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IT HAS COME TO MY ATTENTION...
...that some of you poor, deprived non-Texans are under the impression that chicken fried steak is steak that is fried.
This is not true.
Chicken fried steak is, at its best--and I admit, you will find a lot of sub-par chicken fried steak out there--a sublime reminder of everything that is good and right in this world.
There's a theory out there that explains chicken fried steak as developed out of wienerschnitzel by homesick German settlers in Texas but it may be more the case of convergent evolution than direct descent.
To make chicken fried steak, ideally you take round steak or cube steak, pound the bejeezus out of, cough I mean tenderize it, then drench it in an egg-and-flour batter and pan-fry or deep-fry it. In actual practice, you go out to a restaurant and let them do it because it's a hassle to develop that lovely, lovely batter-crust. At home you have pan-fried steak, made (by my mother, and therefore The Right Way) by taking pieces of cubed steak or round steak you've pounded a bit, shaking them in a paper bag with flour, salt and pepper, then pan-frying them in half an inch or so of oil, then making a cream gravy out of the drippings (using milk because either you forgot to buy cream or because you are lactose intolerant and therefore have only Lactaid milk). You can also pan-fry venison when you've got most of a deer in the freezer from hunting season. The homemade stuff tends to be tougher than the restaurant stuff, and there's also some restaurants that don't tenderize it enough so you end up masticating your way through it like a...like a....like you're chewing a very tough steak. These are not restaurants you should be returning to.
And now that I've finished clarifying things for you, let me blow your mind by explaining that other Texan culinary masterpiece...chicken-fried chicken.
"What?" I hear you say. "Don't you mean fried chicken?"
Nope! Totally different animal! Er, not literally. Chicken-fried chicken is made by taking chicken cutlets, or by splitting a chicken breast and pounding ituntil it's roughly even in thickness, and treating them in the same way as chicken-fried steak, down to the cream gravy.
"But that's just fried chi--" NO. "But--" SH. NO TALKING.
You might also see these dishes on menus as "country-fried [whatsit]", but that's just some deluded chef misnaming them.
This is not true.
Chicken fried steak is, at its best--and I admit, you will find a lot of sub-par chicken fried steak out there--a sublime reminder of everything that is good and right in this world.
There's a theory out there that explains chicken fried steak as developed out of wienerschnitzel by homesick German settlers in Texas but it may be more the case of convergent evolution than direct descent.
To make chicken fried steak, ideally you take round steak or cube steak, pound the bejeezus out of, cough I mean tenderize it, then drench it in an egg-and-flour batter and pan-fry or deep-fry it. In actual practice, you go out to a restaurant and let them do it because it's a hassle to develop that lovely, lovely batter-crust. At home you have pan-fried steak, made (by my mother, and therefore The Right Way) by taking pieces of cubed steak or round steak you've pounded a bit, shaking them in a paper bag with flour, salt and pepper, then pan-frying them in half an inch or so of oil, then making a cream gravy out of the drippings (using milk because either you forgot to buy cream or because you are lactose intolerant and therefore have only Lactaid milk). You can also pan-fry venison when you've got most of a deer in the freezer from hunting season. The homemade stuff tends to be tougher than the restaurant stuff, and there's also some restaurants that don't tenderize it enough so you end up masticating your way through it like a...like a....like you're chewing a very tough steak. These are not restaurants you should be returning to.
And now that I've finished clarifying things for you, let me blow your mind by explaining that other Texan culinary masterpiece...chicken-fried chicken.
"What?" I hear you say. "Don't you mean fried chicken?"
Nope! Totally different animal! Er, not literally. Chicken-fried chicken is made by taking chicken cutlets, or by splitting a chicken breast and pounding ituntil it's roughly even in thickness, and treating them in the same way as chicken-fried steak, down to the cream gravy.
"But that's just fried chi--" NO. "But--" SH. NO TALKING.
You might also see these dishes on menus as "country-fried [whatsit]", but that's just some deluded chef misnaming them.
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My Texan heart thanks you for this post. I haven't had chicken-fried steak in over a year.
(I don't think I've ever had chicken-fried chicken! Heh.)
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I rarely eat chicken-fried chicken because when I see it on a menu, it's usually right next to the chicken-fried steak and for me, there's no choice. Toby, on the other hand, orders it often because he judges a restaurant by the quality of their chicken-friend chicken.
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Damn, I have got to get me back to Texas one of these days...
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* Well, "homemade" in that it was made at home...we bought a bread machine. :)
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We used to own a bread machine, but I flubbed it the one time I tried to use it (I must've misread the directions) and then we lost the directions and then flood. :p I've visited someone with a bread machine who knew how to use it, though, and the bread was delish. :D
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This is the second one. The first one went through the kneading and rise cycles just fine, but when it hit the bake cycle it tripped the GFCI thingy and took out power to that half of the kitchen. Back into the box and store it went and we got the cheaper one next to it on the shelf, which has worked JUST FINE for three loaves now.
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Wiener Schnitzel is definitely made that way, only not with chicken. The expensive stuff is calf, but we students ate pork. Pounded flat as a pancake, given a seasoned breadcrumb coating, and baked or fried, with lemon drizzled on it. So delicious. Never greasy.
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Central Texas is very Czech and East Texas has a lot of German to it--my paternal family hails from Cajun country and moved to Texas around the turn of the last century. (A bunch of German boys married French girls so my family tree is full of names like "Johann Pierre".)
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It sounds good, although in recent years I'm not so much with the frying. But I'm finding the background fascinating! I'm up for trying to make some at some point. Any recipes?
<\not a Texan>
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