Make this old fashioned recipe in the slow cooker and enjoy a hearty meal the whole family will love.
Jump to:
❤️ Why you'll love it
- This slow cooker swiss steak recipe takes a cheap cut of beef and turns it into a fork tender, hearty meal.
- It's hands-off. There's very little prep time and then the slow cooker takes over.
- Leftover swiss steak is even better the next day. If there's not enough leftover for a full meal add some beef broth and turn it into soup.
Like salisbury steak, this is comfort food at its best - inexpensive, filling, and deliciously reminiscent of your grandmother's kitchen.
🧾 Ingredients
This is an overview of the ingredients. You'll find the full measurements and instructions in the green recipe card (printable) at the bottom of the page.
🔪 Instructions
This is an overview of the instructions. Full instructions are in the green recipe card at the bottom of the page.
Probably one of my favorite recipes next to a good pot roast, classic Swiss Steak is cooked slowly in tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrots, and celery.
- Chop the vegetables in large chunks.
- Sear the beef in a hot pan on the stove top over medium high heat. You can skip this step if you like but it does add flavor.
- Dump everything in the slow cooker for 6-8 hours or so
🥫 Storage
Store leftovers in the refrigerator covered with plastic wrap or in an airtight container. They'll be fine for 3 days or so.
Freeze for up to 3 months.
📖 Variations
- Some people like swiss steak to be on the creamy side. If that's you add a can of cream of mushroom soup.
- Use tomato soup in place of the stewed tomatoes.
- Use a different cut of meat - any of the budget cuts will work!
- If you use cube steak you don't need to tenderize it with the meat mallet.
💭 Things to know
Expert Tip: Skip dredging the beef in the flour and just toss it in the slow cooker - you'll lose some flavor but save about 10 minutes.
- Save time by buying the pre-chopped vegetables.
- Instead of making potatoes or rice to go with this make toast and serve it over the toast.
One thing I do a little differently is to add chopped Poblano or jalapeno pepper in place of the bell pepper. It adds just a touch of spice that I love.
👩🍳 FAQs
Round steak is most often used for swiss steak but you can also use a chuck shoulder steak or other normally tough cut of beef. The long braising time tenderizes it beautifully.
Swissing is another term for the process of tenderizing the steak before cooking - it has nothing to do with Switzerland or cheese! The original term came from a British term for describing how fabric is stretched between rollers.
You can make it in an oven or slow cooker - either is fine as long as it gets long, slow cooking on a low heat. There are notes in the recipe below for making swiss steak in an oven.
I like cubed steak the best. It's round steak that's been tenderized.
📚 Related recipes
- Slow cooker beef stew is another of our favorite slow cooker recipes
- Honey garlic pork chops are a delicious change from beef or chicken.
🍽️ Serve with...
Add mashed potatoes and some buttered and seasoned green beans or a wedge salad and you're good to go. Of course homemade rolls are always nice, too!
Here are 60 more ideas of what to serve with salisbury steak that work perfectly with swiss steak, too!
📞 The last word
If you're looking for an old fashioned family dinner this is the way to go!
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Swiss Steak
Print Pin Recipe SaveEquipment Needed
Ingredients
- 3 pounds round steak, or cube steak
- ¼ cup flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon Tony Chachere’s seasoning, optional
- olive oil
- 1 cup onion, sliced
- 1 cup celery, sliced
- 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
- 1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
- 25 ounces tomatoes, canned or home canned stewed tomatoes
- 1 cup carrots, sliced
- ½ cup beef stock, or water
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- ¼ cup parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Place the chopped vegetables, tomatoes, and garlic into the bottom of a slow cooker.
- Pound meat until thin with a meat mallet.
- Mix flour, salt, pepper, brown sugar, and Creole Seasoning.
- Dredge the meat in the flour mixture and rub it in.
- Shake off excess flour.
- Cut the meat in serving sized pieces.
- Add about 2 tbs of olive oil to a heavy skillet.
- Heat oil until it shimmers a bit then carefully add steak
- Fry until just golden
- Flip and fry on the other side.
