by My cowboy’s breakfast, lunch, or supper of choice. And from the women friends I’ve discussed it with, this is a pretty universal favorite among men. The point is, I’ve learned two valuable things about homemade chicken fried steak and farm eggs that I want to pass along today…
When using farm eggs, always crack them into a separate bowl one at a time before adding to anything. This is because they could have half-formed chicks in them or other such not so lovely things. While this doesn’t happen often, one time is more than enough to keep you cautious!
We love homemade chicken fried steak. My trick, is when breading it, add a fourth as much cornmeal to the breading as flour. If you use one cup flour, add a fourth of a cup of cornmeal. It doesn’t have to be precise. This will give your steaks that golden color and crispyness that makes your man’s mouth water.
I use minute steaks, or cubed steaks. If you get round steak you’ll have to beat tenderize it with a mallet which is messy unless you sandwich the meat between pieces of wax paper. Still messy but at least you won’t get blood spatters everywhere. (Isn’t cooking fun? My kids think so.) Then I get my flour/cornmeal mixture ready–you can add some seasonings to it if you prefer, and crack about 4 eggs into a separate bowl and start the breading process. I flour the meat first, then dip it in the egg, then flour it again before putting it into the hot oil covering the bottom of my largest skillet. Keep an eye on your steaks, they cook quickly, and you don’t want to lose that golden brown beauty to dark brown/black.
The other thing I’ve learned over the years about cooking for a cowboy, is that supper is never at a set time. So as the steaks get done, I drain them on paper towels and put them in a 9×13 pan to keep warm in the oven. They don’t stay nice and crispy like they would have if we could have eaten them immediately, but as dh could eat them like cookies, he really doesn’t care…
If you set a wire cooling rack in the bottom of your pan they will stay a little crispier. It lets the air circulate and extra fat and juices to drain off so that the breading doesn’t soak them back up.
Thanks for the tip about the fried steak. I have been wanting to fix some for my husband for the past week or so but just haven’t been able to do it yet. He’s not a cowboy – just a good ol’ redneck country boy from Georgia!
Great tip, Andrea! Thanks for sharing it… 🙂 And I’m so glad to see another real life friend here at the blog!
You’re welcome, Terri! I really think even computer geeks prefer chicken fried steak now and then? 🙂 My hubby is so bad that we can be eating at a Mexican restaurant, and he’s hoping they serve chicken fried steak! I don’t even roll my eyes anymore…
Oh. My. I think I’ll stick with storebought eggs. Is there a difference in taste? Do you raise your own chickens?
hey what temp do you set the oven at to keep warm? my computer-cowboy never eats at the same time either, and while he doesn’t seem to mind cold or lukewarm food, I’m startin to harbor resentments! LOL
Mrs. Meg Logan
I just turn it to “warm” or around 200F if your oven doesn’t have that setting.
My first year of marriage, and I can laugh at it now, I had meals on the table at 5 pm, because that’s when my family ate like clockwork every single night growing up. I couldn’t believe hubby wouldn’t even be done outside till 7 or 8 pm…it’s funny because over the years I don’t even notice it anymore. Half the time I rely on foods I can fix in the crockpot, or that can keep warm in the oven…for those other things, I have everything ready to fix but wait till I see the whites of his eyes…because usually his bath/evening clean-up takes long enough that I can finish up supper quickly. Some nights we don’t eat till 9 pm, on these nights, toddler is usually fed early and put to bed. The first night we were out late working on the deck we came in to eat supper at 11 pm–that was a new record with our oldest girls still awake and holding out to eat “with Daddy”!
Now I wonder how people can stand to eat as early as 5 pm! (Except I know it’s much better on our bodies!)
Georgiana, farm eggs are so much better for you. For one thing, they’re fresh whereas store bought eggs can be 4-6 weeks old by the time you buy them! I learned something funny when we had our own chickens (yes, we had chickens, but free-ranging them didn’t work, our entire flock was killed one day at a time by a sneaky fox–next time we raise chickens, we’ll have to build a big coop)…anyway, I learned that hard-boiled fresh eggs do NOT peel worth a hoot. Bits of the white stick to the shell…while the older ones from the store peel great. The age has everything to do with it. I could store my “fresh eggs” for 2 or 3 weeks and then they’d peel beautifully. But who wants to plan in that way for deviled eggs? 🙂
The other bad thing about store bought eggs, is that the chickens are force-molted to increase egg production. They are kept in tiny cages, never see fresh air or anything agricultural…here’s an interesting article on it: http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com/2007/03/what_you_need_t.html
It takes a little while to get used to farm eggs, the yolk is much deeper in flavor and color, but once you’re used to it you don’t want to go back…we’re currently enjoying an abundance of farm eggs from a friend’s chickens.