This is my take on Alton Brown’s Chicken Fried Steak recipe. I made this for David on Father’s Day. He told me it was the BEST chicken fried steak he had ever had. I have made many different variations of chicken fried steak.  I agree with David, this is the best one I have ever made.

 You will need :

•     about 2 pound beef steak cubed
•     2 teaspoons salt
•     1 teaspoon ground black pepper
•     1 teaspoon paprika
•     1 teaspoon garlic powder
•     1 cup all-purpose flour
•     3 whole eggs, beaten
•     about 1/4 cup vegetable oil or enough to cover the bottom of your skillet
•     2 cups chicken broth
•     1/2 cup whole milk
•     1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

Now, preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Get yourself 2 pie dishes or large platters and a large bowl for the egg batter to dip steaks into.  Make sure it is big enough that steaks will fit into the bowl.  Get out a small mixing bowl and mix flour, salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder.  Lightly season the cube steaks on both sides with salt and pepper.  Growing up, we always called this tractor meat, because it looks like it was run over by a tractor.  Now, place a few spoons full of the flour into a pie pan.  Beat your eggs in the other pie pan.  Dredge the meat on both sides in the flour.  Then dip your steaks into the eggs and then back into the flour again.  Add spoonfuls of the flour mixture as you need it.  Do this with all the pieces of meat.  Place the meat onto a plate and allow it to sit for 10 to 15 minutes before cooking.

Do this next step only if you need to.  I have found that sometimes I need to add some oil and sometimes I have too much oil.  You want what looks to be about 4 tablespoons of oil left in the pan after frying.  If you need to add the remaining vegetable oil to the pan.  Begin to whisk in 3 tablespoons of your left over flour.  Then add the chicken broth and deglaze the pan.  Deglaze means to mix in all those great little crispy bits of flour and meat juices left behind from frying.  Whisk until the gravy comes to a boil and begins to thicken.  Add the milk and thyme and whisk until the gravy coats the back of a spoon, approximately 5 to 10 minutes.  Serve gravy over steaks.  Gravy is also fantastic on top of mashed potatoes.  I have a GREAT homemade mashed potato recipe.  I may have to share that one with y’all someday soon.  Now, I scrape up and save every last drop of this gravy.  It is great on biscuits or toast.  Great with sausage or bacon mixed in.  I hope you enjoy this recipe. 

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