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.
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.
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.
Cut this beast in half add some salt and pepper and then prepare a dredging 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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
[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?”
I go about 6 months between spice changes. I really do take advantage of the little cellophane wrapped packages for cumin, peppercorns, chile powder, bay leaves and oregano. They are cheap enough that you can toss the unused portion without feeling guilty.
Plus I use a lot of cumin, oregano and thyme.
I am spoiled because I grow some of my own herbs like, basil, oregano, chives and cilantro and I can just go to the balcony and snip what I need.
I’ve got some cinnamon and nutmeg that should probably be replaced now that you mention it.
I also like grinding my own spice mixes, see my za’atar posts and I cycle though those pretty quickly.
I think it comes down to usage and since I cook a lot I get through them pretty fast.
Sorry I’m late to the party this week.
But as usual, I feel fatter just for having read this.
Nicely done, as always.
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.
#SundayGravyFails
http://www.thevinylfactory.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/burning_house-750.jpg
And THAT is the whole reason I do this.
Thanks.
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.
Give it a try.
The whole idea behind me doing these is to get you good folks in the kitchen and at least give some home cooking a go.
It doesn’t have to be an exact duplication of what I’m making just give some cooking a try.
I’m just here for the inspiration.
And the beer.
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.
Even Cracker Barrel sells chicken fried chicken.
But anyway it’s delicious.
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.
We are closer than any other family I know.
I live with 2 of the 3, we’re all grandfathers and have raised families and now we are just chilling by the beach.
The other brother lives a couple of hours away and visits regularly.
It’s funny how I’ve turned into the de facto “head” of the family.
Brother DJ Taj is doing the grilling while I’m in the kitchen and brother 1 will be handling clean up duty.
It’s pretty incredible actually.
Next week’s Sunday Gravy is going to kick SO much ass!
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).
If you murder one of them, maybe they can transplant you one of the brother’s knees.
That’s a goddamn good idea!
Oh god. I just Rizz’d in my pants.
Yeah the Cubs looked really flat for most of the game.
That was a nice save against a team they should beat.
The W flag is flying in LA.
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!
I gots to get me one of them there abattoir dealies.
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
http://67.media.tumblr.com/ae526bf9f48029c7903bd5520225c0a0/tumblr_nv5wwdsBFJ1ue034to1_400.gif
Literally, my favorite part of this is before and after photos of your two-dimensional steak in the end!
This is going to sound strange but my favorite photo was the action shot of the mixer whipping the potatoes.
I really can’t explain it.
Pictured: Bathing facilities in the Olympic Athlete’s Village, Rio De Janeiro
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!!
BTW that’s not a joke.
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
http://i.imgflip.com/7nse1.gif
Can my taste buds get a boner? If so, they just did.
That looks like a whole wheat tortilla (also known as a wrap).
Seriously, talk about people that should be banned….
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!
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?
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.
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/
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/
If you’re bored and feel like reading academic finance…
https://www.princeton.edu/ceps/workingpapers/91malkiel.pdf
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
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.
I’m a fan of “Spotlight”.
/trying very hard not to compare it to “All The President’s Men”.
I really liked Spotlight and felt it deserved the big award that it received.
Today should be fun, while making an old standby I will also be doing another dish that’s brand new to me. Should be tasty.
There will be chopping.
And grilling.
We just got to 80.
Good bless you central air.
*status on The Facebook*
Hammered and fighting with an old high school basketball teammate about The Donald Trump.
Just let it go, man. He doesn’t really love you, America, or anyone.
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?
Yeah it’s basically tenderizing it.
That’s the thing with cube steak it still has the gristle thing going on.
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.
We got a break from the heat today.
Also all of that ash and smoke has been carried away east so I can open the damn windows up.
Stay cool Dok.
My little window AC is doing a valiant job. Glad to hear someone out there has nice weather today!
Which member of your family goes by “Damn”?
That would be brother number 2.
[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.
Wow, I have not seen a tub of Crisco since the days of my youth.
/am from the South
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.
That’s fantastic.
So glad you tried it.
We’ve got some pork coming up in a couple of weeks.
I’ve mentioned this before but yesterday before I posted this I was thinking about last week (this recipe) while shopping for next week (what I’m cooking today) and also anticipating the following week (Sunday Gravy in 2 weeks).
I may be broken.
Same freezer thing keeps meatballs from falling apart if they’re too warm to brown when you’re done forming them.
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s–w8E6Gk1V–/193wxp0ekwqcsgif.gif
How do you not make this with lard?
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
I don’t consider Crisco to be lard
Crisco isn’t lard, it’s vegetable shortening.
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.
Naw man it’s just round steak.
You wouldn’t want to grill this chewy bastard.
That’s why I brought out the meat hammer.
Got to work this fucker into shape.
It looks good because I’ve got a good butcher.
Save the coals for a ribeye.
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
Oh fuck yes.
I’ve made some with the hard boiled egg inside.
Thefuckouttahere!
Cheese, egg, and cured pork inside a giant beef roll:
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.
Good call.
Let me know how it turns out.
There’s been quite the tintintabulation since Crisco changed it’s original formation.
I gots to know!
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.
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.
This is the recipe right here.
Gravy don’t lie!
That looks fucking amazing!
You are, of course, 1000% right that the gravy pulls everything together.
It’s all about the gravy.