Chicken Fried Steak - Caity

Last summer my roommate Kamauri and I became mildly obsessed with Pioneer Woman and we cooked her recipes non-stop for weeks. I became particularly entranced with her chicken fried steak. 

I made one small change to her recipe and added hot sauce to the egg mixture to add a bit of spice. Serve it with mashed potatoes and some green beans or a salad on the side. It's quite rich so the veggies help break it up. Sooooo good!

what you'll need:

Serves 3-4

For the steak:

1 1/2 lbs cube steak

1 large egg

3/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon hot sauce, I like to use Tapatio

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon seasoned salt, like Lawry's

1/2 teaspoon paprika

a couple sprinkles of cayenne pepper

3/4 teaspoons black pepper

1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil for frying

For the gravy:

2 cups milk

1/3 cup  all-purpose flour

salt pepper

 

Pour the milk into a shallow bowl and add the egg and hot sauce. Stir it up with a fork. 

Mix the flour with the seasoned salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne pepper and put on a flat plate. Make an assembly line starting with the cubed meat plate, followed by the egg mixture and then the flour mixture and ending with a clean plate to hold the battered steak. 

**If you're going to make mashed potatoes, now would be a good time to start! You will be so sad if you make the rest of your chicken fried steak with gravy and have no mashed potatoes to enjoy it with.

Dip a piece of cube steak into the egg mixture then dredge it in the seasoned flour until it's entirely covered. Now, place it back in the egg mixture and back in the flour one more time. Place the double floured meat on the clean plate and repeat with the rest of the cube steak.

Heat the oil in a large skillet until hot and fry the meat a couple pieces at a time. Cook on one side for about 2-3 minutes until it becomes golden brown. Turn over and cook for 2-3 more minutes until the other side is also golden brown. 

Remove and place on a paper towel lined plate and keep warm until ready to serve.

After all the meat is done frying, turn the heat down to medium and sprinkle 1/3 cup flour evenly over the grease. Using a whisk mix the flour into the grease creating a paste. If the paste seems more oily than pastey, sprinkle in a bit more flour until it reaches the right paste consistency.

After a couple of minutes the paste will start turning dark golden brown and that means it's ready. Pour in the 2 cups of milk, whisking continuously. 

Turn off the heat and continue whisking until it thickens to your desired gravy consistency. If its too thick add a splash of milk. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve the chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and drizzle it all in a healthy (ha!) serving of gravy with some vegetable on the side.