Homemade Chicken Fried Steak

Spend enough time looking up old cookbooks and you are bound to stumble upon the majesty that is “CFS.” Homemade Chicken-Fried Steak is a way of preparing beef that resembles making fried chicken and it is so delicious we thought we’d offer our own take.

Homemade Chicken Fried Steak

Ingredients for Homemade Chicken Fried Steak

• Milk, whole, 1.5 cups
• Eggs, large, two
• Flour, AP, 2 cups
• Salt, seasoned, 2 tsp
• Pepper, black
• Paprika, 3/4 tsp
• Pepper, cayenne, 1/4 tsp
• Cube steak, 3 lbs
• salt, kosher
• Oil, canola or vegetable, 1/2 cup
• Butter, 1 tbsp

Ingredients for Gravy

• Flour, AP, 1/3 cup
• Milk, whole, 3-4 cups
• Salt, seasoned, 1/2 tsp
• Pepper, black

Directions for Making Homemade CFS

1. Make an assembly line. One vessel for milk and eggs, another for dry CFS ingredients, another for raw steak and then a clean plate for the fully-breaded steak.
2. Working one piece at a time, sprinkle both sides with kosher salt and blac pepper, then coat both sides in flour with one hand, move the floured steak to the egg/milk mixture and cover both sides. Lastly, move the steak back to the flour section and turn it to coat. you want a dry-wet-dry routine before finally moving the piece to the clean plate.
3. Repeat for each steak.
4. Heat oil in a skillet set to medium heat. Add butter. Check the oil’s heat by adding some sprinkles of flour; look for sizzling butter, not quickly browning butter.
5. Cook three steaks at a time for roughly 2 minutes, until the edges turn golden brown and then flip it over to cook the other side just as long. Transfer the finished steaks to a plate lined with paper towels and slip a sheet of foil between each steak to retain heat.
6. Repeat until all steaks are cooked.
7. Once you finish the steaks, pour the grease into a bowl and move that bowl to your stove on medium-low heat. Add 1/4 cup of the grease to the skillet and warm it up.
8. Once the grease heats up, evenly sprinkle flour into it. Whisk it in until you have a golden-brown paste. Add flour or grease if it looks greasy or lumpy, respectively. Continue until you have a proper roux.
9. Add milk, whisking the whole time, followed by the remaining gravy ingredients. The gravy should be smooth and thick within 5-10 minutes. Be ready to thicken it with milk and taste as you season.
10. Serve with mashed potatoes and drench with gravy.

If this recipe has you drooling or your stomach growling, know that The Butcher Shop can supply you with all the meat and produce you need for this recipe.