Chicken Fried Steak w/ Homemade Gravy & Mashed Potatoes

Chicken Fried Steak is one of Corey’s favorite meals (I feel like I’m beginning to say that a lot!).  But it is the meal Corey loves to order out at a lot of restaurants like Chili’s and Texas Road House.  I never got it.  I just thought it was some piece of meat that they didn’t know what to do with but fry it.  Well I have been changed!  I was very wrong.  It’s made with a cut of meat called “cubed steak” which is a tenderized steak.  And let me tell you, you can cut it with a fork.  It’s so tender and yummy.  I thought this meal was pretty easy to make.  Its basically the concept of breading and frying chicken (hence the name), making a simple homemade gravy (which I’m excited to now be able to do for biscuits and gravy another time), and whipping up some mashed potatoes.  Pioneer Woman’s recipe below was obviously for more than 2 people so I made a third of her recipe and it was definitely enough for 3 or 4 people.

Cubed Steak

Breading station ready to go

Frying up our chicken fried steak!

the homemade gravy was awesome

Ingredients:

3 pounds Cube Steak (tenderized Round Steak That's Been Extra Tenderized)

1-½ cup Whole Milk, Plus Up To 2 Cups For Gravy (I used regular 2%)

2 whole Large Eggs

3 cups All-purpose Flour

Seasoned Salt

¼ teaspoons Cayenne (just really a pinch – it goes a long way)

Lots of Black Pepper.

Canola Oil, For Frying

Salt and Pepper, For Both Meat And Gravy

Preparation Instructions

Begin with an assembly line of dishes for the meat: one with the milk mixed with egg and one with flour mixed with spices.

Work one piece of meat at a time. Season both sides with salt and pepper, then dip in the milk/egg mixture. Next, place the meat on the plate of seasoned flour. Turn to coat thoroughly. Place the meat back into the milk/egg mixture, turning to coat. Place back in the flour and turn to coat.  (wet mixture/dry mixture/wet mixture/dry mixture.) Place breaded meat on the clean plate, then repeat with remaining meat.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Drop in a few sprinkles of water to make sure it’s sufficiently hot, it should sizzle. Cook meat, a couple pieces at a time, until edges start to look golden brown, then flip (around 2 to 2 1/2 minutes each side).

Remove to a paper towel-lined plate and keep warm. Repeat until all meat is cooked.

Gravy:

After all meat is fried, pour off the grease into a heatproof bowl. Without cleaning the pan, return it to the stove over medium-low heat. Add 1/4 cup grease back to the pan. Allow grease to heat up.

Sprinkle 1/3 cup flour evenly over the grease. Using a whisk, mix flour with grease, creating a golden-brown paste. Keep cooking until it reaches a deep golden brown color. If paste seems more oily than pasty, sprinkle in another tablespoon of flour and whisk.

Whisking constantly, pour in milk. Cook to thicken the gravy. It will take a while to dissolve the flour/grease mixture.  Be prepared to add more milk if it becomes overly thick. Add salt and pepper and cook for 5 to 10 minutes, until gravy is smooth and thick. Be sure to taste to make sure gravy is sufficiently seasoned.  Serve meat next to a big side of mashed potatoes. Pour gravy over the whole thing.  Serve with a side such as corn or broccoli.

Mashed Potatoes are very easy to make homemade.  Pioneer woman gives a recipe w/ the chicken fried steak if you click the link.  I usually just wash my red skinned potatoes and chop them smaller (and cut out any spots) then boil until tender.  Then I mash them with a potato masher and add butter, milk, S&P.  Very simple and tasty!