What Is Chipped beef and How Can I Use It?
Chipped beef rewards a little know-how: how to choose it, cook it, store it, and substitute in a pinch. Browse 5 recipes to cook with it.
Key Points
- Chipped beef is salt-cured, dried, pressed beef sliced wafer-thin, very salty and shelf-stable.
- Its classic use is creamed chipped beef on toast, the diner dish known as SOS.
- Rehydrate it in a creamy sauce rather than eating it straight from the jar.
- Do not add salt until the beef has simmered in; it seasons the whole pot.
- Deli dried beef is the closest swap; refrigerate opened jars and use within a week.
What is chipped beef?
Chipped beef is beef that has been salt-cured and dried, then pressed and sliced wafer-thin. It comes in small jars or packets, the slices stiff and deep red and intensely salty, with a flavor closer to cured ham than to fresh beef.
It is an old American pantry standby, the kind of shelf-stable protein that fed households cheaply for generations. Most people meet it in one dish: creamed chipped beef on toast.
The salt is the whole character of the ingredient, so a little goes a long way and you rarely add more.
How to Use It
Because it is bone-dry and very salty, chipped beef almost always gets rehydrated in a sauce rather than eaten straight. Tear or chop the slices, then simmer them in a creamy white sauce until they soften and give up their salt and savoriness into the gravy.
That is creamed chipped beef, the diner classic spooned over toast and known fondly as SOS. The same Chipped Beef Gravy ladles over biscuits or potatoes just as well.
It also works as a salty accent rather than the main event. Slices wrapped around chicken add a cured, bacon-like edge to Chicken with Chipped Beef & Bacon, and minced fine it gives a savory punch to a cold Chipped Beef Dip.
The one mistake to avoid is salting the dish before the beef has cooked in. Taste only after the meat has simmered, because it can carry the seasoning for the whole pot on its own.
If a batch tastes punishingly salty, a quick rinse or a brief soak in warm water before cooking pulls some of it out.
Substitutes and Storage
The closest swap is thin-sliced dried beef from the deli, essentially the same product in a different package. Failing that, finely chopped corned beef or even a little crisp bacon or prosciutto stands in for the salty, cured note, though none are quite as dry.
An unopened jar of chipped beef keeps for months in the pantry, since the curing is what makes it shelf-stable in the first place.
Once opened, refrigerate it tightly wrapped and use it within a week or so. It also freezes well if you only need a little at a time.
Quick facts
- In Chinese
- 缺口牛肉
- British (UK) term
- Chipped beef
- en français
- boeuf ébréché
- en español
- res en trozos
Recipes using chipped beef
There are 5 recipes that contain this ingredient.
Chicken & Beef
Chicken breasts baked low and slow over chipped beef with a creamy mushroom soup and sour cream sauce, dotted with bacon. A retro casserole classic that practically cooks itself.
Chipped Beef Dip
Hot baked chipped beef dip with cream cheese, sour cream, green pepper, and crunchy pecans on top. A retro crowd-pleasing appetizer that's ready in 40 minutes. Serve with crackers or chips.
Chicken Breast Eden Isle
Bacon-wrapped chicken breasts baked low and slow on a bed of chipped beef, smothered in a creamy mushroom and sour cream sauce. Old-school comfort food at its finest.
Chipped Beef Gravy
Creamed chipped beef gravy (SOS) made with a butter and flour roux, milk, and dried beef soaked until tender. A classic military mess hall recipe served over toast or biscuits.
Chicken with Chipped Beef & Bacon
Bacon-wrapped chicken breasts layered over savory chipped beef, then smothered in a rich mushroom-sour cream sauce and baked low and slow until fork-tender. A retro comfort food casserole that practically makes itself.
