London Broil With Mushroom Gravy

London broil with mushroom gravy is a roast-beef dinner you can make on a weeknight. Salt the steak at least an hour ahead, sear it hard in a cast-iron skillet, and finish it in a hot oven. While it rests, make the gravy in the same pan with butter, mushrooms, shallot, a little flour and beef stock. Slice the meat thin across the grain and spoon the gravy over.

London broil is lean and thick, with plenty of beefy flavor and very little fat to keep it tender. That means three things matter more than usual: salting it ahead, not cooking it past medium, and slicing it thinly against the grain. Get those right and it is one of the easiest big pieces of beef to cook well.

At a glance: serves 4 to 6. Prep 15 minutes, salt at least 1 hour, cook about 40 minutes including the rest and the gravy.

Gray Shipley, who runs the farm, was asked how long he lets a steak rest before he cuts into it. His answer was honest:

“Not as long as I should. Really should go eight to ten minutes. I sometimes barely give it five.”

Gray Shipley

A London broil is where the full rest pays off most. It is thick and lean, and cut too soon it floods the board and dries out on the plate. Here the gravy takes about 10 minutes from the moment the steak leaves the pan, so making it is the rest.

Ingredients

• 1 London broil, about 2 pounds and 1 1/2 inches thick
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon neutral oil
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 large shallot, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, or 1/2 teaspoon dried
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups low-sodium beef stock
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• Chopped parsley, to serve

Instructions

1. At least 1 hour and up to 24 hours ahead, sprinkle the London broil all over with the salt. Set it on a rack over a plate and refrigerate it, uncovered.
2. Heat the oven to 400 degrees with a rack in the middle. Take the steak out of the fridge while the oven heats, pat it dry, and season it with the pepper.
3. Heat the oil in a 12-inch cast-iron or other oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Sear the steak until deeply browned, 3 to 4 minutes per side.
4. Move the skillet to the oven and roast until a thermometer in the thickest part reads your target, 8 to 15 minutes depending on thickness. Many cooks stop at 130 to 135 degrees F for medium rare; USDA FSIS sets 145 degrees F with a 3-minute rest as the safe minimum for beef.
5. Move the steak to a cutting board, tent it loosely with foil, and let it rest for 10 minutes while you make the gravy. The skillet handle will be very hot, so keep an oven mitt on it.
6. Set the skillet over medium heat and add the butter. When it foams, add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring now and then, until browned and their liquid has cooked off, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the shallot, garlic and thyme and cook for 1 minute.
7. Sprinkle in the flour and stir for 1 minute. Slowly whisk in the stock, scraping up the browned bits, then add the Worcestershire and any juices from the resting steak. Simmer, stirring, until the gravy coats a spoon, 3 to 5 minutes. Season to taste.
8. Slice the steak thinly across the grain, holding the knife at a slight angle. Spoon the mushroom gravy over and scatter with parsley.

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What is London broil?

London broil is the name of a way of cooking more than a single cut: a thick, lean steak cooked hot and fast, then sliced thin. In most stores the steak sold as London broil comes from the top round, at the back of the animal, though flank and sirloin have both carried the name. Whatever the muscle, it is firm, lean and full of flavor, and it rewards the same treatment.

Salt it ahead

Salting the steak an hour or more before cooking, sometimes called dry brining, seasons it beyond the surface and helps it hold on to its juices. Overnight is even better, and leaving it uncovered on a rack dries the outside so it browns faster in the pan. The guide to dry brining beef below explains how it works and how much salt to use.

Broiler or grill instead of the skillet

To broil it, as the name suggests, set the rack about 4 inches below the broiler, heat it well, and cook the steak on a foil-lined sheet pan for 6 to 9 minutes per side, checking the temperature from about 5 minutes into the second side. On a grill, sear it over high heat, then move it to the cooler side with the lid down until it reaches your target. The steak grilling guide below covers setting up the fire.

Either way, you lose the pan drippings, so make the gravy in a skillet on the stove. Start with the butter and mushrooms as in step 6. It will be a little lighter in color but every bit as good.

Getting the mushroom gravy right

Brown the mushrooms properly before anything else goes in. They give off water first and only start to brown once it has cooked away, so be patient. If the gravy is too thin, simmer it a few minutes longer; if it is still thin, whisk 1 teaspoon of flour into 1 tablespoon of soft butter and stir it in a little at a time. If it is too thick, loosen it with a splash of stock. The guide to thin gravy below goes through the usual causes.

Slicing London broil, and leftovers

Slicing makes or breaks this cut. Find the long lines of the grain, turn the board so your knife crosses them, and slice as thinly as you can at a slight angle. Thick slices of London broil are chewy even when it is perfectly cooked; thin slices are tender.

Leftovers make excellent cold roast-beef sandwiches. To serve them warm, slice them first and warm them gently in leftover gravy until they reach 165 degrees F. A hard boil will toughen thin slices of lean beef.

Food safety

USDA FSIS lists 145 degrees F, followed by a rest of at least 3 minutes, as the safe minimum internal temperature for beef steaks and roasts. Many cooks take London broil off at 130 to 135 degrees F for medium rare. That is below the FSIS figure, and the choice is yours. Check it with an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part, and reheat leftovers to 165 degrees F. See the FSIS Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart.