Chicken Fried Steak

vacation.

wanderingjew

1bbqboy


You can find good CFS in any of the plains states with cattle and a German population. Texas,as always, just toots it's own horn continually and loudly.

You are correct, probably one of the finest Chicken Fried Steaks I've had was this beauty at Rooster's Cafe in Jones OK (15 miles outside of downtown OKC)

 
That is one generous serving of chicken fried steak I have ever seen. It is bigger than the plate itself . Looks very yummy too!!! And the white sauce on top looks very enticing. Thanks for sharing wanderingjew...
 
 

This thread is filed under "Breakfast", however, CFS like BEER is not just for Breakfast anymore.
Many a CFS has provided much needed nourishment after a night of imbibing! Accompanied by White Gravy Smothered French Fries or Mashed Potatoes of course!

One of my favorite foods anytime of day :)

I'm doing 10 or 12 lbs of CFS next Monday night with mash potato & green beans.  What is your favorite CFS gravy recipe?   ...
 I'm thinking of salt, lots of pepper, butter, cream & chicken broth in the lightly browned rue.    I need the make enough to serve about 20 to 25.

 
As someone else mentioned, I also get the  gravy "on the side".  Nothing wrong with that at all.  It keeps the crispy fried coating from getting soggy. 
 
1.  I cut off a piece of CFS to eat.
2   I dip the bite size piece in the bowl of gravy on the side.
3.  Eat.
4.  Repeat
 
Why would I want gravy sitting on my CFS making it soggy?  The 4 step process above keeps every piece crispy, since the crispy coating is only in contact with the gravy for a couple seconds before you eat it. 
 
Glenn
 
 

one of my favorite foods :) Love seeing all these great places

Glenn1234
 
As someone else mentioned, I also get the  gravy "on the side".  Nothing wrong with that at all.  It keeps the crispy fried coating from getting soggy. 
1.  I cut off a piece of CFS to eat.
2   I dip the bite size piece in the bowl of gravy on the side.
3.  Eat.
4.  Repeat
Why would I want gravy sitting on my CFS making it soggy?  The 4 step process above keeps every piece crispy, since the crispy coating is only in contact with the gravy for a couple seconds before you eat it. 
Glenn

You have mastered the art of eating CFS! Move to the head of the Class!

Recently, we went to breakfast with our neice and nephew at the recommended Johnny V's in West Allis, Wi-very near our home. I have been reading about chicken fried steak-never had one-so ordered it with my over easy eggs. i did order the saw mill gravy on the side, as I wanted to taste the steak "naked". Wow, have I been missing something! Great, crisp coating, and very decent gravy. Saved the rest of the gravy for dinner with biscuits!!

I like this idea of gravy on the side.

I have had CFS many ways and used several types of steaks including cubed, filet and several others.  Personally for me I will tell you what works best for me.
1:  I use cube steak.
2: I use the two dip method using McCormicks all purpose batter.  It is a wet and dry method.
3: I liberally use black pepper, cayenne, garlic pepper and Cajun season in each.
4: I dip in the dry
5: Then I dip in the wet coating each side with a healthy coating of the batter
6: I fry untilequally brown on both sides.  I like it just a tad crispy.
 
Great as a sandwich or if you prefer, the drippings with some flour and some more black pepper makes a super gravy with some neat biscuits.  Some garden fresh sliced tomatoes really set it off with maybe a garden fresh salad.
 
Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Sundancer7


I have had CFS many ways and used several types of steaks including cubed, filet and several others.  Personally for me I will tell you what works best for me.
1:  I use cube steak.
2: I use the two dip method using McCormicks all purpose batter.  It is a wet and dry method.
3: I liberally use black pepper, cayenne, garlic pepper and Cajun season in each.
4: I dip in the dry
5: Then I dip in the wet coating each side with a healthy coating of the batter
6: I fry untilequally brown on both sides.  I like it just a tad crispy.

Great as a sandwich or if you prefer, the drippings with some flour and some more black pepper makes a super gravy with some neat biscuits.  Some garden fresh sliced tomatoes really set it off with maybe a garden fresh salad.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

The best part of your meal for me would be the Garden Fresh Tomatoes. We have trouble growing tomatoes out here. I'd kill for a good Home-grown Beefsteak right about now! Can get a CFS most anywhere, but A good tomato is like gold!

To make a great chicken fried steak one needs a Jaccard super 3 hand held meat tenderizer. Once you try this product you will use it all the time.   You can use it then beat it flat to the size of a hubcap.

I'm weird. I always get brown gravy on the side. I never really liked cream gravy unless it's on biscuits, or gravy already on a CFS because it gets soggy sometimes. I do a bite without gravy, then a bite with.

Tampico

To make a great chicken fried steak one needs a Jaccard super 3 hand held meat tenderizer. Once you try this product you will use it all the time.   You can use it then beat it flat to the size of a hubcap.

I have one and use it on a Variety of meats. Can vouch for it's value and usefulness.

Recently I had a couple of pretty good CFS's.  The first was at the Cable Cafe in Cable, Wisconsin.  It's a pretty small place with a short counter on 1 side and 3 or 4 (each) 2-top and 4-top tables on the other.

