Chicken fried steak with country gravy is the ultimate comfort food. Tedner, juicy steak is coated in a zesty, seasoned breading and fried until crisp and crunchy. Then, it’s smothered in white country gravy.
Chicken fried steak is one of the most iconic Southern comfort foods. Synonymous with crispy texture and delicious flavors, this is a recipe that everyone loves.
Serve this delicious main with sides like the best mashed potatoes, crock pot Italian green beans, and cheesy cornbread for a plateful of huge Southern comfort food flavors!
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Simple Ingredients: This recipe uses basic cooking staples found in almost any kitchen.
- Simple Process: Just batter and fry the chicken, then make the gravy. It’s a simple, straightforward process that anyone can do!
- Classic Comfort Food: That crispy, seasoned coating, tender steak, and country gravy combine to create classic Southern comfort food flavor in every bite.
- Versatile: It’s easy to change up this recipe to make several variations.
Key Ingredients
You’ll find a complete list of ingredients and their exact amounts in the recipe card at the end of the post.
- Cube Steak: Cube steak is designed to cook quickly while remaining tender, making it perfect for this recipe.
- Buttermilk: Buttermilk and eggs create the wet layer that adheres to the flour and makes a base for the seasoned flour final layer.
- Seasonings: A blend of Cajun seasoning, garlic salt, onion powder, and red pepper flakes creates zesty, bold coating.
- Drippings: Steak drippings give the gravy a deep, bold flavor.
- Milk: Milk is the classic base for country gravy.
Variations
- Mild: Omit the red pepper flakes for a mild version.
- Bite-Sized: Cut the steak into cubes for chicken fried steak bites or chicken fried steak fingers.
- Pork: Use pork strips with this recipe to make delicious chicken fried pork fingers with gravy for dipping.
- Chicken: Of course this breading is perfect for classic Southern fried chicken.
How to Make Chicken Fried Steak with Country Gravy
- Set up a dredge station with a bowl of flour, a bowl of the buttermilk mixture, and a bowl of seasoned flour.
- Dip the steaks in the flour mixture, the buttermilk mixture, and the seasoned flour mixture.
- Fry a couple of steaks at a time in hot oil until golden and crispy on both sides, placing them on a plate lined with paper towels in the oven to keep warm. Repeat until all the steaks are fried.
- Remove the oil from the pan, leaving about a tablespoon and all the drippings.
- Add flour and cook on medium heat for a couple of minutes, scraping the drippings off the pan with a spatula as you cook.
- Add the milk and cook, stirring continuously until it comes to a boil. Then, reduce the heat and simmer until thickened.
- Add the seasonings and stir. Then, plate the steaks alongside mashed potatoes and cover with gravy.
Expert Tips
- Place a layer of cube steaks on a plate lined with paper towels. Then, place more cube steaks in single layers on top with more paper towels in between to absorb excess liquid.
- For the best fried coating, dip your steaks in the dredging bowls just before frying them.
- Be sure to cook your flour for about 2 minutes before adding the liquid to get rid of the raw flour flavor.
- To ensure your oil is hot enough, give it a look and a flick. If the surface of the oil glistens, and it crackles and pops when you flick a few drops of water into it, it’s hot enough.
- If your oil has a burning smell or is smoky, it’s too hot.
- Fry just a couple of steaks at a time to ensure the oil stays nice and hot.
Chicken Fried Steak with Country Gravy FAQs
Chicken fried steak gets its name from its preparation. It’s coated in a classic Southern fried chicken dredge and then fried just like chicken.
If your gravy gets thick and gummy after it cools, simply add a little milk while you reheat it to achieve your desired consistency.
Chicken fried steak is done when the coating is golden and crispy. There’s no need to check the internal temperature because it’s a steak!
More Delicious Chicken Recipes
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Chicken Fried Steak with Country Gravy
Ingredients
For the Chicken Fried Steak
- 4 large cubed steaks
- 1 ⅓ cup all purpose flour, divided
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp Slap Ya Mama® seasoning
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp red crushed peppers
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 1+ cups vegetable oil
For the Country Gravy
- Drippings from steaks
- 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 3 cups milk
- 1 tsp Slap Ya Mama® seasoning
- 1 tsp pepper
- Salt to taste
Instructions
For the Chicken Fried Steak
- Pour oil into a large cast iron pan about ¼″ high and heat over medium heat. Make sure that the oil is heated just right. When you flick a little water into the oil and it crackles and you see it glistening, then it’s just right.
- Dry off each steak with paper towels to absorb the extra liquid.
- While the oil is heating up, prepare 3 different bowls that are big enough for the steaks. Divide the flour in half, and in the first bowl put half of the flour, the second bowl has eggs and buttermilk whisked together, and the third bowl has the other half of the flour mixed with all the seasonings.
- Once the oil is ready, place one steak into the flour mixture, then to the egg mixture and finally into the flour with seasoning mixture then into the pan.
- Place two steaks at a time into the pan and cook for 4 minutes on each side. Once the first two steaks are cooked, place on a plate lined with paper towels and place into a preheated oven at 175° to keep warm while the rest of the steaks are being cooked.
- Repeat the coating process for the other two steaks. Make sure to coat the steaks right before they are going into the pan.
For the Country Gravy
- Turn heat off and remove excess oil except keep a tablespoon plus all the drippings from the steaks.
- Turn heat back to medium, sprinkle the flour into pan and scrape up the steak drippings from the bottom. Cook for a couple minutes then pour milk into pan. Continue stirring constantly over medium heat until gravy comes to a boil. Reduce heat and continue cooking until gravy thickens up. Add seasoning and salt and pepper to taste. *If the gravy gets too thick after it has cooled, add a little milk to thin it out.
- Once gravy is done, remove steaks from oven, cover with gravy, serve with mashed potatoes and corn or your favorite vegetables.
Notes
- Place a layer of cube steaks on a plate lined with paper towels. Then, place more cube steaks in single layers on top with more paper towels in between to absorb excess liquid.
- For the best fried coating, dip your steaks in the dredging bowls just before frying them.
- Be sure to cook your flour for about 2 minutes before adding the liquid to get rid of the raw flour flavor.
- To ensure your oil is hot enough, give it a look and a flick. If the surface of the oil glistens, and it crackles and pops when you flick a few drops of water into it, it’s hot enough.
- If your oil has a burning smell or is smoky, it’s too hot.
Nutrition
Have Pinterest
Here are a few pics that are the perfect size for pinning to Pinterest.
Enjoy, Terri
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My oldest son lives in the Houston area and when we visit I have a list of places I want to eat. Not shop, eat!! We’ve found that locally owned restaurants serve the best foods and the service is always better than chain stores. Enjoy your adventurers in eating Texas style!!
Hi Judy, thank you! You’re exactly like me. Love finding great hole in the wall places to eat. :)
Well doggone, Terri. Our loss is Texas’s gain!
You’re so sweet Frank! :)
Hi Terri,
I’ve really been enjoying your writing and photos since we met in my food photography class last year! One question — in this recipe you mention “when I used to live in Cali”. Have you moved out of state? If so, we miss you!
Thank you so much Frank! Yes, we moved to Texas in February. So far, we love it here. :)