Homemade Salisbury Steak & Gravy

photo credit: spike55151 via photo pin cc

Do you secretly love those little gravy-smothered patties referred to as Salisbury Steak?  Yup, I'm talking TV dinners...  Its one of the Princess' favorite school lunches too and since she requested it for dinner one night I thought I'd try to make a homemade version (not sure I'd be safe to call it a healthier version but to me it tastes even better).

 Start with 2 pounds of ground meat - I used 80/20 ground round but you could do ground turkey or venison just as well.  Add a tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 packet of onion soup mix, 1 egg, and 1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs and mix well.  Form into patties one handful at a time.  They should be about half the size of homemade burger patties.  In a large skillet, put all the patties in one layer and fry over high heat until both sides are browned but the patties are not cooked through.  

Add 1 package of sliced mushrooms and sprinkle the rest of the onion soup mix and one packet of brown gravy mix over the top of the burgers.  Reduce the heat to medium and cover.  Cook about 5 minutes or until mushrooms start to soften.  Add 2 cups of water, flip the patties and scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen all the fried tidbits into the gravy.  Cover and cook about 10 minutes (stir and scrape the bottom occasionally) or until  burgers are cooked through and gravy has thickened.  I just served them with a scoop of the gravy and mushrooms on top with salad and sweet corn but these would be great served over mashed potatoes as well.  Start to finish this takes about 30 minutes.