Sunday Gravy with yeah right: Chicken Fried Steak. You Got That Right!

Howdy friends and neighbors. How do? Today we’re heading back to my father’s state of origin. Gatdamn Texas!

We’ve visited this state in the past haven’t we? I’m sure a few of you will remember this delicious homespun Texas Chili recipe. I also got into my Dad’s family in that post and we talked about the local lingo and attitudes in there if you want to read up on the Texas lifestyle.

Today though, this one is about me, mostly about my childhood and shit.

I was born in Texas, Fort Worth actually but my family moved away when I was just a few months old. I was what a Texan would call a “Little Squealer.” My parents moved around a lot since they worked for the government but as far as my dad was concerned, he was a Texan through and through. As mentioned in the linked post, my Dad’s family still lives there. There was a lot of Texas influence in the dinners my mother made when we were growing up so of course those influences got passed along to me.

I was born the youngest of 4 boys. We were born in successive years so at one point my oldest brother was a senior in high school and I was a freshman. Jesus fuck what the hell was wrong with my parents? Goddamn masochists is what they were. As a kid I was tormented, beat upon and chased around by my older brothers so to avoid the torment I retreated to the safest place I could find, the kitchen. Ma protected my righteous ass from the three older brothers so of course I got labeled as a “Mama’s boy.”

Well it is true that Ma loved me best.

During the safe time in the kitchen I became curious about the meal making process and I would ask a lot of questions, help out when I could and basically learned the meal preparation game. The reason I became a cook (I sure as hell ain’t no fuckin’ chef, I’m a cook dammit!) springs from my early days in the kitchen with Ma. Holy shit did I peel a lot of potatoes.

Today’s meal was my very favorite meal growing up and it still holds a place in my heart and my repertoire, it’s also one of the very first full meals that I made. I think it was right around the time I was 14 when I made this exact meal for the first time. That means I’ve been cooking this badass motherfucker for 40 years.

Forty fucking years.

Texas loves itself some chicken fried steak as evidenced here.

picture via wikipedia
picture via wikipedia

Let me go on record before we get started as saying “Woo doggies this meal isn’t the healthiest meal ever”. This was the first time I’ve made it in probably 2 years but “shit fire and save the matches” it’s really goddamn delicious.

Quick explanation time. The weekend that I made this dish was the same weekend as the most recent DFO SoCal chapter get together. The party was hosted by our own Low Commander of the Super Soldiers and also in attendance were Rikki Tikki Deadly, The Wee Baby Seamus and our own Covalent Blonde. What a fantastic time was had. Low Commander had acquired some “Cardiff Crack” which is a marinated tri-tip that is made at a meat store in Cardiff By The Sea in San Diego County and it was hands down the best tri-tip I have ever had. Thanks for being an incredible host Good Sir and I can’t wait until the next gathering.

I bring this up because I didn’t leave San Diego until Sunday morning and I still wanted to do a Sunday Gravy post for all of you fine, fine folks so I needed to do something that was fairly quick, pretty easy and something I have made tons of times in the past and would require no recipe scrutiny during the cooking process. That just screamed out chicken fried steak.

Final story before we get to the cooking stuff: when my  ex wife’s best friend got married there were a bunch of folks gathered at the best friend’s house the night before to assist with the wedding prep. It was a do it yourself type wedding so we had about 18-20 folks on hand doing wedding preparation type shit. Guess what I was recruited to do? “Fuckin’ A Jasper” I was recruited to cook for everybody. I made chicken fried steak for this entire bunch of folks with the only stipulation being “Make sure I never have an empty beer next to me.” I cooked non stop for about 4 goddamn hours. It was hot as hell in that kitchen with it being in the middle of the summer and all and I sweat my ever-lovin’ ass off. Finally after everybody was fed and I had a chance to go outside and cool off I was finally ready to have some dinner for myself.

Motherfuckers ate every last bit of everything. Everything! Not saving for the cook is an executable offense as far as I’m concerned. I ended up eating some of the cubed cheese that was cut up for the wedding reception. Those fuckers.

It’s chicken fried steak time! We’re also making some homemade mashed potatoes and gravy and serving up some corn. Let it be noted that this is The Original Sunday Gravy! First gravy I ever made and have perfected over the years.

Chicken fried steak.

