If you’re searching for round steak recipes that are simple and full of flavor, try these ideas. Start with tender round steak cooked in a savory gravy, then use it to create three unique and satisfying meals. It’s a time-saving way to make dinner exciting during busy weeknights.
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One thing I am mastering is to make the most of my grocery budget while creating delicious home-cooked meals for my family. That said, let me show you how to turn economical round steak into three mouthwatering dinners that everyone will love!
Round steak, cut from the rear leg of the beef, is a lean and budget-friendly cut that becomes incredibly tender when cooked properly. I’ve perfected a base recipe that transforms a few pounds of round steak into a versatile starting point for multiple meals.
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Why You’ll Love These Round Steak Recipes
- Versatility: Offers several ways to enjoy round steak, catering to different tastes and meal preferences.
- Budget-Friendly: Round steak is an economical cut that becomes remarkably tender using this method. The rich gravy stretches the meat further, giving you maximum value from your grocery budget.
- Flavorful: Browning the steak and making homemade gravy ensures a rich and savory taste.
- Smart Meal Planning: One cooking session yields three different meals, saving you precious time during busy weeknights. Just cook once, then transform the base dish into unique dinners throughout the week.
🍜 When you’re craving comfort food, there’s nothing better cooking quick, like simple beef and noodles. It’s easy, hearty, and perfect for family dinners!
Round Steak Recipes
Below is the recipe for preparing the round steak, and then you’re ready to make these three amazing meals that your family will definitely love!
Recipe Ingredients
- Round steak roasts
- Vegetable oil
- Beef base -I recommend Better Than Bouillon
- Onion
- Cornstarch
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How To Make Easy Round Steak
Step 1: In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil and add the steak roasts.
Step 2: Brown the steak roasts on all sides for added flavor.
Step 3: Use fresh diced onion, sauté them until tender, deglazing the pan with water.
Step 4: Add beef base (Better Than Bouillon) and mix.
Step 5: Roast in a preheated 325º oven for about 2.5 to 3 hours until the meat is fork-tender. Remove, slice 2 pounds of the round steak for serving, and cube the remaining meat.
Step 6: For gravy, use pan juices after cooking meat. Mix cornstarch with water, stir into pan until thick. Toss cubed round steak with the remaining gravy and freeze in two Ziploc bags for shortcut meals another day.
Recipe FAQs
Monitor heat closely, adjust oil quantity, and flip the roasts to ensure even browning.
It’s recommended to separate sliced and cubed meat with gravy before freezing for better reheating results.
Make sure to brown the meat well and cook it until it’s truly fork-tender – this usually takes 2.5-3 hours in the oven. If you can easily pierce the meat with a fork, it’s ready.
Yes, you can adapt this recipe for a slow cooker. Brown the steak roasts as instructed, then transfer everything to your slow cooker, adjusting the cooking time accordingly.
Expert Tips
- Slicing Tips: Ensure even slicing for the steak option and cube the remaining meat for the stew.
- Slow Cooker Option: Brown the steak as directed, then transfer everything to a slow cooker for 6-8 hours on low.
- Check In: Check for fork-tenderness around 1 hour.
- Prevent Charring: Monitor the heat and flip steaks regularly while browning.
- Make Smooth Gravy: Whisk cornstarch with cold water before adding to the hot pan juices.
My Favorite Round Steak Dishes
- Beef and Gravy: I’ll typically cook the beef and gravy base on a lazy Sunday. Then I’ll serve it cut like you would a typical roast over mashed potatoes. It’s old fashioned comfort food at it’s finest and my family loves the smell as it braises all afternoon.
- Beef and Noodles: Another night I’ll serve the beef and gravy beef bourguignon style with lots of cracked pepper over noodles with sour cream on top. The beef is already tender and flavorful. So all I have to do is warm it up, or thaw it if I’ve tucked it away in the freezer, boil some noodles and it’s ready to serve on a busy weeknight.
- Round Steak Beef Stew: The third meal you can make from the cubed meat and gravy is Round Steak Beef Stew. It’s a great shortcut for making beef stew. The beef is already tender and the gravy flavorful, so all you need to add is the vegetables and change up the gravy a little bit. Then you’ll have a quick homemade stew ready in just minutes.
