Chicken Fried Steak
Despite the name, there's no chicken here! Take a cheap piece of beef (round steak works well), pound it until it's thin, dip in flour, then egg, then flour again, and fry it up quickly. Serve with some mashed potatoes and gravy.
4 pieces of round steak, cut 1/2" thin and pounded to 1/4", about a pound total
1 cup flour
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 eggs
3 Tbs lard or other fat
If you want gravy:
2 Tbs flour
2 Tbs diced onion or 1 Tbs dried onion flakes
1 and 1/2 cups milk or milk and chicken broth or milk and water
salt and pepper to taste
Pound the meat and set aside. Heat the fat in a frying pan large enough to hold 1 or 2 steaks.
Put the egg in a pie pan and mix it up. If you like, you can add a bit of milk or half and half or water. Put the flour and seasonings in another pie pan and stir together.
When the fat is hot, use two forks to lift a pounded steak into the flour, then into the egg and coat it, then over to the flour again, pressing down slightly to make it stick. Put the steak into the fat and cook for about 2 minutes on each side. Remove to a plate and keep warm until all are done.
To make gravy, drain off all but about 2 Tbs of the fat. Add the onion and cook a minute, then sprinkle the 2 Tbs flour over it and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes or so. Slowly add the liquid, mixing each addition in so there are no lumps. You can use a whisk for this or one of those springy things my girls called the "bungee mixer" to get the lumps out. Stir constantly a few more minutes, until it cooks down to the thickness you like.
