What We Are Eating - Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak

Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak
 adapted from Sidetracked Sarah 

At the beginning of the summer I mentioned that I wanted my crock pot to become my best friend this summer to help keep the kitchen cooler.  I've also wanted to try a recipe for a Salisbury Steak for awhile so this seemed the perfect fit and, guess what?  It was!  Talk about comfort food at its finest.  The flavor was perfect and the gravy was rich.  I think if I were to do one thing differently next time it would be to go with ground sirloin instead of ground chuck just to cut down the grease in the gravy.  In reality because of all of the seasoning in the meat itself, I might even try ground pork since it is super lean.  This would also be a fabulous Sunday-after-church meal because it only needs to cook for about 5 hours so I can throw it in the crock when I get up in the morning and it would be done by the time we got home and made biscuits ;-)  

• 2 Pounds lean ground beef
• 1 Envelope of Onion Soup Mix
• 1/2 Cup Italian Bread Crumbs (can use crushed crackers if you prefer)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 Cup milk
•  Flour (enough to dip your patties into)
• 2 Cans cream of mushroom soup (or use cream of chicken, like I did)
• 1 Package Au Jus mix

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, mix together beef, onion  soup mix, bread crumbs, egg, and milk.
2. Form beef mixture into 8 patties.
3. Dredge the patties in flour to coat
4. Brown the patties on both sides (You don’t have to fully cook them if you don’t want to since they’ll be cooking for 4 or more hours in the slow cooker, too)
5. Place the browned patties into the slow cooker, layering them if you need to
6. In a medium bowl, prepare the Au Juis mixture according to package instructions.
7. Mix in both cans of cream soup
8. Pour the mixture over the patties.
9. Cook on LOW for 4 to 6 hours, or until beef is done.