Chicken Fried Steak Recipe?

rhg84

250+ Posts
Anyone have a really good chicken fried steak recipe? I've been really craving a good one and restaurants keep disappointing me so i figured i would just make one myself. I've found some on the net but i figured i'll ask here first. Thanks
 
couple of things...

make sure to pound out the cube steak a little..

Seasoning for the steak.

salt
pepper
garlic powder
onion powder.

*Now here's the key*
In the flour (for the crust), put in some "Tony Chachere's," and mix well in the flour.
(don't be too conservative on the amount.)
 
A seasoned flour coating.....

Then an egg and milk wash.....

Then a seasoned cracker coating makes a great crust.

Fry in a half inch of oil turning only once.
 
Also make sure the oil is hot.
Turning is the key.

I make a mean, CFS... But I still, to this day, can't get the crust to stay on completely.
WTF?
 
From a good buddy of mine....

Cut and paste from M. Middleton

This is my personal “recipe” for THE BEST chicken fried backstrap, perfected through years of trial and error. Now, there ain’t nothin’ fancy about it, and it gets modified a little each time I cook it, depending on what spices are in the cabinet. The key to a perfect, tasty, crunchy, fluffy crust is to make sure you DOUBLE DIP it, and deep-fat fry it!

Required:

• Flour, a bunch
• Pepper
• Salt
• 2 eggs
• Large bowl full of milk
• One half of a venison backstrap
• Peanut Oil (Highly recommended over other oil types!)
• Two paper grocery sacks (Remember: Paper, not plastic!)

Optional:

• Tony Chachere’s Cajun Seasoning
• Cayanne Pepper
• Your favorite spices
• Outdoor gas cooker
• 12 quart cast iron dutch oven
• Ore-Ida Onion Flavored Tator Tots.

Cut one folded grocery sack about twelve inches from the top. Cut resulting “O” from top of the sack down the crease to form one long, twelve inch strip of paper. Place end of strip into bottom of the cut sack, with remaining portion hanging over the side. This will serve to absorb the grease from your finished product. Set aside.

Break eggs into large bowl of milk. (Mix in any liquid spices of your choosing, such as Cholula, a Tex-Mex hot sauce, or other hot sauces). Slice backstrap into ½ inch cutlets. Place cutlets onto a cutting board and take outside. Using a meat cleaver, or the mouth of a glass Coke bottle, beat the backstrap until well tenderized. (This step is very important, don’t skimp on quality to save time! Also, don’t do this step in your wife’s kitchen! Take it outside!) Toss tenderized cutlets into milk/egg mixture.

Dump a bunch of flour into other sack. Add some salt and pepper. Throw in some other seasonings. I’d tell you what kind and how much, but you know how you like it better than I do!

Fire up outdoor cooker to about 350 degrees. Fill dutch oven about half way from the bottom with peanut oil. There should be enough to more than cover the meat.

Remove, one at a time, several pieces of backstrap and place carefully into sack full of flour mixture. Fold top of sack and shake vigorously. Add more pieces of backstrap until all are fully coated.

Remove each of the floured pieces of meat and lay them carefully on a clean plate. Add more flour and seasoning to the sack. Dip the flour covered cutlets, one at a time, back into the milk/egg mixture until well coated and place back into the flour sack. Note: This is where many people get lazy and ruin the whole dish! Take the time to double dip ‘em!

Inside the sack, you will now find small clumps of flour/egg/milk. Grab a couple of these and drop into peanut oil to check heat. You should have nice, bubbly grease and the “crunchies” should soon rise to the top. Remove “crunchies” and snack on them. Tasty!

When satisfied that oil is properly heated, place several pieces of meat into the pot. Once again, you should see a nice bubbling action. When the meat begins to float, stir gently for another couple of minutes and then remove and place in bottom of the cut grocery sack. Be sure not to overcook! Fold the next level of the top part of the sack over the first batch of meat. This will serve to soak grease and keep the batch warm. When second batch is done, put them on the second level and fold top over once again.

When all of the meat is cooked, deep fry Tater Tots until crispy. Remove from grease and place on top layer of paper sack. Gently grab the top of the paper sack and pull straight up. This will mix the Tater Tots and the meat into the sack, and most of the grease will be removed on the strip of paper. Grab a big ol’ handful of meat and tots for your plate and serve with plenty of cold Heinz ketchup! (You can serve with other vegetables, but the rest is just filler material anyway!)

Note: If you can’t figure out the paper sack trick, screw it. Put paper towels in a pan!
 
I will confess to having never had a single Chicken Fried Steak that I have enjoyed at a restaurant. I will share with you the way my mother did it, which is ia bout as simple and good as it gets.

First off, I always start with a pretty thin cut round steak. Now, I have an advantage in that I am using homegrown beef which is about 5 times as flavourful as what you get out on the market.. but I digress.

