A Southern Comfort Meal At It's Finest: Pioneer Woman's Salisbury Steak

I will be completely honest, this meal is not right up my alley at all. I tend to steer from large pieces of meat for meals. I'm by no means a vegetarian I just tend to go for the smaller meat portions. But hey, every now and then everyone needs a good hearty southern meal and this is one that will not disappoint! 

If you aren't a 'cook' don't be intimidated by the number of ingredients in this recipe. It really is a pretty easy meal to make and it is delicious! Since I'm already serving a meal that is gonna break the scale, HA, I usually just go ahead and serve the steaks with mashed potatoes and typically glazed carrots or another fresh veggie.

Pioneer Woman's Salisbury Steak

Ingredients 

Meat Mixture 

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef

1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
2 Tbs heavy cream

1 Tbs ketchup

2 Tsps dry mustard

4 dashes Worcestershire sauce

1 cube beef bouillon, crumbled

Salt and Pepper

1 Tbs butter

1 Tbs olive oil

Gravy

1 whole onion, halved and thinly sliced

2 cups beef broth, more if needed for thinning

1 Tbs ketchup

1 Tsp seasoning sauce, such as Kitchen Bouquet, optional. {I do not personally use this}

4 dashes Worcestershire

1 Tsp cornstarch

Salt and Pepper

Directions
For the meat mixture: Combine the ground beef, breadcrumbs, heavy cream, ketchup, dry mustard, Worcestershire sauce, bouillon and some salt and pepper. Knead until all combined. Form into 6 oval patties, and then make lines across the patties, with your finger, to give them a "steak" appearance (this is just for fun!).

Fry the patties in a skillet with the butter and oil over medium-high heat on both sides until no longer pink in the middle, about 4 minutes per side. Remove from skillet and pour off any excess grease. (If you use a good lean meat you won't have much if any grease)

For the gravy: Reduce the heat to medium and add in the sliced onions. Stir and cook until golden brown and somewhat soft, for several minutes. Add 1 & 3/4th cup beef stock, kethcup, seasoning sauce, if using, and the Worcestershire. Then combine the cornstarch with the remaining 1/4th cup beef broth and add to the gravy. Stir and cook  to reduce while thickening.

Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper and more broth if needed for thinning. Then return the patties to the gravy. Spoon the gravy over the top and let them simmer and heat back up for a couple minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

The Pioneer Woman Mercantile: First of Many Visits

Over Christmas break my mom and I took a road trip about an hour and twenty minutes north of home. We headed to Pawhuska, Oklahoma in hopes of meeting Ree Drummond, in search of finding the perfect must have pieces from the PW collection to add to our kitchens and with certainty of enjoying some mom and daughter time in small town Oklahoma!

 Image Credit: Rural Gone Urban

  Image Credit: Rural Gone Urban

By ten o'clock that cold December morning mom and I were standing in line with hundreds of others on the corner of Main Street and Kikhekah Ave patiently waiting to get inside of the Pioneer Woman's Mercantile! After an hour wait we were warm inside and shopping through all the fun merchandise in the Merc. Shelves and tables were lined with bright linens, jars filled with Carmex and working gloves, colored bowls stacked among coffee cups and dish sets and the most perfect leather jewelry collection. The Mercantile is a local gem that has a little something for everyone.

We shopped, we bought and we ate. Sadly, the line for the restaurant was wrapped around the building and down the street with a four hour wait. So Ree, we will be back! However, the line for the bakery upstairs was a quick mere ten minute wait so we headed upstairs to grab a lemon bar and a sticky bun for the road. As soon as we made it upstairs we turned the corner to be greeted by the Marlboro Man! He was the kindest cowboy in three counties and graciously agreed to snap a pic with my mom and I. He let us know that the Pioneer Woman herself was home sick which was a bummer but I was just as happy to get to meet her cattle rancher!

We scooped up our pastries and goodies from the store and headed out of town on a two lane back road headed south. It was such a fun day spent with my mom and Ree, you can take our money anytime because we will be back!

 

The BEST Chicken Pot Pie - The Pioneer Woman

I've had a craving for a good homemade chicken pot pie for a couple weeks now but since I'm watching my calories I hadn't given in...until last night. I decided I was just going to save almost all my calories for dinner and go for it and I am SO glad I did! I made the Pioneer Woman's chicken pot pie and oh my goodness it was delicious! 

Pioneer Woman's Chicken Pot Pie

Recipe used from FoodNetwork.com

Ingredients

•   One 2-3 pound chicken fyer, cut up (I used one whole shredded rotisserie chicken)

•   3 celery stalks

•   3 medium carrots, peeled

•   1 large yellow onion
•   4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter

•   1/4 cup all-purpose flour (next time I will use 1/3 cup to make it a little thicker)

•   2 cups low-sodium chicken broth or stock
•   1 chicken bouillon cube 

•   1/4 cup white wine, optional. (I used a house chardonnay and DON'T skip this, it made the recipe!)

•   1/2 cup frozen peas

•   1 cup heavy cream

•   2 sprigs fresh thyme
•   1 teaspoon kosher salt, or more as needed

•   Black pepper

•   2 pie crusts (She made her own thyme pastry that you fill find in the recipe link, I used frozen 

     pre-made roll out crusts)

Instructions

1. If you are cooking your own chicken: start by putting the chicken in a pot and covering it with water. Bring the water to a boil, and then reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 45 minutes, and then remove the chicken from the pot. Set the chicken aside to cool briefly. Shred the chicken with 2 forks, reserving the bones. For the stock, return the bones to the pot and boil for 20 minutes. Remove the bones from the pot and discard. (Since I used a rotisserie chicken to save time I just shredded my chicken first thing and then set it aside.)

2. If your crusts is frozen whether it be her thyme recipe crust or pre-made remove it from the freezer and allow it to sit on the counter to thaw slightly, about 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

3. Begin by finely dicing the onion, celery and carrots. Melt the butter in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots and celery. Saute until the vegetables start to turn translucent, a couple of minutes.

4. Add 2 cups of the shredded chicken and stir to combine. Sprinkle the flour evenly over the vegetables and chicken, and stir to combine. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring gently.

5. Pour in the 2 cups of chicken broth, stirring constantly. Stir in the bouillon cube and wine if using. (Again, I highly recommend using the wine. It made the entire recipe and really made it delicious!) The flour will combine with the chicken to create a delicious gravy. Next, add the peas.

6. Pour in the cream and stir. Allow the mixture to cook over low heat, thickening gradually, about 4 minutes. Season with thyme, salt and pepper and remove from heat. Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed.

7. I like my pot pies to have double crust- bottom and covered. So I rolled out one crust and stretched it across a large deep pie pan. Then pour the chicken mixture over the crust. Then roll out your second crust and lay it over the top covering the mixture. Press the sides down gently to seal and cut a few small slits into your crust.

8. Bake until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly, about 30-40 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before serving. (I also used a pie crust saver ring to ensure my edges didn't burn)

I can't recommend this recipe enough. The husband raved and raved about dinner, it was a complete success! Even with saving on time and using a rotisserie chicken and pre-made crusts we could not tell, at all. A lot of times I will skip on the wine if a recipe calls for it just simply because we don't drink dry white wine so I don't typically have it on hand but I'm so glad I stopped and picked some up for this recipe. It wasn't overpowering but definitely set it apart from other pot pies. Enjoy!

 

 

Oh and because we couldn't leave our fur baby Haddock, he had Rachael Ray's chicken paw pie for dinner with us! He also enjoyed it. :)