Beef cutlets are one of the main ingredients of a typical recipe for Chicken Fried Steak. How well-prepared this ingredient is counts a lot towards the overall success of the entire dish. Beef cutlets are also known as cube steaks or round steaks (minus the fat).
Prepare the ingredients. For a Chicken Fried Steak with beef cutlets, you will need the following: 4 beef cutlets, ¼ cup milk, an egg, all-purpose flour, cooking oil, salt, pepper, paprika, and white pepper.
Tenderize the beef cutlets. Taking the time to tenderize the beef will help you enjoy more tender, buttery meat that’s easy to chew. The highly tender portions of beef, such as the loin area, are quite costly. If you take the time to tenderize tougher and more economical cuts of beef, you could cut down on your expenses considerably. Start with very thin cuts of beef and wrap them in clean plastic wrap. Get your meat tenderizer and use its flat side to pound on the beef. The pounding motion should be down and away from you. Begin at the center of the meat going outwards. Use only medium force; too much and the meat might become mushy.
Prepare the egg mixture. Beat the egg and the milk until they are smoothly combined. Mix together the salt, pepper, paprika and white pepper in another bowl, and then sprinkle the mixture generously on the tenderized beef cutlets.
Dip the beef cutlets in all-purpose flour. Brush or shake off the excess flour, but ensure that all the cutlets are evenly coated with flour.
Coat the beef with the egg mixture. After the cutlets have been covered with flour, dip them into the egg mixture. Afterwards, dip them again in the all-purpose flour. This could get very messy, so you might want to cover the surface or prepare paper towels nearby.
Prepare the cutlets for frying. Get a heavy skillet and pour the oil into it; the oil should be about a half-inch deep in the skillet. Heat the oil for a few minutes. Let a drop of water drip into the oil; if it pops, then the oil is adequately heated.
Fry the cutlets. Use tongs or a long-handled fork to carefully place the cutlets one at a time into the skillet. Make sure that the surface area of the entire cutlet is entirely exposed to the bottom of the skillet. If the skillet isn’t big enough, you may have to fry the cutlets two at a time. Fry the cutlets for a few minutes, until golden-brown. Flip it over to fry the other side as well. Lower the heat to low once both sides of the cutlets are a nice golden-brown. Cover the skillet and let the cutlets cook for another 5 minutes.
Blot out the excess oil from each cutlet. Prepare two plates covered with paper towels. Use the tongs to retrieve the cutlet from the skillet, and place the cutlets onto the plate. Gently press on the cutlet with the tong until the excess oil has transferred from the meat into the paper towel. Transfer the cutlets to the other plate (also covered with paper towels) and again let the paper towels absorb the excess cooking oil.
Preparing the beef cutlets for Friend Chicken Steak may take some time and effort on your part, but taking these steps properly will certainly be worth it. Bon appétit!
