Chicken Fried Steak.....

.... never thought I would see the day that something like this would not only be cooked in my kitchen but made by me as well!

  Chicken fried steak is actually steak (cube steak - it's pounded down so it is rather thin) that is battered and then shallow fried in a pan.....my husband was the one who bought all the ingredients for this one....I on the other hand had always thought that there was just something wrong with chicken fried steak....boy was I wrong....it was sinfully delicious!

 For sides I went with something simple.....asparagus and turnip & carrots.....for the asparagus I just took some of the water that had the carrots and turnip boiling in it and then added a cap full of lemon juice and simply let the asparagus simmer.....what I love about cooking it this way is the green color in the asparagus just pops....it's a beautiful thing!  Then to serve I just added a little parmesan cheese....

  Ever since I made the zucchini canoes with the parsnip filling my husband as been begging me to make them again......never in a million years did I think my husband would be begging for me to cook parsnip!  Fred Astaire sang is best..."Heaven, I'm in Heaven"

  I decided to keep it simple and for color also added in some carrots.....so, start by peeling the parsnip and then cutting it into chunks.....add to boiling salted water and start to cook....I also did the same thing with the carrots but added them later as the parsnip takes longer to cook.....then I drained them.....but I thought about the water - basically vegetable stock....and I didn't want to waste it so I used it to boil up some lentils that I will use for something tonight.....then I used a potato masher.....but since my energy was focused on the meat so much the parsnip and carrots weren't cooked!  So, I added them back to the burner - added a TBSP of butter, salt and pepper, and some milk....crushed it up as much as I could and just let it cook....it ended up tasting delicious so no one is the wiser.....I channeled Tim Gunn and made it work!


 I have to admit that since Chicken Fried Steak falls under the category to me as something that my husband used to enjoy as a kid (much like grits and biscuits and gravy) I thought it best to use a lifeline and call an expert.....so one call to my mother-in-law resulted in me learning that chicken fried steak is usually served with gravy.......oh the fear! 

 Side note about gravy....I love it more than the next person and usually indulge in the warm deliciousness of it at Christmas slathered all over the potatoes and meat....and of course then use the warm buns to soak up the remains on your plate....but making gravy is a different story.....I have really only attempted it once, but the results have encouraged me from that moment on to only buy gravy from a jar....for shame I know, a 1950s housewife much like myself buying gravy!  However, with direction from my mother-in-law and the peace of mind knowing that she was going to keep her cell phone on just in case....I decided to give it a try....

  Now I realize that it looks like mushroom soup....but I can tell you it tastes like heaven....after shallow frying the steak I turned the burner down low and added in some flour....watching flour fry is amazing......what a great chemical reaction....the whole time I was doing this I thought about how fun it would be to teach a food science course!  I kept mixing it up with a fork to get all the lumps out and scrape the flavor off the bottom of the pan....hence the speckled appearance of the gravy....I didn't care I wanted flavor not aesthetics.......then I slowly added milk (cold milk) and it started to clump up and then my continually mixing it came to the perfect texture (lump free!).  I now have gravy confidence and a date with a treadmill!

Finally, the chicken fried steak.....I started by busting out all 3 of my pie plates....they needed to be washed anyway as the pie baking contest is coming up soon!  I added flour to one, 3 eggs (whisked with S&P) to one, and the breading to another......now this was more of a 1980s housewife dish as the breading was from a box.....what can I say....my husband bought it....don't blame me!  But on a side note...the seasoning wasn't too bad!.....next time it's from scratch!.......So, it's flour, egg, then coating, then frying pan......I used canola oil....make sure you get the pan hot...a few minutes on each side and you are done!

  I always used to make fun of my husband for this and comment that it was just wrong....well I am here to tell you that I was just wrong...this for me is the ultimate comfort food.....some people have a thing for macaroni and cheese, or tomato soup and grilled cheese, or even something else from their childhood.....but my adult comfort food is now chicken fried steak!

Enjoy!