Round steak. Thin cut. The amount depends on how many you are cooking for. There were 3 of us eating so I bought 2 packs that were cut in half. You can use cube steak, the shit that’s already been run through and perforated but I like the flavor of round steak best. We’ve also gonna pound the fuck out of this with a meat hammer. Any other cut of steak will lead to a very tough and chewy steak.

Flour lots. 2-3 cups or so.

1 pint or a little more of whole milk. Not 2% or skim because that won’t make a tasty gravy.

2 raw eggs slightly mixed

1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt

1/2 teaspoon of onion salt

Salt

Pepper.

We’ll get to the salt and pepper amounts as we go.

1/3 cup of cooking oil

1/3 cup of Crisco

Now, take that round steak out of the package, give it a rinse and pat it dry with a paper towel and place on a cutting board.

unpounded raw meat

Take out your meat mallet. Stop it before you even start!

Now rinse off the blood and hair from the dead hooker that’s buried in the basement and get to pounding! Pound both sides until the meat is flattened and is ready to cooperate. It should look like this.

pound that meat

Cut this beast in half add some salt and pepper and then prepare a dredging station.

Dredge station

The key to having properly breaded chicken fried steak – very obvious note time, this same dredging process works for frying chicken too, who knew? – is to have a proper dredge station. The key here is the first dredge is just flour. This step helps keep the breading on the steak throughout the cooking time and nothing sucks more donkey ass than having your breading fall off while cooking.

So it’s plain flour, then an egg and milk mixture (2 eggs beaten and 1/3 cup of milk) followed by seasoned flour. This is flour with the onion powder, garlic powder about 1 teaspoon of salt and about 1 teaspoon of black pepper. Take each steak and toss in the flour, then dredge in the egg mix, then coat thoroughly with the seasoned flour. You can go directly into the heated skillet or dredge all of the steaks and then put in the skillet to cook. I put mine directly into the skillet.

meat in pan 1st side

Let’s discuss the cooking method. I use a mixture of vegetable oil and Crisco to cook mine. Ma used to use all Crisco and this is me rationalizing with myself that I’m TRYING to make it healthier. Bullshit, it’s still not a healthy meal. Fun fact! I was reading the nutrition label on the Crisco can

crisco_

and there is actually a line on the can that says “Not intended for use as a spread.” What the fuck? Jesus Christ people in the South are all sorts of fucked up. Do you actually need to be told this? I just….

Nevermind.

Bring the oil and Crisco to temp in a skillet over medium to medium high heat.

What’s that?

Deep fry it?

Technically you could but how the fuck are we supposed to make gravy from a deep fryer? Might as well just make a Crisco sandwich. You have to pan fry in order to make the proper gravy. Here ends that discussion.

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees.

Cook the breaded steaks in the skillet for about 7 minutes then carefully flip them over with a spatula hoping against hope that your breading doesn’t fall off. We want these to be golden brown and fucking delicious.

golden brown

I almost used the above photo for the banner image because dear God it’s foodgasm worthy.

Cook on the second side for about 5 minutes and then carefully remove the steaks from the skillet and place in an oven safe dish in the preheated 250 degree oven until all of the steaks are cooked. Repeat these steps until the meat is all cooked.

In the meantime we are going to make mashed potatoes. Alright alright. Cut a couple of pounds of peeled russet potatoes into chunks, place in a pot with enough water to cover by about 2″. Add a teaspoon of salt to the water.

potatoes in water

Bring the potatoes to a boil and cook for about 12-15 minutes until the potatoes are fork tender. Drain the potatoes and put them into the bowl of your badass Kitchenaide Mixmaster 5000. Put in some salt and pepper to taste, about 2 tablespoons of butter and about 1/4 cup of milk. Mix the potatoes to desired doneness. I like mine mixed with just a lump or 3 to give it the proper potato flavor.

Action Shot!
Action Shot!

Believe it or not, the Kitchenaide makes this whole thing a fuck ton easier than using a hand mixer, which I used to do. Imagine hand mixing the potatoes while simultaneously making gravy and setting the table. This bad fucker is more than worth the cost. Ideally you want the potatoes to be done right about the time that our final recipe is ready.

Sunday Gravy!

