How to cook omaha chicken fried steak

Overview

This classic comfort food is all about the steak. And we don't skimp. We start with extra-tender sirloin steak, then season and hand-dress it in a coarse, rustic breading that delivers a cozy, down-home flavor with a satisfying crunch. Do yourself a favor and experience this all-time customer favorite today.

• Tender sirloin steak
• Hand-coated in coarse, peppery breading for a down-home taste
• One-step freezer-to-oven cook; dinner in under 30 minutes
• Pairs with country-style white gravy and mashed potatoes
• Top-rated Omaha Steaks best-seller

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Recipe from

omahasteaks.com

Chicken Fried Steak with Mashed Potatoes and Peppered Cream Gravy

Omaha Steaks

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Ingredients

Meat

4 Omaha steaks top sirloin steaks

Produce

1 1/2 lbs Russet potatoes

Refrigerated

2 Eggs, large

Baking & Spices

1 3/16 cup Flour

3 Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Oils & Vinegars

1 Vegetable oil

Dairy

3 tbsp Butter

2 cup Milk

Why It Works

• Thinly pounded sirloin tips make the most flavorful and tender chicken-fried steak.
• Coating the steak with cornstarch creates an extra thin and delicate crust that won't overwhelm the thinly pounded meat.
• Adding buttermilk to seasoned flour and working it with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse wet sand creates an extra crisp breading. Baking powder adds lightness to the crust.
• Deep frying cooks the steaks more evenly than pan frying.

Chicken-fried steak was never on my radar until I started dating a Texan. Even then, when she waxed poetic about it, her eyes turning back to the lucky days when it was lunch at the school cafeteria, all I could respond with was an awkward mix of curiosity and disdain. I simply didn't understand how a well done, deep-fried hunk of cheap steak drowned in gravy could ever win hearts and minds.

One trip to Texas changed all that.

I remember my first chicken-fried steak at a Country Inn No. 2 in Brenham. Out came a golden slab, so big it overhung the super-sized platter. I took a bite of the thinly pounded, breaded steak, and suddenly I understood: If you love fried foods and gravy, chicken fried steak is the ultimate way to eat them.

I've since made numerous excursions for it on my regular visits to the Lone Star State. Above is one of the more exemplary versions I've come across, from Killen's Barbecue. Despite the too-thin gravy, it's a perfect piece of chicken-fried steak: a beautiful browned crust with a tender and flavorful piece of beef swaddled within. It was exactly what a chicken-fried steak should be, and exactly what I have yet to find in my hometown of New York. As it stands, if I want this greatness at home, I have to take matters into my own hands.

Steak Tips

First things first, let's all agree to call chicken-fried steak by its proper acronym going forward, CFS. With that part settled, it's time to tackle a major issue: finding the right steak.

The spirit of CFS dictates that it be made with a cheap steak. That steak also needs to be tender. See the problem? Cheap and tender are two words that don't generally go together when describing cuts of beef. I began my tests by picking up four of the least expensive cuts I could find, including bottom round, eye round, sirloin tip, and cube steak (the most popular cut for CFS, and usually made of round that's been run through a tenderizer a couple times).

For each cut, I pounded the steak even thinner than it came, placing each in a plastic bag and going at them with my rolling pin until they were between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick (a meat pounder or small skillet will work too).

I whipped up some initial batches and enlisted the tasting help of some of my Texan friends. Everyone agreed on a clear winner: The sirloin tip was the most tender and had the best beefy flavor by far. Cube steak may be the people's choice for CFS, but it took a distant second place to sirloin tip in terms of both texture and flavor. Bottom round and eye round, meanwhile, were tough and flavorless, and if it weren't for the delicious crust, they probably would have been fed to the dogs.

Putting the "Chicken-Fried" in the Steak

CFS's strange name comes from its batter, which should closely resemble the best fried chicken crust you've ever had. I know my way around fried chicken, so this part seemed like a no-brainer to me.

I started with my standard batter station: First I dredged the steaks in plain flour, followed by a dip in an egg-and-buttermilk mixture, and finally a coating of flour dampened with buttermilk and seasoned with salt, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne, paprika, and black pepper.

That final coating of dampened flour is important because it's what ultimately gives the fried crust its craggy texture and extra-crispiness.

