A fabulous fried birthday

Sunday was Sean's 25th birthday! I told him that I would make him whatever he wanted for the entire day, food wise that is. So for breakfast he wanted to go to our local greasy spoon diner. They have fairly good and fairly cheap food. Sean had an egg, cheese, and sausage breakfast sandwich. I had the french toast. We course had ice coffee since they have excellent iced coffee!

For lunch we just had leftover from our dinner and Chili's the night before. Still tasty however. Now for dinner we went all out. Sean wanted Chicken fried steak with mash potatoes and cream gravy. I was absolutely terrified of messing this meal up so I did plenty of research and Sean even spoke with his mom about how she usually prepared it. Well with my recipes in hand and some help from Sean picking out the seasoning he wanted I jumped right in. Now keep in mind that I like to follow recipes to the T. I don't like to improvise and modify and I had never fried anything. Well even with my numerous handicaps the meal came out well! Sean thought it was pretty good so I'll consider it a success. I now feel more able to cook new things.

Below is the approximate recipe

Chicken Fried Steak
1 1/2 lbs Cube Steak (I didn't want to do the pounding)
2 eggs
1/2 Cup milk
2ish Cups Flour
Salt (~1/2 tsp)
Pepper (~ 3/4 tsp)
Cayenne Pepper (~ 1/2 tsp)
Garlic Salt (~1/2 tsp)
Paprika (~1/4 - 1/2 tsp)
Oil (enough for 1/4 - 1/2 inches in the bottom of pan)

In a shallow pie pan beat eggs and milk together. In another pie pan or bowl mix flour and seasonings. The amount of seasoning is up to you. Sean likes a lot of seasoning on things so I used quite a bit. Now sprinkle seasoning on each side of the steak. Again the amount and what is seasoning is up to you. Now one at a time dip the steak in the egg mixture allowing excess to drip off and put in flour mixture. Coat each side liberally with flour. For a thicker crispier outside repeat the egg and then flour steps. Meanwhile or in advance start heating the oil in the pan to fry. Be careful to get the oil hot enough but not so hot that is smokes. It should be popping a little but not smoking. On my stove I had the skillet a touch above medium. I think to get the best crust you should flour right before sticking it in the oil. I would also recommend only one piece at a time unless you're using a larger electric skillet. They need about 3-4 minutes per side. To keep warm while making the gravy I put them in the oven heated to 200 degrees on a broiler pan.

Cream gravy
~1/4 Cup grease from cooking steaks. (Keep as many bits as possible)
4-6 Tbsp flour mixture (leftover from steaks)
Milk (~1-2 cups)

Reheat oil on medium to medium low. Once oil is hot add flour. Mix well with whisk. Cook for 1-2 minutes to cook out flour favor. The flour is a thickening agent. So the consistency of the flour oil mixture should be a thick liquid. Pour in milk slowly stirring the entire time to avoid clumps. The amount of milk depends on the consistency you want. Cook 2-4 minutes to thicken. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

Serve Steak with Gravy over top. Mashed potatoes are also good with this meal. :-)

Oh and no I won't make it for you. It will be at least several months before I make this again. To much effort and fat! Although quite tasty!