Chicken Fried Steak

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kb35/ / CC BY 2.0

---

Related Articles

• Top 25 chicken fried steaks in Texas
  

• Chicken fried steak with cream gravy
  

• What's cooking America? Chicken Fried Steak
  

• Washington Post Texas Chicken Fried Steak (with Bisquick)
  

Chicken fried steak is a staple in many restaurants in Houston and Texas, but have you ever considered making it at home? It you can make onion rings, you can make homemade chicken fried steak.

What's cooking America? ascribes chicken fried steak to hail from schnitzel brought by German immigrants to the Texas hill country. Chicken fried steak was originally a way to use tougher cuts of meat by slicing the meat into round steaks and pounding them to tenderize. This same technique will work today. It allows you to stick to your budget and  save money by purchasing cheaper cuts of beef and still creating restaurant quality dishes at home. 

Recipes for chicken fried steak  all require that the steak is tenderized, dipped in flour, coated in egg wash, and then dipped once again in flour. It is then fried in a cast iron skillet in oil and served with cream gravy. (Brown gravy belongs east of the Sabine.)

This is the East Texas version of chicken fried steak (CFS) and most likely to be seen here in Houston. Two other forms of Texas CFS have been identified by Robb Walsh of the Houston Press: Central Texas with breadcrumbs and West Texas without egg. He should know CFS across the state. If you give up trying one of the recipes below the photo in your own kitchen, visit one of the restaurants Walsh points out in his Top 25 chicken fried steaks in Texas.

What about country fried steak? In most instances, it is the moniker offered to chicken fried steak, but it might or might not have been dipped in egg. The gravy on top and side dishes will give away the origins of a dubiously named "chicken fried steak". If served with brown gravy or anything else but mashed potatoes, you're looking at country fried steak. Cream gravy served on the side of chicken fried steak is acceptable.