SLOW COOKER CUBE STEAKS WITH GRAVY

Today I am sharing a quick and easy cube steak recipe for the slow cooker – a delicious meal to pop in the cooker when you are looking for some down home comfort food and are pressed for time. Slow Cooker Cube Steak & Gravy! Easy to adapt, a meal the whole family will love.

I think my love for my slow cooker is pretty well known (well, at least to my family). It really is one of my most favorite kitchen appliances. It’s right up there with my stand mixer. It is the busy parent, busy worker, and beginner cook’s best friend. It can take a rather tough cut of meat, like what I am using in this Crock Pot Cubed Steak with Gravy recipe, and turns it into tenderness on a plate.

Crock Pot Cube Steak with Gravy is one of my favorite comfort foods. I love cube steak but all that work involved when you are making country fried steak is way too much trouble and time I don’t have.

This was easy to make. I followed the recipe as written other then I mixed all the ingredients and added them all to the pot at the start of cooking. I also used olive oil instead of vegetable oil as that is what I buy. This made for tender cube steaks that were tasty. Growing up in the 70s and 80s, my husband’s mom made cube steaks often and he still loves them today. Now that we are in Georgia with hot and humid weather most of the year, I will be utilizing my slow cooker more often trying to avoid heating up the kitchen – this recipe will be on regular rotation. A recipe that gets better the longer it cooks, with no attention from me, is the kind of recipe I need. It allows me to satisfy my boys never ending hunger and still get my work done! By the way, I don’t go outside and help unless the weather is nice! Yes, I am a fair weather worker and I can get away with it because I have endless farm jobs to do in the house!

Ingredients
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1/3 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper
6 (about 4 oz. each) beef cube steaks (I usually buy the family pack of cube steak, and cut them in half if the slices are really big-I don’t pay attention to the weight of the package, there’s always plenty of gravy)
1 Tbsp. canola oil
3 c. water, divided
1 envelope brown gravy mix (I use the reduced sodium brown gravy mix)
1 envelope mushroom gravy mix
1 envelope onion gravy mix
Hot mashed potatoes, cooked rice or cooked noodles

Directions
Spray the inside of a 3-5 quart slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. Place the sliced onions in the slow cooker.

Combine flour, garlic powder, onion powder and pepper in a large resealable plastic bag. Add steaks, a few at a time; shake until completely coated.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the steaks, a few at a time, and cook until lightly browned on each side. Place the browned steaks on top of the onions in the slow cooker. Pour 2 c. water over all. Cover; cook on Low for 8 hours or until meat is tender.

In a bowl, whisk together the 3 gravy mixes with remaining 1 c. water. Add to slow cooker; cover and cook on Low for 30 minutes longer.

Serve over mashed potatoes, rice or noodles. 6 servings.