Week 9: Chicken Fried Steak

Chicken Fried Steak - 1

Anna - 0

While making this week’s recipe, I needed to remind myself that I was not actually starring in a new sitcom.  However, if I was, I was undoubtedly playing the nitwit who means well, and is obviously adorable, but just can’t seem to do anything right.  Clearly she has never been in a kitchen before, and while attempting to create a culinary masterpiece that would make her man see hearts and chirping birds flutter around her head, she uncovers some hokey moral or life lesson for the audience.  

If I was starring in a sitcom, the audience would have gasped and laughed in all the right places.  For instance, when I spilled vegetable oil all over the counter and left front burner which may or may not have resulted in a small flame.  Or when I was nearly taken down by my 15 pound dog who eagerly jumped off from the back of my right knee while I was quickly carrying a boiling pot of potatoes to the sink.  And lets not forget about when I knocked over an open bag of frozen corn.

In reality, our adorable heroine ended up with a cliché smear of flour across her cheek.  When “her man” looked at her to explain that for her first attempt at making chicken fried steak she “didn’t totally screw it up”, it wasn’t hearts and fluttering birds he saw around her head, but rather fuzzy curls springing from her ponytail.  Needless to say, my kitchen and I were a total mess by the time I finished making dinner.  And to add insult to injury, dinner kind of... well, sucked.  (Sorry Mom, I tried but really couldn’t think of a better way to put it.)

I wont go into detail of the expletives that crossed my mind or the frustrations I had while making this recipe, and to be fair I really don’t think it was the recipe itself... I think I was just having a terribly off night.  I couldn’t do anything right, and this was reflected by the food.  Seriously.  I thought I’d make biscuits, but they turned out hockey puck-ish.  I wanted a side of glazed carrots, however forgot they were cooking on the back burner and the water evaporated.  WHAT?  That is a total rookie mistake!  And the mashed potatoes?  Apparently I blacked out or had some sort of episode and just kept pouring in milk.  The meat of tough, the biscuits were hard, the potatoes were liquified, the gravy was lumpy, the carrots were... burned, and the corn (to replace the carrots) was all over the counter.  Not. My. Night.

Oh, and in case you wanted to know.  The moral from this episode was that Anna will never ever make chicken fried steak again.   

You should try chicken fried steak.  

It's like a chicken and a steak got together and made a baby.  

A delicious, crispy baby.

~ Hoyt Fortenberry

I suggested Chicken Fried Steak as this week's recipe after reading Liza Palmer's book, "Nowhere but Home".  Her book's heroine, Queenie, works for 10 years, as an unsuccessful chef.  After being fired, yet again, she returns home to a small Texas town, where she grew up in a disreputable family.  She finds herself down and out and has to move in with her sister. The only job she can find is as a chef for inmates on death row in the local penitentiary.  She takes pride in her work and experiences peace of mind for the first time.  It turns out one of the inmates' most requested last meals is, you guessed it...chicken fried steak!

The name of this dish has always intrigued me and, I thought, this would be a wonderful time for it to appear on our blog.  The recipe is simple, straightforward, and well written with tons of photos.  Most of the ingredients can be found in your pantry.  I used cube steak, which I haven't eaten in decades.  I was amazed how the steaks grew after additional pounding.  I liked the detailed instructions on how to properly dredge meat in flour, egg, and then again flour.  I don't think I've ever done it quite so vigorously!  Several things immediately occurred to me as I was pounding the steak.  While I eat deep fried foods on occasion, I never fry them myself.  And, deep frying is scary.

The recipe came together just as it should.  The steak fried to a lovely, crispy, golden brown.  The gravy was easy to make and looked just like the photos.  But, I really, really, didn't like the result.  I found the steak to be almost tasteless.  The gravy was the same.  Let me be clear, this was not the fault of the recipe.  I think it's a fine recipe for chicken fried steak.  I just think I don't like chicken fried steak.

Would I make this again?  Probably not.  I expected my husband, who loves biscuits and sausage gravy - also known as heart attack on a plate - to be a fan, but he only gave the dish  two "yums" up.  So, chances are this won't be appearing on our dinner table any time soon!

Chicken Fried Steak

So, in the end my mom and I decided to not share this week’s recipe... because the end result was really not awesome.  Below are our pictures, and we ask that if you have a tried and true chicken fried steak recipe that you share it with us!