At my wits end... need some help from my Fellow 'Hiders. Chicken Fried Steak!

[n2ishun]

Dear Lord, I forgot there are fudds in the kitchen too... Ok, @sirhrmechanic, I'm gonna lay some wisdom on you, about the chicken fried steak you're after.

Numero uno, you don't need cubed steak. You can take any steak you like, and beat the shit out of it with a meat tenderizing mallet, until it's under a half inch thick, preferably 3/8", and proceed as normal. I like a new York for my chicken fried steaks, but sirloin, ribeye, hell, you can bread and fry a pork chop this way and it'll work. What you're doing with the meat mallet is physically breaking apart the connective tissue in the meat to make it tender. You're gonna fry your steak a little more done than you would on a grill, so the mechanical tenderization is critical for good eatin'.

Numbah 2, season that bitch an hour or two or even overnight ahead of when you want to cook it. Anything more than 5 minutes but under an hour is bad juju. There's some science going on here, but you're essentially trying to balance a sodium gradient through the whole of the meat. I can explain deeper, or you can just do it. Kosher salt only at this stage, imagine a dusting of snow on a parking lot is what you're looking for. Leave it uncovered on the counter or in the fridge. Doesn't matter. Contrary to @DarnYankeeUSMC and his advice, doesn't need to be room temp. You're cooking in 375⁰ oil, 30⁰ difference between the fridge and your counter doesn't mean squat if you're frying in enough oil (more on this later).

Item three, breading. Milk or egg doesn't matter as much as what is actually a triple dredge through seasoned flour. Season this flour well with salt and pepper. Make sure you make plenty of flour mix, otherwise you'll end up with crumbly bits of flour on the outer crust of your steak, which is a surefire way to get burnt bits. Order of operations is as follows: steak goes in flour, liquid, flour, liquid, flour. Each layer makes the next one stick right. If you're crazy, you can go as far as to beer batter the motherfucker, as long as you drag the steak through flour first.

Step the fourth, cooking the bitch. Again, contrary to popular wisdom, there is a best option here. 4 parts canola oil, 1 part carefully rendered bacon fat, (bacon fat is optional but does good things for flavor and mouth feel), enough to completely submerge the steak in, in a heavy cast iron pot or pan. Remember when I said earlier that the temp of the steak doesn't matter in comparison to the temp of the oil? This is where that comes into play. You need enough thermal mass between the oil and your cooking vessel to keep the total temperature of the system close to your cooking temperature, which should be between 350⁰ and 375⁰ farenheit. A laser thermometer is your friend here, achieve system equilibrium quickly, or you're gonna start scorching your oil, and that taste is awful. Then, lay your FRESHLY breaded steak into the pan away from you, avoiding splashes. Cook to your desired level of golden brown and delicious, then serve and eat immediately. My personal preference is the color of the skiff of maple syrup left on your plate after the pancakes are gone, but you do you.

Now I can write a similar treatise on the gravy that goes with your steak, but that's beyond the scope of your original question, and so will just let it ride for the moment. But if you follow the above recipe diligently, you'll have reasonable results, and then can modify processes to your own tastes.

So...
Isn't cube steak a steak that has had the shit beaten out of it with a powered tenderizing hammer ?
Absolutely no difference.

 

[ArTeeKay]

So...
Isn't cube steak a steak that has had the shit beaten out of it with a powered tenderizing hammer ?
Absolutely no difference.

Yes, but you don't need to buy it that way from the meat counter, you can do it yourself, with more flavorful cuts of meat.

 

[theLBC]

i don't fry anything at home really, and i eat chicken fried steak if we go out for breakfast.
imho, you will get best results with tenderized cube steak type meat.

i do make biscuits and country sausage gravy at home.

1lb of breakfast sausage (or more if you want).
brown well and remove sausage and leave the drippings
add a stick of butter (more if you are making enough for a crew.)
once melted with the drippings, slowly add 1/4-1/2 cup of white flour (make a roux)
once you have color in your roux, slowly add 3 cups whole milk and wisk until it starts to thicken.
add back the sausage and a bunch of fresh ground pepper.
taste for saltiness and add salt as needed. (add salt at the end because the sausage can add lots already).
results should look similar to this

 

[7.62willdo]

Anyone got a vegan option…….

