EXTRA-CRUNCHY
CHICKEN-FRIED
STEAK
WITH CREAM GRAVY
Once you’ve perfected crispy fried chicken, it’s only a
hop, skip, and a jump to Texas-style chicken-fried steak—
that is, beef steak that’s fried in the style of fried chicken
and served with a creamy, peppery white gravy. The key
to great chicken-fried steak is starting with the right cut.
We went into cuts of beef for steaks in detail in Chapter 3
(se e here), but for now, we’re just looking for an
inexpensive cut with plenty of beefy flavor. Since chicken-
fried steak both gets pounded thin (a technique that
tenderizes the meat) and goes for a dunk in my buttermilk
brine, tenderness won’t be an issue—we can pick a cut
based on its flavor, confident that it’ll soften up before we
fry it. Similarly, pounding and brining improve juiciness,
so even when the steak comes out medium or well-done, as
it does when it’s fried, it’ll still be plenty juicy.
My go-to cut for this is flap meat (also sold as sirloin
tips), though bottom round or top sirloin work will also
work well if you can’t find it. Chicken is naturally tender,
steak needs a bit more help. Lightly scoring the meat
against the grain with a sharp knife will shorten long
muscle fibers, resulting in a more tender finished product.