Chicken Fried Steak Recipe

I grew up with Chicken Fried Steak. My Mom had a great chicken fried steak recipe but she just called it minute steak. We had it quite often, probably because it was cheap.

Mom always had gravy with it.

Moms chicken fried steak wasn't actually minute steak at all but cube steak.

She wasn't entirely wrong though, lots of people call cube steak minute steak.

Cube steak is a tough cut of beef (usually round steak) that has been tenderized either by pounding or running through a tenderizer by the butcher.

Texas Chicken Fried Steak Recipe

4 tenderized beef cutlets (I always use super market cube steak)
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
all-purpose flour
cooking oil or melted Crisco
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon white pepper

Beat the egg and milk together and set aside. Mix the salt, black pepper, paprika and white pepper and sprinkle on both sides of the beef cutlets.

Dredge the cutlets in the flour, shaking off the excess. Then dip each cutlet in the egg/milk mixture, and then back in the flour. Set the cutlets aside on a piece of waxed paper.

Heat the cooking oil in a large cast-iron or other heavy skillet over medium-high heat for a few minutes. The oil should be about a half-inch deep in the pan. Check the temperature with a drop of water. If the water pops and spits back at you, it's ready.

With a long-handled fork, carefully place each cutlet into the hot oil. Fry the cutlets on both sides, turning once, until golden brown. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook 4 or 5 minutes or until the cutlets are done through. Drain the cutlets on paper towels.

Chicken Fried Steak Gravy Recipe

After the cutlets are removed from the pan, pour off all but about 2 tablespoons of oil, keeping as many as possible of the browned bits in the pan. Heat the oil over medium heat until hot.

Sprinkle 3 tablespoons flour in the hot oil. Stir with a wooden spoon, quickly, to brown the flour.

Gradually stir in 3/4 cup milk and 3/4 cup water, mixed together, stirring constantly and mashing out any lumps. Lower the heat, and the gravy will begin to thicken. Continue cooking and stirring a few minutes until the gravy reaches your desired thickness.

Check seasonings and add more salt and pepper according to your taste.

The History of Chicken Fried Steak

I guess, since I grew up the southern U.S., it's natural that I have memories of this steak. It's extremely popular in this area and in Texas it's king.

There's no self-respecting family restaurant in Texas that doesn't have chicken fried steak on the menu.

In fact it has been said that you can judge the quality of the steak at any Texas restaurant by counting the pickup trucks out front.

The more pickups the better the steak.

There was a large influx of German immigrants to Texas in the mid 1850's.

Wiener Schnitzel is a popular German dish that is made from veal and cooked similar to chicken fried steak.

Since Texans favor beef over veal the German immigrants probably adapted their Wiener schnitzel recipe to the tougher beef cuts.

For a time during my youth my family lived in a small German community near San Antonio, Texas. The little town was named New Braunfels and most everyone had German ancestry.

The first recipe for this dish appeared in print in the 1950's. I suspect that it was around this time that my Mom discovered her Chicken Fried Steak Recipe.

I'm really glad she did.