Chicken Fried Steak

by Sabrina Snyder

Last Update:

35 Comments

5 from 11 votes
4 servings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Jump to Recipe
Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.

Chicken Fried Steak is a crunchy, savory diner classic you can make at home in under 45 minutes, with comforting flavor in every bite.

Everyone loves easy Breakfast recipes including Eggs Benedict and French Toast and you’ll love this Chicken Fried Steak as you start preparing for all the holiday family breakfasts and brunches.

Sabrina’s Chicken Fried Steak Recipe

Chicken Fried Steak is one of many breakfast recipes on the site that is perfect for a special holiday brunch and is easy enough to impress all your soon to be house guests. Plus this is the ultimate in comfort food for breakfast.

Recipe Card

Dinner, then Dessert

Chicken Fried Steak Recipe

Chicken Fried Steak is a crunchy, savory diner classic you can make at home in under 45 minutes, with comforting flavor in every bite.
Yield 4 servings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
Steak with potatoes and eggs on a plate with silverware next to it
PrintRate

Ingredients
 

Steak

  • 4 cube steaks , 8 ounces each, pounded thinly to ½ inch
  • 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce , or ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
  • 2 cups flour

Gravy

  • 2 cups vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 4 cups whole milk

Instructions

  • Season the steaks with the salt and pepper and pat the steaks dry with a paper towel.
  • In a small bowl whisk together the egg, baking powder, baking soda, hot sauce and buttermilk.
  • In a second bowl add the flour.
  • Put the steaks in the flour mixture, then into the egg mixture, then back into the flour and let it sit on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes.
  • Add 2 cups canola oil to a large skillet and heat to 325 degrees and fry the steaks for 4-5 minutes on each side before removing to a cooling rack.
  • Drain most of the fat but leave ¼ cup of it and keep the heat on medium.
  • Add ¼ cup of flour, kosher salt, black pepper and garlic powder to the pan and whisk well, cooking the flour for 30 seconds before pouring in the milk very slowly while whisking the milk until its combined before adding more until the whole mixture is even and thickened, about 6-8 minutes.

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 1763kcal | Carbohydrates: 71g | Protein: 55g | Fat: 140g | Saturated Fat: 31g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 64g | Monounsaturated Fat: 36g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 208mg | Sodium: 2043mg | Potassium: 1170mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 16g | Vitamin A: 619IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 582mg | Iron: 7mg

Want to save this recipe? Create a free account to easily save your favorite recipes

Pin this recipe now to remember it later

Pin Recipe

Note from Sabrina

Steam is the enemy of a crispy crust. Do not put the fried steak on a towel-lined plate, this will cause the bottom of it to steam. Put the steak on a wire-rack for up to 10 minutes for the breading to adhere and allow it to sit and wait while you finish making the gravy. The steak will be perfectly hot inside while the outside stays crisp.

Table of contents

Back to Table of Contents

About this Recipe

The classic cut of beef in this recipe is cube steak. The cube steak is pounded thin to tenderize the beef because the cut is tougher than most steaks. The idea behind the use of the cube steak is that it’s a less expensive cut of beef that works perfectly for this fried recipe. You may have also heard of Chicken Fried Steak referred to as Country Fried Steak. The recipes are functionally mostly the same, but the main difference is that Country Fried Steak is topped with a brown gravy while steak is covered with a white cream gravy made with milk.

How to Store

  • Serve: You shouldn’t leave cooked meat at room temperature for more than 2 hours.
  • Store: Let the fried steak cool down, then seal it in an airtight container to store in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat on a wire rack over a cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven to keep it crispy.
  • Freeze: You can freeze Chicken Fried Steak, wrapped individually, for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator and follow the instructions above to reheat.

Serving Ideas

When served for breakfast, Chicken Fried Steak is classically served with Hash Browns and over easy eggs. When served for dinner it’s classically served with mashed potatoes, Green Beans, ears of corn, or coleslaw.

Variations

  • Steak: You can, of course, use a more classic cut of steak; try using ribeye or sliced prime rib in place of cube steak for this fried steak recipe.
  • Gravy: If you want to make the gravy even richer, you could make a cream gravy by using half milk and half heavy cream. You can also use half and half.

More Classic Diner Breakfast Recipes

Collage of crispy fried steak and the prep steps

Photos used in a previous version of this post:

collage of batter prep steps
prep steps for steak
crispy, fried steak in a pan

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

Categories

Leave a comment & rating

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Maximum file size: 10 MB.
Allowed formats: JPG, JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF. Drop images here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comments

  1. Could I use a thinly pounded out chicken breast for a steak substitute? I am unable to eat beef 🙁 Would I need to add anything else when making gravy for flavor?

    Reply

  2. This was by far the most tender and flavorful cubed steak I have ever eaten. I need to look no longer for the “perfect chicken fried steak”. This is it!

    Reply

  3. Thank you for sharing this, we used our left over prime rib from Christmas dinner and made this. Absolutely amazing. Might even like this better!!! Yummy

    Reply

  4. I had given up making fried tenderized steak due to issues with batter not adhering….Not with this recipe! My family raved over this meal and the steaks were tender with crispy crust. I kept the steak separate from the gravy but sometimes I want to place the fried steaks in gravy and simmer a bit. Will this recipe work for a more “country “ fried steak and gravy or will the batter get mushy as it cooks in gravy?
    Thank you for another family favorite recipe from your site.

    Reply

    1. It would absolutely get mushy in the gravy, I know what you mean about wanting to simmer it though, if it wouldn’t get mushy that would be delicious.

      Reply

  5. Yum. I love chicken fried steak and this was a great version. I served it with mashed potatoes and a creamy corn side dish. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

  6. Fabulous recipe and so yummy! Glad I found your blog Sabrina! When I made mine I do use some seasoning in the flour such as cajun spice. I realise it’s a deviation but it works for us. By the way…. do you fry in a cast iron skillet or some other kind? Just curious. Thanks again!

    Reply

  9. I made this recipe exactly like it said and the only complaint I have is I would decrease the hot sauce in half but I used tobasco and maybe that was wrong. I have an a wimpy mouth and I couldn’t finish the steak because It kept getting hotter and hotter. But besides my wimpy mouth, this was the best chicken fried steak I’ve ever made. I love how it Stayed crispy until the last bite. The flavors in the gravy and the steak were amazing. Thank you for sharing.

    Reply

  10. There’s also a meat press “Fast Cutlet Maker V2”. It flattens the meat and create a cube pattern on it. It’s popular among germany people.

    Reply

  12. This gravy recipe must be incorrect. It calls for 2 cups of oil which should probably be 1/4 cup of oil as it calls for 1/4 cup of flour and gravies are usually made with a 1 to 1 ratio of butter (or oil) to flour.

    Reply

    1. You’ll use 2 cups of oil to fry the steaks. Once done, you’ll drain all but 1/4 cup of the oil to use to make the gravy (step 6). Hope this clears up any confusion.

      Reply

      1. I’ve always thought of cube steak as being extremely tough. Is there anything I can do to make sure the steak is really tender? I’ve heard some sites say that you can make this with other types of steak. Is that true? If so, any you would recommend? I really want to make this for my us for dinner one night, but I want to make sure it’s tender. Help??? ?

        Reply

        1. You can always use a different cut of meat. I have a section in my post where I talk about cube steak and what meats to substitute. Hope this helps. Let me know how you like it!

          Reply

  14. Oooh I love chicken fried steak, but have never made fried steak at home. This was sooo with a baked potato. Thanks for the recipe!

    Reply