Strips of beef and golden mushrooms in a sour cream gravy, poured over a pile of buttery egg noodles. Beef Stroganoff tastes like it took all afternoon and takes 45 minutes. The beef only sears for a minute, then finishes in the sauce, which is the whole trick to keeping it tender.
Easy Beef Stroganoff with Egg Noodles
I didn’t grow up on beef stroganoff. I grew up on my mother’s Romanian version, which was almost exactly this except she made it with chicken, every single time, and would have looked at a package of sirloin like it had personally insulted her. So the first time I made it with beef I felt a little like I was getting away with something.
Here’s what it is: beef and mushrooms in a creamy sour cream gravy over egg noodles, all in one skillet. Rich, savory, a little tangy from the Dijon and the sour cream.
And if you want to make it the way my mom did, swap in chicken thighs. She also didn’t serve it with egg noodles but creamy polenta, yum!
The Secret to Tender Beef in Stroganoff
Sear it fast and take it out while it still looks a bit raw.
One to 2 minutes, that’s all. The beef goes back into the sauce at the end and finishes cooking there, so if you cook it all the way through in the pan you’ve cooked it twice, and twice cooked beef that thin is chewy.
I know it feels wrong to pull half raw beef out of a hot pan. Do it anyway. Trust me more than you trust your instincts here.
A couple other things that will help you. Pat the beef dry first, because wet beef steams and gray beef is sad beef. And sear it in batches with a little room between the pieces. I’ve crowded the pan plenty of times when I was in a hurry and it has never once worked out.
Then there’s the sour cream. Low heat, always. Sour cream will split if you let it boil and you’ll get a gravy that looks like it curdled, because it did. Ask me how I know.
Ingredients in Beef Stroganoff
- Beef sirloin or ribeye (1½ pounds, thinly sliced): A tender quick cooking cut. Sirloin most nights, ribeye when I’m feeling fancy. Slice it thin against the grain. Pop the beef in the freezer for 20 minutes first and it firms up enough to slice neatly, which saves you wrestling a floppy steak with a sharp knife.
- Salt (1 teaspoon) and black pepper (½ teaspoon): On the beef before it hits the pan.
- Butter (3 tablespoons, divided): One for the beef, 2 for the mushrooms and onions. Butter gives you browning and flavor that oil just doesn’t.
- Onion (1 large, sliced): Sliced, not diced. You want to see it in the sauce.
- Mushrooms (8 ounces, sliced): Cremini or white button. Let them sit for a minute before you stir so they take on a little color. They’ll release a bunch of liquid first and look like they’re never going to brown. They will.
- Garlic (3 cloves, minced): In at the end, just a minute. Burnt garlic turns the whole sauce bitter and there’s no fixing it.
- All purpose flour (2 tablespoons): Stirred into the vegetables for a minute. It thickens the gravy once the broth goes in.
- Beef broth (2 cups, low sodium): Low sodium so you can season it yourself. Pour it in slowly while you stir, otherwise you get flour lumps and a lot of regret.
- Worcestershire sauce (1 tablespoon): You’ll never taste it as Worcestershire. It just makes the beef taste beefier.
- Dijon mustard (1 tablespoon): Same deal. Nobody will say “oh, mustard.” It keeps the sauce from tasting like plain cream.
- Sour cream (½ cup): Full fat. Light sour cream splits more easily, and we’ve already covered how that goes. Room temperature if you think of it ahead of time, which I almost never do.
- Egg noodles (12 ounces): Wide egg noodles. Get them cooking while the sauce simmers so everything lands at the same time.
- Fresh parsley (2 tablespoons, chopped): Something green on a very beige plate. Dill is lovely here too, and more in keeping with where this dish comes from.
How to Make Beef Stroganoff
Season the beef: Pat the sliced beef dry with paper towels, then season it with the salt and pepper. Drying it is what lets it brown instead of steam, so don’t skip the paper towels.
