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This is the easiest and tastiest classic beef stroganoff ever! Cubes of tender beef seared with earthy button mushrooms then smothered in a rich, creamy stroganoff sauce are served over rice, pasta, or fluffy mashed potatoes. A comfort food classic that's perfect for cold weather and busy weeknight dinners!
Comforting, easy dinners have been my jam lately. These school days are no joke y'all, and nothing is better than easy dinners you can just throw in a pot and let cook after trying to teach your first grader addition for 3 hours.
My hats off to teachers, I don't know how y'all handle teaching 40 kids at once.
Beef stroganoff is perfect for weeknights since it's a fast cooking, rich and saucy dish that always gets devoured by the whole family and requires little babysitting.
Jump to:
What is Beef Stroganoff and where does it come from?
Beef Stroganoff is a dish named after the successful and influential Stroganov family in Russia. There's a legend that claims French origins, but the first known version of beef stroganoff is in a Russian cookbook called A Gift to Young Housewives back in 1871.
This early version was made with beef cubes, seasoned with allspice, and the sauce was simply roux, mustard, hot broth, and a little sour cream. No mushrooms, no liquor, and real simple.
Another Russian Stroganoff recipe from 1909 added onions and serves it with crispy potato straws, which is now considered the traditional way to eat stroganoff.
After Tsarist Russia fell, beef stroganoff made it's way to the US through Russian and Chinese immigrants and became super popular in the fifties (which also meant it went through plenty of good ole American changes like eating it over egg noodles and using cheaper cuts of beef).
So this recipe shows you how to make classic beef Stroganoff with a little change: there are delicious slices of cremini mushrooms and onions for a ton of savory flavor, cubes of juicy, tender beef instead of the slices you'll see in most modern-day stroganoff recipes, and an optional splash of brandy to keep it fancy. It all comes together really quickly, so it's perfect for weeknights and kids love it, consider it family approved!
If you're skittish about the alcohol, you can substitute beef stock in your stroganoff in lieu of it.
What cut of beef is best for stroganoff?
There's two ways to go about this: slow cooking a cheaper cut of meat like chuck or eye of round until they are tender, or keeping this a fast weeknight meal by using a tender, higher quality cut. Since this is the weeknight version, we are going with the high quality cuts today. Here are a few of my favorites to use:
- Top Sirloin. One of the more affordable, yet still tender, cuts.
- Beef Tenderloin.
- Boneless Ribeye Steaks.
- Beef Tips made from Sirloin
- Ground chuck also works great and cuts down on prep!
All of those beef cuts work for this dish. They're tender and don't require a long cook time, so they're perfect for this recipe. I personally used top sirloin, since it's much more affordable than using tenderloin or ribeye.
Making Stroganoff Sauce from Scratch
Making beef stroganoff is all about making a delicious, creamy sauce with lots of flavor. It starts with a bit of roux --which is a thickener made with butter and flour-- tossed with the onions and mushrooms, a dab of Dijon mustard (or whole grain mustard, if you want to keep it really classic), and some beef broth.
Letting that simmer and thicken with a splash of brandy and Worcestershire sauce and the cubed steak really lets all those flavors mingle and come together. Then add a hearty dollop of sour cream at the end so the sour cream doesn't have a chance to curdle. Season to taste, and boom! Dinner is served!
You could substitute the sour cream with heavy cream and the juice of half a lemon if you don't have sour cream, it'll do the trick. You could also use creme fraiche, which I have a recipe for, sour cream's fancy French cousin.
What to serve it with
In these photos I served my beef stroganoff over pasta because that's the way we like eating it, especially my six year old. But there are several ways you can serve stroganoff:
- Over rice, which is a classic variation
- Over crispy potato straws, another classic.
- Try it poured over crispy fries, it's really good.
- An American way to eat it is over egg noodles.
- With creamy mashed potatoes.
- Sopping it up with cheesy garlic bread is also a delicious idea!
- Add more veggies with some roasted or sauteed asparagus, green beans, a fresh salad, or any of your favorite greens!
How to reheat leftovers
Warm the leftovers back up over medium low heat on the stove, or in the microwave on medium-high power. We want to warm the food back up, not cook it; overcooked, chewy beef is not what we want!
How to freeze and thaw beef stroganoff
Place the stroganoff in freezer-safe portioned containers and seal well. I personally love using my vacuum sealer, because the bags can go straight into a pot of simmering water (or a sous vide) from the freezer to reheat without overcooking.
Defrost the freezer-safe containers in the refrigerator overnight then put into a saucepot to heat on the stove or into bowls for the microwave. Do not freeze the stroganoff with whatever you're serving (especially pasta!) just freeze the beef and sauce by itself.
Recommended Tools
- A Whisk
Like easy weeknight dinners? You love these:
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- Bacon Mushroom Tortellini, which is so good!
- Roast Spatchcocked Chicken with Potatoes and Lemon Garlic Pan Sauce, a one-pan dinner wonder!
- Soul Food Southern Baked Mac and Cheese (a viral legend!)
- Honey Chipotle Salmon, super easy and done in 20 minutes!
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Easy Beef Stroganoff
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 pounds boneless top sirloin, cubed into bite sized pieces
- 1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 4 tablespoon 57 g butter
- 8 oz pkg cremini mushrooms, sliced thinly
- 1 small yellow onion, small diced
- 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoon 16 g all-purpose flour
- 2 cups 473 mL beef broth, low sodium
- 3 tablespoon brandy, optional
- 1 tablespoon 16 g Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoon 10 mL Worcestershire sauce
- ¼ cup 61 g sour cream
- Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a high sided saute pan or dutch oven. Then add the cubed sirloin beef in one layer to sear, cooking about one minute per side. Season them with salt and pepper as they're cooking. Do not overcrowd the pan, cook the cubes in batches or else they'll steam and turn grey instead of sear and turn brown.
- After all sides have seared, remove the cubed beef onto a plate and repeat the searing process with the next batch until all the beef is seared and put onto a plate.
- Melt the 4 tablespoons of butter in the same pan over medium heat, then add the diced yellow onions and sliced mushrooms. Saute the vegetables for about 6-8 minutes, stirring with a heat-safe wooden spoon or spatula occasionally so they don't burn, or until the onions and mushrooms are soft and have gained a bit of color.
- Add the minced garlic cloves and saute them for 1 minute until fragrant. Add the 2 tablespoons of flour and stir constantly for another minute to cook out the raw flour taste.
- Whisk in one cup of beef broth, whisking constantly to incorporate the roux. It will get gloppy and thick and seize up, that's perfectly normal! It will loosen up as the broth is added. Once the first cup is added, pour in the rest of the beef broth, whisking quickly to ensure there are no lumps.
- Add the beef cubes back in, along with any acculuated juices on the plate, add in the brandy, Dijon mustard, and Worcestershire sauce, and let simmer for about 15-20 minutes, or until the stroganoff sauce has reduced and thickened somewhat.
- Reduce the heat to low and add the sour cream to the stroganoff. Stir it in well. Taste the sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste, serve hot over desired sides.
- Keep in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.
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