This recipe is so much tastier than those old school TV dinners from our childhood. No rubbery hockey puck piece of meat, I promise! Are you hankering for a trip down memory lane? One that actually tastes better than you remember? Move over Swanson, outta the way Banquet…this easy recipe will blow your socks off!
Back when I was young TV dinners were the hip, new, cool thing to heat and eat. My favorite was always the Salisbury Steak dinner with mashed potatoes and corn. It even had a small section between the potatoes and the corn with a minuscule square of brownie. You had to carefully pull back the foil, just over the brownie, and leave everything else covered. It baked up along with the rest of the TV dinner in the oven. I can still remember peering through the oven glass window to watch it bake.
My mother was a fantastic cook, and cooked us meals from scratch almost every night when I was growing up, so it was a rare event when we got a TV dinner. It was a real treat! Hey, what can I say, I come from humble beginnings!
What I really love about this meal is that it’s what I call a pantry meal. If you keep ground beef in the freezer and have a few potatoes on hand, you can easily whip this up even when you haven’t been to the grocery store in a long while. I try to keep all the ingredients for this meal in my pantry and freezer so I can easily prepare it without having to make a stop at the grocery store on my way home from work. Ain’t nobody got time for that most nights!
First order of business is to get the potatoes going on the stove for the mashed potatoes. Get a big pot of water boiling to cook the potatoes. Be sure to check out my post on How To Make The Worlds Fluffiest Mashed Potatoes to find out my secret tips. I hate to brag, but my boys swear I make the world’s best mashed potatoes! They are super easy to make, give them a try!
Once you have the potatoes going, it’s time to start on the Salisbury Steaks. Place the ground beef, bread crumbs, 1/3 cup of the condensed French onion soup, egg, parsley flakes, salt, and black pepper in a large bowl.
Combine ingredients. I use my hands.
Shape beef into into 4 oval patties.
Place remaining soup and flour in a mixing bowl.
Stir in the ketchup, water, and Worcestershire sauce.
Add the can of sliced mushrooms, and mustard.
Whisk to combine all the gravy ingredients together.
Set aside.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown both sides of the meat patties, until the meat is cooked through. Drain off any excess fat.
Reduce heat and pour reserved sauce over the cooked meat patties in the skillet. Bring sauce to a simmer and then cover pan and reduce heat to low.
Simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, being careful not to break up the beef patties. Just move them around the pan gently turning them over with a spatula so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan or burn.
Finish making mashed potatoes while the beef patties simmer on the stove.
Remove lid and simmer for an additional few minutes to thicken sauce if needed, or add water to thin out the sauce if it gets too thick.
Serve the savory beef patties nestled in a bed of creamy mashed potatoes topped with some of the delicious mushroom gravy sauce and a side of your favorite vegetables.
I must confess, this meal is a thousand times better than the TV dinners from my childhood. The beef patties are thick and fall-apart-in-your-mouth tender, nothing like the tough-as-shoe-leather, paper thin beef patties I remember, and the mushroom sauce is so much more flavorful. Add a side of sweet, buttery corn and all that’s missing is a rich chocolatey brownie for dessert.
Let me know if you give this recipe a try and if you like it! I promise you it is so much better than the rubbery mystery meat in the frozen dinners you can get at the grocery store and it’s quite simple to make. It’s a much healthier option than the chemical laden frozen dinners in the freezer case. It’s perfect for a busy week night meal and your whole family will love it.
I hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane!
Salisbury Steak
Equipment
- large skillet
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 can condensed French onion soup
- ½ cup bread crumbs
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp dried parsley flakes
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- 3 tbsp flour
- ¼ cup ketchup
- ⅓ cup water
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp mustard
- 4 oz can sliced mushrooms, drained
Instructions
- Place ground beef, 1/3 cup condensed French onion soup, bread crumbs, egg, parsley flakes, salt, and black pepper in a mixing bowl.
- Combine ingredients.
- Shape beef into into 4 oval patties.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and remaining soup until there a no more lumps of flour in the soup.
- Stir in the ketchup, water, Worcestershire sauce, sliced mushrooms, and mustard. Set aside.
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown both sides of the meat patties, until the meat is cooked through. Drain off any excess fat.
- Pour reserved sauce over the cooked meat in the skillet. Bring sauce to a simmer and then cover and reduce heat to low.
- Cook for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, being careful not to break up the beef patties. Just move them around the pan gently turning them over with a spatula so they don’t burn.
- Remove lid and simmer for an additional few minutes to thicken sauce if needed, or add water to thin out the sauce if it gets too thick.
- Serve the beef patties nestled in a bed of creamy mashed potatoes topped with some of the delicious mushroom gravy sauce and a side of your favorite vegetables.
*This post was originally published in 2019 and republished with updated photos, recipe notes, printable recipe card, and new content May 2023.
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