Skip to main content

Recipe Friday: Chicken Fried Steak

This week: Chicken Fried Steak

There are a lot of pretenders out there, but this is the basic, tried & true Texas recipe. What started out in the germanic Hill Country as a modified snitzel -- then blended with the cooking style of the cattle trails -- morphed into a staple of Texas eating.

For the steak:
  • One sleeve of saltine crackers (about 38-40)
  • 1 cup flour
  • Salt & black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups whole or butter milk
  • 4 tenderized round steaks (about 1/2 pound each and no more than 1/4 inch thick)
  • 3 cups shortening (melted)
  • 1 1/2 cups peanut oil
  • 2 tablespoons butter

For the gravy:

  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 6 tablespoons flour
  • 3 1/2 cups milk (regular)
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon bacon grease (fry up 3 slices of bacon and use the drippings)

Preheat oven to 225° F.

To prepare the steaks --

Grind all but 4 saltines to breadcrumb consistency. Transfer to a large bowl. Whisk in flour, 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, paprika, onion powder and baking powder. Crumble remaining saltines by hand and mix in. Set aside.

Whisk eggs and milk in another large bowl; set aside.

In a cast iron or other large skillet, melt shortening and add peanut oil. Heat over high heat.

Meanwhile, lightly sprinkle salt & pepper over steaks. Dredge steaks in cracker mixture then dip in the milk mixture. Dredge in cracker mix again -- get an even coating so the steaks are dry on the outside.

Melt the butter in the heated oil. Gently slide a steak into the oil and fry until golden brown. With tongs, turn and fry until crispy and golden brown -- about 3-4 minutes. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate. Repeat with remaining steaks -- and keep them warm in the oven while you prepare the gravy.

To make the gravy --

Carefully drain the hot oil from your skillet -- but reserve the cooked bits and drippings. Return the pan to the burner and add butter. When the butter foams, add flour 1 tablespoon at at time and whisk continuously until roux is deep golden. Slowly add the milk, bacon drippings and pepper. Reduce heat to medium and stirring continously to prevent lumps. When gravy is desired consistency, get those steaks out of the oven and serve!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

  Lemon Coolers Similar to Mexican Wedding Cookies, these lemony shortbread cookies (which used to be a staple of Girl Scout Cookies) are a light and airy treat. Ingredients: For the cookies 1 cup butter (1 stick), unsalted 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cup confectioner’s sugar  4 teaspoons fresh lemon zest 2 tablespoon lemon juice 2 cup all-purpose f lour Powdered sugar coating 2 cup confectioner's sugar 2 tablespoons lemonade mix (Koolaid) Directions Preheat oven to 350 ℉ Cream butter & sugar until fluffy. Add lemon zest, vanilla & lemon juice. Mix well. Mix in flour and beat until combined into a thick dough. (Optional) Chill dough in refrigerator for about 20 minutes. In a separate bowl, combine sugar & lemonade mix. Using a cookie scoop, make 1" balls. Roll cookies in sugar mix and place on parchment-lined cookie sheet about 1-1/2" apart. Bake for about 12-14 minutes or until bottoms are starting to turn golden brown.  Remove from oven & cool on a cool...
Post a Comment
Read more

More On Energy: Supply, Demand and the Not-so-free Market

Speculators in the market have, rightly, been targeted for thier use of the Enron-loophole to basically compete (unfairly) in a market that is mixed between highly-regulated (see integrated oil companies) and unregulated players (see commodity brokers). This imbalance of power has led to the free flow of capital to a market from sources that a decade ago largely abandoned investment in oil companies -- in favor of the speculative bubble of the dotcom boom. That lack of capital infusion -- and the capital-intensive nature of the oil & gas business -- led to the mega-mergers of 1999 - 2001. Bear in mind that even with all that merger activity among the multi-nationals, their true competition is with national oil companies -- basically branches of their nation-state governments: Pemex (Mexico), Petrobras (Brazil), Pedevesas (Venezuala), Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia), Cinoco (China) ... you get the picture. On the one end, you have national oil companies -- either in OPEC or non-aligned ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Just Desserts: Double Peanut Butter Bars

This recipe takes the simple peanut butter cookie and "raises the bar"... with three layers: Peanut Butter Cookie on the bottom Rich peanut butter icing in the middle Topped with a chocolate shell Delicious and decadent! For the cookie base: Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 9x13 glass baking dish. 1 1/4 cup sugar 1 tablespoon dark molasses 1/2 cup creamy peanut buter 1/4 cup shortening 1/4 cup butter, softened 1 egg 1 1/4 cups flour 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt Prepare peanut butter cookie dough (per normal recipe)  but do not refrigerate.  Instead, spread dough evenly on the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Bake for about 15-18 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.  For the middle layer: 1/2 cup butter, softened 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter 1 tablespoon milk 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 cups powdered sugar In a small bowl, beat the butter, peanut butter, milk, vanilla...
5 comments
Read more