Next, I rested the steaks on a wire rack, which helps set the coating so that it stays intact when you fry it.

To avoid the mess of deep frying, I shallow-fried these steaks in a cast iron skillet. But that led to a few problems. First, the batter didn't brown evenly, since the areas not touching the bottom of the pan cooked at a slower rate. Second, the breading got smashed against the bottom of the pan, ruining the three-dimensional craggy texture I was aiming for. Third, after the first couple steaks, pieces of blackened crust that had fallen off previous batches started to embed themselves in the subsequent ones. And fourth, my breading, which has always worked great for my fried chicken, was just too thick and heavy on the steak.

It turns out that CFS, despite its name, doesn't work exactly like fried chicken. Back to the drawing board.

CFS (Certified Fixed Steak)

To fix the breading, I made the first coating with cornstarch instead of flour, which helped create a thinner inner layer, and therefore a thinner overall crust. I also added baking powder to the outer coating of damp flour for extra lightness.

Given my disappointment with pan frying, I switched over to full-fledged deep frying, using my seven-quart Dutch oven to accommodate the large size of my pounded steaks. This made a huge difference, producing steaks that were evenly golden, with every nook and cranny of their textured crust intact.

Riding the Gravy Train

CFS isn't really CFS until you pour a thick pepper gravy over the top. I've covered this territory previously, so there's not much new to say. After you've finished frying your steaks, take a quarter cup of the now well-seasoned frying oil and work it into a roux with some flour.

Once that browns lightly, I whisk in whole milk, season it heavily with coarsely ground black pepper, and let it cook until thickened, which only takes a few minutes. Then after a final seasoning with salt and more pepper, it's good to go.

If you've made your CFS right, with a thick, craggy crust, even a deluge of gravy won't soften it up. This is one version to make your inner Texan proud.

February 2015

For the Steaks:

• 4 long, thin sirloin tip steaks (about 2 pounds)

• 3/4 cup cornstarch

• 1 egg

• 1 cup buttermilk, divided

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste

• 2 teaspoons paprika

• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

• 1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder

• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

• 2 quarts peanut or canola oil

For the Gravy:

• 1/4 cup vegetable, canola, or peanut oil, for frying

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 2 1/2 cups whole milk

• 1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper, plus more to taste

1. For the Steaks: Pat steaks dry with paper towels. Place one steak in a resealable plastic bag. Using a meat pounder, rolling pin, or small skillet, pound steak out to an even 1/8- to 1/4-inch thickness. Repeat with remaining 3 steaks. Season steaks with salt.

   Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

2. Place cornstarch in a shallow dish. Whisk together egg and 2/3 cup buttermilk in a separate shallow dish. Whisk together flour, 2 teaspoons salt, paprika, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, baking powder, and cayenne pepper in a third shallow dish. Drizzle remaining 1/3 cup of buttermilk into seasoned flour and rub with fingertips until mixture is coarse like wet sand.

   Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

3. Working one steak at a time, coat well in cornstarch. Lift steak, shake off excess cornstarch, then transfer to egg mixture. Coat steak well in egg mixture, lift steak, letting excess egg drain off, then transfer to seasoned buttermilk-flour mixture. Coat steak well, pressing seasoned flour all over to help it adhere to the meat. Lift steak, shake off excess flour, and transfer to a wire rack. Repeat with remaining steaks. Let steaks stand for 10 minutes.

   Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

4. Place oil in a large Dutch oven or wok and heat to 375°F (190°C) over high heat. Carefully lift 1 steak and gently slide into oil. Cook, flipping occasionally, until golden brown and crisp on both sides, 2 to 4 minutes total. Transfer steak to a paper towel-lined tray and season with salt to taste. Repeat with remaining 3 steaks.

   Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

5. For the Gravy: Transfer 1/4 cup of hot frying oil to a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add flour and whisk constantly until mixture turns light brown, about 1 minute. Slowly whisk in milk. Stir in pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat; season with salt and additional pepper to taste.

   Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

6. Transfer steaks to plates, top with gravy, and serve immediately.

Special Equipment

Dutch oven or wok

Read More

• Digging Into Chicken-Fried Steak, a Texas Icon
• How Chicken-Fried Steak Got Its Texas Twang
• Pepper Gravy

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