Need a quick and easy dinner idea? This Chicken Fried Steak is an all around favorite recipe at an affordable price!
We’re approaching Fall/Autumn weather, and there’s no better meal than a pure down home Southern Chicken Fried Steak! I love these comfort meals this time of year! This recipe works well with mashed potatoes and your choice of vegetables, however we love corn with ours.
WHAT INGREDIENTS WILL YOU NEED?
- Cube steak
- Flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt & pepper
- Garlic powder
- Buttermilk
- Egg
- Flour
- Milk
- Oil
Most of these will be staple pantry ingredients. When shopping for the cube steaks, I try to choose a pack that looks as though each steak is about the same size, and around 1/2 pound each. You can use whole milk if you’d like, but I love the taste of buttermilk with this recipe!
The gravy that tops the fried steaks is a staple! A country gravy, or sometimes called a white gravy, consists of pan sauce made from the drippings in a skillet after cooking meat. You’ll make this gravy by first creating a roux, by cooking flour into the oil from the pan. The results are a delicious and flavorful gravy that works amazingly well for this recipe!
The only thing you’ll need to decide is if you’ll have this meal for breakfast or dinner! While many love this as dinner recipes, you’ll find that it’s also just as great as a breakfast dish!
SOME SIDES THAT GO WELL WITH THIS:

Chicken Fried Steak
Ingredients
- 4 pieces cube steak (approx. 2 pounds)
- 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
- 1 egg
- oil for frying
For Gravy:
- 1/3 cup all purpose flour
- 2 cups milk
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat oil in large pan on stove over medium heat until it reaches about 325F. Your oil should be about 3 inches deep.
- Pounds out each cube steak to about 1/4 inch thickness then set aside.
- In one large bowl combine 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper. Whisk to fully combine the ingredients.
- In seperate bowl whisk together buttermilk and eggs.
- Dredge each cube steak on both sides with the flour mixture, then to the egg mxture on both sides, and again into the flour mixture. For this step I press the flour mixture down onto the cube steaks to ensure they're dredged fully.
- Place each sube steak into the oil and allow to fry on both sides for 4-5 minutes, or until golden brown. Repeat with all steaks.
- For the gravy: in a large pan on medium high heat, add 1/4 cup of the oil from frying the cube steaks. Stir in 1/3 cup of flour until fully absorbed and allow to cook for approximately 1 minute.
- Slowly add the milk while whisking and heat until thickened. Stir in salt & pepper to taste.
- Pour gravy over individual fried steaks before serving.
Is the milk for dredging or for the gravy? The recipe here at the bottom is a bit confusing there.
Hi Kaitly!
You’ll use the 1 1/2 cups of flour for dredging, and the additional 1/3 cup flour is used to make the gravy. Hope that helps! 🙂
Tracey,
Kaitly asked about the milk not the flour. You added buttermilk to the egg mixture. Then you added buttermilk to the gravy so how much goes in each. Like maybe 1/2 cup in the egg mixture and 1 cup in the gravy.
Hi Barbara!
I’ve updated the recipe and it should be more clear for the gravy. I apologize, as the buttermilk is just for the chicken. The gravy will have regular milk. I use 2% at home, however you can use whatever you have. I hope that helps!
Is this called CHicken fried steak or Country fried steak? I am new to american food so I am confused.
Hi Mari!
Both are pretty much the same. Chicken Fried Steak typically has a white peppery gravy, and Country Fried Steak is normally served with a brown gravy. You may find, depending on where you look, this is not always the case though and both dishes are the same for the most part. Thanks for asking!