Chicken Fried Steak

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This tastes like Texas, y'all.

We've only been out of our homestate for 5 months or so and have already noticed the lack of chicken fried steak in this state.

{We're now in North Carolina}

I even lamented about this first world problem on our personal blog.

We desperately needed a chicken fried steak fix and desperate times comes for desperate measures. Which meant chicken fried steak is going to be a staple on our menu at home. I hadn't made it in awhile (truthfully, Jason usually makes this particular dish at our house!) so I referred to The Pioneer Woman for a brush-up on the method.

Making it isn't hard, but it is hard to give exact measurements. It's more of a "does it look right?" dish that also requires lots of tasting along the way. You can always tweak it to your tastes. I like my gravy thick but others like a thinner consistency. Easy to tweak!

Chicken fried steak is essentially just a piece of extra tenderized (read: beaten repeatedly) steak that has been double dipped in flour/egg, pan fried until cooked through, and topped with creamy gravy you whipped up with the pan drippings. It's fork tender and A.MA.ZING. It should always {always!} be served with a big pile of creamy mashed potatoes that have also been topped with the gravy. And it's totally calorie free...

If you want step by step pictures, take a look at The Pioneer Woman's page. I'm way too scatterbrained to take pictures along the way :)

 

Chicken Fried Steak

2-3 pounds cube steak (it's already been tenderized)

Milk (you'll need 3-4 cups)

2 eggs

3 cups flour

Seasoned salt (I use Lawry's)

Fresh cracked black pepper

Vegetable or canola oil

Salt

 

In a shallow pan (I use pie pans), lightly beat the two eggs along with 1.5 cups of milk. In another shallow pan, mix together the flour, seasoning salt (just eyeball), and LOTS of pepper.

 

Heat enough oil to pan fry the meat in a large skillet over medium heat. Make sure it's the right temp by dropping a pinch of flour into the pan - they should sizzle and brown.

 

Working with one piece of meat at a time: season both sides of the meat with salt and pepper, dip into the egg/milk mixture, then into the flour mixture, turning to coat both sides. Now repeat! Egg dip and flour coating again. We're double dipping to get a nice breading on it.

 

Carefully add each piece to the hot pan and cook until golden brown around the edges, which should take a couple minutes or so per side. Don't overcrowd the pan and take your time.

 

*Some people like to bread all their pieces and then start frying but I hate standing there watching things fry so I bread additional pieces while others are being fried so I have something to do. Just know your hands will be covered in batter and you'll have to wash them repeatedly if you do it my way

 

Flip on the "keep warm" function on your oven and pull out a large baking sheet. As each piece finishes, carefully put it on the baking sheet and let it keep warm in the oven.

 

Once all the pieces are finished frying, you're going to whip up a skillet of gravy.

 

Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of flour over the leftover grease in your pan and whisk until it's fully combined. If it's still runny/greasy, add more flour. You want to create a nice paste out of the flour/grease combo.

 

Once you have a nice golden-brown paste, pour in about a cup of milk. Whisk, whisk, whisk. Whisk some more while you add some more milk. Cook 10 minutes or so until the gravy is smooth (no lumps of flour!) and the consistency you prefer. Don't hesitate to add more milk as needed.

 

Season well with lots of salt and pepper; taste and adjust as needed. You don't want a bland gravy!

 

Once your gravy is done, pull your steaks out of the oven and smother them (and your potatoes that I hope you made!) with the hot, creamy, delicious gravy.

 

Yum!