Dutch Oven Beef Stroganoff
This Dutch oven beef stroganoff recipe is another family favorite. It’s creamy and super flavorful and doesn’t use condensed mushroom soup. Instead it’s a combination of mushroom and beef stocks mixed with a roux to thicken the stew. Along with healthy amounts of sliced tender beef, onions, and mushrooms, this beef stroganoff is sure to be a crowd pleaser.
Quick note, the ingredients do call for flank steak, but any tougher, marbled cut will do (chuck, short rib, picanha, eye round, etc.). I’ve also provided an easy shortcut for anyone who wants to skip cooking the stew low and slow and wants to use a more tender cut of meat.
Get the Recipe: Dutch Oven Beef Stroganoff
Ingredients
Mushroom Stock/Gravy
- ¼ cup dried bolete mushrooms , (either Polish Borowik Szlachetny or Italian Porcinis)
- 1 cup water
- 3 tablespoons beef tallow or butter
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
Beef Stroganoff
- 1 medium sweet onion
- 16 oz white button mushrooms
- 8 oz baby bella mushrooms
- ½ tablespoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon marmite
- 2 teaspoons garlic, grated, (about 4 cloves)
- ½ teaspoon black pepper, ground
- ½ tablespoon tamari or soy sauce
- 1 anchovy, mashed into a paste
- 2 tablespoons neutral oil, split in half , (canola/vegetable/etc.)
- 2 – 2½ lbs flank steak, trimmed , (see FAQs for other cuts of meat)
- Mushroom gravy, from above
- 1½ cups beef stock , (low sodium if store bought)
- ¼ cup sour cream
Equipment
- 1 Small Sauce Pot
- 3 small bowls
- 1 Fine Mesh Strainer
- 1 cutting board
- 1 chef knife
- 1 microplane or fine grater
- 1 flat-tipped, wooden spoon
- 1 enameled dutch oven
- 1 Whisk
Instructions
Mushroom Stock
- The day before you make this Dutch oven beef stroganoff, start the mushroom stock. Add the dried mushrooms to a small bowl. Then bring 1 cup (240ml) of water to boiling temperature on your stove top. Once you see bubbles, remove the pot and pour the hot water over the mushrooms. Leave the bowl on the counter to let the mushrooms reconstitute. The water will become dark brown as this happens. It is best to let this sit for at least 12 hours, to get the best flavor. Once that is done, take out the mushrooms, squeezing them out over the bowl as you go. Pour the stock through a fine mesh strainer into a new container and set aside for the mushroom gravy.
Mushroom Gravy
- The next step is to make a thick mushroom gravy from a roux. For real, it’s a paste until the beef stock is added later, so don’t panic. (The roux can be made in the Dutch oven, but the enameled pot will need to be cleaned before searing the meat or you will be smoking yourself out of your kitchen.) I prefer a separate, small sauce pot for the roux. On a stove top, turn the heat to medium-low and add in the beef fat. Let the fat fully melt and then pour in the flour. Use a flat spatula or whisk to continuously move the roux around the pot for roughly 15-20 minutes or until the roux turns an off-white/blonde color. Then, pour the mushroom stock over the roux and stir continuously. The mixture will smooth out and turn into a thick paste/gravy. Take the pot off the heat and set it aside.
Beef Stroganoff
- Next, prep and measure out the rest of the ingredients. It’s important to have everything ready, as the steps go quickly until you add in the beef stock. Cut the flank steak into 1-1½in (2.5-3.8cm) thick slices and place them back in the fridge. Then, prepare your veggies.
- For the onion, chop off the top and bottom to create a flat surface. Set the onion down on one of the flat sides and slice it in half. From there, lay each half of the onion down with the centers on your cutting surface. Then, make vertical slices in whatever thickness you’d like to have in your final dish.
- To clean the mushrooms, de-stem them by pushing and then pulling the stem to pop them free of the cap. Once all are de-stemmed, run each mushroom under the faucet, rubbing your thumb over the cap to remove any dirt. Lastly, slice the mushrooms into ¼-½in (.6-1.2cm) slices. They can be piled into one big bowl and set aside.
- Now, measure out the salt separately and, then, mix the marmite, grated garlic, black pepper, Tamari or soy sauce, and anchovy together into a small bowl, until it forms what I like to call “umami paste,” and set that aside as well. Lastly, make sure the beef stock is warmed into liquid form.
- Retrieve the meat pieces from the fridge. Pat the pieces of meat dry with some paper towel and set them aside. Next, place an enameled Dutch oven or oven safe pot on your stove top and turn the heat to medium high. Once the pot is hot, add in the first round of neutral oil and let it heat up as well. Then, start adding chunks a few at a time. Don’t over crowd the pot or you won’t get a good sear. Sear each side of the beef, building up a nice crust around their outsides. If any browned bits develop on the bottom of the pot and look or smell like they are getting close to burning, pour some water, a bit at a time, into the pot where it’s getting dark. Scrape the fond (browned bits) up or move the meat around to collect it. Work in batches until all of the meat is seared and set it aside.
