Fork In The Road: Chicken Fried Steak

It should be about the same circumference as your head and have gravy so thick you can almost but not quite use a fork to “spoon” it up. Its edges should be jagged and its surface rough and brown and crisp. It’s the Texan style meat and potato dish, that’s for sure. It’s Chicken Fried Steak and made correctly, it’s delicious.

Although we call it “Chicken-Fried”, it is beef; usually tenderized (read beaten to a pulp) round steak. I have seen recipes that call for “cubed” steak but since I have yet to locate what part of the cow has the “cube” I stick to round or if you must, sirloin. This tenderized piece of meat is coated first in seasoned flour then an egg wash, back into the seasoned flour mixture and then fried, similar to fried chicken.

Then to top it off, a most heavenly gravy made with the fond (commonly known as drippings) that are left in the bottom of the frying pan, is generously laded on top. There must be enough gravy so that each and every bite of the steak is covered sufficiently. This gravy along with a heaping helping of mashed potatoes and a fresh veggie, perhaps corn or green beans along with Texas Toast or cornbread, complete the perfect Chicken Fried Steak dinner, period. No other substitutions allowed.

Why the name? No, it isn’t just to get men to drool over the idea of two of their favorite food group, steak and “anything fried”, it’s because of the technique used to prepare it –fried like southern fried chicken.

Unfortunately for us, today’s many restaurants use a deep fryer to cook their fried chicken and therefore the steak also ends up prepared in the same manner so it isn’t really what the original dish was intended to be, which is pan fried much like southern fried chicken. No, what you get when you order a Chicken Fried Steak these days is a piece of tasteless beef byproduct (resemblance to cardboard), covered in a gluey paste, flavored with pepper and little else, along with liquid-y mashed potatoes (if they aren’t instant which is infinitely worse!) and a side of some kind of canned veggie! This explains why when we find an authentic recipe being made at a restaurant, we grab hold and won’t let loose.

No I say! This insanity cannot be allowed to continue! It is a disgrace to the South and besides it gives me palpitations and twitches! So, never fear, I am here to help. Do you want to know how to make the original and only southern style Chicken Fried Steak? Stick with me and we shall succeed. I think most people consider Chicken Fried Steak the state dish in Texas but that hasn’t been made official … yet. According to a Texas Restaurant Association, it is estimated that 800,000 orders of the dish are served in the state every day. That’s every DAY people and that doesn’t include what is prepared at home!

The term “Chicken-Fried Steak” first appeared in print in 1952...

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