Cubed Steak - Chicken Fried Steak

I had to google Cubed Steak to figure out what it is.  Well, it's a lean, strip of meat along the rib that requires much tenderization.  So, at Paulina, they do the tenderizing themselves and ready the Cubed Steak for cooking.  Also as part of reviewing the results in google, I noticed that one of the most common preparations for it is Chicken Fried Steak.  Now, at first glance, I was thinking to myself that this was NOT going to be a healthy meal.  And truth be told, it probably wasn't.  But it wasn't deep fried, no lard, no vegetable shortening, no heavy cream.  So, although not the healthiest of choices, it also wasn't going to harden the arteries overnight.  Now, this blog space is NOT about health.  It's about meat and the deliciousness that results.  And when I saw Chicken Fried Steak (something I have not had in years, if not decades), the decision was a simple one.  And thanks to Ree Drummond of Food Network and her recipe, it was pretty easy to make.

A trip to Paulina Market yesterday sent me home with two cubed steaks for dinner.  As a quick aside, I also bought a smoked Hungarian Sausage.  Not related to this blog and this year's Year of Meat quest, I have been making my way through their smoked meats.  Pepperoni, Linguisa and yesterday, the Hungarian Sausage.  So good.  A great appetizer while preparing the Chicken Fried Steak.  But I digress.  Once home, I let the Cubed Steaks sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.  I prepared a series of plates for dredging.  One with milk and eggs.  One with flour, salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne pepper.  One for the finished product.  I started by putting some salt and pepper on both sides of the steaks.  I coated them with the flour mixture on both sides, shook the excess off, dipped them in the milk and egg mixture on both sides, shook the excess off, and one more trip into the flour on both sides, and set them aside ready for cooking.  In a deep skillet, I got canola oil good and hot.  In looking at the recipe right now, I realized that in my haste, I forgot to add butter to the skillet.  This could be part of my problem, but I will get to that in a second.  I cooked the steaks for about 3 minutes per side and took them out and set them on a paper towel lined plate while we got the rest of our sides ready and the gravy.  My wife made her now perfected mashed potatoes, and I made a brussel sprouts dish with shaved almonds, olive oil and balsamic vinegar (which I kind of burned, but they were still ok).  For the gravy, I used the leftover oil in the skillet with flour, and stirred to a roux, and added milk and kept stirring until the right consistency.  Added black pepper and seasoned salt for taste, and boom.

From a taste standpoint, these steaks were out of this world.  But I missed the boat on the "crunch/crisp" of the batter.  I think this happened for three reasons.  First, I think I let the steaks sit too long with their coating on.  In other words, I think the flour got too damp.  Secondly, I realized just now that I was missing the butter.  And thirdly, I don't think I had the skillet hot enough.  It was supposed to be over medium high heat, and when I put the steaks on, I had it on medium by mistake.  Now, with three mistakes, you'd think I would be disappointed with the outcome.  Not at all.  They were delicious.  Clean Plate Club!  But I do want another shot at these.  And I will clean up these mistakes and these will be crispy crunchy perfect.

39 down, 22 to go!