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
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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

Main Dishes
Beef Recipes
Dinner Casseroles
Beef Chuck Recipes
Winter Mains

Recipe Tags:

Tomato
swiss steak
entree
southern

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

What to Use If You Can't Find Swissed Steaks

What Is the Difference Between Salisbury Steak and Swiss Steak?

Tips for Making Swiss Steak Recipe

Feeling Adventurous? Try this:

References