Growing up my Dad cooked for us a lot, and he had 2 signature meals: his famous “Thin Cakes,” and Beef Stroganoff, so Stroganoff has always felt like home for me. The recipe I’m sharing today isn’t my family recipe. Growing up, Stroganoff always involved ground beef, cream of mushroom soup (which my mom always put through the blender first because if my brother found even one microscopic speck of a mushroom the meal was over) and generally we ate it over rice. My Dad always started with that condensed soup, but added layers of flavor, and creamy sour cream, and always a “secret ingredient” which was always Parmesan cheese.
This is my version, in which I ditched the condensed soup, use tender sliced steak, and instead of blending mushrooms, I actually add real mushrooms. This is one of those meals where the ingredient list almost looks too simple, yet time and time again I’m reminded of how amazing, and how comforting the finished product is. My kids LOVE this meal. And it can totally be done in under 30 minutes in one pan, so I love this meal, too. I actually wrote this recipe for our very first book, and people have consistently told me over the years that this is one of their most favorite recipes, so I figured it was time it had a place here on the site!
Ingredients Needed
This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.
- Top sirloin or tenderloin steak – You can use your favorite cut of steak, here, really. Lately I’ve loved flank steak, and this batch in the photos is made with tri-tip. Those aren’t the most economical cuts of steak- at all, but they’re really good.
- Kosher salt and black pepper
- Butter – Always use real butter if you can!
- Mushrooms – I prefer brown cremini. If you don’t like mushrooms, you’re not alone. Guess what? I actually don’t love mushrooms myself. But when they are sauteed in butter with onions and garlic and covered in a creamy sauce with steak that happens to be the same color, well- it works. And my mushroom-hating kids don’t really notice either. That being said, if you hate mushrooms, feel free to leave them out- this will still be delicious! You can even add a little extra steak to compensate.
- Diced onion
- Fresh garlic
- Beef bouillon and water – Granules, beef base, or bouillon cube. I call for water and beef bouillon because you’ll notice I’m using a little less water than the normal concentration of 1 cup to 1 cube bouillon/granules. This gives a stronger beefy flavor. If it’s easier for you, you can certainly just sub 3/4 cup beef broth, which won’t make an enormous difference. But if you have dry bouillon or beef base on hand, I’d go that route.
- All purpose flour
- Worcestershire sauce
- Sour cream – Full fat or light is fine. Avoid fat free.
- Extra wide egg noodles or rice – For serving.
How to Make Beef Stroganoff
- Sauté some mushrooms in butter with garlic and onions. When you put the mushrooms in the pan it will seem like a ton, but they cook down so much it’s the perfect amount, so just go with it.
- Slide all those shrooms onto a plate and add a little more butter to your pan. I’m using a white pan so you can see all that color. That’s going to flavor your meat and build depth into your sauce. The butter you’re adding here is going to help lift that up and make a super silky, creamy sauce.
- Dump in a bunch of steak now and sauté it until it’s no longer pink.
- While it’s cooking, you can whisk up your quick sauce. It has beef base, Worcestershire, and a little flour to thicken. Add that to the meat. As the sauce heats it will turn into a gorgeous gravy. Add those mushrooms back to the pan and stir it all up.
- The final step is a big dollop of sour cream. The result is an ultra creamy, beefy, sauce over tender steak. You can serve it over pasta or rice. Growing up we usually had it on rice, but my family prefers wide egg noodles. And honestly, you might notice I don’t call for parsley in the recipe- the only reason I’m adding it here is because Beef Stroganoff is not the prettiest meal to photograph, but it tastes AMAZING!
Storing and Other Tips
- Store cooled leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator and enjoy within 3-4 days for best results.
- When sautéing your mushrooms, make sure to take a test bite. You want them nice and tender before moving on!
- Sliced steak cooks really fast; don’t over cook it or it will be tough. Move onto adding your sauce as soon as the meat is no longer pink on the outside.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, but there are a couple of important notes. Because this sauce is finished with dairy, it can separate if reheated too aggressively. You can make it ahead of time, and then reheat gently. Another option would be to cook through but omit the sour cream. Reheat the sauce and add the sour cream fresh. For best results, store cooked noodles or rice separately from the meat and sauce.
