CFS

[BrianGSDTexoma]

My favorite CFS (Chiken Fried Steak) in town is from a catfish place. They use some cornmeal in the crust. It has a thin crispy coating, very tender and seasoned well. I attempted to make one at home. I tried to talk myself into doing on the kettle as I love kettle fried chicken but after one failed meal this week decided to deep fry it. I soaked cubed steak in buttermilk for about 6 hours than dried off. Seasoned and let sit one hour. I used Kent Rollins dip I use on my fish which is 1 Tbsp milk powder, 1 Tbsp corn starch, 1 tsp baking powder and 1 cup water. I used 2/3 cup flour with 1/3 cornmeal. I think could of went half and half. Turned out good but was fairly tough. I will stick with going to Huck's Catfish!



and some lemon pie for dessert

 

[chef k-dude]

Try "House Autry" breaders if they sell them down over there. They have a hush puppy mix too if that's your thing. Takes the guesswork out of it.

You didn't tell us what cut you used but seemed like you were referring to the chicken at a fish place? Those look like maybe pounded out boneless skinless chicken breasts?

The only thing to go wrong there is overcooking and the oil not at the right temp. Once a boneless chx breast goes over 165 it gets tougher every degree. Hard to gauge that in a deep fry without trial and error. Once its pounded out like that (assuming thats what I see) my guess would be probably oil at 375, 2 mins, flip, 2 mins, out. Also depends what the starting temp is. If they are very cold, might need another minute. As with most meats it continues to cook for a minute or two once resting. I would rest those, or fish, or anything flat on a rack.

Forgive this Virginian, but what is a CFS? I get it's probably a restaurant or fish house but cant get yet figure out the acronym.

 

[chopsaw]

Forgive this Virginian, but what is a CFS?

Chicken fried steak , as opposed to CFC . Chicken fried chicken .

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

Try "House Autry" breaders if they sell them down over there. They have a hush puppy mix too if that's your thing. Takes the guesswork out of it.

You didn't tell us what cut you used but seemed like you were referring to the chicken at a fish place? Those look like maybe pounded out boneless skinless chicken breasts?

The only thing to go wrong there is overcooking and the oil not at the right temp. Once a boneless chx breast goes over 165 it gets tougher every degree. Hard to gauge that in a deep fry without trial and error. Once its pounded out like that (assuming thats what I see) my guess would be probably oil at 375, 2 mins, flip, 2 mins, out. Also depends what the starting temp is. If they are very cold, might need another minute. As with most meats it continues to cook for a minute or two once resting. I would rest those, or fish, or anything flat on a rack.

Forgive this Virginian, but what is a CFS? I get it's probably a restaurant or fish house but cant get yet figure out the acronym.

Rich got you. I added to post.

 

[texomakid]

Huck's is so good but I've never had anything but their catfish - it's so good! I forget about it since you have to know where it is to get there. Now I want to try their CFS!

That looks great Brian.

 

[chopsaw]

Turned out good but was fairly tough.

Did you tenderize the steak ? I knew a guy that used his finger , or the end of a wooden spoon to poke the steak . Makes even the toughest cuts extremely tender .

I'll second the Autry seasoning . I use the ones for the airfryer . They already have some color .
This is some great coating for frying . Seasoned flour . Seems simple , but I can never get mine to taste as good .

https://www.amazon.com/Kentucky-Kernel-Seasoned-Flour-Ounce/dp/B0001GLG9M?th=1

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

Huck's is so good but I've never had anything but their catfish - it's so good! I forget about it since you have to know where it is to get there. Now I want to try their CFS!

That looks great Brian.

Everything including service is great there. Had several people tell me to try the burger but that's a hard one to do with the fish and CFS so good.

 

[chef k-dude]

OK, NOW I get what you made! You used cubed steak, so there's not much more you could have done for tenderizing. Been a while since I made it. Stopped making it for some years because we went low carb and I guess there have been no sales recently that drew my eye to it. I hardly ever buy any proteins that are not on some sort of discount or sale.

