I love Lisa Fain's Homesick Texan blog, her OG cookbook, and her Queso cookbook. I make her sour cream green chile enchiladas all the time. It was only a matter of time before one of my loved ones got me her sequel from my wishlist. They finally did so I wanted to try something I've never even had in a restaurant before - steak fingers (aka chicken fried steak). I love fried chicken and chicken strips so it seemed like a crazy decadent variation to add steak for New Years Eve Eve.
Ingredients:
Jalapeno Cream Gravy:
2 jalapenos, stemmed, seeded, and halved lengthwise
2 cloves garlic (I used 5)
2 TB bacon grease or vegetable oil
2 TB flour
1 ½ c. whole milk
¼ tsp ground cumin
Salt and pepper
Steak Fingers:
2 lbs cube steak
1 ½ c. flour
Salt and pepper
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
2 eggs
1 c. whole milk or buttermilk
Oil, for frying (I used avocado to try to reduce the frying smell)
Start with the gravy, you can reheat it once the steak is done. Preheat your broiler and place the halved jalapenos and the garlic on a baking sheet. Broil for 5 minutes. Remove and rub the blackened skin of the jalapenos. Dice both small.
In a large, heavy skillet over medium/low heat, add your bacon grease or oil (I rendered 3 pieces of bacon then added a TB of avocado oil to make 2TB total). Whisk in your flour and cook until fragrant and lightly browned, about 1 minute. Slowly add the milk and stir until thickened, a couple of minutes.
Turn off the heat and stir in the diced jalapenos and garlic. Add the cumin and salt to taste (pepper too if you like it). If the gravy is too thick, add a little more milk. It will keep in the fridge for 5 days. Reheat on low heat before serving.
For the steak fingers, cut the steaks into 16 strips.
Mix together the flour, ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper, and cayenne on a plate. Whisk together the eggs with the buttermilk in a shallow bowl. Lightly season the strips with salt and pepper. Dredge each strip in the seasoned flour. Dip the flour coated steak into the eggs, then dredge again in the flour.
Preheat the oven to 200F.
In a cast iron skillet, heat ½ inch oil to 350F over medium heat. Place 4 strips into the skillet and cook until you see red juices bubbling on top of the meat, 2-3 minutes. Turn the fingers with tongs and cook for 2-4 minutes on the other side, until lightly browned. Drain on paper towels and place in the oven while you fry the remaining strips.
Serve with the jalapeno cream gravy (and mashed potatoes).
I'm not sure if I overcooked the steak or if steak is just not made for frying, but we were not huge fans. However, if you subbed out chicken for the steak, I'd probably be into this - the gravy and the coating were good, even if the meat was tough. The gravy on the mashed potatoes was delicious!
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