Shawn’s Beef Stroganoff Recipe

I tweeted about my world famous beef stroganoff, and got a few requests for the recipe. The cool part is that the recipe is DEAD SIMPLE. And it always pleases. I got the original recipe from my Mom, I’m just a little more picky about the process. Here goes:

1 Bag wide egg noodles (whole wheat works, and tastes fine)
1 Can cream of mushroom soup
1 Package dry onion soup mix
1 16oz container of sour cream (low fat works good, fat free isn’t quite as tasty)
1 lb Beef. Any beef works, I usually use lean stew meat or steak

Procedure:

  1. Fill large pot with water for noodles. Start this first, as it takes the longest. In fact, go have a cup of coffee after you start the water, because if you start the next steps right away, you’ll be waiting for the noodles to cook.
  2. Heat thin layer of oil (I use porcini infused olive oil imported from Italy, but whatever you like) in a thick bottomed pan. Get it hot, so that a drop of water dances like crazy if dripped on it.
  3. Put cubed meat into pan. I cut into small bite size pieces. IMPORTANT: Do not stir! Let the meat sear to seal in the flavor and tenderness. After a few minutes of cooking, check the meat to see if it has a good searing on the pan side. Then stir up the meat and continue cooking on high flame.
  4. About now, your water pot is probably boiling. Add the noodles and stir them up. Let them cook while you finish the rest.
  5. When the meat starts to release its juices so that it looks like the meat is boiling, turn down the flame to medium low, and add the dry soup mix. (Don’t boil the meat, it will get tough) Stir up the meat/soup mixture until you get a thick slurry of yummy smelling goodness. Depending on the meat you use, you may have to add a little water so the soup mix dissolves.
  6. Add can of concentrated cream of mushroom soup. Do not add the can of water, just put in the concentrated stuff. Stir in with the meat/onion soup mixture, and heat on low heat until it’s hot. Turn off the flame, and see how your timing was. Are the noodles done?
  7. Drain noodles, return to pot.
  8. Mix sour cream into meat mixture. You want to wait until the last minute with this, because the fresher the sour cream is, the better the stroganoff tastes.
  9. I always mix the cream mixture into the noodles. It is the perfect amount for noodle mixing. If you prefer to pour the gravy mix over noodles on the plate, so be it, but your leftovers may not match up proportion-wise. You’ve been warned.
  10. Eat and enjoy! NOTE: Unlike most foods, while still delicious, it tastes best right after it’s prepared and not the next day as leftovers. Also, doubling or tripling the recipe works very well. Even though it’s not as good the next day, I always make WAY more than we’ll eat so I can have it the next day. 🙂

That’s it. You now know my super simple, super secret, recipe. Thanks Mom!

6 thoughts on “Shawn’s Beef Stroganoff Recipe”

  1. Now if I can just figure out how to split a can of soup, I can make it in proportions more suited to a single person living alone…sounds yummy!

    Reply
  2. This sounds like something I would have eaten as a child, along with tons & tons of tuna casserole. I’m going to bookmark this, try it with faux beef and see how that works. Thanks Shawn. Sounds really good!

    Reply
  3. I never thought of the cream of mushroom soup. I always saute the mushrooms, but yours omits a step. I will Have to try this. I wonder…..if we use recipe with the mushroom soup, but my method for steak, what will it taste like? I think it might blow our minds! It’s only slightly longer on cooking meat.
    Around mid-day, about 5 hours before dinner, I sear a cold, well-marbled chuck roast in a cast iron pan on all sides (incl fat on sides) to get the Malliard reaction going that gives steak that unbelievable taste. I use a liberal amount of Kosher or sea salt which has jagged edges which pierce the meat and helps that Mailliard reaction. But regular is fine.

    (To digress for a moment…One of the most important flavor-producing reactions in cooking is the Maillard reaction. It is what turns meat brown. It rearranges amino acids and certain simple sugars, so as to give the meat a brown color and most importantly it’s flavors and aromas. It should be called “the flavor reaction. The Maillard reaction occurs in cooking of almost all kinds of foods, but they have different sugars and amino acids present, that is why baking bread doesn’t smell like roasting meat. The trick is to sear or roast at temperatures high enough to dehydrate the surface rapidly — in other words, at temperatures above the boiling point of water. These two factors, dryness and temperature, are the key controls for the rate of the Maillard reaction)

    Ok, back to cooking. After high temp searing, I deglaze the cast iron pan with any liquid. any broth or water.
    Your recipe using dry onion soup mix would be added now. pan.with another cup of liquid. Not more.Then I put roast back in the pan and into a 250 degree oven. For a 3 pound roast, about 3 hours and a 4-5 pound roast will be 4 hours. It needs to cook low and slow to breakdown all that lovely collagen and connective tissue which gives chuck roast that unctuous mouth feel. Just walk away until much later. Go hit golf balls in back yard, clean out garage, etc.

    When time’s up, start YOUR #4 and boil water. Then take out roast and shred or cut into cubes. (I would cube it, but this recipes is awesome for beef tacos or meat pie too and you would shred in those)

    This would now go back to YOUR #6 put in cream of mushroom soup. But you can saute the mushrooms while roast is cooking if you’re idle. And yes, add sour cream to the pan, not individually.

    You can use this for pot roast of course. Just sear (yes, sear) the cut up potatoes and veggies and add them to pan 2 hours into the slow roast. I think I’m going to try this combination tomorrow if I can get the roast and egg noodles inin! Let me know if you try it and any changes. OK, I’m off to try making pizza dough using instant yeast today!
    Thanks Shawn!

    I think you would really enjoy this website. Explains the latest techniques.
    https://modernistcuisine.com/

    Reply

Leave a Comment