Beef Tips Recipe

I made Beef Tips for dinner tonight and they were pretty tasty! I found the recipe over at allrecipes.com. It had 4.5 out of 5 stars as a rating, 388 reviews and 9,041 people had saved it. So, I was thinking this would be a good one.

Here is the recipe directly from allrecipes. The modifications I made will be posted below the recipe.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 pounds cubed beef stew meat
• 2 cups water
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 (.75 ounce) packet dry brown gravy mix
• 1 cup water

Directions

1. In a large skillet heat oil over high heat. Saute the onion until almost translucent.
2. Add the stew meat and cook on high heat until meat is browned on all sides; about 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Pour 2 cups water, soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce into the skillet. Stir in garlic powder, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
4. Meanwhile combine the gravy mix with 1 cup water. Mix thoroughly and stir into the meat mixture. Bring to a boil stirring frequently until slightly thickened.               

Notes:
*After reading numerous reviews, I omitted the additional salt and was glad I did.
*I didn't have quiet 2 pounds of beef, but it ended up being enough. I used bottom round because it was what I had/what was on sale.
*I used fresh garlic instead of powder, 1 clove.
*The dry brown gravy mix was 30% less sodium
*I let it simmer for a little over an hour and my meat was tender.
*When adding the gravy mix, I first added the dry mix to my beef mixture. After it thickened up a little I added a little water at a time. I probably only used about 1/2 cup. I think the full cup of water would have made it a little runny. Lots of reviewers mentioned having to add cornstarch to thicken it up.
*I served this over brown rice with a side of broccoli.
*I used 3 beef bouillon cubes in my 4 cups of water for the rice.