This Salisbury Steak Chili combines all the ingredients of classic Salisbury Steak for an easy, delicious meal that’s somewhere between a chili and a stew. Thank you to the Mushroom Council for sponsoring this post. Make the pledge to be a blenditarian and share what drives you to do better!

Anyone else grow up on Salisbury Steak? I sure did.
Salisbury Steak isn’t really a steak per say, but a hamburger patty. It’s made by combining ground beef with spices and is served with a brown gravy.
There’s a lot of variations to the dish. Sometimes onions or mushrooms are paired with the gravy. The meat patties are typically formed with breadcrumbs, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard. Canned French Onion Soup is a classic ingredient that’s also used.
To me, it’s a super retro comfort food. And, hey, it’s really easy.
While there’s nothing wrong with the traditional Salisbury Steak, I’m a big fan of reinventing classics.
Did you know the dish is actually over 120 years old? It has a pretty interesting story, too. It was created by the American physician Dr. J. H. Salisbury who was an early ambassador of the low-carb diet. Salisbury believed that too many vegetables caused poisonous matters to build up in the digestive system which led to ailments like heart disease, mental illness, and tuberculosis.
He created the Salisbury Steak, which he suggested be eaten three times a day.
Now, I feel like I am the complete opposite of Dr. Salisbury (focusing my diet on 75% vegetables and loving my carbs ♥), but to each their own. I do think the Salisbury Steak is pretty delicious!



For this Salisbury Steak Chili, I take all the components of your traditional Salisbury Steak but I make it a bit healthier, heartier, and more nutrient-dense.
This dish falls somewhere in between a chili and a stew. Just like Salisbury Steak, it uses ground beef. Its flavored with classic Salisbury Steak ingredients: onion and herbs (instead of canned condensed onion soup), tomato paste (in place of ketchup), Worcestershire sauce, savory beef stock, and Dijon mustard.
Then, it gets lots of veggies and additions to make a delicious, hearty chili. There’s carrots, garlic, diced tomatoes, and mushrooms.
My favorite kind of Salisbury Steak is paired with a mushroom gravy, so naturally there has to be tons of mushrooms in my Salisbury Steak Chili.
Here, I use mushrooms in two ways. Button mushrooms get finely diced to match the consistency of the ground beef. This lets me use less ground beef in this recipe while still keeping it nice and hearty. Then, portobello mushrooms get thickly sliced to add more meatiness and loads of flavor. It’s umami-central.
This recipe is inspired by my continued Blenditarian Pledge. As I talked about in my Beef Stroganoff Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms post, being a Blenditarian simply means incorporating mushrooms into your favorite ground beef dishes to create a recipe that is made up from half mushrooms, half beef. It trims the fat, cuts the calories, adds a generous serving of veggies, and is cost-effective. Not to mention, it’s better for the environment and better for your health.
It’s also my favorite way to make burgers now! (P.S.: if you guys have a SONIC® near you, you NEED to try the new Classic Signature Slinger which is just 340 calories and made Blenditarian-style with just three simple ingredients!)



If you love Salisbury Steak, give this Hearty Mushroom Salisbury Steak Chili a try.
It’s amped-up with tons of veggies, easier to make than a stew, and incredibly tasty.
Like traditional Salisbury Steak, this chili is low in carbs. It’s also simply packed with protein (47 grams!), and unlike the classic dish, it has a generous serving of fiber, too.
What are your favorite retro dishes, and how do you reinvent them? Let us know in the comments below! Make the Pledge to be a Blenditarian and share what drives you to do better. Plus, take the monthly Blenditarian Challenge and you could win $250!
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Hearty Mushroom Salisbury Steak Chili
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4-5 servings 1x
Description
This Salisbury Steak Chili combines all the ingredients of classic Salisbury Steak for an easy, delicious meal that’s somewhere between a chili and a stew.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 5 medium-large carrots, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 large portobello mushrooms, thickly sliced
- 8 ounces button or baby bella mushrooms, diced
- 1 1/4 pounds lean ground beef
- 3 ounces tomato paste
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 heaping tablespoon flour
- 32 ounces beef stock
- 1 can (14.5-oz) diced tomatoes, drained
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- Sea salt and pepper, to taste
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- For serving: additional parsley and Greek yogurt or sour cream
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a deep pot and saute the onion and carrots until softened. Add the garlic and season with sea salt and pepper.
- Make a well in the middle of the pot and saute the ground beef until browned. Add in the diced baby bella mushrooms and cook until starting to soften. Add in the thickly sliced portobello mushrooms and the tomato paste. Stir and cook the mixture for 2 minutes.
- Sprinkle the beef mixture with the flour and cook an additional 2 minutes. Stir in the Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Slowly add in the beef stock while stirring.
- Add in the diced tomatoes and thyme. Season with sea salt and pepper and let the chili come to a simmer.
- Let the chili simmer for 25-30 minutes, until the flavors have melded, all vegetables are softened, and the chili has thickened.
- Skim any fat from the top and stir in the fresh parsley. Serve the chili topped with additional fresh parsley and Greek yogurt or sour cream, if desired. Enjoy!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving (of 5)
- Calories: 401
- Sugar: 9g
- Sodium: 900mg
- Fat: 11g
- Saturated Fat: 4g
- Carbohydrates: 22g
- Fiber: 6g
- Protein: 47g
- Cholesterol: 100mg
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I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
Last Updated on March 15, 2018 by Tiffany







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