 

[TheBigCountry]

Buy your own Cracker Barrel as a franchisee

Get the food whenever you want as the perks of being an owner

Laugh at the poors while you eat said Chicken Fried Steak.

Easy button man

 

[Bigfatcock]

Anyone got a vegan option…….

 

[sirhrmechanic]

 

[Maggot]

I 'spose that's why you call yourself maggot.
Everyone knows you use either a hatch chili or a anaheim chili for rellenos.
Poblanos are best left to dry on the vine and then use to make enchilada sauce.
You take a bit of tamale masa and whip with egg for the relleno batter.
Exactly why do you think you can buy canned whole anaheim chilis and not canned whole poblano chilis ?

How far away from Mexico are you again ?
I used to live in SoCal, home of the best food, and I also used to snowbird about 30 miles from mexico in southern Az.
Do you honestly think Taco Bell is mexican food ?

BTW, oil temps....300-325F will do nicely.
Use corn oil and if you want the coating SUPER crispy, add panko crumbs and use 1/2 oil 1/2 shortening.

Hatch are best but hard to get in Virginia so we use what we can get.

As to my relationship to Mexico, I've travelled extensively there, and and through most of Central America, and have several great friends. Its a rarity to see egg in the batter. used south of the border. They would be ashamed to ruin the taste of a good pepper with that mess they use north of the border.

To finish, TacoBell is garbage but better than Taco (No) Bueno.

 

[acudaowner]

there are tons of recipes to try start at the top and go till you find one you love then make a bunch of it till you got making it down almost with your eyes closed write back and let everyone know how your attempts go .

 

[Precision Underground]

Dear Lord, I forgot there are fudds in the kitchen too... Ok, @sirhrmechanic, I'm gonna lay some wisdom on you, about the chicken fried steak you're after.

Numero uno, you don't need cubed steak. You can take any steak you like, and beat the shit out of it with a meat tenderizing mallet, until it's under a half inch thick, preferably 3/8", and proceed as normal. I like a new York for my chicken fried steaks, but sirloin, ribeye, hell, you can bread and fry a pork chop this way and it'll work. What you're doing with the meat mallet is physically breaking apart the connective tissue in the meat to make it tender. You're gonna fry your steak a little more done than you would on a grill, so the mechanical tenderization is critical for good eatin'.

Numbah 2, season that bitch an hour or two or even overnight ahead of when you want to cook it. Anything more than 5 minutes but under an hour is bad juju. There's some science going on here, but you're essentially trying to balance a sodium gradient through the whole of the meat. I can explain deeper, or you can just do it. Kosher salt only at this stage, imagine a dusting of snow on a parking lot is what you're looking for. Leave it uncovered on the counter or in the fridge. Doesn't matter. Contrary to @DarnYankeeUSMC and his advice, doesn't need to be room temp. You're cooking in 375⁰ oil, 30⁰ difference between the fridge and your counter doesn't mean squat if you're frying in enough oil (more on this later).

Item three, breading. Milk or egg doesn't matter as much as what is actually a triple dredge through seasoned flour. Season this flour well with salt and pepper. Make sure you make plenty of flour mix, otherwise you'll end up with crumbly bits of flour on the outer crust of your steak, which is a surefire way to get burnt bits. Order of operations is as follows: steak goes in flour, liquid, flour, liquid, flour. Each layer makes the next one stick right. If you're crazy, you can go as far as to beer batter the motherfucker, as long as you drag the steak through flour first.

Step the fourth, cooking the bitch. Again, contrary to popular wisdom, there is a best option here. 4 parts canola oil, 1 part carefully rendered bacon fat, (bacon fat is optional but does good things for flavor and mouth feel), enough to completely submerge the steak in, in a heavy cast iron pot or pan. Remember when I said earlier that the temp of the steak doesn't matter in comparison to the temp of the oil? This is where that comes into play. You need enough thermal mass between the oil and your cooking vessel to keep the total temperature of the system close to your cooking temperature, which should be between 350⁰ and 375⁰ farenheit. A laser thermometer is your friend here, achieve system equilibrium quickly, or you're gonna start scorching your oil, and that taste is awful. Then, lay your FRESHLY breaded steak into the pan away from you, avoiding splashes. Cook to your desired level of golden brown and delicious, then serve and eat immediately. My personal preference is the color of the skiff of maple syrup left on your plate after the pancakes are gone, but you do you.

