Chicken Fried Steak With Cream Gravy Texas Style Recipe 435

Steps:

• Beat together the egg and milk and set aside.
• Mix together the salt, black pepper, paprika and white pepper and sprinkle on both sides of beef cutlets.
• Fill plastic zip lock back with flour. Drop steaks into bag to manually and dredge the steak in flour. Then pour flour into a shallow dish and shake excess flour off of the steaks. Use a pair of tongs for dipping steak into egg mixture and a separate pair of tongs for dipping into the flour.
• Set cutlets aside on a piece of waxed paper.
• Heat the cooking oil in a large cast-iron or other heavy skillet over medium-high heat for a few minutes. Oil should be about a half-inch deep in the pan. (This recipe is not about diets!) Check the temperature with a drop of water; if it pops and spits back at you, it's ready.
• With a long-handled fork, carefully place each cutlet into the hot oil. Protect yourself (and your kitchen) from the popping grease that results. Fry cutlets on both sides, turning once, until golden brown. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook 4 or 5 minutes until cutlets are done through. Drain cutlets on paper towels.
• Cream Gravy.
• After the cutlets are removed from the pan, pour off all but about 2 tablespoons of oil, keeping as many as possible of the browned bits in the pan. Heat the oil over medium heat until hot.
• Sprinkle 3 tablespoons flour (use the left-over flour from the chicken fried steak recipe (waste not -- want not) in the hot oil. Stir with a wooden spoon, quickly, to brown the flour.
• Gradually stir in 3/4 cup milk and 3/4 cup water, mixed together, stirring constantly with the wooden spoon and mashing out any lumps. Lower heat, and gravy will begin to thicken. Continue cooking and stirring a few minutes until gravy reaches desired thickness. Check seasonings and add more salt and pepper according to your taste.

Steps:

• Pound each steak between 2 sheets of plastic wrap to 1/4 inch thick. Liberally sprinkle the steaks with salt and pepper. Transfer to a wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet.
• Whisk together the 1 1/2 cups flour with the cornstarch, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in a large bowl. Whisk together the buttermilk and hot sauce in a medium bowl.
• Working with one steak at a time, lightly dredge in the flour mixture, shaking off the excess. Dip in the buttermilk mixture, letting the excess drip off. Dredge again in the flour mixture, packing it onto the steaks and pressing firmly into crevices, and gently shake off the excess. Return the steaks to the same wire rack. (If time allows, refrigerate, uncovered, 2 to 6 hours. This rest time will ensure that the crust is extra crispy and adheres to the steak. Let the steaks stand at room temperature 30 minutes before frying.)
• Meanwhile, make the gravy. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in the remaining 3 tablespoons flour until combined and cook until golden and bubbling, about 1 minute. Whisk in the milk, heavy cream, sugar, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and cook, whisking frequently, until the gravy boils. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, whisking occasionally, until the gravy thickens, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and keep warm. (Cream gravy will seem very loose, but it will thicken as it sits.)
• Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat with enough oil to come halfway up the sides. Fit the skillet with a deep-fry thermometer then heat over high heat until the oil registers 375 degrees F. Fry the steaks in 2 batches until golden brown, about 1 minute per side. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.
• Whisk the warm cream gravy to loosen and serve over the chicken-fried steaks.

Steps:

• Make the gravy: Melt the butter with the vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Sprinkle in the flour and cook, whisking, until smooth and deep golden brown, about 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in the milk and simmer, whisking to remove any lumps, until the gravy thickens, 4 to 6 minutes. Add 2 to 3 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Cover and remove from the heat.
• Make the steak: Place the steaks between 2 pieces of heavy-duty plastic wrap and pound to 1/8 inch thick with a mallet or heavy skillet. Season generously with salt and pepper. Whisk the flour, baking powder and 1 teaspoon each salt and pepper in a shallow bowl. In another shallow bowl, whisk the milk and eggs. One at a time, dredge each steak in the flour mixture, dip in the egg mixture, then return to the flour mixture, pressing firmly to coat. Transfer the breaded steaks to a rack.
• Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Set another rack on a rimmed baking sheet. Heat about 1 inch of vegetable oil in a cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven over high heat until a deep-fry thermometer registers 350 degrees F. One at a time, fry the steaks until golden brown, turning once, about 5 minutes (return the oil to 350 degrees F between each steak). Transfer the finished steaks to the rack on the baking sheet and keep warm in the oven while you make the rest.
• Meanwhile, reheat the gravy. Stir in some water, 1 tablespoon at a time, if the gravy is too thick. Drizzle the fried steak with the gravy and top with scallions.

