Tastebuds

Chicken Fried Steak with Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans

Ingredients

4 cube steaks (about 1/3 lb each)
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper, divided
2 teaspoons kosher salt or sea salt, divided
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons TABASCO® Sauce (original)
2 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil

Chicken Fried Steak Gravy/Or packet gravy works

4 tablespoons grease
4 tablespoons flour
2 to 3 cups of whole milk
½ cup heavy whipping cream
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

In a shallow bowl, whisk together flour, one teaspoon of black pepper, one teaspoon of salt, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
In a separate shallow bowl, whisk together buttermilk, TABASCO® Sauce, and eggs. Set aside.
Pat cube steaks dry with a paper towel, removing as much moisture as possible. Season with one teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon of pepper. Let sit for 5 minutes and pat dry again with a paper towel.
Dredge the cube steaks in the flour mixture, shaking off excess, then dredge in the buttermilk-egg mixture, letting excess drip off, and then once again in the flour mixture, shaking off excess.
Place breaded cube steaks on a sheet pan or metal rack and press any of the remaining flour mixture into the cube steaks making sure that the entire steak is completely coated. Let sit for 10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 225 to 250 F.
Meanwhile, heat vegetable oil in a heavy skillet or large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. How much oil you need depends on the size of your skillet. You want it to be about 1/4-inch deep. We aren’t deep frying the steaks, just shallow frying.
Test the oil by dropping a bit of the breading into it. The oil should sizzle and bubble around the breading. Look for the oil to be glistening but not smoking – about 320-340 degrees F. Now we’re ready to fry.
Place two steaks into the pan at a time and fry for 3 to 4 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Do not flip more than once or the breading will fall off. Do not fry more than two steaks or the pan will be too crowded and the breading will fall off.
Remove steaks from the pan and drain on paper towels. Place in preheated oven. Turn skillet heat to medium.

Chicken Fried Steak Gravy

Pour the remaining grease into a heat-safe bowl or glass measuring cup (I used my Pyrex). Do NOT scrape the skillet clean. We want all of those bits of yumminess to remain in the skillet so they can flavor the gravy.
Add back in 4 tablespoons of the grease to the hot skillet.
Whisk in flour and continue whisking for two to three minutes or until nice and golden brown.
Combine the cream and milk and slowly drizzle about 2 1/2 cups into the skillet, whisking constantly. It might look a little crazy right at the beginning, but it will all come together.
Continue whisking and bring the gravy to a simmer. Cook until the gravy is smooth and creamy, about 5 to 7 minutes. If the gravy gets too thick, add in a little more milk. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (Mine didn’t need any salt but LOTS of pepper!)
Serve chicken fried steak with gravy.

My green bean recipe can be found at https://sundayedition.fetchyournews.com/2022/06/19/grilled-london-broil-with-grilled-carrots/. It also has a recipe for carrots if you want to try something a little different.

Chicken Fried Steak, country-fired steak whatever you want to call it is kind of a southern tradition. If you haven’t tried it before this is the recipe for you. It does require a good bit of time to prep and cook time so it’s best served probably on the weekend when there is usually more time.

I haven’t actually made this recipe in a long time however it was a rare occasion that my boyfriend requested country-fried steak for dinner. This recipe has its own gravy with it and to be honest the one time I tried it well let’s just say I don’t usually use it. I will say that I did it when I was first learning to cook so it could just be some rookie mistake that I made but I’ve been scared of it ever since so I use a packet of gravy mix.

This is not my original recipe and other than the gravy I make no tweaks to it because it’s that good. The original recipe can be found at https://www.momontimeout.com/chicken-fried-steak-recipe-with-gravy/#recipe.

Here is the nutrition information that is provided on the website for the steak and gravy. It does not include the information for the mashed potatoes or the green beans.

Laura Hewell