Now I can write a similar treatise on the gravy that goes with your steak, but that's beyond the scope of your original question, and so will just let it ride for the moment. But if you follow the above recipe diligently, you'll have reasonable results, and then can modify processes to your own tastes.

 

[n2ishun]

View attachment 7987531

View attachment 7987531

 

[Tempest 455]

i don't fry anything at home really, and i eat chicken fried steak if we go out for breakfast.
imho, you will get best results with tenderized cube steak type meat.

i do make biscuits and country sausage gravy at home.

1lb of breakfast sausage (or more if you want).
brown well and remove sausage and leave the drippings
add a stick of butter (more if you are making enough for a crew.)
once melted with the drippings, slowly add 1/4-1/2 cup of white flour (make a roux)
once you have color in your roux, slowly add 3 cups whole milk and wisk until it starts to thicken.
add back the sausage and a bunch of fresh ground pepper.
taste for saltiness and add salt as needed. (add salt at the end because the sausage can add lots already).
results should look similar to this

Had that this morning for breakfast. Can't go wrong.

 

[khdudley13]

just a fyi.. was at cracker barrel last night... according to them there is a shortage of the hash brown casserole.. they wiil not serve it after 11:00 am ... go figure ??

 

[Maggot]

i don't fry anything at home really, and i eat chicken fried steak if we go out for breakfast.
imho, you will get best results with tenderized cube steak type meat.

i do make biscuits and country sausage gravy at home.

1lb of breakfast sausage (or more if you want).
brown well and remove sausage and leave the drippings
add a stick of butter (more if you are making enough for a crew.)
once melted with the drippings, slowly add 1/4-1/2 cup of white flour (make a roux)
once you have color in your roux, slowly add 3 cups whole milk and wisk until it starts to thicken.
add back the sausage and a bunch of fresh ground pepper.
taste for saltiness and add salt as needed. (add salt at the end because the sausage can add lots already).
results should look similar to this

As a kid I ate enough of those to float a ship (a very small ship but a ship). If you were out of sausage you used bologna or hot dogs.

 

[Jscb1b]

i don't fry anything at home really, and i eat chicken fried steak if we go out for breakfast.
imho, you will get best results with tenderized cube steak type meat.

i do make biscuits and country sausage gravy at home.

1lb of breakfast sausage (or more if you want).
brown well and remove sausage and leave the drippings
add a stick of butter (more if you are making enough for a crew.)
once melted with the drippings, slowly add 1/4-1/2 cup of white flour (make a roux)
once you have color in your roux, slowly add 3 cups whole milk and wisk until it starts to thicken.
add back the sausage and a bunch of fresh ground pepper.
taste for saltiness and add salt as needed. (add salt at the end because the sausage can add lots already).
results should look similar to this

 

[forrestgump01]

Also If your using bucket steak you need to let it sit in a pan of water overnight in the fridge to help get all the blood out of the meat ! Gives a much better taste.

 

[hlee]

Bucket steak?

 

[forrestgump01]

That's what cube steak is called in Alabama .
It was be sold in a bucket and would be full of blood .

 

[morningsun]

Certainly infusing your meat with water overnight will give it that wonderful water flavor that we all desire.

 

[Boatninja]

I have found that using Bisquick Baking Mix instead of regular flour, because it browns faster and doesn't overcook the meat. Also White Wings Gravy Mix mix makes excellent gravy and not so greasy. These were tips from a woman that made the best CFS I've ever eaten, she also used thin-ish New York Strip and did not pound it out. A local eatery here uses unpounded Ribeye steak.

 

[Im2bent]

Crisco is the shiznit for deep frying. Especially chicken.

 

[MtnCreek]

That's what cube steak is called in Alabama .
It was be sold in a bucket and would be full of blood .

