Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Texas Chicken Fried Steak


This was an awesome recipe that got rave reviews from Brian. According to him it was better than we have had at the restaurant, and he wants to see it again on our menu. I have been intimidated by the frying part of "down home" food, so I was so excited when this turned out exactly right. I was on a frying high from the chicken strips obviously. Frankly, I think the recipe is kinda fool proof, in our case this was good news.

The quality of the beef is really important. I got friendly with my butcher a while ago, so I was able to tell him what I wanted. (I just re-read that, not THAT friendly, just friendly enough to chat with him). I got cubed round steaks, that were about 3/4 inch thick. Generic Cube steak can be a mishmash of different meats of varying quality, so I wanted to make sure ours was round steak. One of our biggest complaints about CFS at restaurants is that its all batter and no steak.

CFS
1 1/2 pounds of boneless cubed round steak (if you are feeling adventurous, you can tenderize your own)
1 TBL water
1 egg
1 cup saltines (about a sleeve of crackers)
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup of vegetable oil

Milk Gravy
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups milk

  1. Beat water and egg. Mix Cracker Crumbs and pepper. Dip beef into egg mix, then coat liberally with cracker crumbs.
  2. Heat oil over med-high heat till hot. Cook beef in oil, turn once until brown. Probably about 6 to 7 minutes. Just make sure you don't crowd the pan, better to make it in "batches"
  3. Reserve the drippings in the pan, add more vegetable oil if neccessary to make 1/4 cup. I added a few tablespoons of butter.
  4. Stir in flour and salt. Cook over low heat stirring to loosen any brown particles of yumminess from the pan until its smooth and bubbly.
  5. Remove from heat and slowly pour milk into skillet, stirring constantly.
  6. bring to boil and stir one minute.

4 comments:

Rob said...

Sounds like great stuff! May have to give this one a shot.

Quirky Momma said...

if only I had found your recipe last night. I tried to make chicken-fried steak last night. Let's just say mine wasn't very pretty - ha!

email me so I can get you a login (re: germs) admin@quirkymomma.com

Jennifer said...

Rachel,
I have tried to email you a few times and my email keeps kicking it back. Please email me coplings@gmail.com (coplings at gmail dot com)

Cat said...

CFS is my favorite "comfort food." I almost always order this at The Cracker Barrel. I too, am intimidated by cooking down home fried food. In the 19 years I have been married, I can count on one hand the number of times I have made fried chicken, my husband's favorite. Sad, I know. I will bookmark this recipe, and give it a try...thanks for posting it! Sounds delish!