I have always cooked the steak in about a 1/4 inch of hot Crisco, and as chas been mentioned before, be sure the oil is hot when you are ready to place your steak in.

I cut the steak into smaller pieces which I think gives a better meat to crunch ratio. Salt and pepper the steak, and then dip it in flour, then egg, then flour before placing it in the hot oil. That is pretty much it. Just flour, egg, then flour, then in.... I gaurantee excellent results with this simple recipe.
 
Theu:

Same for me (from mom)
I also do the flour - egg/milk the same.

I'm still seeing too much crust fall off.
 
I like making CFS and think it's pretty easy once you just try doing it. But I can't seem to make a decent gravy out of the grease. It frustrates me to all hell to make from scratch tasty potatoes and cfs but have to make an instant gravy.

I take some oil/grease that I used and just keep adding milk and flour? Am I doing something wrong or do I need to keep tweaking the ratios?
 
You need to reserve 3 TBSP of the oil and drippings that you cooked the CFS in....
Add 3 TBSP of flour and seasonings and stir over very low heat for about 3 to 5 minutes. The longer you cook this the darker it will get.
Add about 1-1/2 cups of cold milk and turn heat to high.
Stir constantly until it boils.
Remove from heat.
Remember as Emeril says......
A thickening agent does not reach it's maximum thickness until it boils.

If you are making what is basically a white sauce remember the ratio of ingredients is normally....

2 TBSP Butter (or in this case pan drippings)
2 TBSP Flour
1 Cup Milk

I usually increase these quantities a little depending on how many CFS you are making but that is basically the rule when making a sauce or gravy.

You can add more liquid if it is too thick so start out with a little less milk until you see how thick it is.
 
Cool. I'll have to try it out this weekend.

One more thing though...When I spoon out the used grease should I try and grab a bunch of the residue left from frying the flour/cfs? Or do I want the 'clear/clean' grease?
 
You should leave a lot of those "munchies" in there for flavor.
However if any of it seems too brown or even black you might want to take that out to avoid a burnt taste.

You do need to cook that drippings and flour mixture for a few minutes to cook the raw flour taste out of it. Be sure and stir it constantly on low heat. Make sure the milk is cold when you add it and turn the heat up to high. You also need to stir this constantly until it boils.
 
To heck with using the leftover frying grease. That's why God made coffee cans full of bacon grease in your fridge. Start your gravy with a bacon grease base, and all will be right in the world (except of course, your cholesterol).
 
You're welcome...

Eggs
Milk
Seasoning
Garlic Powder
Saltines
Steak cutlets (tenderized)
Butter
Flour
Vegetable/Canola/Etc Oil

In a bowl, wisk together some eggs and milk (I'd say 4 eggs and a 1/4 cup of milk) with generous amount of seasoning (I use TexJoy, but Tony Chachere's is fine) and garlic powder. Put a sleeve of Saltines in a food processor to make cracker crumbs. They shouldn't quite be powder, but they ought to be homogenous.

Submerge a steak in the egg wash, coat it in the cracker 'powder', and repeat, creating 2 layers of breading. Heat some oil in an electric skillet to medium-high heat. Place the steaks in the oil. Turn them when the sides of the steaks look crispy and golden brown. Turn the heat down to medium or medium-low, and cook the steaks for another 2-3 minutes or so.

To make the gravy, put some butter in the oil. Then put the flour in (maybe a couple of tablespoons). Then put the milk in. Stir constantly. I don't know how much of any to put in, since I do not use recipes. Just add each ingredient until the consistency looks right. Milk thins the mixture, flour thickens it.

I think that covers it. Honestly, you'll never eat better CFS is this is done right.
 
the gravy recipies look right, but what about the fresh ground black pepper?? gotta have that and a dash of salt in that gravy
 
Quality of the beef really counts in this dish. This recipe calls for cube steaks, but good round steak that you have asked the butcher to run through the tenderizer or that you have tenderized yourself with a mallet (no big deal and can be a real stress reliever) can be even better.
4 tenderized beef cutlets (known in supermarkets as "cube steak") OR 1 round steak, with fat removed, that you've tenderized yourself (see above)
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
all-purpose flour
cooking oil or melted Crisco
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
Beat together the egg and milk and set aside. Mix together the salt, black pepper, paprika and white pepper and sprinkle on both sides of beef cutlets.
Dredge the cutlets in the flour, shaking off the excess. Then dip each cutlet in the egg/milk mixture, then back in the flour. (You're going to get your hands messy here, so take your rings off.) Set cutlets aside on a piece of waxed paper.

Heat the cooking oil in a large cast-iron or other heavy skillet over medium-high heat for a few minutes. Oil should be about a half-inch deep in the pan. Check the temperature with a drop of water; if it pops and spits back at you, it's ready.