A little vinegar in the water.

 

[hlee]

Soaking a steak isn’t going to ‘infuse it with water.’ (It is not uncommon here- where it can be 90+ during deer season- to quarter a deer and let it sit in a cooler of ice water for several days.) But it’s also not going to do a lot more than rinsing. Meat left in a cooler (water changed regularly) for a week will appear very light colored on the exterior, but that only permeates a mm or so into the meat. And, that discoloration readily evens out when you debone the meat. Yes, it will pull some blood out, but it’s not going to pull out the flavor or otherwise ruin the meat.

 

[morningsun]

I think you are referring to brining. I do brining but not on steaks.

 

[hlee]

I think you are referring to brining. I do brining but not on steaks.

Nope. Drop deer quarters, back straps, tenderloins (other cuttings) into cooler. Fill with ice. Drain bloody water daily. Top off with ice. Debone meat and package when convenient. It will remove some blood, but as a passive process it is only a bit more than superficial. You’re not injecting the meat with saline like they do chickens in the supermarket- you know up to 10% by weight.

 

[Bigfatcock]

Have you tried using dick yolks? @The D

 

[The D]

Have you tried using dick yolks? @The D

You little bastard

 

[bulld]

Try sourdough yeast in the flour. Flour, sourdough yeast, egg, buttermilk.

 

[goinghunting]

Liar, liar, cocks on fire.

Best CFS I ever had was in Virginia.

Martinsdale, MT

 

[BytorJr]

Is there an oil temp? Or is that done by 'feel?' I'll use a damn laser thermometer if I have to!

Sirhr

I don't do CFS, but fried okra is one of my specialities. Unlike most folks, I don't batter. The goo from the cut-up okra is enough to get the flower and cornmeal (YOU MUST HAVE CORNMEAL) to have real southern fried okra. (I just gave you the code).

To know when the oil is hot enough, the okra should float..not sink. it may sink for a millisecond but should pop right back up. The LASER says this is about 350deg . I think that's the normal temp to fry...350.

Good luck.

 

[MrSmith]

Intersection of highways 491 and 184 on Saturday morning. Bubba's. Order the special. Best there is. When you're finished with your imitation of a beached whale a few hours later we'll go shoot prairie dogs.

Ask Bruce, the owner, or wife/cook Jeri how it's made.

Thank you,
MrSmith

 

[Major Wader]

Is there an oil temp? Or is that done by 'feel?' I'll use a damn laser thermometer if I have to!

Sirhr

375 to 425 F, peanut oil only if deep frying. Pan frying, same temp, but bacon grease instead of peanut oil.

 

[Lapuapalooza]

Have any of you soaked the cube steaks in milk, or marinated the steaks prior to the flour/buttermilk/egg process?

The reason I ask is the best fried chicken I’ve ever had is done this way.

I’ve never tried it because when I make chicken fried steak, I’m hungry now. Not in 2 days…

 

[502Chevelle]

My Grandma always used Crisco for her frying, and her cooking was so good and so classic southern. Also if you are doing this with venison, try soaking it in milk overnight instead of ice water. Your CFS will taste so good. Lots of good recipes here. Good tips no matter which ones you try.

 

[Jgunner]

I have so much to learn

 

[n2ishun]

375 to 425 F, peanut oil only if deep frying. Pan frying, same temp, but bacon grease instead of peanut oil.

Umm....
You're looking to fry stuff in the oil, not burn the house down.
Drop 100*F and you're in the ballpark.
Go check my call on any cooking site (there's about 10 billion of them).
I don't know the flash point of corn oil....but I'd say 425 is pushing the edge.

Couldn't find flash point, but smoke points are...