Delicious Beef Recipes To Consider
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Easy Round Steak Recipes for Busy Weeknights
Ingredients
- 6 lbs round steak roasts top round, bottom round, eye of round, or sirloin tip round steak
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 6 cups of water
- 3 tablespoons beef base Better Than Bouillon*
- 2 tablespoons dehydrated minced onion or 1 large onion finely chopped
- Gravy
- ½ cup flour
- ½ cup cold water
Instructions
- In a large Dutch oven, brown the steak roasts on all sides in a hot pan with vegetable oil. Ensure thorough browning for added flavor. Add more oil if needed.
- If using fresh onion, sauté it in the pan with additional oil until tender.
- Carefully deglaze the pan with 1 cup of water, scraping up brown bits. Add remaining water, adjusting to almost cover the meat.
- Stir in beef base (Better Than Bouillon)
- Cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid and roast in a preheated 325º oven for about 2.5 to 3 hours until the meat is fork-tender. Adjust time-based on roast thickness.
- Remove from the oven, place ⅓ of the round steak on a cutting board, and slice into thick individual serving portions.
- Cube the remaining ⅔ of the steak.
- For the gravy, mix ½ cup flour with ½ cup water. Gradually stir into the pan on the stove over medium heat until it thickens. Adjust consistency with more flour mixture or water. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve sliced round steak in a dish, topped with ⅓ of the gravy. Toss cubed round steak with the remaining ⅔ of the gravy. Divide cubed meat and gravy, refrigerating or freezing in two Ziploc bags for shortcut meals another day.
Video
Notes
- Gravy is too thin or too thick? For thin gravy, mix 1 tablespoon cornstarch with 2 tablespoons cold water and stir into the simmering gravy. For thick gravy, gradually add beef broth or water until you reach your desired consistency.
- Freezing Tips: Separate sliced and cubed meat with gravy before freezing for easy reheating.
- For extra flavor, add mushrooms while braising the meat
- Let meat rest for 10 minutes before slicing for juicier results
Patricia
best recipe ever! So easy and tasty. My family loves it.
Judy
Lucky me. My mother used to make round steak with gravy and onions. She left me the same Magnalite cookware pictured in the receipe. I recognized it immediately, pulled it off the shelf and got busy. I have no doubt I used the correct braising pot.
Barbara Schieving
Hi July – that is lucky that your mom left you the Magnalite. It’s a great pan. Enjoy!
Janet
Uh I wish I could post a pic of my round steak meal. I followed all the directions and they came out like charred bricks!!
Barbara Schieving
Hi Janet – sorry you had trouble with the recipe. It sounds like you didn’t follow step 4 – Cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid.
D squared
<same thing happened to me
Barbara Schieving
What type of pan you did cook it in? if you’re not sure that the lid is tight fitting, you should check the meat occasionally to make sure you’re not losing too much liquid and add liquid if necessary. This recipe is a braise and you should never let the water evaporate to nothing.
Liz U
Thank you so much for publishing this recipe it is an old family favorite of ours of course my mother used to make it with the bone so you didn’t have to add bouillon and we always just simmered it on the stove for an hour and a half or more but either way it is always been my favorite meal and for the one asking how it taste it is fabulous it falls apart on your fork serve it with mashed potatoes and green beans and you can’t ask for anything better.
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Liz! So nice when we can recreate recipes that our moms use to make.
Seasons01
Can someone review this recipe… it has 4.6 stars but no one has explained if it is good. Yes it looks lovely. But taste??
Raquel
Since the butcher cut me a large round steak as the picture with the bone in round steak , will this cook the same time In the oven ,For the beef and gravy ?
Barbara Schieving
How nice! As long as it’s about two inches thick, the cook time should be the same.
Linda
I used to use round steak a lot. It isn’t as tender as some, although you can help that by cooking it right, but I love the flavor. The problem is, I can never find it on sale anymore. I lived most of my life in the midwest where it was easy to find and went on sale often (at least, back then). I think lived in Central America then moved to the American Southwest. As you say, you can’t find a whole piece anymore (sad – that bone was great for making bone broth) but the other problem is, it never goes on sale. I’m accustomed to buying bulk when there is a sale.
Is this a regional thing or does it just never go on sale anywhere?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Linda – my store will occasionally have it on sale, but not very often and never as cheap as it used to be.
