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This Instant Pot Cube Steak and gravy is made SO fast thanks to pressure cooking it in your Instant Pot! The beef becomes tender and the mushroom gravy is utterly divine!
What is cube steak?
- Cube steak is usually the top round or top sirloin cut of steak that has been tenderized by pounding it with a meat tenderizer. Sirloin steak isn’t usually the best cut of meat for tender steaks, so tenderizing it and flattening helps with the cooking process.
- Cube steak can be labeled as “minute steak” or “fast fry steak”. Those are thin pieces of tenderized steak that should be treated as cube steak for cooking purposes.
Which Instant Pot should I use to make Instant Pot Cube Steak & Gravy?
We recommend a 6 qt or higher Instant Pot such as the one pictured below. Certainly, this recipe should work with any kind of pressure cooker or Instant Pot but during recipe testing, this is the one we used. The 6 quart has a large enough capacity to make the cube steak and gravy.
You find and read about the Instant Pot on Amazon here if you currently don’t own one and would like to purchase it.
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How do you make cube steak tender?
- The actual name of “cube steak” comes from the indentations that are left in the top of the steak from the tenderizer! You can see a meat tenderizer in action and see the 7 best meat tenderizers if you are interested in owning one or just learning about them! I think if you made a lot of jerky one of those machines would be awesome!
- Cube steak has to be cooked a long time in order to be tender and succulent, but if you have the time and the patience the reward is one amazing beef dish! That’s why this slow cooker cube steak recipe is the way to go. Cube steak tends to be a cheaper cut of meat to pick up and a lot of people ignore it as they fast fry it and wonder why it’s as tough as shoe leather. Let’s face it, when the grocery meat department labels them “fast fry”, what else are you supposed to think about the cooking methods?
- Technically, minute steak is supposed to be different. Cube steak is cut thin and tenderized with the distinctive cube shapes indented in it. Minute steak is cut thin and pounded. I have actually never bought a minute steak that was tenderized properly and I think the problem lies in the fact that butchers just pound on a piece of sirloin and call it minute steak.
Is cube steak the same as ground beef?
No, cube steak might look like ground beef in some photos in recipes, but that’s only because of the indentations on the top of the steaks that sometimes show.
If you are looking for other Instant Pot Dinner ideas try:
Happy cooking!
Love,
Karlynn and Mike
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Instant Pot Cube Steak and Gravy
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 20 minutes
- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Course
- Main Course
- Cuisine
- American
- Servings
- 4
- Calories
- 688
- Equipment
- Instant Pot
- Author
- Fast & Slow Cooking
Ingredients
Instant Pot Cube Steak Ingredients
- 2-3 lbs cube steak 2-4 inch pieces
- 2 tbsp canola oil
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 large white onion cut into large chunks
Instant Pot Mushroom Sauce
- 1 10.5 oz can of cream of mushroom soup
- 1 .75 oz powdered mushroom gravy mix
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 10 oz can button or sliced mushrooms with brine
Instructions
- Whisk together the flour, salt and pepper and then place in a medium sized bowl. Place the canola oil in the bottom of the Instant Pot and press the sautee button.
- Dredge the cube steak through the flour mixture, coating all sides. When the oil is heated add in the onion and cook for 4-5 minutes. Add the cube steak to the frying Instant Pot, 2 pr three at a time. Fry until brown then place on a plate., Fry all of the steak until it's browned on all sides. .
- In a large glass measuring cup whisk together all of the mushroom sauce ingredients until the gravy powder is mixed throughout and dissolved.
- Pour the mixture over the cube steaks and onions in the Instant Pot. Place the lid on top of the Instant Pot and seal.
- Cook on Manual high setting for 20 minutes.
- Let naturally release for 5 minutes, then release safely using a tea towel to cover the release valve.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Made this recipe?
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Please rate this recipe in the comments below to help out your fellow cooks!
Kathy says
I really love this recipe and have made it 3 times the first time I did just as directions stated. The second and third time I sautéed the onions and steak on the stove and then layered in instant pot. Each time I made this recipe I got the message “food burn” and the onions were completely stuck to the bottom of the pot. I used both a non stick pot and the regular pot. Do you have any suggestions. Oh the third time I also added beef broth so the gravy was more liquidity. Great taste just continued to get food burn message.
Mike Johnston says
I wish I knew, I have never had a burn message on either of our Instant Pots but I do hear of people getting this all the time on the Instant Pot groups. Sorry I don’t know.
mt says
I haven’t had a burn message, but I think I’ve read that you are supposed to use whatever liquid you’ll be cooking with to scrape anything stuck to the pot.
Gail says
A couple of suggestions regarding the “burn” message. I always get the “burn” message when the meat is floured. Try browning the meat with just seasoning, no flour. I deglaze the pot with a bit of the liquid before adding the rest of the ingredients to the pot. I also layer protein on the bottom.