Chicken Salisbury Steak

While the total time to make this meal seems a bit long, the actual prepping and cooking process is fairly straight-forward. The chicken mixture can be made in advance as well which will cut 30 minutes of waiting off the time. Really, the wait time is probably not needed, but I like to give the bread crumbs time to hydrate.

I tend to go back and forth on whether to thicken the sauce or not. If serving this on something like mashed potatoes or egg noodles, a thinner sauce works well. But if serving alone, then I may add a thickener as described in the recipe, or let the sauce simmer longer. This just lets the sauce cling better to the meat instead of just spreading out on the plate.

One thing that I have done is to add frozen vegetables to the sauce along with the chicken and letting them steam for about 5 minutes during the final “warm-up”. Broccoli is a favorite for that, but I could see green beans or peas as well. This is a good one-pot way to get some vegetables in the meal without making something separately.

While I have not tried this, it may be possible to use ground chicken or turkey. This may allow you to skip using a food processor to break down the chicken. If doing this, I might mix the chicken and other items lightly yet fully using a couple of forks instead of my hands, (or if using my hands, make sure that I do no compress things too much when mixing).

Timings

Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 30 minutes
Wait: 30 minutes
Total: 1 hour 10 minutes

Equipment

  • Food processor
  • 10in skillet

Ingredients

  • 1lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut in roughly 1in pieces
  • 1/2C bread crumbs
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1t ground mustard
  • 1/2t black pepper
  • 1 1/2t soy sauce
  • 2t Worcestershire sauce
  • 2T ketchup
  • 2T butter
  • 2T neutral oil
  • 1t salt

Sauce

  • 8oz mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/2t salt
  • 4 (about 1/4C of the whites) scallions, dark greens separated and all sliced
  • 2C chicken stock
  • 2T ketchup
  • 1T Worcestershire sauce
  • 1T lemon juice

Steps

  1. Add the chicken, bread crumbs, egg, mustard, pepper, soy sauce, Worcestershire  sauce, and ketchup into a food processor. Pulse for a second around 20 – 30 times or until the mixture is roughly ground, scraping the sides as needed.
  2. Pack the chicken mixture into a bowl, cover, and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
  3. Form mixture into four rectangular patties about 1/2 inch thick. Season both sides of each patty with salt.
  4. Add butter and oil to a pan and place on a stove on medium-high heat until the butter is melted and starts to “spit”.
  5. Add the patties to the pan and cook about 4 minutes per side or until the patties are browned well. Remove the patties.
  6. Turn the heat to medium. Add the mushrooms and salt to the pan and mix well. Cook about 5 minutes or until the mushrooms are browned, tossing occasionally.
  7. Add the scallion whites and cook about 2 minutes or until they start to soften.
  8. Add the stock, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice. Mix well and bring to a simmer. Cook about 5 minutes. Check the sauce for seasoning and add salt, pepper, or other items as wanted.
  9. If you want to thicken the sauce, combine 2T corn starch with 2T water, mix, then pour into the pan, keeping things at a simmer and stirring well. Repeat until the sauce is about the consistency you like.
  10. Add the chicken patties and any juices to the pan, reduce heat to low, and spoon some sauce over the patties. Cover the pan and cook about 5 minutes or until the chicken is warmed up.

References