Best Recipes for Chicken-Fried Steak

Vibrancy is key for dishes like Ree's Chicken Fried Steak with Gravy because of the simple foundation from which the dish is built. Ree adds an aromatic combination of paprika, cayenne and black pepper to the dredging mixture. She doesn’t hold back on the freshly ground black pepper in the gravy, either. That sharp pungency adds a mild, fermented flavor to the dish, ultimately highlighting the other peppers and balancing out the overall richness of the steak and gravy.

Want to know who will enjoy Ree's winning recipe for Chicken Fried Steak Sliders? Anyone looking for a nice snack, anyone who loves finger foods, anyone who has a passion for gravy. So, basically everyone. If the careful dredging process and homemade gravy weren’t enough to set this recipe above the rest, the homemade buttermilk biscuits sure will be. Light and airy, but still holding a crunchy-on-the outside-soft-on-the-inside texture, these biscuits serve as the perfect vessel to absorb the gravy while also holding and maintaining the crunch of the steak.

The star of this show is the steak. Pounded thinly, the steak is tender, virtually melting once cooked. It’s also very generously seasoned, both prior to being dredged and in the dredging itself. This helps to accentuate the steak’s flavor and enrich every bite. And, if this weren’t enough to entice you, the dredging also incorporates baking powder, which works to lighten the batter and develop a really airy, crisp batter. So, just to recap, this recipe is all things tender, flavorful and crispy. Chicken-fried satisfaction.

Any great gravy starts with pan drippings, and the gravy for this Chicken Fried Steak recipe takes that to heart. Not only do the pan drippings contribute an added depth to the dish because of the flavors extracted from the steak as it cooks, but the bits of batter that get stuck to the bottom of the pan add a bit of texture and contrast to the gravy. Once you begin to pour in the milk, it will thicken and get creamy, producing a smooth and silky sauce to complement the crunch of the steaks.

Steak gets the Nashville hot chicken treatment in this unbeatable sandwich. These steaks are dredged in a flour base with dashes of cayenne and garlic powder, then dipped in a buttermilk and Dijon mustard-egg mixture, followed by another visit to the flour bowl. The steaks are fried up, then sauced with cayenne, dark brown sugar, paprika and garlic powder mixed with some of the frying oil. You get heat, sweetness, aromatics, with thickness and texture. Now it’s time for assembly: bun, mayonnaise, steak, sauce and bread and butter pickles.