Fat	Quality	Smoke point[caution 1]
Almond oil		221 °C	430 °F[1]
Avocado oil	Refined	270 °C	520 °F[2][3]
Beef tallow		250 °C	480 °F
Butter		150 °C	302 °F[4]
Butter	Clarified	250 °C	482 °F[5]
Canola oil (Rapeseed)		220–230 °C[6]	428–446 °F
Canola oil (Rapeseed)	Expeller press	190–232 °C	375–450 °F[7]
Canola oil (Rapeseed)	Refined	204 °C	400 °F
Canola oil (Rapeseed)	Unrefined	107 °C	225 °F
Castor oil	Refined	200 °C[8]	392 °F
Coconut oil	Refined, dry	204 °C	400 °F[9]
Coconut oil	Unrefined, dry expeller pressed, virgin	177 °C	350 °F[9]
Corn oil		230–238 °C[10]	446–460 °F
Corn oil	Unrefined	178 °C[8]	352 °F

 

[Maggot]

I don't do CFS, but fried okra is one of my specialities. Unlike most folks, I don't batter. The goo from the cut-up okra is enough to get the flower and cornmeal (YOU MUST HAVE CORNMEAL) to have real southern fried okra. (I just gave you the code).

To know when the oil is hot enough, the okra should float..not sink. it may sink for a millisecond but should pop right back up. The LASER says this is about 350deg . I think that's the normal temp to fry...350.

Good luck.

Fried okra is the real thing. Love it.

 

[ArTeeKay]

Have any of you soaked the cube steaks in milk, or marinated the steaks prior to the flour/buttermilk/egg process?

The reason I ask is the best fried chicken I’ve ever had is done this way.

I’ve never tried it because when I make chicken fried steak, I’m hungry now. Not in 2 days…

You could season with spices in addition to the salt I recommended, but marinades generally and wet marinades specifically are not a good way to infuse flavor into meat. Long story short, the acids and enzymes that are usually present in wet marinade recipes do funny things to the texture of the meat, and the flavors don't permeate deeply because you're usually setting up the sodium gradient going the wrong direction, pushing things out rather than pulling things in.

The best way to add flavors to the steak isn't to flavor the steak itself, but to make sure your gravy is top notch.

 

[Rainn]

Egg whisked in bowl with milk or buttermilk.
If cubed steak is about the size of your hand, cut in half.
Mix self rising flour, salt, black pepper and poultry seasoning. Add a little fine ground cayenne if you like.
Coat in flour mix, soak in egg/milk, the coat again in flour mix. Needs to go in the oil while flour is still dry - same applies to frying chicken.
If pan frying, don't overfill with oil. Start oil hot enough, then reduce if needed.
Transfer to dish covered with papertowels.
After resting on towels, you can put them in a warm oven while finishing up meal.

If cooking fried okra, add some cornmeal to the flour mix to bread the okra.

THIS^^^ is exactly what you need. Don't forget to share pictures after a successful trial.

 

[Pharmseller]

Schnitzel - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[UKDslayer]

Skip the egg. Why do people use egg? Best way to ruin good chili rellenos is to dip the poblano peppers in egg. Mexicans just stuff them and bake, I love the taste of the poblanos but the egg ruins them.

Acts as a binder. Coating holds together much better.

 

[UKDslayer]

Fyi, oil I am using is corn oil from the biggest jug Mazola sells.

Virgin olive oil. Check label to make sure its not a "blended" fake.

 

[alamo5000]

What kind of oil you use matters. Shortening works really good in this application. Peanut oil works good too.

The temp of the oil should be 325-350 degrees.

The meat needs to be tenderized before hand. You can use any kind of steak, but don't use something with lots of fat on it. Dredging in the flour mixture should only be done immediately before putting it in the hot oil. Shake off the excess flour.

One other tip is to use the baste method. In other words you don't really need a gallon of oil. Just enough. Maybe 1" deep or so in a pan that is just big enough. After you put the meat in to fry use a large metal spoon and spoon hot oil over the top of the meat as it's cooking. Flip and repeat. You might flip several times. Pay attention as to not burn it.

Oil can be too hot. Again 325-350 is good. Note that the oil will drop in temp when you add meat to it so you might need to crank up the fire to maintain the temperature. If you do this (turn up the heat) then turn it back down later on during the cooking process.

This method helps form an even crust. The meat can basically 'cup' and trap in air as it's cooking. The basting method overcomes this. Don't wait until the edges are crispy black before flipping only to find out that an air pocket left a big unfried spot on your meat.