Look, I ain’t gonna lie to you. I like you! This is the trick to the whole dish. I can’t properly give an exact recipe for this because there are so many variables involved. How many people are eating? How many steaks did you cook? There are even atmospheric conditions at play. If you haven’t made a “cream” or “white” gravy before there is a pretty good chance that it will be fucked up. It isn’t you, I promise! Remember that whole “making for 40 years” thing? Absolutely I’ve fucked up my share of gravies before. Many times. However: when executed right the gravy really pulls the whole dish together, does it not?!

What I CAN do is give a couple of tricks that work for me.

First, remove all but about 1 tablespoon of grease from the skillet that you cooked the steaks in. Please, please, please keep all of those crispy browned bits in there though. That’s the good shit right there. Now, if you have some of the leftover seasoned flour from the dredging station add about 1/2 cup of that to the skillet. Over a medium flame stir the flour around in the grease and browned bits for just about a minute. Next add in about 3/4 cup of whole milk and stir, stir stir. We are going to slowly “build” the gravy by adding in some small pours of the milk. This first step should produce a pretty thick gravy that we will gradually thin out by adding additional milk. Then we will repeat these steps and stir until we reach the desired consistency. Add salt and pepper as you go because flour and milk ain’t all that tasty unseasoned. Do be careful to not over salt. You can add it at the end but you can’t take it out if you use too much. Use a bunch of black pepper though.

Gravy

The steps I use are stir, thicken and add a little more milk. Don’t add the whole pint all at once and try not to thicken by adding additional flour to the gravy, you want to have enough flour from the first step to make the gravy. Stir and build. One more variable again is how many are eating. When done right some folks will just drink this tasty bitch so be sure you have enough.

Lastly add a veggie of your choice. I just heated up a can of corn because that’s how I did it as a kid. This gives us this end result.

chicken fried steak money shot

You’re going to put a piece of chicken fried steak on the plate, then a biggol spoonful of potatoes, top these with some gravy and follow up with a scoop of the corn.

I can’t properly describe how goddamn delicious this is. I will tell you one more time that this is not health food. You are going to overeat, you’re going to go back for seconds and yes, you will actually eat a couple of spoonfuls of just straight gravy you goddamn heathen. You’re going to be full, and bloated and sated and ready for a fucking nap and you WILL start thinking about when you can make this again without turning into a disgusting fatbody over the course of a few weeks.

I have this about once a year if that helps.

Well partners, there you go! My very favorite meal growing up. I always had this on my birthday being the Mama’s Boy that I was. I love and miss my Ma and I truly thank her for teaching me to cook at an early age and for also giving me the Texas influence. As many times as I railed about Texas in the past it was still my birthplace and I am still influenced by that.

Now you know the true origins of my very first Sunday Gravy.

Thanks for reading and get that gym membership going so you can actually eat some of this stuff.

Peace!

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yeah right is a lifelong Vikings fan. He is into self denial and still harbors hope. Loves to cook, read and drink. But he doesn't plate.
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blaxabbath

[Asking for a friend]

As a [friend of a] person who rarely cooks for more than two and doesn’t enjoy more than a couple days worth of leftovers of any particular dish, I’d like your comments about dry spices and when to buy new ones. As you [and my friend] know, that shit can get expensive, especially when you only use a teaspoon here or there. Now, I [understand she] don’t want any underseasoned dishes but what is balance here? Is there a 6 month rule or something? And why don’t they just fucking sell smaller quantities? I [have recommended to the friend] buy the baggies in the mexican food section and that’s been helpful but, even with those in the Ikea spice jars, I [via the friend] don’t have any idea about shelf lives there.

Please don’t rip me [to pass on to my friend who is a hot chick] for a question that is basically, “how long can I REALLY drive my car before it needs an oil change?”

theeWeeBabySeamus

Sorry I’m late to the party this week.
But as usual, I feel fatter just for having read this.
Nicely done, as always.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

One of the things I really love about this feature is that every week I read it I end up saying “I can do this” at some point.

Bloody Lethal

I read these every week and I have to get something to eat almost immediately after I finish reading, but I have yet to get it together and make one.

Kungjitsu

There used to be a spot here in North Florida (technically it’s still there, but it was sold and the new owners fucked up the recipe) that made a great chicken fried steak, but they went genius with their chicken fried chicken — and that’s how it was on the menu. It was the exact same thing, just a chicken breast substituted for the steak.

I don’t travel a bunch in the South, so maybe a lot of people do it, but I’ve never seen it anywhere else.

Unsurprised

Even Cracker Barrel sells chicken fried chicken.

