Earl Cooks Chicken Fried Chicken & Country Gravy with Mashed Potatoes

Chicken Fried Chicken with
Mashed Potatoes & Gravy

BREADING STATION: Panko Bread Crumbs, Egg
Whites with Milk & Seasoned Flour

I believe you can tell how good a restaurant is by how good their Chicken Fried Steak is. It is not easy to do well, but it is easy to ruin. As a child, I don't remember having, or even knowing, what  chicken fried steak was. Yes, I am calling it CHICKEN fried steak, because that is the one thing I do remember. It was a steak FRIED like one would fry chicken. A tenderized piece of beef, usually cube steak, breaded and fried. Served with creamy mashed potatoes and both covered with a great,  peppery pan gravy. Later restaurants began calling it "country"  fried steak. My guess is that was because so many mistook it for actual chicken! It doesn't matter what you call it, it is tender and crunchy at the same time, or tough and soggy when done wrong.

Skillet with canola oil  heat on medium high
until wisps of smoke appear

For lunch today I didn't have a cube steak, but I did have a chicken cutlet. I have never made Chicken Fried Steak, heck, I have never even made a whole fried chicken, but my wife "a.k.a."Turkey" left me some egg whites she couldn't use from a baking project so I thought they would be the beginnings of my breading process. Since I was breading just the one cutlet, I used some rather deep plates; one with my homemade Panko bread crumbs, one with about 2 egg whites, and the last had seasoned flour. Season this as you would any fried chicken, 11 herbs and spices or whatever. Make sure to mix the seasoning into the flour well. Also add salt and fresh-cracked black pepper to the breast cutlet itself. You can easily make a cutlet by butterflying a chicken breast or pounding it with a mallet between 2 sheets of plastic or storage bags. You can also find cutlets at some stores in the frozen meat section.

Floured Cutlet in hot oil

Dry the cutlet off, then lay it in the the flour making certain both sides get covered.

Chicken Cutlet Nice & Brown

Now dip the floured cutlet in the egg wash, and place in the panko crumbs, covering well. Gently place the coated cutlet into the HOT oil laying it away from you to avoid hot oil back-splash and burning yourself. If the cutlet is thin, as mine was, it won't take long to crisp and brown the first side. You will be able to see the brownness climbing up the side of the cutlet. Grab your tongs and turn it gently over and proceed as you did on the first side. When it its browned on both sides, it's done! I had some leftover creamy gravy so I whipped up some instant mashed potatoes (Idahoan is my preferred brand), and boy this lunch exceeded my expectations! I might try making fried chicken or "Country" fried steak next!
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