Chicken Fried Steak With Country Gravy

I used to buy the frozen pre-breaded chicken fried steak that comes with the plastic pouch of gravy that you heat separately.  To be honest, it's actually not half bad.  But the thing is, this dish is easy to make from scratch and so much less expensive.  Cubed steak is pretty cheap (3.99 per pound, and it wasn't on even sale.  Each steak cost less than $2.00 and each of us were only able to finish half a steak.).  In fact, this whole meal which was too much for my entire family of four to finish, cost less than $10.00 for all of it, including the potatoes and green beans.  So how's that for a cheap, hearty meal?   And let's face it, chicken fried steak, while not the healthiest of meals, is awesome!

Chicken Fried Steak:
*Each cubed steak was about half a pound and each of those were cut in half.  Two pieces (1 steak) will feed 1 very hungry person, but most will probably only eat one if served with all the fixin's
**Instead of draining fried meat on paper towels, I like to use a wire rack set inside a baking sheet.  This will ensure that the steak stays crispy.  If you leave the fried steak on paper towels, they tend to re-absorb the oil from the paper towels and get soggy.

1 1/2 to 2 pounds cubed steak
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon each-garlic powder, paprika, cayenne pepper
Black pepper to taste
Additional salt and pepper to season meat
Vegetable oil for frying.

Cut each cubed steak in half and season lightly with salt and pepper
In a pie plate or flat bowl, beat eggs and milk
In a separate plate, mix flour with seasonings
For each steak:
Dredge in flour mixture
Dip in egg mixture
Dredge in flour again
Dip in egg again
End with another dredge in the flour and set aside.
Repeat

Heat oil in a large skillet (preferably cast iron) over medium high heat.  Fry 3 pieces of meat at a time until they get golden brown and turn over to cook the other side.  Drain over a wire rack.

Country Gravy:

1/4 cup of the same oil you used to cook steak
1/3 cup of flour
Approximately 2 cups of milk
Salt and pepper to taste

After frying all of the steak, pour off most of the grease, leaving about 1/4 cup.  Sprinkle the flour over the grease and using a whisk, mix the flour with the grease making a loose roux.  When the mixture is a golden color, slowly pour in milk, while continuing to whisk.  The gravy will become thick.  Add more milk if necessary to keep the gravy from getting too thick.  Season with salt and pepper.  This should be enough gravy for all of your steak and some mashed potatoes. 

Cubed steak.  This is about half a pound.  You want to cut this in half.

Here is the wire rack set inside of a rimmed baking sheet.

This is what approximately 1/4 cup of oil looks like

Then you add your flour

The roux