Today’s Taste Testing Tuesday is a little different than some of the other ones we’ve shared here. Do you ever get tired of fixing plain hamburger and listening to your kids whine about “Hamburgers again?!” or that the burgers are too dry? Let me introduce you to Poor Man’s Steak or as we called it at home when I was little, Budget Steak. One thing I love about this recipe is that it cooks up so soft and tender and makes it’s own gravy when you cook it in a crockpot. 🙂
You will need 3 lbs. of hamburger, 1 Cup of cracker or bread crumbs, 1 Cup of water, some flour, oil for frying and 3 cans of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup. Break up the hamburger into a large bowl and add the cracker or bread crumbs and the water. Mix with a wooden spoon or use your hands. Spread into a large cookie sheet. Slap and pound the meat into the cookie sheet to compress it together. Put it in the refrigerator for a few hours or even overnight. After the meat has been in the refrigerator, take it out and cut it into equal pieces. I usually cut mine into 24 square pieces.
Place some flour in a flat bowl. No need to measure. As you take a piece of meat from the cookie sheet, place it in the flour bowl and turn to coat both sides in flour.
As each piece is floured, place it in a skillet with some oil in the bottom and brown each side of the meat.
If you would like to make your Poor Man’s Steak a little spicier, you can sprinkle your favorite spices on the meat while it is in the skillet browning. Sometimes I use some onion powder and garlic powder, but it tastes great without any spices added too.
After you have browned both sides of each piece of meat, it’s ready to go into the crockpot.
Have your Cream of Mushroom soup handy for the next step.
I like to make a layer of the browned meat in the crockpot and then add a layer of the Cream of Mushroom soup.
Continue layering the meat and soup until all the meat has been placed in the crockpot. It’s best to have some soup on top of the batch. Put the lid on your crockpot and let it cook on low for approximately 4 hours. When my mom used to make this dish, she used 2 cans of the soup but I prefer to use 3 so there is some extra soup that makes great gravy for on top of some mashed potatoes! Add a veggie and your meal is ready! 🙂
Poor Man’s Steak or Budget Steak is a great way to stretch some hamburger into something that seems like more than just burger! It’s always been a hit when I’ve taken it to potlucks or served it to guests in our home. I hope your family will give it a thumbs up too! 🙂
The Kids Niche 