Gluten free cube steaks in gravy. Easily paleo, keto, and Whole30 compliant, and all done in the speed and convenience of your Instant Pot!
While we have many standby foods in our family, I love to hunt out new and interesting recipes, weekly. I anxiously await the results of a new recipe with baited breath…it’s almost like Christmas for me….every time!!
Eons ago I stumbled across a recipe for cube steaks in the oven. It was total comfort food, and I knew I had to make the recipe work for our current dietary needs. I tweaked proportions, and of course made it gluten free, and then worked with it to make it in the Instant Pot in a fraction of the time!! I have since made these gluten free cube steaks low-carb too!
The result? One very easy and very delicious dinner. A family favorite!
Tender meat, savory gravy, almost no effort? What’s not to love?!
What are cube steaks?
Using tougher, leaner cuts of meat (read: cheaper!), cube steaks are sliced into thin steaks, then tenderized with a meat mallet.
Usually it is a round steak cut tenderized. Sometimes it is a labeled London Broil cut.
My butcher never has cube steaks on hand, so I either bring home round steaks and pound them out with my own meat mallet, OR ask them to do it for me!
It almost looks like hamburger when you are done!
Can I use a different cut of meat for this Instant Pot cube steak?
Absolutely! Cube steaks can sometimes be more difficult to find, so I have experimented with additional cuts of meat! I have only tested these in my Instant Pot, NOT the oven method. I am not sure the steaks would tenderize in the oven method since they are larger.
- London broil. but into 3″ chunks works awesome.
- Stew meat (usually cut from a chuck roast) will work too, not as lean.
- Top round (after all, cube steaks are generally made from these!)
You could also try this cozy Mexican birria de res stew with any of these tougher cuts!
Serving suggestions for gluten free cube steaks:
- Serve over rice, noodles, or on a bed of cauli rice or mashed potatoes. We love my rice-a-roni recipe!
- With a simple side of broccoli….perfect dinner! Grilled asparagus also great!
- Roasted new potatoes make a good side, or a baked potato too! Or this oven roasted potato chips make a great kid-friendly side.
- We have learned to LOVE cauli mash for a low carb side dish! Just make sure you don’t steam the cauli too long, or it will get watery and make the mash kind of thin was watery (bleh)!
- If bready rolls are your thing, these gluten free rolls might be just the ticket!
- These yukon gold mashed potatoes would make a classic accompaniment!
Are there paleo, Whole30, and keto cube steak variations?
- Paleo/Whole30– Use any grain free flour to thicken, I like cassava flour (not low carb).
- Keto/Low Carb – Leave the flours out entirely and you will have a thinner, but still delicious gravy! Just toss the steaks with the seasonings and a couple tablespoons of starch for the coating.
- Keto/Low Carb Option 2 – Tapioca starch (or any starch) is an acceptable replacement to use at the very end to thicken the gravy should you choose, 2 teaspoons mixed with 2 tablespoons water and whisked into the liquid at the end of cooking time. Alternately for strict keto, use 1 teaspoon xanthan or guar gum whisked into the sauce to thicken.
Want some additional Instant Pot recipes? Here are a couple to try:
- My Keto Instant Pot Bacon Cheeseburger Soup has so many delicious ingredients, your family won’t miss the buns!
- I recreated the Whole Foods carrot soup for this warming Thai Carrot Soup, popular!
- One of my most made and loved recipes: Creamy Dairy Free Pumpkin Soup
- As close to no prep as you can get: Instant Pot Chicken Adobo – Paleo, Keto, Whole30
- Here is one I want to try: Mongolian Beef
Instant Pot Cube Steaks Recipe:
If you make this recipe, please leave a comment below and let me know how YOU made yours!
Cube Steaks w/ Gravy
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup brown rice flour may replace with cassava flour, arrowroot
- 1/4 cup rice flour
- 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
- 1 teaspoon sea salt to taste
- 2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 pound beef cube steaks can be whole or cut into bite size pieces as preferred
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil
- 1 cups beef broth or more if you like extra gravy
Instructions
OVEN DIRECTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. ( directions follow)
- Preheat a pan to medium high for browning the steaks.
- Mix the flours and seasonings together.
- Press the cube steaks into the flour mixture, firmly, thoroughly coating each side. Reserve remaining coating.
- Add the oil to the preheated pan, swirling to evenly distribute. Brown the coated steaks, a couple of minutes per side until golden brown.
- Place the steaks in a oven-safe pan, I used both a pie plate and a small rectangle pan with success. In these pictures, I thought to use one of my Flexipans by Demarle...my husband was quite happy at clean up time...just wiped it out with some soapy water!
