The Ultimate Chicken Fried Steak

The Ultimate Chicken Fried Steak is fried to golden perfection and topped with the creamiest gravy you can imagine. It's hard to imagine a more quintessential Southern meal. The hard part is deciding whether you want to make it for breakfast or dinner. My family can't get enough of these tender steaks with that delightful crispy, crunchy coating. And the gravy? Heaven!

Prep time: PT10M

Cook time: PT15M

Rating

5 stars (263 reviews)

Keywords

chicken fried steak, country fried steak

Ingredients

4 cube steaks (about 1/3 lb each)
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper, divided
2 teaspoons kosher salt or sea salt, divided
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons TABASCO® Sauce (original)
2 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
4 tablespoons grease
4 tablespoons flour
2 to 3 cups whole milk
½ cup heavy whipping cream
salt and pepper to taste

Cuisine

American

Steps

In a shallow bowl, whisk together flour, one teaspoon black pepper, one teaspoon salt, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
In a separate shallow bowl, whisk together buttermilk , TABASCO® Sauce, and eggs. Set aside.
Pat cube steaks dry with a paper towel, removing as much moisture as possible. Season with one teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon of pepper. Let sit for 5 minutes and pat dry again with paper towel.
Dredge the cube steaks in the flour mixture, shaking off excess, then dredge in the buttermilk-egg mixture, letting excess drip off, and then once again in the flour mixture, shaking off excess. 
Place breaded cube steaks on a sheet pan or metal rack and press any of the remaining flour mixture into the cube steaks making sure that the entire steak is completely coated. Let sit for 10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 225 to 250 F.
Meanwhile, heat vegetable oil in a heavy skillet or large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. How much oil you need depends on the size of your skillet. You want it to be about 1/4-inch deep. We aren't deep frying the steaks, just shallow frying. 
Test the oil by dropping a bit of the breading into in. The oil should sizzle and bubble around the breading. Look for the oil to be glistening but not smoking - about 320-340 degrees F. Now we're ready to fry.
Place two steaks into the pan at a time and fry for 3 to 4 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Do not flip more than once or the breading will fall off. Do not fry more than two steaks or the pan will be too crowded and the breading will fall off. 
Remove steaks from pan and drain on paper towels. Place in preheated oven. Turn skillet heat to medium.
Chicken Fried Steak Gravy
- Pour the remaining grease into a heat safe bowl or glass measuring cup (I used my Pyrex). Do NOT scrape the skillet clean. We want all of those bits of yumminess to remain in the skillet so they can flavor the gravy.
- Add back in 4 tablespoons of the grease to the hot skillet.
- Whisk in flour and continue whisking for two to three minutes or until nice and golden brown.
- Combine the cream and milk and slowly drizzle in about 2 1/2 cups into the skillet, whisking constantly. It might look a little crazy right at the beginning, but it will all come together.
- Continue whisking and bring the gravy to a simmer. Cook until the gravy is smooth and creamy, about 5 to 7 minutes. If the gravy gets too thick, add in a little more milk. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (Mine didn't need any salt but LOTS of pepper!)
- Serve chicken fried steak with gravy and mashed potatoes and your favorite green veggies. ENJOY!

Nutitrion

Serving Size: 1 serving
Calories: 956 kcal
Carbohydrates: 53 g
Protein: 51 g
Fat: 58 g
Saturated Fat: 28 g
Cholesterol: 280 mg
Sodium: 472 mg
Sugar: 10 g

Reviews

Katie on 2026-06-21 (5 stars):
Wow! This tasted just like my favorite Texas mom and pop restaurants! So good! The gravy required some Johnny’s seasoning and Tony Cacheries, but after adding those things, it was spot on. Definitely a keeper!
Memaw on 2026-02-26 (5 stars):
I’ve always struggled making good chicken fried steak. Followed this recipe exactly and it was the best I’ve ever tasted, even the gravy! Thank you!
Sherri on 2026-01-04 (5 stars):
The chicken fried steak was the best! This will be my go-to recipe from now on! But the gravy? No. I wondered how it would have any flavor using the cooking oil for the fat but thought I’d give it a try. Nope - no flavor so I kept adding ingredients to give it flavor. Total waste. Even tho the gravy wasn’t good, 5+ stars for the chicken fried steak!
Tara on 2025-10-15 (5 stars):
Wow! So much flavor, and tender! I did a test run tonight for my Husband and I. We have 8 family members coming over for dinner on Friday! So I made this tonight for dinner, and Success. I definitely will be making this to serve for my get together. Thanks for the great recipe! Husband turns to me after first bite, "Can you make this every night?!" <3 <3
Ashleigh Johnson on 2025-09-24 (5 stars):
Made these basically exactly as written (only thing I did was increase the amount of everything in the gravy section by 1/3 since I was making 6 steaks at once instead of 4) and they were an absolute hit! Alas after spending several hours prepping and cooking, I was hit by the Cooks Curse and wasn't in the mood for more than a few bites. They were delicious bites though. It was my first time ever making any kind of chicken/country fried steak, and I was making a large batch so the steaks had to sit in the oven longer than expected while cooking 2 at a time and then making the gravy, so I was expecting the reception by my family to be "decent for a first try, but disappointing" at best, and kept telling them 'they should at least be edible'. Only for my family to tell me it was fantastic, restaurant quality food, and that they were going to fight over who got the extra steak leftover. So they're definitely expecting me to make these again soon enough. Thanks for the awesome recipe and easy to follow instructions!
Patty K on 2025-09-11 (5 stars):
Decided to look up recipes so I could see variations of how people make theirs so I could try it out tonight and I found yours. I didn’t have any buttermilk but did the resting times and added the baking soda and baking powder to mine. What a difference that made! I prefer the crispy breading over the soft breading and these turned out perfect and the resting times helped the breading stay on. Thank you!
Susan on 2025-09-03 (5 stars):
Let me start by saying my family LOVES this recipe!! They ask me to make it again every time I make it! I feel bad for saying this but that’s after I doctor up the gravy. I follow the directions and to me it just has no taste. I add more salt and pepper, some garlic and onion powder, paprika, and red pepper flakes!!! Delish!!! We put the gravy on the mashed potatoes too!!!
Connie Selcis on 2025-08-07 (5 stars):
Made this last night for dinner and followed the recipe exactly for the chicken fried steaks themselves. My husband prefers brown mushroom gravy so we made that instead to go along with the steaks. The steaks were SUCH a hit, that I didn't even get a chance to get a photo before the family devoured it! Everyone said it was the best tasting chicken fried steak ever and that I should keep this recipe from now on! The steaks were incredibly tasty, filled with flavor and breading was crispy! We used the leftover steaks the next morning for steak biscuits and heated up the leftovers in our air-fryer which was great. The crust crisped back up and they were great as breakfast biscuit sandwiches as well. We'll be adding this to our regular rotation - thanks again for an amazing recipe!
Carol on 2025-06-23 (5 stars):
This meal is very good but I'm not sure how hot to heat the oil or how long to let it cook on each side, please help.