Absolutely. Omit the flour and add a slurry of 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 1 tablespoon water at the very end to thicken (adjust as needed for desired thickness. Serve over gluten free noodles, rice, or mashed potatoes.
The sauce may separate when frozen. If you plan to freeze, I would omit the sour cream and add it instead when reheating.
Beef Stroganoff
Ingredients
- 1 pound top sirloin or tenderloin steak flank steak also works well
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 3 tablespoons real butter divided
- 8 ounces sliced mushrooms I prefer brown cremini
- ¾ cup diced onion
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- ¾ cup warm water
- 1 teaspoon beef bouillon granules beef base, or 1 bouillon cube*
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- ½ cup sour cream
- Extra wide egg noodles or rice, for serving
Instructions
- Slice steak into thin strips (like 1/4-inch thick). Make sure you are slicing against the grain of the meat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and set aside.
- Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat and add mushrooms, onion, and garlic to pan. Saute for 5-8 minutes until mushrooms are browned and onions are very tender. Remove mushrooms, onions, and garlic from pan and set aside.
- Slightly increase heat on pan and melt remaining tablespoons of butter. Add beef and saute, stirring, for 3-5 minutes or until pink is no longer visible.
- While beef is cooking, whisk water, bouillon, flour, and Worcestershire sauce together until smooth. Add this mixture to the beef and return the mushroom mixture to the pan as well. Bring the sauce to a simmer and cook for 1-2 minutes to thicken. Remove pan from heat and stir in sour cream. Add additional salt and black pepper to taste. Serve over egg noodles or white rice.
Notes
- Store cooled leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator and enjoy within 3-4 days for best results.
- This recipe feeds my husband and 4 young kids pretty perfectly with zero leftovers. We’re getting to the point where I sometimes double or 1 1/2 it. I’d say if you have more teens or adults you’ll definitely want to make a larger batch!
- *Note on bouillon: I call for water and beef bouillon because you’ll notice I’m using a little less water than the normal concentration of 1 cup to 1 cube bouillon/granules. This gives a stronger beefy flavor. If it’s easier for you, you can certainly just sub 3/4 cup beef broth, which won’t make an enormous difference. But if you have dry bouillon or beef base on hand, I’d go that route.
- Nutrition information was calculated for just the meat/mushrooms/gravy without noodles/rice.
Nutrition
Questions & Reviews
Delish! Made it this evening and enjoying as I type. Thanks!
I made this for dinner tonight but used ground beef and doubled the sauce/gravy ingredients. I think I might have changed my husband and kids’ minds about stroganoff – it was delicious as well as nice and quick to make!
I made this for our dinner tonight – it was delicious! I’ll be making it again for sure! I also want to say I’m super excited that the ‘print this’ button has reappeared! I know you told me several months ago that it wasn’t gone – but it never showed up on my end! Another commenter said that they would request the desktop site and it showed up – I did that for a while, but it stopped working too after a time. Anyway, I’ve noticed that the last couple recipes the print button is there again! Hooray! It’s the simple things, you know?! ?
Ha, that’s because the print feature we were using suddenly went out of business so we are using the old “print this” until we find a new one! But I’m glad it’s working for you now! haha
My family loves beef stroganoff! Your pictures are so gorgeous, btw.
We had this a couple nights ago and it was delicious! The Worcestershire sauce really added a lot of flavor, other beef stroganoff I’ve tried was very bland.
Wonderful recipe to try soon. Plan to serve over quinoa. Thanks for sharing so many terrific recipes with all of us.
This looks amazing! I totally need to try this out soon!
Paige
I love that you ditched the canned soup – I’m excited to try this recipe. I have a tendency to substitute plain Greek yogurt for sour cream in other recipes – what are your thoughts on using it here over sour cream? I’m not opposed to sour cream, I just usually have an excess of Greek yogurt. Thoughts?
I’m guessing plain Greek would be just fine. It would definitely work from a consistency standpoint, in terms of taste, I’m partial to sour cream, so it would just be a preference thing.
Okay so I loooove beef stroganoff – but have never made it myself?! Time to change that! This looks absolutely delicious, and I love the story about dad cooking 😉 My dads signature dish was oven roasted chicken, and he didn’t really care what vegetables and sides we wanted with that.