For supper this evening I decided to try the new recipe for chicken fried steak. I have never made this before but I was excited to give it a shot. I am going to give you a short photo blog of how it went.
To start off, I mixed up the flour mixture in one bowl and the egg mixture in another. This was fairly routine until I got to the egg mixture. It wanted me to use egg, buttermilk, baking soda, and baking powder. I have never used baking soda and powder in my egg mixture before. It made the egg mixture a lot thicker and it stuck to the steaks way better than just an egg and milk mix would.
The next step was to dip each steak in the flour, then egg, then flour again. The easiest way to do this was with my hands. I think the messier the prep work is, the better the food is!
Once the steaks were coated I heated up my oil. The recipe called for peanut oil, but do to a tight budget I decided to go with canola oil. Due to the size of my pan I had to cook the steaks in 3 batches, 2 at a time. To keep them warm I put them on a cookie sheet in a 200 degree oven. The steaks cooked for 10 minutes total, 5 minutes on each side.
While they steaks were cooking I worked on making my mashed potatoes and starting prepping for the gravy. I needed to dice some garlic and onion. This was probably the hardest part of the whole thing because I don’t have good knives or a good tool for dicing but I managed.
The first batch of steaks came out of the oil a little mushy but a nice golden brown. I didn’t realize how much the coating would harden as it sat. Glad I followed the directions and didn’t keep cooking it!
Once all the steaks were done I set out to make my first ever pan of gravy. I do not have pictures of this step due to the fact that I was stirring the gravy for the 5 minutes it was cooking. The whole process took me about 2 hours to complete. Why 2 hours? Shortly after I started prepping everything, everyone needed something from Mom. Isaac decided that he had to eat, and he had to eat RIGHT NOW! Jordan was trying to do his homework and had lost his spelling list. Mom was the only one who could find it (Which I didn’t). Chris would have helped me out but he had been up and at work since Midnight and was getting a much deserved nap. It was a hectic couple of hours and the meal was a lot of work, but in the end, it was well worth it! I think we found a family favorite! With the help of America’s Test Kitchen I learned a few tricks and cooked a great meal. I look forward to trying more recipes. Below is a picture of the finished product all plated up.
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