Southern Sunday Dinner

I came across 2 old Paula Deen magazines yesterday at a yard sale. I bought them for a dime apiece and pored over them. In the May/June 2006 I found Simply Square Meals-Retro Home Cooking Is Back. Today I made the Chicken Fried Steak on page 25.

Chicken Fried Steak

1 sleeve saltine crackers, crushed
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 Tbsp seasoned salt
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 1/4 lb cubed steak
vegetable oil for frying

In a shallow dish, combine crackers, flour and seasoned salt. In a wide bowl, whisk together buttermilk and eggs. Dredge steaks in cracker mixture; dip in buttermilk mixture and dredge again in the cracker mixture. Place prepared steaks on a wire rack to set the crust about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, using a well seasoned cast iron skillet (that's my words) heat about 1/2 inch of oil to 360F. Fry steaks 3-4 minutes per side until golden. Remove steaks to a clean wire rack to let excess oil drip off. You can keep steaks warm in oven preheated to 225F.

Milk Gravy

4 Tbsp all-purpose flour
3 cups milk
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt

Carefully drain the hot oil into a heat-proof container leaving a couple of Tbsp of oil and the scrapings. On med-high heat, whisk in flour and whisk constantly for 1 minute. Slowly add milk, stirring constantly and add salt and pepper. Stirring constantly cook until thickened. Serve over the steaks.