CHICKEN-FRIED STEAK
Feeds 4
It’s not clear where chicken-fried steak started (some call it country-fried steak). Texans claim the recipe as theirs, saying a tired short-order cook mixed up a fried chicken recipe and a steak recipe and invented this delicious breaded beef dish. However, there are recipes for it in the Los Angeles Times in 1924 and in a cookbook published in Topeka, Kansas in the 1940s. Clearly, chicken-fried steak belongs to all of us. Danny and I did a methodical taste test one day, making chicken-fried steak with every possible cut of beef we could think of. The good news? The absolutely best chicken- fried steak was made with cube steak, the cheapest cut of beef! Even after a day of eating bits of chicken-fried steak all day, we still love this dish.
- 2 pounds cube steak, cut into 4 pieces
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 140 grams All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
- 3 large eggs, beaten
- Fat or oil of your choice for frying (we use peanut oil or lard)
- 2½ cups whole milk
Prepare to cook. Using a meat mallet, pound each cube steak to a ¼-inch thickness. Season the cube steak with salt and pepper on both sides.
Season the flour. In a wide bowl, combine the flour with the garlic powder, onion powder, and rosemary. Add the eggs to another wide bowl next to the flour.
Dredge the steaks. Dredge a cube steak on both sides in the flour. Dredge it in the eggs, then in the flour again. Put the cube steak on a wire rack. Finish the rest of the steaks in the same way. Let the steaks sit for 15 minutes before cooking.
Cook the chicken-fried steaks. Set a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add enough fat to the skillet to generously cover the bottom of the skillet. When the fat is hot, add 2 of the steaks to the pan. Cook until the bottom is brown and crisp, about 4 minutes. Flip the steaks and cook until the other side is golden brown, about 4 minutes more. Move the steaks to a plate and repeat with the remaining steaks.
At this point, if you wish, you can put the chicken-fried steaks in an oven set to 300°F to keep them warm while you make the gravy.
Make the gravy. Scrape up all the golden brown bits from the bottom of the skillet. Turn the heat to medium-low. Add 3 tablespoons of the flour remaining in the dredging bowl to the skillet and whisk it into the hot fat, stirring constantly. When the flour releases a warm scent, after about 3 minutes, add ½ cup of the milk at a time, whisking constantly. Keep adding milk and whisking until the gravy thickens. When the gravy is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, after 5 to 10 minutes, season it with salt and pepper.
Serve the chicken-fried steaks with gravy generously poured over them.