 

[n2ishun]

Over easy egg on top of a big greezy bacon cheeseburger is the best

What ? no.
Take 2 thin hamburger patties and put a healthy bit of bleu cheese between them then seal them together.
Then you put a sunny side up fried egg on that
Even better if you "garlic toast" the buns before consumption .

 

[762libertarian]

Is there an oil temp? Or is that done by 'feel?' I'll use a damn laser thermometer if I have to!

Sirhr

If your "by feel" method is failing then the only way to do it is to engineer it properly. Get a good thermometer and stick it in your oil throughout the process. Note how the temperature drops hard when you insert the chicken.

It took me a few tries to get fried chicken right, but now it's a winner every time. I'm from northern Europe so I have no business frying chicken "by feel" or with some archaic method inherited from granny.

 

[bigdaddydmd]

Dear Lord, I forgot there are fudds in the kitchen too... Ok, @sirhrmechanic, I'm gonna lay some wisdom on you, about the chicken fried steak you're after.

Numero uno, you don't need cubed steak. You can take any steak you like, and beat the shit out of it with a meat tenderizing mallet, until it's under a half inch thick, preferably 3/8", and proceed as normal. I like a new York for my chicken fried steaks, but sirloin, ribeye, hell, you can bread and fry a pork chop this way and it'll work. What you're doing with the meat mallet is physically breaking apart the connective tissue in the meat to make it tender. You're gonna fry your steak a little more done than you would on a grill, so the mechanical tenderization is critical for good eatin'.

Numbah 2, season that bitch an hour or two or even overnight ahead of when you want to cook it. Anything more than 5 minutes but under an hour is bad juju. There's some science going on here, but you're essentially trying to balance a sodium gradient through the whole of the meat. I can explain deeper, or you can just do it. Kosher salt only at this stage, imagine a dusting of snow on a parking lot is what you're looking for. Leave it uncovered on the counter or in the fridge. Doesn't matter. Contrary to @DarnYankeeUSMC and his advice, doesn't need to be room temp. You're cooking in 375⁰ oil, 30⁰ difference between the fridge and your counter doesn't mean squat if you're frying in enough oil (more on this later).

Item three, breading. Milk or egg doesn't matter as much as what is actually a triple dredge through seasoned flour. Season this flour well with salt and pepper. Make sure you make plenty of flour mix, otherwise you'll end up with crumbly bits of flour on the outer crust of your steak, which is a surefire way to get burnt bits. Order of operations is as follows: steak goes in flour, liquid, flour, liquid, flour. Each layer makes the next one stick right. If you're crazy, you can go as far as to beer batter the motherfucker, as long as you drag the steak through flour first.

Step the fourth, cooking the bitch. Again, contrary to popular wisdom, there is a best option here. 4 parts canola oil, 1 part carefully rendered bacon fat, (bacon fat is optional but does good things for flavor and mouth feel), enough to completely submerge the steak in, in a heavy cast iron pot or pan. Remember when I said earlier that the temp of the steak doesn't matter in comparison to the temp of the oil? This is where that comes into play. You need enough thermal mass between the oil and your cooking vessel to keep the total temperature of the system close to your cooking temperature, which should be between 350⁰ and 375⁰ farenheit. A laser thermometer is your friend here, achieve system equilibrium quickly, or you're gonna start scorching your oil, and that taste is awful. Then, lay your FRESHLY breaded steak into the pan away from you, avoiding splashes. Cook to your desired level of golden brown and delicious, then serve and eat immediately. My personal preference is the color of the skiff of maple syrup left on your plate after the pancakes are gone, but you do you.

Now I can write a similar treatise on the gravy that goes with your steak, but that's beyond the scope of your original question, and so will just let it ride for the moment. But if you follow the above recipe diligently, you'll have reasonable results, and then can modify processes to your own tastes.

Please post your treatise on the gravy. You write how to make the steak in a clear manner. Hell, you make it sound so easy, even a caveman could do it.

 

[HeavyAssault]

If you happen to get to VA hit me up. I'll give you an address to a few places that serve some great CFS.

 

[DarnYankeeUSMC]

Leave it to someone north of the Mason Dixon to bring science into southern cooking.