With tongs, carefully place each cutlet into the hot oil. Protect yourself (and your kitchen) from the popping grease that results. Fry cutlets on both sides, turning once, until golden brown. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook 4 or 5 minutes until cutlets are done through. Drain cutlets on paper towels.

Cream Gravy
After the cutlets are removed from the pan, pour off all but about 2 tablespoons of oil, keeping as many as possible of the browned bits in the pan. Heat the oil over medium heat until hot.

Sprinkle 3 tablespoons flour (use the left-over flour from the chicken fried steak recipe (waste not -- want not) in the hot oil. Stir with a wooden spoon, quickly, to brown the flour.

Gradually stir in 3/4 cup milk and 3/4 cup water, mixed together, stirring constantly with the wooden spoon and mashing out any lumps. Lower heat, and gravy will begin to thicken. Continue cooking and stirring a few minutes until gravy reaches desired thickness. Check seasonings and add more salt and pepper according to your taste.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note to Cream Gravy novices: Gravy-making is an inexact science. Cream gravy is supposed to be thick, but if you think it's too thick, add more liquid until you're satisfied with it.
end recipe
 
I keep a coffee can of bacon drippings in my fridge, but still by far prefer to use the shorting from cooking the Chicken Fried Steak to make the gravy. If you do what has been mentioned, ie leave in the 'crunchies' left after cooking, you will get a nice compliment flavour to go with the steak. I am really going to hafe to fry some up pretty soon. I have some of that home grown been in the freezer that needs to be cooked up. Man, I love being a Texan.
 
Should have gotten out the digital camera tonight. Cooked up some Chicken Fried Steak with gravy, hot water corn bread, collard greens, and mashed potatoes. Sure was good.
 
I had a craving for some CFS yesterday so I made it for some friends as we watched that brutal Texas-A$M bball game.
mad.gif


I dug up this thread and gleaned some of the great advice, as well as some ideas from Alton Brown's recipe. It was my first attempt at CFS and I was a little nervous the breading wouldn't stay on or be thick enough, but they were, dare I say, amazing. I'll never order one at a restaurant again - definitely WAY better homemade.

I followed the suggestion of using Tony Chachere's seasoning and threw that in the flour. I dredged the cuts (used bottom round steak) in the flour, then tenderized the meat. I re-dredged, put in an egg/milk wash, then used the powdered saltines suggestion (also threw some Chachere's in the saltines as well). Re-dredged, re-washed, and re-coated with the Saltines.

I think I actually did three egg/milk washes for some of them.

I cooked two at a time in my cast iron skillet, using an inch or so of grapeseed oil. I made 12 total, so it took some time, and just kept them in a 200 degree oven while I worked the other batches.

The gravy turned out really good as well - using the frying oil, I added a bit of flour, 2 cups chicken stock, and one cup milk. Let it come to a boil then turned down the heat and let it thicken for awhile.

Served with garlic mashed potatoes and some creole collards that I grew in my garden (cooked with bacon, some onion, and chicken stock).

The CFS came out unbelievably tender and the breading was perfectly crisp and golden brown. It was a tad bit salty (adding the Chachere's to the saltines was probably a bit of a mistake), but not overpowering. The gravy was pretty greasy but still really tasty.

It was quite a bit of work, with the dredging and all, but damn well worth it. Here's a few pics:

IMG_0371.jpg


IMG_0373.jpg


Mmmm...gravy.
 
Considering that this dish will make your heart explode no matter what you fry it in, I've never understood the advantage of using vegetable oil. If you're gonna make it you might as well go all the way and fry it in lard.
 
My granny makes the best CFS that I have ever eaten to this day. The key though, is not to use flour, it is to use crushed saltines to bread the steak. Egg wash, then bread with crackers. Then fry. It's unbelievable. That's an old-school Port Arthur way of making CFS.
 
This will spark some controversy for sure, but I'm honestly curious: is there a legitimate reason to use a crappy cut of beef (round) over a better cut of beef (say NY Strip or tenderloin) when making CFS? I realize that tenderizing and frying makes for a great meal with an inexpensive cut of meat, but can it get better if you spend a little more coin on beef?
 
Jimmy -

I've had chicken-fried ribeye, and can honestly say I didn't like it near as much as a regular CFS. The texture just wasn't the same. Seems like a waste, too.
 
I guess I'll have to try it one of these days since I can't get ANY good home cookin' food up here in Washington - love the climate, scenery, etc., but they don't know what good food is, in my down home opinion. Sounds pretty easy, actually - but I will need to invest in a heavy skillet.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Frankly, I always liked the CFS at the Broken Spoke - of course now, in the food wasteland, any CFS would taste good.

Gail in WA (UT '73)
 

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