Easy Budget-Friendly Family Dinner

Mock Swiss steak is packed with flavor and is one of my family’s favorite dinners. Add a veggie and rice or these honey mustard roasted potatoes, and you’ll have a delicious square meal.

I love how quick and easy this recipe is, making it perfect for a weeknight dinner! I’ve also found that this recipe works just as well with an inexpensive cut of meat as a pricier one, making a budget-friendly meal.

Ingredients

You only need a couple of ingredients. Here’s what you’ll need

• Any kind of steak
• Either Catalina or Russian salad dressing

*Helpful hint: If you purchase a tougher cut of meat, this recipe can be cooked all day in a slow cooker, which helps tenderize the meat. The only problem you might face is that it’s too tender and falls apart when you lift it out of the pot.

I’ve actually used zesty French dressing when that was all I had, and it turned out pretty good.

I also like to add Worcestershire sauce, although it’s not necessary. But try it because it’s really good.

Super Easy Directions

Spray a large skillet with nonstick cooking spray. Or you can use your favorite cooking oil. The main thing is that your skillet is oiled so the steak doesn’t stick.

After you brown one side of the steaks, flip them over and brown the other side. Dump the entire bottle of Catalina, Russian or French salad dressing over the steak. 

Pour 1 cup of water and a dash (or two) of Worcestershire sauce over the dressing and stir until the liquids are blended. One of the reasons these salad dressings work for this recipe is that they’re tomato based. You can add some diced tomatoes or leave the recipe as-is.

Turn down the heat and simmer until the steak is done according to your taste. I generally cook thinner cuts of meat about 15 minutes and thicker cuts up to 30 minutes.

Serve with rice and steamed green beans or your favorite vegetable. We also like it with broccoli.

Cook enough rice for each person in the family to have 1/2 to 3/4 cups. I like to cook a little more for leftovers.

If you’re someone who loves having a salad before a meal, then try this Mediterranean Salad.

Quick and Easy Mock Swiss Steak

This is a great family dinner you can serve often without anyone getting tired of it. In fact, I’ve been using this Swiss steak recipe for more than 40 years, and we like it just as much now as we did in the beginning.

Update: I made this recently with cubed steak. It basically tasted the same, except it had a slightly different texture. Although we like it more with steak that hasn’t been cubed, it was still good. I like knowing that I can use whatever meat is on sale.

I cook this on the stovetop most of the time. However, I have cooked Swiss steak in a Crock Pot and Instant Pot just to test it out to see if the other methods work. And they totally do! It’s delicious, regardless of how you cook it.

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