Dear Lord, I forgot there are fudds in the kitchen too... Ok, @sirhrmechanic, I'm gonna lay some wisdom on you, about the chicken fried steak you're after.

Numero uno, you don't need cubed steak. You can take any steak you like, and beat the shit out of it with a meat tenderizing mallet, until it's under a half inch thick, preferably 3/8", and proceed as normal. I like a new York for my chicken fried steaks, but sirloin, ribeye, hell, you can bread and fry a pork chop this way and it'll work. What you're doing with the meat mallet is physically breaking apart the connective tissue in the meat to make it tender. You're gonna fry your steak a little more done than you would on a grill, so the mechanical tenderization is critical for good eatin'.

Numbah 2, season that bitch an hour or two or even overnight ahead of when you want to cook it. Anything more than 5 minutes but under an hour is bad juju. There's some science going on here, but you're essentially trying to balance a sodium gradient through the whole of the meat. I can explain deeper, or you can just do it. Kosher salt only at this stage, imagine a dusting of snow on a parking lot is what you're looking for. Leave it uncovered on the counter or in the fridge. Doesn't matter. Contrary to @DarnYankeeUSMC and his advice, doesn't need to be room temp. You're cooking in 375⁰ oil, 30⁰ difference between the fridge and your counter doesn't mean squat if you're frying in enough oil (more on this later).

Item three, breading. Milk or egg doesn't matter as much as what is actually a triple dredge through seasoned flour. Season this flour well with salt and pepper. Make sure you make plenty of flour mix, otherwise you'll end up with crumbly bits of flour on the outer crust of your steak, which is a surefire way to get burnt bits. Order of operations is as follows: steak goes in flour, liquid, flour, liquid, flour. Each layer makes the next one stick right. If you're crazy, you can go as far as to beer batter the motherfucker, as long as you drag the steak through flour first.

Step the fourth, cooking the bitch. Again, contrary to popular wisdom, there is a best option here. 4 parts canola oil, 1 part carefully rendered bacon fat, (bacon fat is optional but does good things for flavor and mouth feel), enough to completely submerge the steak in, in a heavy cast iron pot or pan. Remember when I said earlier that the temp of the steak doesn't matter in comparison to the temp of the oil? This is where that comes into play. You need enough thermal mass between the oil and your cooking vessel to keep the total temperature of the system close to your cooking temperature, which should be between 350⁰ and 375⁰ farenheit. A laser thermometer is your friend here, achieve system equilibrium quickly, or you're gonna start scorching your oil, and that taste is awful. Then, lay your FRESHLY breaded steak into the pan away from you, avoiding splashes. Cook to your desired level of golden brown and delicious, then serve and eat immediately. My personal preference is the color of the skiff of maple syrup left on your plate after the pancakes are gone, but you do you.

Now I can write a similar treatise on the gravy that goes with your steak, but that's beyond the scope of your original question, and so will just let it ride for the moment. But if you follow the above recipe diligently, you'll have reasonable results, and then can modify processes to your own tastes.

If you are buying your ribeye and NY strip from a guy with a freezer in the back of a pickup in a parking lot go ahead and pound the shit out of them. But you should probably use them as dog food instead of CFS.

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Folks, this is all cooking gold! Thanks!

I will definitely be running my oil hotter. And putting in the double-dipped flour DRY. Thanks Mtn!

Also will get a meat tenderizing hammer (I think I will name it Paul!) to pound out some steak. Even if I don't use Cube Steak (Bucket steak!)... I can work the 'regular' steak to break it down.

This is all the stuff that isn't making it into Internet Recipes. And why I trust you guys, not Martha Stewart. After she is a convicted felon!

Sirhr

 

[Aftermath]

I have found that using Bisquick Baking Mix instead of regular flour, because it browns faster and doesn't overcook the meat. Also White Wings Gravy Mix mix makes excellent gravy and not so greasy. These were tips from a woman that made the best CFS I've ever eaten, she also used thin-ish New York Strip and did not pound it out. A local eatery here uses unpounded Ribeye steak.

Heresy.
You gotta pound your meat.