Classic chipped beef served on toast – one of my favorite lunches when I was a kid.
A while back, I shared a photo on Instagram and Twitter and was blown away by all the feedback I received about it! My favorite being this one: “Yum is right! Brings memories of home and love and comfort and security.”
Who knew there was such an adoration for this classic and simple dish?
Now, some people refer to it as “creamed beef” or even “S.O.S.” (💩on a Shingle) – but I grew up calling it Chipped Beef.
The SOS term often refers to the staple dish served in mess halls/chow halls at military installations all over. Normally that is made with ground beef rather than the dried beef I use here. Whatever you call it or however you like it – here’s one of my favorite childhood weekend meals.
To Make Chipped Beef You Will Need:
- dried beef
- butter
- al purpose flour
- milk
- freshly ground black pepper
- sauce pan
- whisk
- knife and cutting board
- toast or biscuits for serving
Watch me make This Recipe:
To begin, rough chop some dried beef. Place it in a small colander or sieve and rinse under cold water. Set aside for now.
In a saucepan, melt unsalted butter. Whisk in all-purpose flour. Let it bubble for just a minute.
Pour in milk while whisking. Stirring continually, cook over medium heat until it comes to a gentle boil and thickens into a beautiful gravy.
Add in freshly ground black pepper.
Add in the dried beef and stir.
Let it cook for just a minute to heat the beef through.
Serve on toast. Or, if you want to go that route…you could serve this on biscuits as well. I grew up eating it on toast, so that is the only way I serve it in my house.
Enjoy!
Did you Make this Recipe? I’d love for you to give me a 5 star rating in the recipe card below. If you share it on Instagram, please tag me!
Chipped Beef
Ingredients
- 1 jar dried beef, about 4 ounces
- 5 Tb unsalted butter
- ½ c flour
- 4 c milk
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- Several slices of toast
Instructions
- To begin, dried beef is highly salted and you really don’t want all of that in your food. Rough chop the beef, then set it in a small colander or sieve to rinse under cold water. Set aside for now.
- In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for a minute until the mixture bubbles.
- Whisk in the milk and heat this while continually stirring until it comes to a boil and is nice and thick.
- Remove it from heat and stir in the black pepper and then stir in the chopped dried beef.
- Serve over toast.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition
If nutritional values are provided for this recipe, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands of ingredients you use. The values do not include optional ingredients or when ingredients are added to taste or for serving. If nutritional values are very important to you, I suggest using your favorite nutritional calculating tool with the brands you use.
This post was originally written in 2015 and has been updated with new photos and a cooking video.
When I was a child, we always added a few hard boiled sliced eggs to our chipped beef gravy. Maybe that was in order to stretch the recipe to feed seven of us. Your recipe is perfect as is though. So yummy.
One of my absolute favorites! I cut mine pretty fine though and sauté it in the butter, sprinkle the flour over it and whisk to cook the flour a little and then slowly add the milk while whisking till it gets nice and thick. I also whisk in some black pepper. Geez….now I need to go buy some chipped beef…mmmmm!!!!
You can order the dried beef online from Stoltzfus Meats in Intercourse, PA and it tastes MUCH better than the jarred dried beef. Just called the deli to verify the following:
1. The online pricing for all of their products include the ice packs, shipping container, and shipping charges.
2. Shipping is only to the contiguous 48 states, and not to PO boxes nor APO addresses (military addresses), and items are sent out on Tuesdays and Wednesdays with two day shipping to ensure the freshness of the products.
3. The ice packs used in the boxes are long lasting ones. Personal note: I place each one in a quart sized freezer ziplock bag and use them over and over again. Placing them in the bag helps keep them from oozing the goo inside onto whatever you’re trying to keep cool if/when they do burst open. I’ve used these ice packs (the same ones the meats will be shipped with) for the past 5 years and learned early on to bag them up as they can get bumped and nicked while in the freezer by others plowing through it.
I have purchased other meat and cheese products when I was at the store a couple of weeks ago, and will say the breakfast sausage and the cheeses are delicious. They have other wonderful varieties to bring home, too, unfortunately not for ordering online. Our son’s family lives about half an hour from the store so I try to bring home goodies from Stoltzfus Meats each trip I make to see them. I bought two pounds of the dried beef and then portioned them into 1/4 pound baggies and placed them back into the freezer to be able to enjoy at a later date. Well worth the trip there if you can make it. Also, their lemonade is fantastic, according to our son in law. :)
https://stoltzfusmeats.com/shop/stoltzfus-dried-beef
My dad loved this when he was in the Army and my mom would make it for him. Although we had a little different name for it lol.
Oh yes, I'm very away of the "other" name ;)
I love this. I add a pinch of dried minced onion for a little extra flavor.
I lived on this in college!
Where we grew up, this was called S**t on a Shingle and my Mom would make it with cream of celery soup and hamburger. Absolutely awesome comfort food!
Yum! I'll have to remember that one. Sometimes I forget the sheer comfort some thing simple can bring.
I used to make this a lot . I forgot about it until I just saw it here. We always liked it and, I don't know why Iforgot it. Thanks for reminding me.
My mom didn't make this but I had a room mate after college that made it for me. She paired it with creamed peas!
Oh! My! Goodness! One of my absolute favorites. My mother used to make this as her 'I've run out of time, and everyone is hungry' standard. I love it. Thanks for posting this.
My mom would make this too, usually for a brunch on the weekends. I'll make it for my family once in a while, too. It's always been a favorite :)