Chicken Fried Steak

Above: chicken fried steak at Blue Bonnet Cafe, Marble Falls

Those early cowboy cooks knew that not all meat was steak; some of it was tough and even stringy. They used Western ingenuity to turn what could have been waste into dishes that award-winning restaurants are now proud to serve.

Chicken fried steak is such a dish, using one of the toughest cuts of meat: the round steak. It's tenderized (the cook just beats the meat into submission) then dipped in an egg and milk batter, floured and fried to a golden crispiness.

The chicken fried steak is the equivalent of white bread in Texas cuisine. Folks feel comfortable with chicken fried steak. It's not spicy, so even those who can't handle the fiery heat of other local dishes love this one.

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