Cubesteak?!
Answers: So, I'm about to cook up a cubesteak for dinner. What can I do with it to make it more tasty? Should I fry it or broil? How DO I broil it?
This is one of my favorite things in the world
It is hard to get much more Texan than Chicken Fried Steak. Quality of the beef really counts in this dish. This recipe calls for cube steaks, but good round steak that you have asked the butcher to run through the tenderizer or that you have tenderized yourself with a mallet (no big deal and can be a real stress reliever) can be even better.
4 tenderized beef cutlets (known in supermarkets as "cube steak") OR 1 round steak, with fat removed, that you've tenderized yourself (see above)
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
all-purpose flour
cooking oil or melted Crisco?
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
Beat together the egg and milk and set aside. Mix together the salt, black pepper, paprika and white pepper and sprinkle on both sides of beef cutlets.
Dredge the cutlets in the flour, shaking off the excess. Then dip each cutlet in the egg/milk mixture, then back in the flour. (You're going to get your hands messy here, so take your rings off.) Set cutlets aside on a piece of waxed paper.
Heat the cooking oil in a large cast-iron or other heavy skillet over medium-high heat for a few minutes. Oil should be about a half-inch deep in the pan. Check the temperature with a drop of water; if it pops and spits back at you, it's ready.
With a long-handled fork, carefully place each cutlet into the hot oil. Protect yourself (and your kitchen) from the popping grease that results. Fry cutlets on both sides, turning once, until golden brown. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook 4 or 5 minutes until cutlets are done through. Drain cutlets on paper towels.
Cream Gravy
After the cutlets are removed from the pan, pour off all but about 2 tablespoons of oil, keeping as many as possible of the browned bits in the pan. Heat the oil over medium heat until hot.
Sprinkle 3 tablespoons flour (use the left-over flour from the chicken fried steak recipe) in the hot oil. Stir with a wooden spoon, quickly, to brown the flour.
Gradually stir in 3/4 cup milk and 3/4 cup water, mixed together, stirring constantly with the wooden spoon and mashing out any lumps. Lower heat, and gravy will begin to thicken. Continue cooking and stirring a few minutes until gravy reaches desired thickness. Check seasonings and add more salt and pepper according to your taste.
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Note to Cream Gravy novices: Gravy-making is an inexact science. Cream gravy is supposed to be thick, but if you think it's too thick, add more liquid until you're satisfied with it.
I always pan-fry it on the stove, or grill it outside
make a batter of bread crumbs, eggs, butter, spices. coat steak. then brown in pan with olive oil. remove from pan, and continue cooking in oven. yes, you could broil it. stick it on the second or first rack from top, then just set the oven to broil. beware, once the oven gets going it will cook very fast.
chop up a little onion for the pan and a little oil. when they are a little soft put the steak on top and turndown the heat and cover to steam it. If you try to sear or overbrown it you have leather.
I brown the cube steaks in a tiny bit of oil, remove from skillet. Add to the skillet 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 can cream of celery soup, 1 package Lipton onion soup mix, stir together and while doing so scrape up the good stuff from the bottom of the skillet. Add the cube steaks back into the soup and cook for 1 to 1-1/2 hours until steaks are fork tender. I serve them with mashed potatoes... YUM.
You should always pan fry a cubesteak. Just add some garlic powder (never salt) and pepper and cook in on a med-high heat with a little butter. Only a min. or so on each side depending on how well done you like it. You can get some really nice drippings from cooking it even just a few minuts. I always add a little water to the pan after I remove the steak. The pour the juices over it. I don't eat cube steaks anymore, but I use to LOVE them.
Chicken fried steak & gravy or Swiss Steak.