Chopped Steak With Grilled Onions

Someone I know always orders the chopped steak at restaurants because he is afraid it will be taken off the menu and go extinct if people don’t order it.  I’m not exactly sure where the concern comes from, but clearly the dish evokes a memory for that person that he doesn’t want to see die.

I think we all have certain foods that are connected to memories of a good time or a specific person and with the lapse in teaching cooking skills to recent generations, a lot of these recipes have literally and figuratively died with their keepers.

Thinking on this I decided to dig out some cookbooks and collected recipe clippings  my Grandma let me take when I cleaned out her garage years ago.

While perusing these recipes I realized that people my age (40) and younger rarely make these “old fashioned” recipes of our grandparents and great grandparents generation.  Why is this? The recipes are usually quite simple to make, can easily feed quite a few people, and most of all, are super affordable. It’s true that a lot of them are not the most health conscious but most can be easily modified to reduce fat, calories, carbs and sugar.

I have made it my mission to revive some of these recipes and make them a more common part of my cooking repertoire.

So I decided to revive A diner favorite The Chopped Steak, as a testament of support to my chopped steak advocate friend. It was simple to make, especially if you have semi decent knife skills, it cooked quickly, and it can be modified easily to be quite healthy.

Ingredients

• 2lbs Lean Ground Meat (I used Beef)
• 4 C mushrooms (half sliced, half minced)
• 3 Medium Onions (2 sliced, 1 minced)
• 3 T Fresh Parsley (minced)
• 2 Packets Onion Soup Mix
• 4 Cloves Garlic (minced) 
• 1/3 C raisins (minced) 

Once you get your ingredients prepped it’s easy from there.

First step, dump all the ingredients in a large bowl with your protein choice EXCEPT for the sliced mushrooms and sliced onions.

Next, mix it all together, with your hands, really, really well. After you get the ingredients mixed well, form 4 to 5 large balls of the mixture. Their size should be bigger than a baseball but smaller than a softball.

Then, allow the balls to sit on the counter for about 20 minutes.

I highly recommend using a cast iron skillet for this. I use a Lodge cast iron skillet, they are great quality and super cheap and produce some great meals.

Whatever pan you’re using, get it fairly hot. I used a little coconut oil to grease the pan, but butter or other oils are fine too.

Then, press the balls of meat until they are oblong and fairly flat, but should be about a ribeye steak size thickness.

This final step is simple, place patties on pan and let cook on each side about 10 minutes. I like mine a little pink inside, but basically cook them until you won’t get sick from eating them.   The outside should have a little crispness to them.

Remove patties from pan and place on a paper towel covered dish.

While the pan is still hot, and has the beautiful bits of meat and onions from the patties, throw in all the sliced mushrooms and onions. Cook until both are just softened but still have a little bite to them.

Top the chopped steak patties with the mushroom and onion mixture. Since it was Sunday I served them with mashed potatoes (because I think it’s sinful to serve meat without a carb on Sunday). On any other day the chopped steak patties can be served with a vegetable or even just a salad.

Tipsy Tip, adding minced raisins to chopped meat dishes adds a layer of flavor without adding salt and also helps retain moisture. The sweetness also helps neutralize the Parsley and Garlic. 

Anywho, off to tell the Chopped Steak Savior that I’ve joined forces to help revive this delicious meat icon.

Happy Eating!