I live in Texas and man, I have been missing classic Texas chicken-fried steak with cream gravy!! Well no more yearning for a long-lost love! I just created a low-carb CFS that’s pretty dang close to the real deal! I’ve had such good luck with my mayo-pork rind coating for “fries”, numerous veggies, fish filets and chicken, I thought today “Why not give it a whirl for chicken fried steak”? Well, IT WORKED!
My first thought on how to go about this was that the beef would exude too much moisture during baking, if I just coated it raw, even if I patted it very dry with paper towels. Didn’t want the pork-rink coating to get “soggy”, so I decided to sear the meat first to seal in those juices before I began the coating process. That turned out to be a VERY good decision!! This came out FANTASTIC! And the gravy was SUPER, even without the usual browning of flour. The natural caramelized meat juices deglazed from the skillet made a DELICIOUS cream gravy without one bit of flour!
I served this alongside a saute of radishes and onion and steamed broccoli. I got distracted cooking the radishes and almost browned my meat TOO much, at least browner than I usually do chicken fried steak. But it was STILL GREAT! Timing can be merciless in the kitchen. 🙂
You can use round steak for this dish if you prefer, but I have always preferred chuck or sirloin for my CFS. Much better taste in my opinion. I’m just not very fond of round steak. This recipe is suitable for all phases of Atkins, Keto diets and Primal-Paleo if you eat pork rinds.
One reader’s comment:
Just made this and it is great! My 3 year old grandson ate it all and never knew that it wasn’t “real” chicken fried steak!
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INGREDIENTS:
1 lb. trimmed chuck, round or sirloin, sliced ½” thick, pounded to tenderize
1/3 c. homemade mayonnaise (if commercial mayo, may require more)
1 T. coconut oil (or oil of your choice)
2 oz. pork rinds, crushed fine
½ tsp. seasoning of your choice, I use my Seafood Spice Blend
1 c. water
½ c. heavy cream
1/8 tsp. black pepper
DIRECTIONS: Crush pork rinds fine and stir in spice seasoning. Place into shallow bowl with a spoon for applying and set aside while you prepare the meat. Trim meat of all visible fat and gristle along the edges. If using chuck or sirloin that is very thick, slice it laterally if need be to to create pieces about ½ thick. Preheat oven to 425º. Cut meat into 4 portions and pound the pieces with a meat cleaver or mallet to tenderize it a bit. Heat oil in skillet and sear meat on both sides until lightly browned, sprinkling lightly with black pepper as it sears. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP AND ATTEMPT TO COAT MEAT RAW DIRECTLY WITH COATING. TRUST ME ON THIS ONE, YOU WILL NOT BE PLEASED WITH YOUR SOGGY RESULTS! You don’t want to cook the meat DONE, just sear the surface to seal in the juices. Remove from heat.
Pour mayo into a saucer and using a brush, holding the HOT meat on one tip with tongs or a fork (I use tiny ice bucket tongs), coat both sides of each piece of meat well with mayo (don’t miss any spots!). Then move over to the bowl of crushed pork rinds and using a spoon, spoon the rinds over both sides of the meat. You’ll get decent coverage without any one piece getting excess. I have found that if you just dip the meat into the rinds, it “grabs” more coating than is necessary, resulting in not having enough rinds to finish the job at hand and you will then have to crush more (been there; done that) and increase calories. 🙂 Place the coated meat directly onto a METAL baking sheet, preferably non-stick. DO NOT line with silicone sheet or use a glass dish it won’t crisp properly. Pop into preheated 425º oven and bake about 20 minutes or until browned to your liking.
As the meat is cooking, make your cream gravy. Add 1 c. water to the skillet you seared the meat in and over low heat, over low heat, completely de-glaze all the tasty brown bits off the bottom of the skillet by scraping with a spatula. Add the cream and simmer over very low heat to reduce and thicken. This adds both color and flavor to your gravy. Add a dash of black pepper and salt to taste. If you prefer a thicker gravy, you can slightly thicken with your preferred thickener, like a light dusting of xanthan gum whisked in.
Serve with gravy dipped over meat. This goes well with many of your favorite vegetable dishes. I hope you enjoy this “national” staple of Texas!
NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes four 4-oz servings, each contains:
471.3 calories, 30.8 g fat, 1.9 g carbs, .03 g fiber, 1.87 g NET CARBS, 45 g protein, 356 mg sodium
Buttoni's Low-Carb Recipes 
can you suggest a low carb coating other than pork rinds. I will not buy commercial pork products due to the abominable treatment of pigs for market. I buy my pork from a local farm with free range (happy) pigs and alas they do not make pork rinds.
Nothing I could suggest would render the crunchy results they bring here. You can use almond meal, or mix some ofo the meal with some low-carb baking mix, but it just won’t be the same, crisp/crunchy result.
I used the hot and spicy pork rinds on fish recently and it was DElISH! t was not too spicy but added a wonderful punch to the Swai fillets. If you like spice give this a try!
Welcome, Joy! Oh, I have done that and the Oven-Fried Fish recipe is on this blog. It is delicous also on various vegetables oven-fried on a sheet pan. Mmmm.