My recollection is they always still have some chewy bits in there because they start with tough cuts to begin with. We always still enjoyed it though. What I made was as good as Cracker Barrel...for what its worth! Regular price at Walmart and Food Lion here is around $8lb. I'm going to try to remember to ask the grocers with actual butchers here (Obviously not Walmart) if they have a cuber. I might try getting a more tender cut of steak cubed when its on sale and give that a whirl.

There's always this:

Country Fried Hamburger Steaks With Gravy Recipe - Food.com

If you can "Country Fry" chicken, pork , and beef cube steaks, why not ground beef patties ? Well, with this recipe you can.:) When handling

www.food.com

Probably better for me since I like to eat in my recliner! Hard to saw stuff up with your plate on your lap!

 

[chopsaw]

Brian , the breading on your steaks looks awesome .
I was gonna roast this whole and slice thin for sandwiches , but thought I would change it up after seeing your thread .
Center cut sirloin . Sliced about a 5/8's thick . I use plastic wrap over the steak , and poke with my finger . Makes it completely tender .
I'm gonna grill these hot and fast , but I use this method for CFS too . From here you would do your breading , and fry .
You want it thin overall , then the almost poked through spots .

 

[texomakid]

I remember as a kid I'd go stay with my Grandparents. Papaw was a Rual mechanic and his shop was about 20 yards from the house. You could hear mamaw in there beating those cubes of meat with that hammer/tenderizer she had. BAM! BAM! BAM! then battered & fried with gravy, potatoes, corn & green beans. Beef & Deer got the snot beat out of it.

When you heard that BAM coming from the house, you knew it was gonna be good!

 

[JLinza]

Looks great, that breading looks spot on

 

[Gonna Smoke]

Turned out good but was fairly tough.

Brian from my perspective, the steak was not run through the cuber, as we called it when I worked in the meat dept. at Winn Dixie many years ago, or tenderizer, as others call it, enough times. When I do mine with my LEM grinder attachment, I run the meat through 3 times rotating it 90° each time.

But the fried steak and gravy looks great!! I think I'll try the breader recipe, sounds good...

 

[jcam222]

Looks tasty to me! I think I'll give a carnivore version a go next week. I'll do an egg wash and "bread" with seasoned pork rind "panko". A white gravy should be fairly easy with some cream and cream cheese. Looking forward to this experiment.

 

[DRKsmoking]

Looks and sounds great Brian

I also love the colour to the breading , and deep fried works for me also.

And PIE, sign me up.

David

 

[chef k-dude]

I married a teacher. Her mother, Dad and brother were/are teachers.
I no longer close the Winder and I don't Warsh my car anymore.

There's a long list of my educational mistakes but when you spend 42 years working on Drilling rigs, nobody cared.

Yea, I get it. I have been ridiculed all my life for using "them big words". That's what children do, and they grow up to be "adults". I was lucky to have an outstanding 6th grade English teacher (where I learned vocabulary, just not spelling and grammar as much) and a mom who tried very hard to shake her Appalachian holler dialect when she began to work in business.

Problem was I hated school and skipped a lot of high school...graduated with "good enough" summer and night school credits and never really learned good handwriting and grammar. Professionally, I became a welder-fabricator as a young man, a profession that also doesn't put much weight on "book learning", until you want to come off the shop floor and deal with the business aspect. As a project manager, our office manager helped me learn how to not look like an uneducated dolt. I was tired of the "busted knuckle life", flesh wounds and burns and wanted more than that, so I began to work on stuff, like communications and computer skills.

42 years on oil rigs, yep, like welding, dont need it.

My dad has a masters degree in business and still cant use There, Their and They're correctly. He doesn't give a rip either. Did quite well for himself however...in the federal government...

I remember as a kid I'd go stay with my Grandparents. Papaw was a Rual mechanic and his shop was about 20 yards from the house. You could hear mamaw in there beating those cubes of meat with that hammer/tenderizer she had. BAM! BAM! BAM! then battered & fried with gravy, potatoes, corn & green beans. Beef & Deer got the snot beat out of it.

When you heard that BAM coming from the house, you knew it was gonna be good!

That's the story of my West Virginia mountain grandmother (one of them). They would say she "made holy meat because she beat the hell out of it"!