Tina Stephan
I have three rounds teak family favorites also. I still buy rounds teak I believe schnucks still sells them.
These are crock pot recipes n they come out so tender they fall apart.
ROUND STEAK N GRAVY
1. 1-2 lb. Roundsteak
2. 1 can Cream of mushroom soup
3. Chopped onion
2 t. Minced garlic
I pkf. Brown gravy mix (optional)
Pepper
Mrs dash seasoning
Put round steak in crockpot. Add all other ingredients.
Cook on high if need done sooner, low for all day cooking.
ANOTHER VARIATION WOULD BE
ROUND STEAK
GREEN PEPPERS ( CAN USE ALL THREE COLOR PEPPERS IF LIKE)
ONIONS
Stewed tomatoes of your choice or diced tomatoesof your choice ( Italian or Mexican try adding grilled corn with this one.
Delicious easy family meals. Good with noodles too.
Garlic
Amy V
Do you know how many people this recipe would feed? There are 7 in my family and my children are all hungry boys.
Barbara Schieving
I had plenty for my family of six for three meals. So you should be able to get two meals out of it.
Narda
Make your roast, then before they come, put how much you want on each plate.
Put away the rest and serve plenty of sides, including biscuits, or plenty of bread, rice, noodles, cornbread, etc, and dessert, if you can.
Cake is a good filler. Cake mixes for $1 someytimes.
Mary Redeker
Trying to access recipes on this site is very difficult with all the pop ups makes it very clumsy to navigate. I am not likely to use this site again.
Marti
When you find a large, thick round steak, what size pieces do you cut it into before browning?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Marti – I have a large oval pan and usually I don’t cut the round steak before browning it or braising it in the oven. If your pan isn’t large enough to fit a 6 lb. round steak, just cut it in to two pieces and brown each pieces separately.
Barbara Bakes
CookingKing – Thanks for the feedback on my post! I'm glad your meal was delicious! Hopefully the stew will be a hit as well.
Cookingking
About to make a stew out of the frozen part I had from last weeks meal. The beef tips and gravy came out like how my mother once taught me, delicious. My wife is funny about reheated beef, but I doubt she will be able to complain. I just tried a piece as I broke up the meat in the pot and it doesn't have that cold steel flavor beef can get from reheating. Than again defrosting in a hot broth probably helped that. Hopefully I have found a successful use of beef left overs. Goal is to make a beef left over meal my wife will eat. Fingers crossed, since the prep time was small, and the ingredients are cheap.
Tim
It’s so important that the day or two old meat tastes like fresh cooked. I’ve got the beef down but have never been able to do chicken.
Any suggestions?
Barbara Schieving
I’ve had good luck with grilling boneless skinless chicken breasts, then dicing them and freezing them in individual Ziplic bags until ready to use. Kalyn’s got a nice tutorial on grilling chicken breasts http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2007/05/how-to-make-juicy-grilled-chicken.html
Barbara Bakes
Thanks Anonymous for the kind post. It made my day!
Anonymous
I was searching the net to a fun new way to cook round steak, but I found your blog instead. Instead of finding something daring to try I was inspired to bring back an old family favorite I have no idea why I have been ignoring this year. Thanks for posting such wonderful pictures and reminding my how simple, yet delicious round steak can be and be a comfort on a rainy day.
Healthy Food
it looks nice and yummy with gravy. i’m gonna try this one. thanks!
Sophie
I like how you found so many ways to use one cut of meat, and each one looks delicious–I’m really liking that stew!
Judy
Great idea to turn this recipe into 3 meals.
Netts Nook
Your round steak looks great. I just left you an award when you get a chance come and pick it up..
Carrian
Barbara, I am not sure why they are called monster cookies. Maybe because of all the different things going on with the peanut butter, chocolate chips, m&m's, raisins and oatmeal? We always grill or broil our asparagus. We don't love them shocked. We do olive oil all over the asparagus and sprinkle with lemon pepper. Then under the broiler turning half way through cooking. It took me a while to love asparagus, but this way is delicious.
Aggie
What great recipes! I don’t make round steak very often, I want some with some of your gravy!
Lynda
This looks so good- real comfort food! I love this meal and good round steak is hard to find in my store too.I’ve been trying to write some of my recipes down that are just in my head. It’s harder than I tought it would be!