- Whisk 3 tablespoons coating mixture into the beef broth and pour over the steaks.
- Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until the steaks are tender and the gravy is thick.
INSTANT POT DIRECTIONS
- Use the sauté button (on high setting) to brown the coated steaks, I use a pan too so as not to crowd the pan and save time.
- Pour in the beef broth. Lock lid. Set to 'manual' high pressure for 15 minutes. Quick release pressure, remove lid.
- Remove the steaks and set aside Set to 'saute' feature.
- Whisk 2 tablespoons of the remaining flour coating mixture, or 1 tablespoon starch for low carb into 3 tablespoons water or cold broth. Whisk into the simmering liquid, and stir util thickened.
- Serve!!
Nutrition
You wrote set the instant pot to “manual”. Is this high or low?
Thank you.
Hi Andrea, I will add…it is high
Really easy weeknight meal. I am grain free so I eliminated the rice flour and only used arrowroot and I put the extra coating right in the pot and had a beautiful gravy after the 15 minute cook time. I did use a little extra broth because my non low carb husband had potatoes with his and needed extra gravy. He enjoyed it very much. Next time I will sauté a little onion with the meat. Definitely a keeper, thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it Kathilyn!
You used 2 kind of rice flour in the recipe. Can I use one instead and what’s better?
Looks so yummy! Can’t wait to try it!
The steaks look sooooo juicy and yummm!! It’s perfect for the coming grilling weekends and I’ve pinned to try soon.
Ooh these country cube steaks look delicious! I love that you have also posted a version of the recipe using the oven… I am probably the last person to get an Instant Pot!
I finally just got my own Instant Pot. I love how you can saute and pressure cook all in the same pot! This looks like a very nice, comfort-food dish!
I grew up on cube steak, rice, and gravy!! My dad made it all the time and yours looks so tasty!!
This plate is like a warm hug of pure comfort!
My first attempt ended with the notorious Instant Pot “burn” notice and wasted ingredients. For my second attempt, I made some changes. I browned the steaks, removed them from the Instant Pot, and deglazed the inner pot with chopped onion and splashes of beef broth until absolutely nothing was stuck to the bottom anymore. I added the steaks back but did not thicken the sauce with the rest of the flour mixture until after the cooking time, at which point I removed the steaks again, set the IP to saute, mixed some of the hot juices/broth with the leftover flour mix to make a slurry, and added the slurry to the pot to simmer and thicken. It really wasn’t as involved as it sounds, and the recipe came out great with these changes.
Thanks Ashley!! I’ve never had a problem with the way I wrote it, so weird!! I know all about that infamous ‘burn’ message, I have yet to see it on mine though! thanks so much for sharing your changes!
Our family loves this recipe! I got cube steak with an 1/8th share of a cow, and I had no idea what to do with it. And then I found this recipe, and prepared it since then many times. The first time I made with regular flour, last time I left out all the different flours to make it compliant with my whole 30. It was a hit either way! All my kids loved it (age: 9, 7, 5 and 2)
Thanks!
Mmm… Sounds like comfort food to me! Thanks for sharing it at Savoring Saturdays, Tessa!
My freezer died Saturday – and I had a BUNCH of meat that needed to be cooked. Cube steak was one – I basically followed your recipe except I used a different combo of g/f flours. Delicious.
Oh my goodness, this sounds delicious! My husband would absolutely LOVE this. I just may have to add it to the menu this week 🙂 We have gone 100% wheat/gluten free and so this is perfect!
Thank you for linking up to Wildcrafting Wednesday over at Real Food Real Frugal!
Your Cube Steaks are making me so hungry, they look delicious. Hope you have a fabulous week and thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
Come Back Soon!
Miz Helen
Yum! I would love to have you share this on The Creative HomeAcre Hop today 🙂
http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/02/the-creative-homeacre-hop-4.html
These look great! I have been looking for something like this, actually :).
I hope you’ll consider linking up at the Saturday Round-Up, the blog hop at A Joyful Mother!
http://ajoyfulmother.com/2013/02/22/saturday-round-up-a-new-blog-hop/
I think you and I are kindred spirits, Tessa! I’ve been thinking, ‘What can I do with all of the grass-fed cube steak in my freezer?’ Low and behold, you answer my question – yea! I will add this to my dinner plans this week!
Well there you go Angie…enjoy! Can’t wait to here what you think!
There is nothing like pastured beef, it always tastes better and is so much better for you too. I really like the sound of this recipe. Thank you for sharing it with the Hearth and Soul hop.