Steps:

• 1. Start with a good piece of tenderized round steak and cut it up into serving size pieces. Prepare a bowl of flour to which you add salt, pepper and garlic powder (in an amount comparable to the amount of steak you're going to dredge in the flour - and each piece will be dredged twice).
• 2. Here's how to prepare each piece of steak ( put at least a half-inch of bacon grease into a frying pan) If you don't have any - use Crisco - nothing else. The bacon grease will make the steak brown better and more evenly. Even if you only have a little bacon grease add it to the pan, once the Crisco has melted. The shortening or grease should be very hot but NOT smoking.
• 3. Now, back to the steak - You prepare all the steak pieces the same way. Get 'em all cut, put them thru the dredging process twice, THEN put them in the hot pan. Dredging Process - Take each piece of steak, hold it under running water until it is good and wet, then lay it down in your bowl of flour mixture. PRESS the flour mixture into it on both sides. Then, run the same piece of steak once again under a gentle flow of water. Again, return the steak to the flour mixture and press the flour into both sides. This is the secret to exceptional chicken fried steak: make sure to FLOUR THE SIDES of each piece and press down so it will seal the batter all around. This is a critical move so be sure each outside edge of each piece of steak is well floured! Set them aside until you're ready to start frying. DO NOT stack up the pieces as they'll stick together and you'll have a huge mess! Once all the meat is dredged; put as many pieces in the pan as it will hold - but do not crowd them.
• 4. Cook the meat until it's well done and browned on both sides. As your meat gets done remove them from the skillet to a container lined with paper towels to drain off excess grease. If you want a softer "crust" put a piece of foil over the top of the container - it'll keep the meat warm and will soften the crust a bit. If you prefer a more crusty exterior on your chicken fried steak - put the done pieces in a pan and put them in your oven on a very low or "warm" setting," uncovered, to keep them until you're prepared to serve. Note: I usually add a bit more salt when I remove each piece of steak from the pan.
• 5. CREAM GRAVY Pour all but a bit more than a quarter-inch of the grease out of the pan you cooked the meat in. Don't put the pan back on the fire until you do the following: Get your flour canister out and the salt and pepper so you're ready to go when you begin cooking the gravy. Fill a mixing bowl with a couple of cups of whole milk and add one cup of water to it. If you're not using whole milk put three cups of milk in your bowl (no water).
• 6. Put the pan on the stove and again let it get really hot but not smoking. Add three heaping tablespoons of regular flour, salt and pepper to taste and stir quickly and constantly until the flour is browned and the mixture begins to thicken (very similar to making a roux). At that point add all the milk from the bowl and stir constantly until the gravy thickens and is bubbling (boiling). Cooking cream gravy a bit after it starts to boil kills that flour taste. If your gravy is too thick add a bit more milk. If it's too thin, remove the pan from the stove while you add another table spoon of flour to 1/2 cup water, beat it until there are no lumps and add to your gravy. Then return the pan to the stove and cook until you've got bubbles and the gravy is the right consistency.
• 7. Cream gravy is thicker than most other gravies. For this dish runny gravy won't do, so be sure and cook it long enough to get a good, moderately thick texture. When removing the gravy from the pan into a serving bowl add a bit more black pepper.

Steps:

• Heat about 1/4-1/2 inch of oil or shortening in a frying pan.
• Beat eggs then combine with milk.
• Dredge tenderized beef cutlets in flour, then egg-milk wash, then a second time in flour.
• Place dredged cutlets into heated oil and fry until golden, about 10 minutes.
• Turn steak over and cook for another 5 minutes or so until both sides are golden.
• Remove to a plate lined with paper towels and allow to drain.
• TIME TO MAKE THE GRAVY: Drain all but 1-2 tablespoons of drippings from the frying pan; leave all the cooked bits you can.
• Combine flour and seasonings with milk, then pour into the pan with drippings and bits.
• Continually stir/whisk the gravy over medium heat for 10-15 minutes, or until desired consistency.
• Taste and add more salt or pepper if necessary.
• Serve generously over each piece of chicken fried steak.
• Sop up any extra gravy with a biscuit.