Turn a Budget Steak into a 5-Star Meal with this Easy Technique (2024)

This classic Swiss steak with silky tomato sauce is comfort food at its best. The secret is buying less expensive cuts of steak, tenderizing them before cooking, and then letting them simmer slowly in a juicy sauce of tomatoes and onions.

Although you might think Swiss steak comes from Switzerland, in reality, the name comes from the "swissing" technique for tenderizing meat. Tough cuts of beef, like bottom round, top round, and chuck, go through a mechanical tenderizer, or a swissing machine, and come out the other end with cube-shaped indentations (hence it's other name, cube steak).

Cooking Methods for Cube Steak

Turn a Budget Steak into a 5-Star Meal with this Easy Technique (2)

For a classic Swiss steak meal, serve with green beans and mashed potatoes. It also goes great with roasted vegetables and corn on the cob or on top of rice.

What to Use If You Can't Find Swissed Steaks

Our recipe calls for beef chuck steak or bottom round, which is easily found at most grocery stores. If you do find swissed steaks, use those in this recipe and skip the tenderizing step.

If you don't have a meat tenderizer or don't want to do this step yourself, ask your butcher to do it for you. They might even have the machine and can provide you with beautifully tenderized steaks.

What Is the Difference Between Salisbury Steak and Swiss Steak?

A Salisbury steak is made from ground beef that's formed into a patty, and Swiss steak is actually steak. Additionally, Salisbury steak usually has a gravy that consists ofbeef broth, and Swiss steak is known for being cooked with tomatoes and onions.

Tips for Making Swiss Steak Recipe

How to fix the sauce - If the remaining sauce is too thin, place the pan over medium heat. Combine 1 tablespoon of flour with 1 tablespoon of cold water and stir the mixture into the sauce until no lumps remain. Simmer the sauce until well thickened.
Make it gluten free - These swiss steaks are coated with flour before cooking, which helps create a crust on the meat and also thickens the tomato sauce. If there are any guests with wheat allergies, simply skip the flour and reduce the sauce as much as possible before serving, so it's nicely thick. Alternatively, you can use a cornstarch slurry at the end to obtain a thicker texture in your sauce.
Hands off - For a totally hands-off experience, make this in the slow cooker.

What You'll Need to Make this Swiss Steak Recipe

A Meat Tenderizer

A Heavy Dutch Oven

A Slotted Spatula

Ingredients

2 to 3 pounds bonelesschuck steak,or bottom round, excess fat trimmed
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoonsvegetable oil, more as needed
2 medium onions,quartered and sliced
See Also
What Is Salisbury Steak?
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained and chopped

For Thickening the Sauce:

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, as needed
1 tablespoon water, as needed

Steps to Make It

Gather the ingredients. Preheat the oven to325 F/165 C.
Season 2 to 3 pounds boneless chuck steak or bottom round meat with 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper and 1 teaspoon salt. Add a good amount of flour on a cutting board and place the steak on it.Sprinkle more flour over the meat and pound it with a meat hammer to tenderize. Continue to turn, flour, and pound until most of the flour is used and the steak is nice and flat and feels spongy to the touch. Set aside.
Heat a large, heavy ovenproof skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil to the pan.
When the oil is hot, but not smoking, add 2 medium onions, sliced. Cook, constantly stirring until the onions are translucent and lightly browned, for about 10 minutes. Remove the onions to a dish with a slotted spoon.
Cut the steak into 6 pieces and place themin the hot oil. If your pan isn't big enough, work in batches until all steaks are brown on all sides, 1 to 2 minutes per side, and there is no pink showing. If needed, use the remaining tablespoon of oil between each batch.
Place the onion on top of the steaks, add1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, chopped, and cover the pan. Place the pot in the oven and bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until the steaks are tender
Remove the steaks,tomatoes, and onions to a hot serving platter.Pour the sauce over the steaks and serve.

Feeling Adventurous? Try this:

Here are a few additional ingredients you can add to the recipe, or substitutions that will also make a wonderful dish:

Use canned stewed tomatoes instead of the regular canned tomatoes.
Add 1 cup of sliced celery to the onions when browning, and then add the tomatoes.
Add 1 minced clove of garlic to the onions just before adding the tomatoes.
Season the sauce with a dash of oregano and a teaspoon of celery flakes.
Add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste along with the tomatoes if you'd rather not thicken it with flour.
Add 1/2 cup of tomato juice or low-sodium beef broth when making the final sauce if you'd like a thinner and juicier consistency.

