Mom's Easy Baked Steak Recipe

Tonight, looking for something simple but hearty for dinner I turned to one of my favorite comfort foods--my mom's easy baked steak recipe. It's one of those wonderful recipes that turn out to be so much more than the sum of their parts.

It's so simple.

Beef Round Steak
Flour
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Water

We get a whole beef each year and split it with my parents, so I always have a nice stock of lean angus beef in my freezer. I thaw a package of round steak--probably around 2 pounds or so--for this recipe.

Mom's Easy Baked Steak

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

I first trim any fat off and cut the round steak in half if it's too large to fit into my pan--I use a stainless steel All-Clad saute pan that I can transfer right to the oven. I then salt, pepper, and garlic the meat generously on both sides, and dredge it in flour. I heat canola or olive oil over high heat and sear the steak on both sides, just to brown it nicely.

I add a cup or two of water right to the pan, cover it, and cook for about an hour at 350. Then, I lower the heat to 225 and cook the rest of the day, nice and low and slow. Every so often I check it to make sure the steak isn't drying out and add water, so I have a nice pan gravy brewing right in there. It starts smelling absolutely mouth-watering about half way through the cooking time, so be prepared to be starving by the time dinner rolls around.

I usually try to cook the steak for at least eight hours or so (a minimum of six and no longer than 10 hours). The key is to keep checking and adding water so the steak doesn't dry out. I like to serve it with standard comfort food staples like homecanned green beans (if you have them) or mashed potatoes.

For those of you who aren't around home during the day, I would guess you could do a version of this in the crockpot too, so let me know if any of you adapt it, and how it turns out. Happy cooking!