope you like it!
It was awesome!
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I used to love Salisbury Steak TV dinners with the dessert. We would eat them on TV trays in front of the TV. Fun memories. This recipe is super easy. Thx!
Hopefully eating this brings back good memories as well Debbie! It did for me anyway – though it tasted a lot better than store bought if I do say so! ;)
Love the walk down memory lane! I come from a time when not only were TV dinners new, so were TVs LOL! The tidbit about Dr Salisbury was fascinating too. I looked him up on Wikipedia :)
These look delicious and I love that they’re cooked in the oven! I’m going to make a big batch of them and freeze them individually for quick meals. I live alone with occasional company so this will be perfect grab and go dinner for how ever many I need. Then I can make a quick sauce as needed.
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I think freezing them in batches is a fantastic idea – in fact I might do that myself! I can even freeze them with the gravy and cauliflower puree in small containers and just throw them in the microwave when I need one! Gotta love modern appliances ha ha! Enjoy!
My dad would freeze gravy in a Tupperware container. Once frozen, he would run warm water over the container to separate the gravy from it and vacuum pack it. It will last a long time, as long as no air gets in.
This sounds delicious. I have made Salisbury Steak many times using a recipe given to me that used boxed stuffing mix. It was quick and easy for week night dinners, but because I now eat low carb I have not made Salisbury Steak for over a year. Thank you for the recipe.
I also remember TV dinners, usually served on either Friday or Saturday night when my parents didn’t want to cook!
That’s usually when I could get my mom to go for it too Deborah – we’d have them on Friday nights sometimes while we watched Dukes of Hazzard and Knight Rider! Oh the memories! Ha ha!!!
We grew up eating TV dinners too….without a micro. We loved the dessert ones too…..I liked turkey because of the cranberry sauce.
Okay…made your cauliflower mashed potatoes tonight. Game. Changer. We made a grass fed Chuck Roast the other week and the only thing missing was mashed potatoes. Now I can’t wait to make another. YUM!
I remember those TV dinners. I was a Salisbury Steak because of the cheery pie girl too. I’m pretty excited to try this recipe. Nostalgic, dudget-friendly and low-drag. Sounds perfect.
Hope it’s a hit Kaywess!!!