Sear the beef: Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large skillet over high heat. Sear the beef in batches, 1 to 2 minutes, just until it’s browned. Give the pieces some room. It’ll still look underdone in the middle and that’s exactly right. Move it to a plate.
Cook the mushrooms and onion: Lower the heat to medium and melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter in the same skillet. Add the sliced onion and mushrooms and cook 6 to 7 minutes. There’s a stretch in the middle where the mushrooms dump all their liquid out and it looks like soup. Give it a minute, that liquid cooks off and then they brown. Stir in the garlic for 1 minute more.
Add the flour: Sprinkle in the flour and stir about 1 minute, until it coats everything and stops smelling like raw flour.
Make the sauce: Pour in the beef broth slowly while you stir, then add the Worcestershire and Dijon. Bring it to a simmer and cook 4 to 5 minutes, until it’s thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Cook the noodles: While the sauce simmers, cook the egg noodles according to the package directions and drain them.
Finish with sour cream: Turn the heat down to low, and I mean actually low. Stir in the sour cream until the sauce is smooth. Return the beef and any juices from the plate and warm it through for 1 to 2 minutes.
Serve: Spoon the stroganoff over the egg noodles and scatter the parsley over top.
The Best Cut of Beef for Stroganoff
Sirloin is my usual. It’s tender, it slices nicely, and it doesn’t cost what ribeye costs. Ribeye is the upgrade if you feel like it. More marbling, more flavor, more money. Tenderloin works too and is the most tender of the three, though I think it’s a waste of a beautiful cut when it’s going to be covered in gravy.
What you want to stay away from is chuck, stew meat, or anything labeled “braising.” Those cuts need 3 hours in a pot to go tender. Give them 2 minutes in a hot pan and they’ll fight you the whole way through dinner.
A tip for the slicing. Put the beef in the freezer for about 20 minutes first. It firms up just enough that your knife glides through instead of squishing it, and you get thin even strips instead of a pile of ragged chunks. Slice against the grain, which means across those long lines running through the meat.
How to Keep the Sour Cream From Curdling
Turn the heat down before it goes in. All the way down. Sour cream splits when it gets too hot. The fat separates out and you end up with little white specks floating in a thin gravy, which still tastes fine but looks like something went wrong. Because it did.
Three things keep it smooth. Use full fat sour cream, since the light stuff has less fat holding it together and splits more easily. Drop the heat to low before you stir it in, not after. And once it’s in, don’t let the pan come back up to a boil, not even a little simmer around the edges.
If you’ve got the time, let the sour cream sit out on the counter for 20 minutes first. Cold dairy hitting a hot pan is asking for trouble. I forget to do this roughly 9 times out of 10 and it’s still been fine, so don’t panic if you forget too.
Make It With Chicken, the Way My Mom Does
Chicken thighs, cut into strips, in place of the beef. That’s the version I grew up on. My mother has been making it that way my whole life and as far as she’s concerned, that’s what stroganoff is.
Cook the chicken a little longer than you would the beef, 3 to 4 minutes a side, until it’s cooked through. Chicken doesn’t get the same benefit from going back in half raw the way the beef does. Then carry on exactly as written.
Thighs over breasts here. Breasts dry out and this sauce can’t save them.
What to Serve With Beef Stroganoff
- Egg noodles are the classic and they’re what I usually use, but the sauce is good over most things. Mashed potatoes if you want something softer. If you’ve got some cooked rice, use it.
- Beside it, something sharp. The gravy is rich, and a green salad with a vinegary dressing cuts right through it. Green beans or roasted broccoli work too.
- Pickled cucumbers are my favorite thing next to this. That’s how it gets served across a lot of Eastern Europe and the sour crunch against the creamy sauce is just right.
- And bread. There’s always sauce left in the bowl and it deserves better than the dishwasher.
Storing and Reheating Beef Stroganoff
You can store this in the fridge for 3 days in an airtight container.
I like to keep the noodles and the sauce in separate containers when I think of it, because noodles that sit in gravy all night will soak up every bit of it, and you’ll open the container to find dry noodles and no sauce.
Most people wreck this when they reheat it. Warm it on the stove over low heat with a splash of broth to loosen it up, and stir it gently. The sour cream is already in there, so the same rule applies as the first time around. You can also use the microwave in short bursts, stirring in between.
You’ll need a small workaround to freeze it. Make the sauce and stop before you add the sour cream, then freeze it for up to 3 months. Thaw it overnight in the fridge, warm it gently, and stir in the sour cream with fresh noodles. If you freeze it with the sour cream already in there, the sauce comes out grainy when it thaws.
Other Recipes You’ll Love
- Chicken Stroganoff – This is the chicken one, if my mother’s version is what’s calling to you.
- One Pot Swedish Meatball Stroganoff
- Slow Cooker Beef with Mushroom Gravy
- Easy Beef and Onion Skillet (one pan dinner)
- Chicken Noodle Soup
- Old Fashioned Beef Tips and Noodles
Beef Stroganoff
Ingredients
- 1½ pounds beef sirloin , or ribeye, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 3 tablespoons butter, divided
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 2 cups beef broth, low sodium
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- ½ cup sour cream
- 12 ounces egg noodles
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Pat the 1½ pounds sliced beef dry and season with the 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper.
- Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large skillet over high heat. Sear the beef in batches for 1 to 2 minutes, just until browned, then transfer to a plate. Do not crowd the pan or the beef steams instead of searing, and do not cook it through, since it finishes in the sauce.
- Lower the heat to medium and melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter in the same skillet. Add the sliced onion and mushrooms and cook for 6 to 7 minutes, until softened and golden. Stir in the 3 cloves minced garlic for 1 minute more.
- Sprinkle in the 2 tablespoons flour and stir for 1 minute, until it coats the vegetables and loses its raw smell.
- Slowly pour in the 2 cups beef broth while stirring, then add the 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce and 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard. Bring to a simmer and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Meanwhile, cook the 12 ounces egg noodles according to the package directions, then drain.
- Reduce the heat to low and stir in the ½ cup sour cream until smooth. Return the beef and any juices to the skillet and warm through for 1 to 2 minutes. Do not let it boil once the sour cream is in, or it can curdle.
- Serve the stroganoff over the egg noodles, sprinkled with the 2 tablespoons parsley.
Recipe Notes
- Best cuts. Sirloin, ribeye, or tenderloin. Avoid chuck or stew meat, which need long slow cooking to go tender.
- Slicing. Freeze the beef for 20 minutes before slicing, then cut thin strips against the grain.
- Pat it dry. Wet beef steams instead of browning.
- Sear in batches. A crowded pan drops the heat and the beef turns gray.
- Pull the beef early. It finishes in the sauce, so take it out while it still looks underdone.
- Sour cream. Full fat, heat turned all the way down, and no boiling once it’s in. Room temperature sour cream splits less easily.
- Chicken version. Chicken thighs cut into strips in place of the beef, cooked 3 to 4 minutes a side until cooked through.
- Storage. Fridge up to 3 days in an airtight container, noodles stored separately if possible. Reheat gently with a splash of broth. To freeze, leave out the sour cream and stir it in when you reheat.
Nutrition Information
Yes, you can. Heavy cream gives you a milder, richer sauce without the tang, and cream cheese thinned with a little broth works too. Greek yogurt is the closest match for the flavor, but it splits more easily, so stir it in with the pan completely off the heat.
It started in Russia in the 1800s, and it was named after the Stroganov family. The version most of us eat now, with mushrooms and egg noodles, is what it turned into as it traveled around. The Romanian version I grew up with is another branch of the same family tree.
You can, and it’s lovely. Add a splash of dry white wine after the mushrooms and cook it down until it’s almost gone, then pour in the broth.
It probably needs a few more minutes at a simmer before the sour cream goes in. The sauce should coat the back of a spoon when it’s ready, and it will thicken a bit more as it sits on the plate.
You can, but I would sear the beef in even more batches than usual. If you double the beef in the same pan, it will steam instead of browning.
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