A fantastic tried and true recipe that’s been a family favorite for over a decade – Best-Ever Beef Tips & Gravy! Easy to make, so darn good. Rave Reviews!
Best Ever Beef Tips & Gravy Recipe (Easy Prep)
Tender beef cooked in a deliciously rich brown gravy, served over rice, mashed potatoes or egg noodles – a satisfying, filling meal the whole family will love. Simple to make comfort food that’s easy to adapt to your taste!
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Original Post Date: Aug 17, 2017. Post Updated May 23, 2023
What You Need to Make The Best Beef Tips & Gravy (Full Recipe at Bottom of Post)
- beef stew meat, cubed
- vegetable oil (or canola)
- onion, chopped
- water
- soy sauce
- Worcestershire sauce
- garlic powder (or fresh garlic)
- salt
- fresh ground pepper
- brown gravy mix packet (.75 ounce)
- water
- red wine (optional)
- mushrooms (optional)
*For less salt/ lower sodium, leave out the teaspoon of salt and use reduced sodium soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and brown gravy mix.
How to make Easy Beef Tips & Gravy
In a large skillet over medium-high to high heat, heat 3 tablespoons of oil then add the chopped onion and cook until they are translucent, stirring occasionally.
Next, add cubed beef to the oil and onions, browning the meat on all sides – it will take about a minute on each side. After browning the beef, add 2 cups of water, Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce. Next add garlic powder, salt and pepper, stir well.
Bring to a boil then reduce heat, COVER and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
Last, in a medium size bowl (I use my measuring cup), add the gravy mix and 1 cup water, mix well then pour over beef – stir until well blended. Increase heat, bringing to a boil while continuously stirring – it is ready when the sauce slightly thickens.
Serve over mashed potatoes, white rice or egg noodles with your favorite steamed vegetable and salad.
This awesome recipe was found on food.com and has been a go-to comfort food on cold, rainy and snowy days for years. What’s so great, it’s a cinch to adapt to your taste and so easy to make.
If I have red wine in the house, I will replace water with 1/4 to 1/3 cup, and pour the rest in a glass. 😀 Fresh garlic is best, but garlic powder works well too. Mushrooms are also a wonderful addition.
You can make Best-Ever Beef Tips & Gravy in the Slow Cooker – Try the slow cooker version!
Frequently Asked Questions
The beef tips and gravy can be served over egg noodles, mashed potatoes, rice, thick sliced toast.
Serve with your favorite vegetables – green veggies are wonderful, like broccoli, asparagus, green beans. Garden salad, bread, garlic bread and dinner rolls make great sides.
These beef tips are even better the next day. Store leftovers in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3–4 days. Reheat leftovers in the microwave.
Yes! This recipe is great without red wine, but with it…so darn good. Highly recommend!
Want More Easy Beef Recipes Like This One?
Best Ever Beef Tips & Gravy (Easy)
Ingredients
- 2 pounds beef stew meat, cubed
- 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil (or canola)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cups water
- ¼ cup soy sauce (you can use reduced sodium)
- ¼ cup Worcestershire sauce (you can use reduced sodium)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder (or use fresh garlic)
- 1 teaspoon salt (omit to reduce sodium)
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
- 1 packet brown gravy mix .75 ounce packet (you can use reduced sodium)
- 1 cup water
- Eggs Noodles, Rice or Mashed Potatoes (to serve with beef tips)
Optional
- ¼ – ⅓ cup red wine – Use 1/4 to 1/3 cup of wine, replacing an equal amount of water with wine (1/4 cup wine plus 1 3/4 cups water OR 1/3 cup wine with 1 2/3 cups water).
- 8 oz mushrooms, sliced (fresh or canned)
Instructions
- In a large skillet over medium-high to high heat, heat 3 tablespoons of oil then add the chopped onion and cook until they are translucent, stirring occasionally.
- Next, add cubed beef to the oil and onions, browning the meat on all sides – it will take about a minute on each side. After browning the beef, add 2 cups of water, Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce. Next add garlic powder, salt and pepper, stir well.
- Bring to a boil then reduce heat, COVER and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
- Last, in a medium size bowl (I use my measuring cup), add the gravy mix and 1 cup water, mix well then pour over beef – stir until well blended. Increase heat, bringing to a boil while continuously stirring – it is ready when the sauce slightly thickens.
- Serve over mashed potatoes, white rice or egg noodles. Great with your favorite steamed vegetable and a side salad.
Notes
- 3 cups of water needed for this recipe. 2 cups are used in the beginning of the recipe – the last 1 cup is used with the brown gravy mix at the end.
- For less salt/ lower sodium, leave out the teaspoon of salt and use reduced sodium soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and brown gravy mix.
- Red wine is an awesome addition. I use 1/4 to 1/3 cup of wine – replacing an equal amount of water with wine (1/4 cup wine plus 1 3/4 cups water OR 1/3 cup wine with 1 2/3 cups water).
- Mushrooms are a great addition too.
- Make Best-Ever Beef Tips & Gravy in the Slow Cooker.
Cheree
This had a really good flavor and the meat was so tender! Next time, I will add seasonings to the beef before putting liquids in to give the beef a little more flavor. As readers said, I omitted the cup of water with gravy and just mixed gravy in with the simmering process. Overall this was great!
Sue Gallt
Beef tips melted in our mouth. Thanks for the great recipe.
Brenda
This recipe is a family favorite! I add the wine substitute, and reduced amount of soy and Worcestershire to a little less than 1/4 cup each as first time we definitely thought it was too salty. Added mushrooms. I do not reduce liquid but mix gravy mix with hot water. And I end up adding a little corn starch to thicken. I didn’t reduce total liquid because we like the gravy… just wanted to thicken it. These is one of my husband’s favorites.
Traci
After reading the comments I was worried about the saltiness and being too soupy. So here’s what I did and it came out perfect! Started by dredging the beef in 3 tbsp flour, 1tsp each garlic powder, mustard powder and paprika. Browned in pan. Removed and added onion. When done added the 2 cups water, low sodium soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Threw in some carrots and simmered for 1.5 hrs. Added mushrooms then sprinkled the gravy mix over the beef and stirred in. Simmered another 15 mins. It was perfect! Nice and hearty and not salty at all. Served over mashed potatoes. My husband said this will be on the regular!
Susan
How many servings is this recipe?
Kelli
So I got a little crazy since I didn’t have that much time and opted to use my instapot instead. Since there wouldn’t be the evaporation I only used a half cup of beef stock to cook the meat and cooked it on high pressure for 35 min. Like others it was still a little soupy after adding the gravy so I should have only used half the liquid for the gravy.
No matter it was delicious and will definitely make it again, my husband ate the entire pot.
Ann Lowsley
The beef tips are amazing! I would not use lean beef and leave out as much salt as you can, it does come out very salty if you don’t. Superb recipe!!
Casey
This was so good but like others said, it was way too soupy. Next time I will just pour the gravy packet in to the simmering meat and bring that to a boil to thicken, without adding 1 cup of water to the gravy powder. I also added mushrooms and served over white rice with steamed broccoli on the side. Husband loved it!
Carol Lyseng
This is fantastic. Followed the recipe except didn’t have packet gravy so I used a jar of savory beef gravy from Hienz. Never had beef tips like this.i will use it regularly.
Angie
I followed the recipe as written, but gave the meat a dusting of flour before browning. Everything thickened up quite nicely. Yummy recipe. Thanks!
Elizabeth Vaughn
Can you use teriyaki sauce in stead of soy sauce? And would it be ok to use worcheshestire sauce too?
Jessie
Personally, I would not use teriyaki sauce in this as it is pretty sweet and would give a total different flavor. Also, the recipe already calls for worchestershire.
Kaylee Gaultier
My family LOVES this recipe. I make it so often now. The only thing I change is an extra pack of gravy because we love it so much😂
Rebecca
Made these and they were wonderful! Very easy and so delicious.
Jeannine Meador
This looks beyond delicious and so easy for an elegant dinner. Going to the cupboard and if I have the gravy mix…dinner tonight. If not then soon as I can get to the grocery for the gravy. Thanks so much for sharing!!!! Being shut in as we are these days I run out of ideas for tasty meals so your site is a great hep.
Jeannine meador
I made these and oh my goodness this is the best recipe ever. I did it exactly as written…except I only had one pound of stew beef but that was okay as we like lots of gravy!!! Added the mushrooms…used the red wine. This is a keeper and a great family meal or for dinner guests…if we’re ever allowed to have guests again. 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing!!! Now I have to check out all your recipes!!!!
Patricia
Came out delicious! The only change I made was using one cup red wine and one cup water. Would make again!
Harriet Cook
This is delicious, but I suggest that 1 cup of the “2 cups water (or part water part wine)” be saved for the gravy mix. Adding in that extra cup of water with the gravy mix in it, well, I boiled and boiled that sucker and eventually, to get dinner on the table on time, had to mix almost 1/2 cup flour with a small amount of water and add it to the “soup” that 1 cup of water created.
As for “taking a minute” to brown the meat on each side…Don’t know what pan was used, but putting the meat in with the onions (which don’t get translucent on medium to high heat, but burn) on a lowered heat (so onions stopped burning) created a beef and onion swimming pool as the juices came out of the meat. Once all ingredients (except gravy/water) were together in a 6 qt pan I simmered it for 1 1/2 hours. The meat chunks were extremely tender and the gravy was very savory. We liked it a lot.
Next time I will do the onions to our liking first, remove to a bowl until needed, and saute the meat a pound at a time.
Terry
Thanks alot for the tip! I went over the recipe & was thinking, “that seems to be a lot of liquid for it to thicken!” Lol
Angela
So are you saying only add 1 cup to boil then another cut to mix the gravy packet?
Stella
I just tried this recipe. My husband loved it. It’s simple and delicious.
Christine
This is absolutely the best beef tips recipe I have ever used. DELICIOUS!! How can I modify the beef tips recipe for a crockpot?
Tabitha
i hope we can, i would love to try making this in a crock-pot.
Christina
This was absolutely delicious!!!! I added about 1.5 cups of Merlot..1/2 cup water to start…I also had to use cornstarch at end to thicken up a bit… but this was a hit!!!! Thank u
Alisha
Will sirloin steak instead of beef work with this recipe?
Kim
In don’t have the gravy mix but I do have it in a jar, will that work?
Emily
How do I make this in the crockpot?
Jennifer Tate
Really enjoyed this one! Very filling. loved adding mushrooms! Will make this one again!
Jody Postell
What’s the nutritional break down?
Mary Neumann
Jody, here is a great calculator to have on hand that can break down a recipe’s nutritional information.
https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
Linz
This looks like beef soup in my pan after adding gravy. Did I miss a step or is something wrong that it’s not thickening?
Amy
Mine did too