For this recipe, I’m heading back to The Lodge—my favorite place to cook. ❤️🏡 I’ll be showing you how to make one of my favorite cowboy classics: Chicken Fried Steak! 🤠🥩 This a ranch favorite, and I’ll take you through the whole process from start to finish.
We’ll season the meat just right, bread it with buttermilk and flour, fry them until golden and irresistible, then finish it all off with the very best part…the gravy 🤤.
If you’ve ever wanted to make Chicken Fried Steak at home, this video has everything you need. Grab a fork, settle in, and let’s cook at The Lodge! Just like old times. 😊
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Here's the Chicken Fried Steak recipe from this video!
Chicken fried steak
3 pounds cube steak (see note)
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
2 cups buttermilk
2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons seasoned salt
3/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup canola or vegetable oil, plus more as needed
4 tablespoons salted butter, plus more as needed
Gravy
Salted butter or oil, if needed
1/3 to ½ cup all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
4 cups whole milk, plus more as needed
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
kosher salt, to taste
Note: You can also buy tenderized round steak, then pound it with the tenderizing side of a meat mallet; cube steak has been put through the tenderizing machine twice by the butcher.
Steak
Season both sides of the cube steaks with salt and pepper, then place the steaks in a large bowl and pour the buttermilk on top.
Toss the steaks in the buttermilk until thoroughly coated. Let sit for 30 minutes.
In a shallow dish, combine the flour, seasoned salt, paprika, cayenne, 1 tablespoon kosher salt, and 2 teaspoons black pepper and stir well.
In a large heavy skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and add the butter.
When the butter is melted and the oil/butter mixture is hot, bread a piece of the steak by dipping it in the flour mixture four times: first side, second side, then first and second sides again. You want the breading to be very thick, so that you can no longer see the wet buttermilk.
Lay the breaded meat in the oil and cook the steaks on both sides until the breading is deep golden, about 3 minutes per side. Tend to the meat the whole time it’s cooking, as you might need to move the pieces around the pan to avoid burning from hot spots.
Remove the steaks to a pan lined with paper towels. Then cook another batch of meat. Add more oil and butter to the pan if it starts to dwindle a bit.
Remove the last of the meat, let it drain on the paper towels, and turn the heat to medium-low.
Gravy
Time to make the gravy! Make sure there’s about 1/2 cup of remaining grease in the skillet. If there isn’t enough, add equal amounts of oil and butter to get to ¼ cup. If there’s too much, pour off a little. Then sprinkle in flour! Start by sprinkling on 3 tablespoons or so, then immediately whisk it into the grease. (The paprika gives it a great color right out of the gate!) When it’s incorporated, sprinkle in more flour. If you whisk in the flour and it’s too dry/crumbly, add more oil and butter. If it’s too greasy looking, sprinkle in a little more flour, a tablespoon at a time. All told, you’ll wind up using 1/3 to ½ cup flour.
You want to wind up with a smooth paste (roux) that is neither dry nor overly greasy! Cook the roux for 5 to 8 minutes, however long it takes to turn dark golden brown. If you use plain flour for your gravy (which I often do), it will look very pale at first. You want to cook until it’s deep and nutty.
Pour in the milk, whisking constantly. The gravy will immediately start to thicken when you first pour it in, but will calm down the more milk you add.
After the milk is whisked in, sprinkle in the black pepper.
Cook the gravy, stirring or whisking constantly, until bubbling and thick! If it gets too thick too soon (within 5 minutes), splash in more milk. The gravy is forgiving; you can keep adding splashes of milk to get the consistency perfect. The whole gravy process can take up to 20 minutes. Before serving, taste it and add more salt as needed.
Place one of the fried steaks next to mashed potatoes or biscuits, then spoon a generous amount of gravy over both. (If you use biscuits, lay the two halves cut side up and top with the gravy.)
This is what Okies call “gravy over all.” (Shout-out to Murphy’s Steakhouse in my hometown of Bartlesville!) Sprinkle with more black pepper and enjoy!
Love your show but I must ask….why the new format with you doing talking behind the scenes and then adding it in after as we watch you? I much prefer to see you cook and talk at the same time, not just a recording of your voice after the fact. Is it just me?
She grandma now
I also afraid cooking in oil because splash one me very short
mmm lov it
Hi, thanks for the wonderful recipe. I think instead of adding plain flour to the grease/oil, the seasoned flour which was used for coating the steak could be adding rather than throwing it away. That way the gravy is pre-seasoned. 😊
What do you mean mashed potatoes or biscuits…. I say mashed potatoes and biscuits…
Delicious!
Two of our daughters went to college in Texas and they encountered chicken fried steak everywhere. Now they don't like it. Hmm.
where you buy glass container for flour they are so beautiful
What makes it chicken fried steak and not country fried steak?
You need to stop using 2 % milk . If you read the ingredients in it ,you will find an ingredient that causes type 2 diabetes. Look it up. They tried to stop this to begin with when they wanted to use this but they got it in anyway. Look up percentages of diabetes in the population. Some doctors will tell you if a child consumes to much of this they will de elop type 2 diabetes
The cubed steak from the store always has tough fat or silver skin in it and it ruins it for me. We made this with hamburger meat and it was great.
That’s such a warm lovely kitchen❤
Hello my Friend's good afternoon Love yous Video Beautiful Family WOW Thank your for this Video ❤️🙏
Goodness gracious goodness gracious good God let's eat 😁😊
Thank you. I ate this in Magnolia Texas when I worked down there in the late 1990's. It was wonderful. Thank you for sharing.
Doesn't everybody have a Lodge to cook in?! This woman is such a fake!
I live Pepper but this is a lot
Everyone makes it this way
I often use this same recipe for the wild geese I shoot. I obviously have to tenderize myself. I season it heavily and let it sit in buttermilk over night. Both help tenderize and remove some of the gamey flavor. I also use a 3 to 1 flour to corn starch for a bit more crispiness.
Blimey, she's actually cooked something that doesn't come from a tin or a jar!!
I have chest pain😂
Excellent.
No ma'am. Biscuits and mashed potatoes.😂 I love Chicken Fried Steak.
💗🌹🌷💗
A huge family favorite.
Happy to see back
Yummy the food and you
Have missed watching you cooking in the Lodge kitchen! We had chicken fried steak and the 'fixing s' last week. Good home meal!
Omg looks delicious, thanks for the easy to follow recipe 😊
Wet hand – dry hand, prevents club hands..
Adding corn starch to the seasoned flour will make the steaks very nice and crisp! Your recipe looks great and the gravy looks awesome! Like having creamed corn with the mashed potatos and gravy!
I try not to watch racists celeb cooks.
I use the leftover flour from breading the steaks to make my gravy. No point in wasting it. shrug
Delicious 😋
i am always shocked..this woman is a fraud..lol…and she gets fans…hard to believe~
What a woman 🤩
Chicken fried steak it's defined by frying the beef like fried chicken – coating it with flour, egg ( hence the chicken) and flour.
Prayers for you always headed your way Ree. God bless you and keep you. Let no weapon formed against you prosper. Praying for your complete health recovery in 2026 and much prosperity for you and your family.