Many sirloin beef tips recipes simmer the beef in gravy for an hour, but top sirloin is not a braising cut. It is a tender steak with little connective tissue, so long simmering only dries it out. The better way is to cut the steaks into 1 1/2-inch tips, sear them hard in batches, build a brown gravy in the same pan, and put the tips back just long enough to heat through.

You get beef that is browned outside and still juicy inside, in a gravy made from onion, mushrooms and the browned bits the beef leaves behind. Serve it over rice or buttered egg noodles. It takes about 45 minutes from start to finish, which makes it a good weeknight dinner.

At a glance: serves 4. Prep 15 minutes, cook about 30 minutes.

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PM Top Sirloin Steak

This recipe uses 2 top sirloin steaks, about 1 3/4 to 2 pounds in all, cut into tips at home.

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Gray Shipley, who runs the farm, keeps the seasoning on a steak short. Talking about seasoning, he said:

“a good steak doesn't need too much seasoning.”
Gray Shipley

A gravy recipe might seem to pull against that, so it is worth saying how this one is built. The tips get nothing but salt and pepper before they go into the pan. The gravy is not there to cover the beef up. It is made from what the beef leaves in the skillet, with onion, mushrooms, stock and a splash of Worcestershire.

Ingredients

2 top sirloin steaks, about 1 3/4 to 2 pounds total
1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt, divided, plus more to taste
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons neutral oil, such as canola or avocado
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups low-sodium beef stock
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, or 1/2 teaspoon dried
Cooked rice or 12 ounces egg noodles, to serve
2 tablespoons chopped parsley, to serve

Instructions

Trim any thick fat or gristle from the steaks and cut them into 1 1/2-inch cubes. Pat the cubes dry with paper towels and season them with 1 teaspoon of the salt and all of the pepper.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a 12-inch cast-iron or stainless skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add half the tips in a single layer with space between them and sear, turning with tongs, until browned on two or three sides, about 4 minutes in all. The centers should still be pink. Move them to a plate and repeat with the remaining oil and tips.
Lower the heat to medium. Add 2 tablespoons of the butter, the mushrooms, the onion and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Cook, stirring and scraping up the browned bits, until the mushrooms have given up their liquid and browned and the onion is soft, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic for 30 seconds.
Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir for 1 to 2 minutes, until it smells toasty and no dry flour is left.
Pour in the stock slowly, stirring all the time so no lumps form, then add the Worcestershire and thyme. Bring to a simmer and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, until the gravy coats the back of a spoon. Taste and add salt if it needs it.
Turn the heat to low. Return the tips and any juices from the plate to the pan and stir for 1 to 2 minutes, just until the beef is hot through. Do not let the gravy boil hard once the beef is back in. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the last tablespoon of butter.
Spoon the tips and gravy over rice or buttered egg noodles and scatter with parsley.

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Why simmered sirloin tips turn tough

Stew meat from the chuck is full of connective tissue that melts after an hour or two of slow simmering, which is why a beef stew gets more tender the longer it cooks. Top sirloin has very little of that tissue. It is a steak, and like any steak it gets firmer and drier the longer it spends past medium. That is why the tips here are seared first, set aside, and returned to the gravy only at the end. If you want the slow-simmered kind of beef tips, use chuck stew meat and give it the time. Beef Tips vs Stew Meat: What Is the Difference? explains the difference.

Why this beef sirloin tips recipe starts with steaks

Cutting your own tips from top sirloin steaks means you know which muscle is in the pan, and you control the size. Keep the cubes close to 1 1/2 inches. Smaller pieces cook through before they brown, and much larger ones need longer in the gravy than they should get. Cut away any thick seam of fat or gristle as you go, and keep the pieces about the same size so they cook at the same rate.

Getting a good sear on beef tips

Two things stop beef tips from browning: a wet surface and a crowded pan. Pat the cubes dry, make sure the oil is shimmering before the first piece goes in, and cook in two batches even if it feels slow. A crowded pan cools down, the beef gives up its juices, and the tips boil gray instead of browning. That brown crust, and the browned bits it leaves in the pan, is where the gravy gets most of its flavor.

How thick should the gravy be?

Three tablespoons of flour to 2 cups of stock gives a gravy that coats a spoon and clings to the tips without turning pasty. If yours is thinner than you like, simmer it a few minutes longer before the beef goes back in, or stir in 1 teaspoon of cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon of cold water and simmer for a minute. If it gets too thick, loosen it with a splash of stock. Why Is My Gravy Thin? covers the common causes.

More sirloin beef recipes

Top sirloin is one of the most useful steaks to keep in the freezer. Grill it whole and slice it thin for a steak salad, thread 1 1/2-inch cubes onto skewers with onion and peppers, or cut it into thin strips across the grain for a quick stir-fry. It is firmer than a ribeye, with less fat running through it and a clean beef flavor, and it is at its best cooked no further than medium. For how the two compare on the plate, see Sirloin vs Ribeye.

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 these tips are cut from steaks. Tips that are seared and then only warmed in the gravy are often still pink in the middle, which usually means they are below that figure, and the choice is yours. To reach the FSIS minimum, leave the tips in the simmering gravy a few minutes longer, until an instant-read thermometer in the center of a large piece reads 145 degrees F, then let the pan stand off the heat for 3 minutes. Refrigerate leftovers promptly and reheat them to 165 degrees F, the FSIS figure for leftovers. See the FSIS Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart.

Sirloin Beef Tips With Brown Gravy