My most favoritest recipe in the history of forever

Pin It Some of you might remember this post over at Generation Q Magazine from way back in January.  Ever since that interview, I've had several people ask me for my beef tips recipe.  I told them that if they sit tight, I would eventually blog it for them.  I wanted to  make them again before posting my recipe on the internet to be sure they're as good as I remember.

Since they take so long to make, and time is my enemy of late, it has taken me this long to get around to making them.  It turns out that having a mystery illness that causes you to spend way more time away from work than you'd like, also opens up all kinds of time to remember how much you love cooking!

Let me preface this by stating that this recipe is all about personal preference.  I started working on the perfect (for me) recipe back in 2003.  It took me a few times of making them - and making adjustments - to get them just the way I like them.  I promise they will be the most tender, delicious beef tips you will ever make!
Here we go.

What you'll need
* 1 medium onion, chopped (I prefer yellow onions - don't make my eyes feel like they're going to shoot out of my head)
* 3 tablespoons butter
* Garlic, in whatever form you like.  Fresh minced, dry minced, powder, whatever.
* 2 lbs. stew meat (If you have a roast in the freezer, thaw it out and cut it up.  If you have steaks, cut them up.  For this batch, I bought two sirloin steaks, which I've never done before)
* 1/4 cup soy sauce
* 1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
* 1 1/4 cup water
* 1 packet dry brown gravy mix (yes I'm serious)
* 3/4 cup water

To start, slowly melt the butter (or whatever you prefer to use for sauteeing) in a LARGE skillet.  The bigger the better.  Add onions and sautee until tender and clear.
Add cubed meat.  Cook only until browned.  You won't be cooking them all the way through. 

Once the meat is browned, add the soy sauce, worcestershire sauce and 1 1/4 cup water.  Bring to a rolling boil, reduce heat to low.  Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally for two hours. 

Increase heat and return to a boil.  In a bowl or mixing cup, combine the gravy mix and 3/4 cup of water until mixed well.  Pour into pan and let boil for 10-15 minutes.  Reduce heat again.  The sauce will thicken as it simmers.  If you like a thinner sauce, use 1 cup of water with the gravy rather than 3/4.  If you like thicker sauce, let it boil a little longer before reducing heat.

And they're done!  Since these beef tips have a sort of Asian flavor to them, I usually serve them over rice with steamed broccoli on the side.  I will sometimes add some water chestnuts into the mix to give a little more texture.  For this particular batch, I had no fresh veggies, except potatoes.  So I served them over delicious garlic mashed potatoes instead.  Yum!

This recipe is also rather easy to adjust for if you need to feed more people.  I have doubled, and even tripled it before and it worked fabulously.  If you make them, please let me know what you think!