The glorious thing about Chicken Fried Steak is that you can whip it up quickly, not to mention men LOVE it.
It's an All-American, traditional country meal that fills the belly. You can't get much better than that.
What You'll Need:
1-2 lbs ground beef (This is different than traditional chicken fried steak, which calls for tenderized round steak... we don't like round steak in our house. Too chewy. And ground beef is cheaper. And we love the taste of the ground beef with the breading I use, so tada!! Cheap, quick, and easy chicken fried steak!)
1 cup flour (plus 3 T flour for gravy)
Seasoned Salt
Garlic Salt
Black Pepper
1/2 cup Milk (plus 2 cups milk for gravy)
1 egg
1/8 cup frying oil (canola, vegetable, coconut - whatever you choose)
First, defrost your meat. I use about 1/3 lb ground beef for each steak. You can vary the size for your eaters. Next, prep the breading ingredients. I use the Pioneer Woman method of breading. And her pictures are MUCH prettier, so stop by her site.
I put some flour in a pie pan, add some seasoned salt, some garlic salt, and some black pepper. Mix that all up, and prep the wet ingredients.
Put 1/2 cup milk and 1 egg in another pie pan. Whisk it up with a fork.
Form your ground beef into "steaks" -- essentially elongated hamburger patties. Dip each patty in the milk, then the flour, then the milk again, then the flour again.
Heat up your frying oil on medium-high heat, and when it's ready (throw a pinch of flour in there - if it bubbles well, it's ready) place your "steaks" in the oil.
Let those bad boys fry in your oil until they're golden brown and cooked through. I flip them several times - very carefully - and when they're ready, pull them out and place them on a plate, lined with a paper towel.
Drain the grease into a cup, and then pour 1/4 c of the grease back into the pan. Add enough flour that the mix starts to "pull" off the bottom of the pan. Keep whisking and cooking that flour and oil for about three minutes, or until it turns golden brown and starts to smell reeeeaaalllly good.
At this point, whisk in the 2 cups milk. Keep whisking as the gravy thickens, If you need to add more milk, go for it. Add salt to taste, and tada! You have your gravy. I obviously forgot to take a picture of this part of the process.....
So this is what you get instead...
Empty gravy pan...
This is a picture of my plate tonight. The steak's really small and the lighting was terrible, but I promise - it was delicious!!!!
SIDES:
As you can see, I served this with mashed potatoes, more gravy, and corn that we just put up a week ago. Mmmmmm.
GROCERY LIST:
Ground Beef
Flour
Seasoned Salt
Garlic Salt
Black Pepper
Salt
Milk
Eggs
Frying oil (canola, vegetable, coconut)