- Repeat with all steaks. You may need to add a little more olive oil
- Place the steaks over the vegetables in the slow cooker.
- Add the beef stock to the hot pan.
- Stir and scrape the bottom with a spatula to get up any brown bits of meat that are stuck.
- Pour the stock over the ingredients in the slow cooker.
- Add Worcestershire sauce and cook on low for 8 hours.
Notes
- You can make this in the oven, too. Just put the ingredients in a baking dish instead of a slow cooker, cover tightly with foil, and bake at 300F for 2 hours.
- This recipe freezes well.
- Save time by buying the prechopped vegetables.
- If you buy "cubed" steak you won't have to pound it with the mallet.
- Skip dredging the beef in the flour and just toss it in the slow cooker - you'll lose some flavor but save about 10 minutes.
- Instead of making potatoes or rice to go with this make toast and serve it over the toast.
Nutrition Facts
Sign up for the emails and never miss another recipe!!
We'll never share your email or send you spam. Pinkie swear.This post was updated from the July 2009 version. Last updated August 20, 2022 for editorial content and readability.
marye kandzor
This is so very good. Everytime my grandson comes to visit I make this
I grew up with a version not as good as your recipe We all love this
old recipe.
I make this recipe everytime my grandson comes he loves it
We do too. I grew up with this dish but yours is so very good I use your recipe
Monica
This is not a classic Swiss steak recipe. You may want to rename it. Classic Swiss steak does not have jalapeños, olive oil, or Tony Chachere’s seasoning in it.
Marye
Feel free to leave those things out if you don't care for them. I think the name is fine the way it is but I'll take your opinion under serious consideration.
Grammy
This recipe does not remind me of my mothers. She was a meat and potato, no fuss-no muss, salt and pepper only cook. I truly appreciate recipes that meld the old with new spice combinations to make something great. I also always gravitate to recipes that include vegetables, for a one pot meal. I doubled the amount, made mashed potatoes, and we feasted on this terrific recipe. Thank you
Laila
Made this yesterday, delicious, and the house smelled wonderful. Love your recipes!
Marye
Made this for a grandson
He loved it and still wants it made when he comes
It reminds me of my Moms.
Excellent recipe
Denis O'keefe
Hello Marye
This comes to you from Australia (Down Under)
I Started following your recipes when I was looking to make some bread.
I follow all your recipes make some of them, and enjoy doing so.
I particularly like slow cooking and even play around with sous vide
One of the problems we have down here, is understanding what you call some things,
as they are literally "Foreign" to us but we get by with a little research.
One of the Major problems though is your bought mixes like Tony Chachere's seasoning
and a few others like Bay city that we don't have here.
It would be nice if you could give an idea of what some of these things are.
Marye
Denis - Thank you! It's hard sometimes to remember that all y'all aren't from around here. Tony Chacheres is a spice mix that contains cayenne, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and chili powder.
Dorthy Owen
I absolutely love Swiss steak! I cooked this as a Sunday fund raising dinner for our local senior center and everyone commented on how tender and delicious this main course was. We served mashed potatoes and green beans along with the steak. I used several electric skillets to cook the steak to finish as did not have oven or slow cookers enough for the job. Several ladies in town lent their electric skillets for this meal. We served a total of 125 adults plus numerous children. Needless to say it was a Hugh success ! I give it 5 stars easily!!!!
Marye
🙂 So good to hear!
Chris Casey
You asked for our favorite Dinner dishes; mine is Pork Tenderloin sandwich. I grew up in Iowa so pork was on the menu often. This sandwich is still very popular in the Midwest. Start with a 1/2" thick slice of tenderloin, pound to a fairly thin slice, dip in an egg wash and bread with Panko, and fry. The cook very quickly and are out of this world. I make them at least once a month.
often. This sandwich is still very popular in the Midwest. Is made by pounding a 1/2" thick slice of tenderloin tine, dipping the meat in an egg wash and the breading with panko.
Marye
That sounds amazing - now I'm hungry!