KFS - Kettle Fried Steak

I tried Kettle Fried Chicken a few weeks ago and the wife and I absolutely loved it. It was really easy to do and it got me to thinking.

"Self!" I said to my self
"Yes?" I replied
"You & I agree that chicken is our second favorite thing to eat chicken fried right?"
"That's right. What's on your mind?" I asked.
"You think that kooky Kettle Fry technique would work for our favorite chicken fried application?
"Well self there's only one way to find out."

I started with a couple of cheap chuck steaks


Then hit them hard with the needler to tenderize them


I then put them into a bath of butter milk, season salt and sirachi and let them marinate for about 2-hours


I made a dredge of 1C flour, 1C corn meal, 1/8 tsp baking powder & some more Lawry's


After I pulled the steaks out of the marinade I noticed that the vein of fat & connective tissue running through the steaks had softened considerably so I cut it out and divided each steak into smaller portions, then dipped in the dredge, back into the buttermilk sirachi mix and then into the dredge again.


After about a 30-minute rest they went onto the kettle indirect over some oak lump.


Cooked them for about 5-6 minutes/side and then pulled them off.


I whipped up some buttermilk, fatty gravy


and some home fries


and plated the whole thing up.


A couple of thoughts on this.
1) The batter crisped up really nicely however it didn't really stick to the steak the way that I would have liked it to. I have this same problem when I shallow fry chicken fried steak in a skillet. This leads be to believe that I have a problem in my batter or dredging technique. Any thoughts on this would be welcome.

2) The steaks weren't tough, but they weren't quite as melt in your mouth tender as I would like them to be. So either I need to needle/beat the steaks more, or I'm using the wrong cut of meat. What cut of meat do other brethren use for their chicken fried steak?

3) I would definitely take this as proof of concept on Kettle Fried Steak. The results were good but not perfect and I think with a little bit of tweaking this could be out of this world good.

Thanks for looking.

Not sure what the temp was. It was hot though. Had all the vents wide open and the baskets completely fully of red hot lump, probably in the 400-425 range. I'll try both the corn starch method and letting them setup in the fridge for a bit. These I let setup on the counter for 30 minutes or so. Dry environment of the fridge might be helpful.

tortaboy said:

For CFS, I don't think I would use chuck. Too dang tough for short cooks.

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Suggestions on what would be better?

Norm said:

I dredge in cornstarch first then the batter and lastly into the breading.

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What do you use for a batter?

I'm also wondering if a little melted butter in the batter/buttermilk would be helpful in creating a more even browning?

caseydog said:

I don't know this for fact, but my instincts tell me to keep water and butter/oils out of the dredge.
CD

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I think you're right about this. I've been thinking about it and I believe the pre-dredge soak in buttermilk is where I went wrong. I have a feeling that once the moisture close to the meat steamed it expanded and blew off the coating some.