 
My wife and I were there for breakfast so my CFS came with sausage gravy,  2 eggs (over easy), hash browns, and toast (rye).  The breading was nice and crisp with a good peppery note, and the meat was fork-tender without being mushy or greasy.  I'm pretty sure I didn't eat again until dinner.

 
Mrs. SC got a half order of biscuits and gravy, which really should've been named "GRAVY!! (and biscuit)" instead.

 
 
And then this past Monday we stopped at Sugar & Spice Eatery, a local place that's been around for over 20 years.

 
It's a little more spacious than the Cable Cafe and the walls are decorated with old milk bottles, food tins, and advertisements.  I suspect the bottles and tins are the real thing but the ads could be reprints.

 
Like my other CFS this one came with gravy, but in this case it was a mild cream gravy without any meat.  Stoughton is full of old Norwegians and old Norwegians like their bland white food.  This time we were eating dinner so I had mashed potatoes and corn on the side instead, and the slightly spicy breading of the CFS (also fork-tender) went well with the potatoes and gravy.

 
We have another longtime restaurant here in town and I'm looking forward to trying its CFS, hopefully in the relatively near future.
 
Brad

Foodbme

Tampico

To make a great chicken fried steak one needs a Jaccard super 3 hand held meat tenderizer. Once you try this product you will use it all the time.   You can use it then beat it flat to the size of a hubcap.

I have one and use it on a Variety of meats. Can vouch for it's value and usefulness.

 
 
I've had one of those regular old meat hammers ever since I started cooking for myself, but I bought a Jacard some years ago after seeing Alton Brown proclaim it highly.
 
It's effective, all right, but man, it sure seems to murder the meat, I mean a few good punches turns a steak into shreds.  I can see a lot of uses in a heavy duty professional kitchen, but it is way overkill for me.
 
Am I doing something wrong?  Any tips?  I come here to learn.

Hello Screaming Chicken,
Thanks for those great pictures, but they bring me to something that really bugs me.  You have provided some very nice examples, and I want to eat them, but look how small those two Wisconsin portions are.  And I can only compare them to the Oklahoma picture just above.
 
Which is my question, why are the Wisconsin portions in general so stingy???  They often don't compare in any way to the pictures of abundance we see elsewhere.

easydoesit

Foodbme

Tampico

To make a great chicken fried steak one needs a Jaccard super 3 hand held meat tenderizer. Once you try this product you will use it all the time.   You can use it then beat it flat to the size of a hubcap.

I have one and use it on a Variety of meats. Can vouch for it's value and usefulness.

I've had one of those regular old meat hammers ever since I started cooking for myself, but I bought a Jacard some years ago after seeing Alton Brown proclaim it highly.

It's effective, all right, but man, it sure seems to murder the meat, I mean a few good punches turns a steak into shreds.  I can see a lot of uses in a heavy duty professional kitchen, but it is way overkill for me.

Am I doing something wrong?  Any tips?  I come here to learn.

I don't know what you're doing, but when I use mine that doesn't happen. I punch then move the Jaccard and punch again, continuing till I've reached the other end of the piece of beef. Nothing shredded at all.

easydoesit


Which is my question, why are the Wisconsin portions in general so stingy???  They often don't compare in any way to the pictures of abundance we see elsewhere.

Hmmmm...I've never really thought about it.  For the most part I'm pretty happy with the portion sizes at most places I go, and the CFS breakfast plate above was extremely filling.
 
At least a lot of places make up for it with AYCE fish on Fridays!

Recently I checked out the CFS offerings at a couple of local (Edgerton WI) restaurants.
 
A couple of weeks ago I stopped in at Ray's Restaurant for some breakfast.  The sign out front still says "Ray's Family Restaurant" but the menus now say "Ray's Restaurant", and based on the liquor license renewal notice in the paper this past summer I think Ray might not own it anymore.
 
The CFS was on the thinner side but still good with a crunchy coating, but I just didn't care for the subtle sweetness of the sausage gravy.


 
For some reason I had misread the dinner side of the menu and thought that CFS was also available with brown gravy so I went back a couple of weeks later to give it another try.  It's actually listed with sausage gravy but the server substituted the brown gravy; she prefers it this way as well.
 
Usually I eat at the counter but this time I sat in the dining room.

 
Since it was dinner I started with a bowl of very good bean soup.  The beans and vegetables were firm but not hard and the flavor was rich and hearty.

 
Oh, what a difference the right gravy can make!  I knew the CFS itself would be good but the tasty brown gravy really complemented it well, and I even ate most of my succotash...I picked around the carrots.


 
The other family-style restaurant is the Winchester at the Edgerton Oasis, located north of town at I-90 exit 160.  Since it was an early Friday afternoon I started with a bowl of clam chowder.  It wasn't really all that clammy but it was still rich and tasted good.

 
Like at Ray's the CFS itself had good flavor and the coating had a nice pepperiness to it, and I really like the sausage gravy here.  And it's definitely sized to feed a hungry trucker!


 
A couple of days later Mrs. SC and I stopped in for breakfast and I ordered the "Ponderosa" skillet.  It's a bed of cut-up CFS topped with hash browns, gravy, and 2 eggs, and my go-to breakfast order here.

 
Say...I wonder if the West End Diner also serves a CFS...