Impress the man in your life with (easy) chicken-fried steak!

This is one of those meals that looks/sounds way more complicated than it is. I was scared to try it. Frying anything always seems to be a long, arduous process (not to mention messy!) and I have never before made gravy from scratch. But unless the the man in your life is a health nut (because let's be honest, this isn't the most diet-friendly meal out there), I promise he will be impressed with this! I found it extremely delicious myself...so much so that I sneaked into the kitchen around 9 last night to eat a little bit of leftovers.

You will need:

3-4 cubed steaks

1 sleeve saltine crackers, crushed

1 cup flour, divided into 3/4 cup and 1/4 cup

3 1/2 cups milk, divided into 1/2 cup and 3 cups

oil, for frying

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon red pepper (crushed or ground will work)

salt

pepper

1/4 teaspoon paprika

Instructions

1. First, pour about 1/2 to 1 inch of oil in your frying pan (do NOT use a nonstick) and heat it up on medium heat. The sprinkle a little bit of salt and pepper on your steaks and set them aside for now.

2. Crush the beejesus out of your crackers. You really want them to be as close to a powder as you can get them, to ensure that they'll stick to your steaks. I found it was helpful to crush them some in the original cracker sleeve, pour them into a plastic baggie, and then crush them with the end of a screwdriver, lol (we don't have fancy kitchen tools at my house!).

3. Mix cracker crumbs, 3/4 cup flour, red pepper, baking powder, paprika, and about 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, and about 1/2 teaspoon salt together. Mix in bowl but then pour on a plate to make it easier to coat your steaks.

4. Mix 1/2 cup milk and your egg together in a bowl. Then Dredge your steaks in the DRY mixture first. Then dredge in the milk and egg, and then BACK to the Dry mixture again. Don't be afraid to push the dry mixture in a bit to make sure you get a great coating.

5. Gently place your steaks in the heated oil and fry for about 3-4 minutes on EACH side. Remove, and place on foil-lined pan and keep warm in oven (I had my oven set at about 250 degrees).

                                             There's my steaks, looking all sexy in the oven!!

Now for the gravy!


Drain MOST of the oil out of the pan that you fried your steaks in. You want about 1-2 Tablespoons of oil left, and any cooked parts of steak/coating that were left behind when you removed your steaks. You won't really be able to measure the oil (since it will be extremely hot) so you kinda just have to eyeball it.
Mine looked like this:

Okay, now Whisk together 3 cups of milk, 1/4 cup flour, and about 1 teaspoon of pepper and salt, each. I just whisked mine together in the cup I measured my milk in. (Less clean-up!)

Okay, now pour that in with your drippings. Constantly stirring, cook it at medium-high for about 10 minutes.

I served my gravy over the steak, and also made some mashed potatoes. It was super-good!

And on a completely unrelated note, here is what the G baby looks like after he gets in my mousse!

At least he knows where to put it I guess?

XoXo,

L