A few months ago, we bought a meat bundle from our local butcher, and since we’ve been stuck at home, it’s been nice to enjoy.
We’ve made roasts and steaks and dinners with ground beef, but I still had a few packages of tenderized round steak that I decided I needed to be creative with—mostly because I haven’t worked with that cut very often over the years.
I know round steak is perfect for chicken fried steaks, but I decided I wanted to try something different and stumbled upon a recipe from Emeril Lagasse that a blogger posted to her site. It sounded awesome, so while Joey and I listened to an audio book, I chopped and sauteed my way to a great dinner.
I will warn you that this has a good amount of heat to it, so if you’re not a fan of spicy dishes, I’d suggest leaving the cayenne out of this one.
This is from the blog “Butter Yum.” You can find the original post at https://www.butteryum.org/blog/2014/03/emerils-onion-and-pepper-smothered.html. I didn’t change much but upping the herbs and spices just a little bit.
Onion and Pepper Smothered Round Steak
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 3 teaspoons paprika
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 rounded teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 rounded teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 rounded teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 rounded teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 1/2 pounds round steak sliced into 1/4-inch thick slices
- 1/4 cup oil vegetable or canola
- 3 cups chicken broth or stock
- 1 medium-sized yellow onion sliced into 1/4-inch thick slices
- 3 large bell peppers any color, , sliced into 1/4-inch thick slices
- 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- more salt and pepper to taste
- cooked rice or buttered pasta for serving
Instructions
- Combine the flour, paprika, salt, garlic powder, black pepper, onion powder, cayenne pepper, oregano, and thyme and add it along with the sliced steak to a large bowl. Stir it coat the steak in the flour mixture.
- In a large, deep pan or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the steak in batches, sauteing for about two or three minutes on each side and then transferring the cooked steak to a separate plate.
- Once all the steak is cooked through, add the rest of the flour mixture to the pot, along with the chicken broth, scraping the bottom of the pan to get any stuck on bits mixed in, and bring the pot up to a boil.
- Now add the onions and bell peppers, stirring frequently, and let them cook for about eight minutes.
- Turn the heat down to low and add the steak and any juices from the plate back into the pot.
- Let the mixture simmer for about one hour, stirring regularly. If the liquid level gets too low, add a little water. If, by the time your hour is up, you still have a lot of liquid, whisk in some flour to thicken it up a bit. Your end goal is to have a gravy consistency.
- Once the vegetables are cooked through and the sauce is done, add the Worcestershire sauce and more salt and pepper, if necessary.
- Serve it over rice or buttered pasta.
Joey and I were both pretty skeptical about this, just because we’ve never had a dish like this one before, but boy, was it delicious.
It made more than enough for us to put plenty of leftovers into the fridge, too, which was nice. We opted for some spaghetti noodles under our round steak, and the recipe author also suggests rice, but I also think mashed potatoes would be good.
And I’m super excited that I have another great way to use round steak going forward, although I don’t think I’ll be giving up chicken fried steak any time soon. It’s pretty tough to give up those old classics.
This piece first appeared in print on April 30, 2020.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.