The 28 Best Ever Steak Recipes

Recipe Tags:

Tomato
swiss steak
entree
southern

Turn a Budget Steak into a 5-Star Meal with this Easy Technique (2024)

FAQs

How to make a steak taste good? ›

Add some chopped herbs such as thyme, rosemary or sage to your salt to make a flavored salt for your steak. For restaurant-quality steaks, baste them in butter and herbs during the final few moments of cooking. This will impart the delicious buttery flavor you know and love from your favorite steakhouse.

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How to cook the most tender steak? ›

In addition to seasoning the steaks, salt helps break down proteins and make the meat more tender. Liberally salt the steaks up to an hour before cooking, then proceed according to your recipe.

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What is the best way to cook a medium rare steak? ›

Add your steaks to the hot pan and DO NOT touch them for 3-4 minutes. For a medium rare steak (135 F), flip the steak once the 3-4 minutes are up, and cook for another 3 minutes. For any other steak preparation, refer to your thermometer!

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Can you cook steak in an air fryer? ›

Preheat a 3.5-quart air fryer to 400 degrees F. Season the steak on both sides with a generous pinch of salt and several grinds of black pepper. Place the steak in the center of the air fryer basket and cook until desired doneness, about 10 minutes for medium-rare, 12 minutes for medium and 14 minutes for medium-well.

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Can you make cheap steak taste good? ›

Salt your steaks.

Yes, you read that right. The top-secret ingredient that makes cheap steak taste prime is salt.

How to cook a cheap steak medium rare? ›

For medium-rare – Heat a medium-sized heavy-bottomed frying pan over a high heat. Drizzle the oil over the steaks and sprinkle on the salt and pepper – massage the oil, salt and pepper into both sides of the steaks. Place the steaks in the pan and cook for 3 minutes, turning every minute.

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What seasoning to put on steak? ›

There are many spices available for seasoning a steak, with salt and pepper topping the list. However, other spices, like thyme, rosemary, garlic powder, and minced onion, are also good options to enhance your steak's flavor. Or, use a one-and-done approach with Chicago Steak Seasoning.

Learn More Now ›

How does Gordon Ramsay cook steak in the oven? ›

Cooking instructions

Preheat the oven to 180 °C and preheat a large frying pan on the hob.
Oil and season the steak.
Sear the steak on the hob until golden.
Transfer onto a baking tray and cook for 24 minutes.
Turn over after 12 minutes.
Rest the steak for 10 minutes.

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Is steak better in the oven or air fryer? ›

Air fryers are designed to cook quickly and evenly, giving you a perfectly cooked steak in just a few minutes. You also don't need to preheat your oven or wait for your grill to heat up, which speeds things up tremendously.

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Is steak better pan-fried or air-fried? ›

That makes the air fryer GREAT for cooking steak (and Air Fryer Hamburgers). The air fryer cooks food by blowing intensely hot air down and around it—an ideal way to always make juicy, tender steak that will have your family oohing and ahhing. It Cooks FAST.

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Do I put oil on steak before air frying? ›

Pat steaks dry with a paper towel. Rub with oil and season both sides of steak with crushed peppercorns and salt. Place steaks in air fryer basket so that they are not touching and there is plenty of room for the air to circulate between them.

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How to enhance the flavor of steak? ›

The best way to season steak is to add a generous amount of salt to both sides about 45 minutes before cooking. Then, just before cooking, add your other spices, like black pepper and garlic powder, ensuring that you cover both sides of the steak.

How to get the best tasting steak? ›

Steak cooking tips!

Bring to room temp! ...
Pat dry and season the steak generously with salt and pepper – this helps form that amazing crust we all know and love about great steaks;
Get your skillet SMOKING HOT before putting the steak in – again, for the crust.

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Jul 19, 2019

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What is the tastiest way to cook steak? ›

The number one spot goes to grilling, the classic method for cooking your steak. While great grilling isn't quite as precise as sous-vide, it leads to the best, purest-tasting steaks out of non-sous vide methods. This is because grilling uses the steak's natural fats and juices for flavor.

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What gives steak the best flavor? ›

Onion powder and Garlic Powder: These classic spices add umami and help to enhance the natural flavors of steak. Italian Herb Seasoning: I use something like McCormick Italian seasoning to add more herbs to the spice blend. Look for something with dried herbs like oregano, basil, thyme, and rosemary.