A little bit of chicken fried...

The other night we had a little chicken fried venison.  We also had rosemary potatoes, glazed carrots, caramelized onions, pan gravy and tomato and avocado salad.  For this post, I am going to focus on the chicken fried venison.  In later posts, I will address the sides.  

What is chicken fried?  Amazing goodness, that's what it is!  Take a meat, bread it, fry it and enjoy.  It is most associated with chicken, but you can bread and fry anything.  Trust me, have you been to the State Fair lately.  

The great thing about chicken fried "insert meat here" is that it is not fussy.  Just plain good.  So, how do I make chicken fried venison you ask.  Here's how:

Ingredients

1.5lbs venison cube steak - cut into equal portions 

3 cups flour

2 eggs

4Tb roasted garlic pieces

2Tb salt

2Tb fresh cracked pepper

2Tb smoked paprika

1Tb dried thyme

1 cup buttermilk

Olive Oil

Place the steaks in a shallow container and cover with the buttermilk. Allow the steaks to soak for 10 - 15 minutes.  While the steaks are soaking, place 2 cups of the flour in a shallow container and mix in the roasted garlic, salt, pepper, paprika and thyme.  You can use a fork to stir it all together and make sure it is evenly distributed throughout the flour.  In another dish, crack both eggs and whisk them together.  In one more dish, place the remaining cup of flour.  

Get ready to have some fun.  

Pour the olive oil into a skillet to a depth of around 1/4".  Place the skillet on a medium high burner and heat the oil.  Once the oil is hot enough to fry, it is time to begin the process.  Remove the steak from the buttermilk and remove the excess buttermilk from the steak.  You may have to work in batches depending on the size of your steaks.  Place the steak in the unseasoned flour and coat all sides.  Make sure to knock off any excess flour and then place it in the egg.  Coat all the sides with egg.  Remove the excess egg and place the steak in the seasoned flour. Coat all sides.  Remove the excess flour and place the steak in the heated olive oil.  Allow the first side to brown and then flip the steak to brown the other side.  When both sides are done, remove the steak to a paper towel covered plate to drain.  Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on the still hot steak.  Repeat the previous steps until all of the steak has been fried.

You can make your own roasted garlic or you can buy roasted garlic at cordell's.  If you do not want to use roasted garlic, you can use garlic powder.  However, I prefer the roasted garlic.  

You may find that you need to add additional olive oil to the skillet if you have quite a few pieces to fry.  This is okay, just add more and allow it to heat up and keep frying away.

If you do not have venison or do not want to eat venison, feel free to substitute beef, pork or chicken.  Just follow the same steps and have fun.  

Once your are finished frying, reduce the heat to low and do not throw out the oil.  We will use it to make a really awesome gravy.  That is a later post though.

"And a little bit of chicken fried
A cold beer on a Friday night
A pair of jeans that fit just right
And the radio up"

 - Zac Brown Band