Chicken Fried Steak Recipe

      Chicken Fried steak could be called the state dish of Texas. And there are as many different recipes as there are cooks in Texas. For my version, I went with the "Pioneer Woman's" online version. Heck, if it's good enough for a bunch of ranchers, it's good enough for me. For those of you not familiar with this comfort food dish, it is basically pan fried cube steak covered in batter, and served with 'milk gravy". The normal accompaniments would be mashed potatoes and fresh rolls. We went with french fries (potato and sweet potato) cuz , well , I was lazy and plus had fries in the freezer.

      Into a bowl put one cup of milk and one egg, (double it if you are cooking alot of steak, we had 1.5 lbs.), and whisk well. On a plate combine two cups of flour with seasonings of your choice, we went with some cayenne and some spice mixture we had. Don't be shy, this is alot of flour and gets fried so you need to put plenty of spices, traditionally you would use cayenne and black pepper. Now comes the messy part, (I made Kris and Mike do this portion *S*). First dip the steak in the milk mixture, then the coat well with flour but shake off the excess, then back into the milk and back into the flour and set on a clean plate.

      Now on to the frying, fill a cast iron pan with enough oil to go 1/2 way up the steak. I KNOW this isn't an exact measurement but I don't know how big your pan is. Remember you are pan frying not deep frying so you don't want your steak submerged. Get the oil hot, if you have to be specific, I would say 375 but I let it heat up until a drop of flour sizzles big time. Carefully drop in the steak, dropping them away from you as it WILL splatter. Let fry until golden brown (you can peak if you want) and then carefully flip them over, frying until the other side is nice and brown. Put them on a plate covered in paper towels and place them in an oven heated to 225 to keep crispy and warm.

      Once all the frying is done, its time for the most important part of the operation, the milk gravy. Drain off all the oil, reserving 1/4 cup. Let the pan cool down a bit (believe me this is important) and add the oil back in along with 1/4 cup flour, (this forms a roux). Cook together on medium heat and stir until the roux turns golden brown, keep an eye out as this can burn easily. Once you get to the correct color, start adding in milk, just a bit at a time, and YES it will be a total solid lump. Keep whisking until you have added all two cups of milk. Grind in a copious amount of black pepper and whisk until heated thoroughly. Take off heat, pour over fries and steak and ENJOY.

      To this incredible feast, I added homemade dinner rolls. As before, I made the dough in my bread machine but it could easily be done in a stand mixer or even by hand if you so desire. Here is the recipe;

1 cup water
2 tablespoons butter softened
1 egg
3 1/4 cups bread flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons yeast

     Place all ingredients in bread machine and set to dough cycle. Once the dough is ready remove from machine and let rest for 10 minutes on a lightly floured surface. Divide dough into 15 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball. Place in a well greased baking pan and let rise in a warm place for 45-60 minutes. Bake at 375 for 12 to 15 minutes and brush with melted butter YUMMY.

     And there you go a rather easy but extremely tasty meal.

Lamson Family Cinnamon Rolls

  Or more specifically, wife's mom's cinnamon rolls, traditionally eaten with the meal, (weird, yea I know). This recipe takes a bit of time but the flavors are incredible, set aside a good portion of your morning and you will be greatly rewarded;

Ingredients;
 1) 12 oz can of evaporated milk.
 1/4 cup warm water.
 1/2 cup sugar.
 1/2 cup vegetable oil.
 1/2 cup leftover mashed potatoes (unseasoned and no milk).
 2 eggs.
 3 envelopes dry yeast.
 6 cups of flour.

      To start, dissolve yeast in the warm water, add all the ingredients, except the flour, into a mixer and mix for 3 minutes.  Gradually add the flour, until a dough ball forms,and knead by hand or with a dough hook attachment for 10 minutes. Place dough ball in well greased, large bowl and grease top of ball also, (Mom used Crisco, I used butter, butter makes it better *S*). Cover and allow to rise until doubled in a draft free, warm place, (approximately 1 3/4 to 2 hours). Punch down and repeat, this time allowing to rise about 1  hour. Punch down again and transfer to a lightly floured surface.

Filling;
 1/3 cup softened butter.
 3/4 cup brown sugar, (Mom used light brown sugar).
 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon.

      Divide dough into two sections and roll out each section, (one at a time of course), into large rectangles, and spread 1/2 of filling evenly over each section. Roll back up and slice into 1 inch slices. Add slices to greased baking sheets, cover and allow to rise for one more hour, (told you this was time consuming, you want to start early if you are serving these at lunch). Bake at 325 for 10 minutes and then turn up temp to 350 and continue baking till done , (OK, this is the EXACT recipe, but keep an eye out until they turn golden brown, about 10-20 more minutes). Let cool slightly and serve with your meal, OR,

      For you traditionalists, you can now make the frosting;

Frosting;
 1 stick softened butter.
 2 tablespoons flour.
 1 cup confectioners sugar.
 1 dash salt.
 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

      Beat all the ingredients together and slather on rolls. But first I encourage you all to try the rolls as a sub for dinner rolls, c'mon live on the wild side!