Chicken Fried Steak Seasoning

For classic chicken fried steak or chicken: mix 1/4 cup seasoning with 1 cup flour, dip your protein in buttermilk, then coat it in the seasoned flour mixture. Pan fry in a cast iron or heavy skillet with about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of vegetable oil, this is the traditional method, and it gives you the crispiest breading. Deep frying or oven baking will work in a pinch, but neither produces quite the same crust.

Don't discard the pan drippings. A proper chicken fried steak gets a white gravy made right from what's left in the skillet after frying, whisked with a little more flour and milk.

This same seasoning works well stirred into that gravy for more depth, or sprinkled directly on meats, seafood, and vegetables outside of the fried application entirely.

Chicken fried steak is a Southern institution, born out of German and Austrian immigrants in Texas who brought wiener schnitzel with them and adapted it to local ingredients and cheap cuts of beef. The name itself explains the technique: "chicken fried" means fried the way you'd fry chicken, in a skillet, not submerged, which is exactly why the crust and the gravy that follows are both built around pan drippings rather than a deep fryer.

We built this seasoning around that history, garlic, onion, sage, and cumin doing the work a plain salt-and-pepper breading can't, so the breading itself carries real flavor before the gravy ever gets involved.

Chicken Fried Steak Seasoning FAQ

What is chicken fried steak?

Chicken fried steak, also known as country fried steak, is a steak cutlet, or sometimes chicken, coated in a seasoned batter and pan-fried until golden. It's a Southern comfort food dish served for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

How do you make chicken fried steak?

Dip your cut of meat into a wet batter, either buttermilk or an egg mixture, then coat it in seasoned dry breading. Pan fry in a skillet with about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of oil until crispy golden brown and cooked through.

What goes well with chicken fried steak?

It's traditionally paired with mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and sometimes black-eyed peas or okra. It also works as a breakfast dish alongside eggs and hash browns.

What seasoning should you use for chicken fried steak?

We recommend our Chicken Fried Steak Seasoning, a blend of salt, pepper, garlic, onion, paprika, cayenne, and dried herbs, mixed into the dry flour for your breading.

What kind of gravy goes with chicken fried steak?

Classic chicken fried steak is served with a white gravy, sometimes called sawmill gravy, made from the pan drippings left after frying, whisked with flour and milk. It's different from a standard brown beef gravy, and it's the traditional pairing.

Should I deep fry or pan fry chicken fried steak?

Pan fry. It's the traditional method, and it's what leaves real drippings in the pan for the classic white gravy. Deep frying will still cook it through, but you'll lose the drippings, and the crust won't be quite the same.