- Once all of the meat is cooked, add in the rest of the oil and then the mushrooms. They will release liquid as they cook and eventually start too brown, deepening their flavor. This should take around 30 minutes. When the pot is mostly dry, add the umami paste to the mushrooms, and scrape it around the pot with your flat-bottomed spatula for 1-2 minutes. The paste should cook and darken a bit before it also begins to stick to the pot.
- At this point, turn the heat to medium, toss in the diced onion and sprinkle the kosher salt over them while stirring and scraping. The onions will soften and release their liquid, to help deglaze the pan again. When the onions turn a bit translucent, 15-20 minutes, add in the mushroom gravy paste and the beef stock. Mix the stew until the liquid is visually smooth and uniform. Cover the pot with the lid and turn the stovetop down to low. The stew will thicken more once it starts to simmer.
- Next, either cut the meat into thin ¼in (.6cm) slices or chop it into small, bite-sized ½in (1.3cm) cubes, depending on what you prefer. From there, add the meat to the stroganoff, stir everything together, and add the lid back on. Let the beef stroganoff simmer in the Dutch oven for 2 hours. Make sure it does not come to a rolling boil or the meat will toughen up.
- The stroganoff is ready to finish with sour cream when the beef is tender to the teeth or easy to cut with a fork, but isn’t actively falling apart without help. Measure out the sour cream and add it to a large cup or small bowl. Very slowly, ladle some stew broth into the sour cream. Stir immediately and continuously, tempering the sour cream. Once the sour cream has enough broth that it is watery and very warm (most times I’ve more than doubled the volume of ingredients in the bowl) whisk it back into the Dutch oven, stirring constantly.
- At this point, just let the stew stay warm on low with the lid off while you cook a starch to eat with it.
Notes
- If you want to make homemade beef stock beforehand (also linked in the ingredient list), I suggest making it at least the day before. It takes about 8-10 hours to make in it’s entirety.
- If you plan to use store bought stock, I highly recommend using a low sodium stock and then salting to taste at the end. My stock recipe isn’t very salty, and it’s what I developed this recipe with. Safe rather than sorry, right?
- Not a huge fan of the texture of mushrooms? Simple fix. Blend the beef stock with the cooked mushrooms. Then, add them back in where you would add the stock to the pot. You might need to add a touch of extra water to thin out the stew. Up to you!
- If you want to braise the meat in the oven, 1.) use 2 1/2 cups (.6L) of beef stock and 2.) cook the stroganoff for 2 hours at 325°F (163°C) with a lid.
- Traditionally stroganoff is eaten with wide noodles. I prefer rice, but most any carb will do. 🙂 It’s also really nice to cut the richness with a green veggie, like peas, broccoli, asparagus, etc.
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions
If you do not plan to eat all of the beef stroganoff in one go, I recommend portioning out and/or freezing it into containers before adding the sour cream. Sour cream doesn’t reheat well after it’s been frozen. To reheat, cook on medium-low (from chilled or frozen) on your stovetop. If you reheat the stew to under 140°F (60°C), you can add the sour cream right to the stew and mix, otherwise temper. Sour cream splits at temperatures above that. (Remember, hot into cold, just like in the instructions). You should need around 1tbsp (15ml or 18g) per 2 cups (480ml by vol.).
My family and I usually make our beef stroganoff with flank steak. Though you can also use chuck roast, bottom or eye round roasts, picanha, brisket, or even short ribs. The best bang for your buck is going to come from a cut that is cheaper, fatty, and tough. They are meant for low and slow cooking. The more connective tissue in meat, the more flavorful the cut is. You just have to give it time!
You can absolutely skip the 2-hour simmer and shorten the day-of cook time. You’ll end up with a less beefy more mushroom forward stew, but you can absolutely make it. A faster Beef Stroganoff means a mushroom stew flavored with beef stock and steaks cooked separately, instead of in the stew.
Start with the mushrooms and work through the recipe. Then let it simmer, while you sear and cook a steak or two. When they are cooked to your tastes, set the steaks aside to rest. Deglaze the steak pan with stew liquid and add the pan sauce back into to the pot. Next, temper in the sour cream and cook your sides. When everything is ready, slice the steaks and top the stew with them. It should take about 90 minutes to finish the recipe (with pre-made mushroom and beef stock) for day-of prep and cooking.
Yes! Instead of simmering the stew on the stovetop, simply braise it in the oven. If you want to braise the meat in the oven, 1.) use 2 1/2 cups (.6L) of beef stock and 2.) cook the stroganoff for 2 to 2.5 hours at 325°F (163°C) with a lid on the Dutch oven. Because of the dry heat of the oven, it loses more liquid than on the stove top. So, the extra liquid is necessary.
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