Slow cooker cube steak

Okay!  Hi, everybody!  Happy Thursday, the weekend is close!  I was heading to bed last night, and totally forgot that I didn't have a post set up for today...oops!  

So, I had this one on the back burner, for just such an occasion.  I grew up eating cube steak, but it was never a favorite dish of mine, since it usually is tough.  

A few years ago, I tossed some cube steak in the slow cooker, and I have never looked back.  This method of cooking cube steak always gives you cube steak that is so tender, you don't even need a knife to cut it with.  

Interested?  Let's get started!

Here's your grocery list for this one:

1 package of cube steak

1 can of Cream of Mushroom soup*

1 tsp salt

1/4 C water

1/2 Tbs dried oregano (optional) 

*Okay, okay, I know.  I always talk about trying to do things from scratch, however, at the end of the day, I am Southern, so my kitchen isn't complete without a can or two of Cream of Mushroom soup in it.  It is so easy to make your own soup, however, my husband basically guzzles this down, even though he doesn't like mushrooms.  Go figure.  

That being said, homemade is always better, so if you have some homemade cream of mushroom soup laying around, use it!

To get started, put the soup in the crock of your slow cooker, and stir in the water and salt.  You don't need much salt here, and sometimes I've put in 1 tsp of dried thyme or 1 tsp of dried parsley, it's up to you!

You don't want to add a lot of liquid to the soup mix, because as the meat cooks, it is going to release a lot of natural juices, and being that the slow cooker is closed, no liquid is going to evaporate out.  So, if you add a lot of liquid to the soup to begin with, it is going to result in a runny gravy.  Which will still be tasty, but not what you're looking for.

You want this to be still pretty thick, but just thinned out enough so that you can stir it around.  This is the consistency that you want out of this:

If you choose to add in any dried herbs, mix them in at this point, and lay in your cube steak.  

You can see here that there is some overlap, and that's okay.  As it cooks, the meat will shrink a little bit, and you can open the lid quickly, to stir the cube steak around a little bit, so that the gravy can cover all of the meat.  But, to start off with, it is totally fine to have some overlay of the cube steak.

At this point, pop the lid on, and cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 6-7 hours.  I like to take a fork, and move the cube steak around a bit every couple of hours, just to be sure that the meat is cooking evenly.

I like to serve this with some rice and lemon garlic green beans; my husband smothers his rice with the gravy!  This is a meal that comes together quickly, and, believe me, gets eaten even quicker!