Chicken Fried Steak

By Keith Prickett on February 11th, 2012 (Add Comment »)

Comfort food! Chicken fried steak is such a quick and easy way to use up round steak. It seems that with buying beef in bulk (quarter, half or whole) you get a lot of round steak. If you have tried to grill one of these steaks, or broil, or any other quick method I am sorry! A round steak is a tough cut of beef. It really deserves a little bit of attention and care when considering how to cook it. One of my favorite things to do with it, though, is to make chicken fried steak!

Tonight Fritz and Beverly came back from vacation and we offered to cook them dinner. Since they were getting in late and had been driving all day they really appreciated this. What a better welcome than some good old fashioned comfort food. You should, like we did, serve chicken fried steak up with some greens and mashed potatoes. Note that you can skip the whole “smashing the steak” step if you have cube steaks.  Cube steaks are round steaks already “smashed.”  Here’s how to make the chicken fried steak:

Chicken Fried Steak – Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 1 round steak, pasture-raised, ~2 inches thick, cut into small parts
• 1 cup of flour
• salt
• pepper
• 1 egg, from pasture-raised hen
• 1 cup of milk
• 1/4 cup of canola oil

Method:

1. Smash the steak until it’s really flat.  This is the fun part.  Ensure you put plastic wrap or something over the steak while you smash it.  Use your meat mallet to pound it out into thin steaks.  Hopefully the pictures are helpful in this step.
2. Mix 1 egg and milk in a small dish
3. Mix flour, salt and pepper in another small dish
4. Heat oil in a cast iron pan until hot
5. Dip each piece of steak in egg and milk mixture, then in flour mixture until well coated
6. Fry steak in a single layer in the cast iron, turning once after a minute or so — until golden brown
7. Set aside and keep warm until you finish frying all pieces of steak.
8. Serve with a side of mashed potatoes and gravy!

I hope you enjoy!

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