Salisbury Steak Meatballs with Gravy
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We really love these salisbury steak meatballs with mushroom and onion gravy. They’re perfect on just about anything and loved by everyone in the family. It’s also the perfect meal prep dish to make ahead of time and freeze for later.
Salisbury Steak Meatballs with Mushroom and Onion Gravy
For years our flavorful salisbury steak recipe has been a go-to favorite on our website. It’s hard to not love this simple and classic skillet salisbury steak recipe. But we created other favorites like this salisbury steak burger and now it’s in meatball form. The meatballs are fantastic because they’re great as a smaller bite and it definitely serves more folks. It’s just another way of eating one of our favorite recipes.
Why are these meatballs so good?
It’s always about the gravy! Our gravy just doesn’t have mushrooms, it has onion too. The caramelized onion along with the sauteed mushrooms adds so much depth of flavor. The crusty, charred bits of onion really takes the gravy to another level. If you’re not a fan of onions, you can just make our popular and easy mushroom gravy.
Video: Recipe for Salisbury Steak Meatballs
Can you use other meat instead of beef?
Sure! You can use any protein you like. Although classic salisbury steak is made from ground beef, there’s always different modern ways to make it custom to your diet.
- Vegan salisbury steak meatballs: you can use beyond meat or impossible meat. These plant based meat products are. perfect to make vegan plant based meatballs.
- Ground chicken or turkey is definitely a lower fat and learner ground meat.
- Pork meatballs are great if you’re loving ground pork.
- Lamb meatballs have so much flavor and add it to this already fantastic gravy is a flavor bomb all around.
Tips on How to Make Salisbury Steak Meatballs Recipe
- We like to use a leaner ground beef because it doesn’t shrink too much. We prefer 85% lean beef and the flavor is still great. Remember, it’s the gravy that gives these salisbury steak meatballs more flavor and juicy texture.
- Like we mentioned above, you can use other ground meat alternatives if you really don’t want to use ground beef.
- Season the gravy well! The salt really adds flavor so seasonings like salt and worcestershire sauce add great umami flavor. You can even use soy sauce if you don’t have worcestershire sauce.
- Sear the meatballs well. It’s important to get a good sear on the meatballs to get that outside crust. It holds the round shape well and keeps the meatballs juicy on the inside.
- Substitute for bread crumbs is using crushed pork rinds for binding.
- All recipe details are in the recipe box below along with step by step photos.
Salisbury Steak Meatballs with Mushroom-Onion Gravy
Ingredients
For the Meatballs:
- 1 pound (454 g) ground beef
- 1/4 cup (30 g) breadcrumbs
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) garlic salt
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) mustard powder
- 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) kosher salt
- lots fresh ground black pepper , to taste
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) cooking oil , for searing beef patties
For the Mushroom Gravy
- 8 ounces (227 g) mushrooms , sliced
- 1 medium onion , sliced
- 3 Tablespoons (30 g) butter
- 2 cloves garlic , minced or crushed
- 1/4-1/2 cup (30-60 g) flour , depending on how thick you like your gravy
- 3 cups (720 ml) broth (beef, chicken or vegetable)
- kosher salt , to taste
- black pepper , to taste
- chopped chives , optional for garnish
Equipment
- Medium Cookie Scoop optional
Instructions
- In large bowl mix together all the meatball ingredients (beef, breadcrumbs, egg, Worcestershire sauce, onion powder, garlic salt, mustard powder, salt, and black pepper).
- Lightly oil your hands. Shape the meat into 12 evenly sized meatballs (a medium cookie scoop works great for forming the meatballs).
- Heat large pan over medium-high heat and then add oil. Brown both sides of patties (about 1 minute per side) and then remove from the pan.
- Keep same pan and beef juices over medium high heat. Add the mushrooms and onion and cook until onions are golden and excess mushroom liquid evaporates, about 10 minutes.
- Add butter and garlic to the mushrooms and onions. Cook for about 1 minute.
- Stir in the flour, cooking and stirring to remove lumps. Add about 1/2 – 1 cup of beef stock, whisking until incorporated.
- Increase heat to High. Slowly pour in the remaining broth and whisk until well combined. Season with salt and pepper, to taste (the saltiness and flavors will concentrate some when it reduces down).
- Once gravy starts to boil, reduce heat to low. Stirring often, simmer until the gravy starts to thicken, about 5-10 minutes.
- Add salisbury steak meatballs back into the gravy and cook until the meatballs are cooked to your preferred doneness (usually about 5-10 minutes), stirring the gravy occasionally around the meatballs. Taste for seasoning and add more salt & pepper, if desired.
- Serve the meatballs topped with the mushroom sauce. They are excellent over rice, pasta or mashed potatoes! Top with optional chives.
Video
Nutrition Information per Serving
How to Make Keto Low Carb Salisbury Steak Meatballs?
It’s simple to make these lower carb and keto friendly. A few substitutions will do the trick.
- To thicken the gravy, don’t use regular all purpose flour. For the keto friendly version, you can use xanthum gum and more. Here’s a great article that goes into details for keto thickeners.
- For binding the meatballs together instead of using bread crumbs, you can use crushed pork rinds.
- Coconut flour and almond flour are also good substitutes for regular bread crumbs.
What to serve with salisbury steak meatballs?
There’s so many ways to enjoy these flavorful meatballs. Here’s a few of our favorite and most popular ways to serve:
- As an appetizer! These fabulous little bites are always wonderful at a party. Serve with little toothpicks or party picks so guests can serve themselves. Add a little ladle so they can spoon some gravy over.
- Sliders! If you make these meatballs a little bigger, they’re the perfect size for sliders.
- Hoagie sandwich: buy some soft hoagie bread and fill it with a few meatballs and a big spoonful of gravy!
- With pasta or egg noodles: Kids love eating meatballs with egg noodles or on different types of pasta.
- Rice or other grains is always another great options.
- On mashed potatoes, of course! This is our favorite way to eat meatballs: serve them on a bed of mashed potatoes.
Can you make Salisbury steak meatballs ahead of time?
Yes! These meatballs are perfect for meal prep. You can make the whole recipe ahead of time. But when the meatballs are cooked, remove them from the gravy and allow them to cool. Then freeze the meatballs separately. You can freeze the gravy too. But when it thaws, it might be too watered down. Allow it to heat up and stir it really well to break up all the clumps. Add a little bit of heavy cream or butter to thicken it a bit.
4 Comments on “Salisbury Steak Meatballs with Gravy”
This is my favorite recently. The steak meatballs is perfect for spaghetti.
This was a hit with very picky eaters! Followed recipe exactly except I did not have ground mustard. Just needed a bit more salt & pepper. Served over mashed potatoes and what a comfort food! Thanks for a classic “keeper!”
So glad you love all loved the recipe!
Wow, this meatball recipe was so good. My kids were in love. I’ll be making this from now on.