But anyway it’s delicious.

Wakezilla

Oh lordy, this looks like something I’ll probably make and devour in November. Thank god for the tags so I can scroll back to find these meals.

Out of curiosity, did you and your bros turn out to be good friends? I’d imagine once you hit your 20s, the fact you would all have been at the same stage of your lives, would have made for some great stories.

Bloody Lethal

I was only fortunate enough to get one bro out of the 6 siblings I have. Luckily he’s 2 years younger than me and we can hang out, continue to share interests, and even pass for each other in a pinch (say a big date but also showing up for a stuffy work party).

blaxabbath

If you murder one of them, maybe they can transplant you one of the brother’s knees.

...

Oh god. I just Rizz’d in my pants.

Spanky Datass

My abattoir mechanically tenderizes the round steaks then cryo-packs them in four 4oz steaks per pack. So damn handy for making CFS.

Your recipe is very much like mine (Grandmothers that I have adapted). Differences being: I use buttermilk, 1t baking powder and 1/2t baking soda in my eggs. It does wonderful things to the texture of the crust. Also a pinch of cayenne in the final flour dredge.

And you ain’t kidding about fucking up gravy. I’m pushing fifty and I can still produce a broken runny mess occasionally. TESTIFY!

Spanky Datass

The one I use was sold after I made an appointment to bring in a steer I’m feeding at my parents place. I have not met the new owner and am a little apprehensive. I DON’T LIKE CHANGE!
http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/change-architect-sign1.jpg

Covalent Blonde

Literally, my favorite part of this is before and after photos of your two-dimensional steak in the end!

Sill Bimmons

Pictured: Bathing facilities in the Olympic Athlete’s Village, Rio De Janeiro

comment image

Spanky Datass

Wait … are those tubs made by SOLO?
As in this
http://www.clipartkid.com/images/550/red-solo-cup-jpg-FgcWVt-clipart.jpg
SOLO?
Holy shit! It’s not a bath, it’s the biggest most gigantic-est beer pong game ever!!!!1!!

Sill Bimmons

BTW that’s not a joke.

Doktor Zymm

I’m having a BLT with tots and a side of sausage gravy. Woo brunch! Also having my standard summer drink, vodka soda, tall, extra fruit extra ice. It’s like grownup limeade

Sill Bimmons
...

Can my taste buds get a boner? If so, they just did.

blaxabbath

That looks like a whole wheat tortilla (also known as a wrap).

Seriously, talk about people that should be banned….

Sill Bimmons

That really looks fantastic, but the clean up, man! THE CLEAN UP

OTT, if any of you are investors, buy all the Disney stock you can NOW. If you’re not, scrape $1000 together somehow, buy 10 shares at $97.71 and become one. You won’t regret it.

Disney is undervalued by at least 20% because of fears that ESPN was/is/will be a drag on the property. These fears are stoked by the exact same people who are slowly buying up all the Disney stock they can–the financial press. A good friend of mine is a lighting director at FOX News (got the job 20 years ago, he’s not one of them) and hears the the Business anchors talking after the cameras are off about how their latest “Is ESPN Ruining Disney?” segment is going to make them a killing when “Star Wars: Rogue One” comes out in December. People are finally going to realize that Disney only paid $4 billion for a franchise that is going to make them at least that much every year for the foreseeable future, not to mention that they also own Marvel, Pixar, and Avatar, and that no matter what happens to ESPN The Walt Disney Company will be just fine. The price is going to creep up to about 105 right before the film is released, but even by that time it will already be too late to significantly multiply your shares by averaging up when it hits 150, then once the dumb money stops pouring it’s going to come back down and level off at around 125: exactly what it’s worth. That will leave you averaged up at 1.6 shares per initial share invested at a 25% profit.

See you in the Caymans!

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Doktor Zymm

I’ve been building my own dow index by buying 1000 worth of one of the companies whenever I have an extra grand in the bank, guess I’ll bump disney to the top of the list. They’re in the dow aren’t they?

Sill Bimmons

The less one knows about the stock market the better.

You’re clearly destined for greatness.

...

The Dok and I were talking about investment advice once and she convinced me that just buying ETFs and stocks based on names that looked good was about as likely to make us money as any meaningful analysis.

Sill Bimmons

The only thing that works is buying something when it is less valuable and selling it when it becomes more valuable.

This article offers great insight into determining undervalued stocks:

https://investorjunkie.com/29489/find-undervalued-stock/

Doktor Zymm

It depends if you believe the efficient market’s hypothesis or not.

Even if you don’t, tracking the market has low fees and will make you money long term.
http://theconservativeincomeinvestor.com/2015/05/26/fidelitys-best-investors-are-dead/

Doktor Zymm

If you’re bored and feel like reading academic finance…
https://www.princeton.edu/ceps/workingpapers/91malkiel.pdf

BrettFavresColonoscopy

I have like ten shares of Disney from my bar mitzvah 20 years ago, so I’m rolling in it!

/is not, in fact, rolling in anything

Sill Bimmons

It split 3:1 in 1998, so that made it 30 shares.

You should average that up to 60 shares at $49/share and see what happens.

scotchnaut

I’m a fan of “Spotlight”.

/trying very hard not to compare it to “All The President’s Men”.

scotchnaut

*status on The Facebook*

Hammered and fighting with an old high school basketball teammate about The Donald Trump.

blaxabbath

Just let it go, man. He doesn’t really love you, America, or anyone.

Fronkenshteen

I want to crank up some early ZZ Top, lay in the bathtub and eat a giant plate of this until my heart starts to hurt.
Aside from flattening it, what else does hammering do for the steak? Pulverize the gristle?

Doktor Zymm

That looks fantastic. Once I sufficiently recover from an hour and a half of heat advisory tennis, I will attempt to find something similar to that to eat. Or maybe just biscuits and gravy. With maybe an egg on top. But first, lots of cold water to drink and maybe a cool shower and standing in front of the AC.

Doktor Zymm

My little window AC is doing a valiant job. Glad to hear someone out there has nice weather today!

BrettFavresColonoscopy

Which member of your family goes by “Damn”?

scotchnaut

[reads post]

Well, that just about settles it. It’s a dreary, rainy day in this neck of the woods, I’m by myself and I haven’t cooked chili for 4 or so months (has it really been that long? Can you ever forgive me, chili?)

Oh, and the drinking starts *extra* early today.

King Hippo

Wow, I have not seen a tub of Crisco since the days of my youth.

/am from the South

Don T

That looks GOOD. My wife taught be this breading trick: after flour-egg-seasoned flour / panko / breadcrumbs, put the stuff in the freezer for about an hour. Hadn’t had anything fall off since.

Oh! I made your carnitas recipe on Friday. It was great! Then I had some yesterday

http://m.imgur.com/gallery/psekO3B

I may just have some for breakfast too.

Sill Bimmons

Same freezer thing keeps meatballs from falling apart if they’re too warm to brown when you’re done forming them.

Porky Prime

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Marc Trestmans Windowless Van
Unsurprised

How do you not make this with lard?

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

He mentioned the Crisco. And to reply to myself, that steak just looks too good to do this to. I will steal the recipe the next time I buy one of my placemat sized steaks for 10 bucks. Also I think if you have bacon grease that would be a better substitute than lard for the Crisco

Unsurprised

I don’t consider Crisco to be lard

Sill Bimmons

Crisco isn’t lard, it’s vegetable shortening.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

That looks like an actual steak. What are you doing? Skip the first 3 ingredients, replace the last 2 with too much butter, sear the outside of the steaks on your grill on high and let the juices cook inside instead.

Sill Bimmons

Next time spend twice as long flattening it and make a braciole.

Jeebus I love a good braciole.

http://www.oliviaskitchen.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/braciole1.jpg

Sill Bimmons

Cheese, egg, and cured pork inside a giant beef roll:

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JerBear50

Goddamn I haven’t had that in so long and I’ve been dying for it. I’ll be making this one soon. Real soon. I make ghee though, so I think I’ll fry it in that.

JerBear50

I’ll let you know. I would think the ghee butter would add some nice flavors for the gravy.

Damn, I made chicken scarpariello a couple weeks ago and thought I snapped a picture of it, but I guess not.

Unsurprised

I need to have people over so I have an excuse to cook food that isn’t one of five variations on Bachelor Chow. My kitchen is small as fuck, but I’ll make due.

Of course, priorities. I have a couple major obstacles before I can entertain that notion, but goddamn CFS is so good and I really want to make this and your other recipes.

ballsofsteelandfury

That looks fucking amazing!

You are, of course, 1000% right that the gravy pulls everything together.