I realized the other day that after more than six years of learning to prepare wild game dishes in a variety of ways, I had never actually made what I would consider one of the most preliminary meals someone should make with their wild game harvest: Country Fried Steak.
After processing how this could have possibly happened, and not really ever finding an acceptable answer, I set out to make Elk Country Fried Steak.
I have had homemade Country Fried Steak many times, although everyone calls it Chicken Fried Steak around here and usually makes it with beef. I always loved the simplicity of the dish, with the battered cuts of tender meat topped with creamy gravy born from the drippings of the pan, and yet how complex the flavors of one bite tasted.
While attempting my first run at Country Fried Steak, I quickly learned that the meal I considered “simple” has a little more going on than I thought. I don’t want to scare anyone off from making homemade Elk Country Fried Steak. It isn’t a terribly technical dish to put together. It is just a recipe filled with little tricks that help make the dish go from “Mmmm, that was good.” to “Mmmmmm, that was fantastic! Can I get the recipe?”
The Perfect Cuts of Elk and Marinating
The first step for preparing Elk Country Fried Steak is to tenderize the meat cuts. One of the nice things about making Country Fried Steak is you can use some of your tougher cuts of meat for the dish and save your backstraps and tenderloins for other dishes. I used some cuts from the shoulder of the elk.
Tenderizing the meat is a two part process. First, cut your meat into single steak servings. Place each steak between two pieces of plastic wrap, and then using a meat mallet (or something heavy like a cast iron skillet) pound the steaks until they are a quarter inch thick.
The second step of the tenderizing process is to marinate the meat. Buttermilk is more acidic than regular milk and this acid is what help tenderize the meat cuts. I filled a large freezer bag with a cup of buttermilk, a tablespoon of paprika and oregano, and a teaspoon each of cayenne and garlic powder. Drop the steaks into the bag, seal it, and massage the marinade into the steaks. Place the bag into the fridge and allow to marinate for at least four hours and up to overnight.
Starting at the left and moving clockwise, the spices for this Elk Country Fried Steak marinade are garlic powder, cayenne, oregano, and paprika.
Battering the Elk Country Fried Steak
Elk Country Fried Steaks is a perfect dish for sharing wild game with others. The care one puts into preparing the dish is evident in the results. The meat is flavorful and tender because of the buttermilk marinade and tenderizing process. The batter is crispy and filled with a tasty blend of spices because of the care put into proper battering and frying. And the gravy perfectly rounds out every bite because it mixed from the very drippings left behind by the fried steak cutlets.
The secret to creating this crunchy and hearty crust on your Elk Country Fried Steak is the double battering of each meat cutlet. I like to coat battered meats on plates so it is easier to move the meat cutlet around. So on one plate make a mixture of flour, corn starch, baking powder, a little salt, and some pepper. The corn starch will help thicken the batter and the baking powder makes things a little…mmmm…fluffy.
On a second plate scramble one egg. I then drained the excess buttermilk from the marinade bag into the egg and whisked it all together.
Okay! Double coating time. First, coat each cutlet in a thorough dusting of the flour mixture. Funny thing, the flour mixture will help the egg mixture grab onto the meat, and that will in turn help the second coat of the flour mixture grab onto the egg.
The secret to the best crust on your Country Fried Steak is to double coat the cutlets in the flour batter.
So, next step is the egg bath, and then follow it up with another good layer of the flour mixture. Voila! You are now ready to fry up the thick, crunchy, and a little bit fluffy, country fried steak!
Frying the Elk Country Fried Steak
Oh man! We are to the best part now: the frying of the steaks. There is no better sound than when the cutlets hit the hot oil and that sizzle hits your ears. Love this part!
Anyway, in a large pan, I used a cast iron skillet because it creates a very even heated cooking surface and works amazing for things like country fried steak, heat one inch of your choice of frying oil on medium-high heat. I used bear fat for frying and it was delicious. If you don’t have bear fat on hand, avocado oil is a nice choice. Traditional vegetable oil is a another great choice for high heat cooking, as well as canola.
Once the oil comes up to temperature, which is before the oil starts to smoke but sizzles if you put a droplet of water into the pan or if you use a thermometer wait until the oil reaches 350 degrees.
Don’t overcrowd the pan when frying. You want to keep the temperature of the oil up so you don’t slow cook your crush, which results in more of a mushy texture than a crunchy one. I did two cutlets at a time to keep the oil hot.
Fry the steaks for four minutes per side. The crust should be a beautiful golden brown with maybe some little darker spots and hold together when you push the steak around. Mmmmm.
Making the Gravy
So, you aren’t making country fried steak if you don’t have a delicious handmade gravy to drown your steak in. This gravy is a little bit different than the traditional white gravy commonly made with most recipes. The backbone of the gravy is the same but there are a couple additional ingredients to allow it to stand on its own.
One thing all country fried steak gravies seem to have in common is they all start with the same step: use the drippings from the cooked steaks. This adds a hearty serving of fats and flavor to your gravy, so I find it to be a pretty vital step in the process of creating the best gravy for your dish.
Using the fats in the your skillet from cooking the country fried steaks, add a small diced onion. Dice it very small so you don’t end up with a chunky gravy. Cook the onion on medium heat for a few minutes until it’s translucent and soft.
To the pan add two tablespoons of flour. Stir until a paste forms and then let cook for an additional minute to remove the flour flavor. If there isn’t enough drippings from cooking left over you may have to add a tablespoon of butter to the pan for creating the roux.
Having your whisk in hand so you can start stirring immediately, slowly add two cups of milk to the pan. Whisk the milk as you pour so things do clump up. The key is to just keep stirring at a quick pace. The milk should start to thicken as you stir. I like to also add a half cup of heavy cream to make this even more delectable.
Once the gravy has started to thicken up a bit you can add in your additional secret weapons for flavor. I added a teaspoon each of oregano, cayenne, and paprika in mimic of the spices found in the steak batter. Also add a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and two tablespoon of tomato paste. I like the tomato paste because it develops a slight sweetness in the gravy.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve it Up
You can’t serve up a big plate of Elk Country Fried Steak without a fried egg and potatoes!
For the potatoes, I diced them quite small and then soaked them in a bowl of water for one hour. After draining the potatoes, I fried them on medium heat in about an inch of bear fat until they were crunchy and cooked through. This took about 15-20 minutes. Seasoned with salt and pepper.
Soaking pulls out additional starches in the potatoes, creating a crispier texture and preventing the potatoes from sticking together during frying.
For my final plate, I served up a heaping pile of fried potatoes and added my steak over the top. I then drenched everything in a healthy serving of the country gravy and topped with an over medium fried egg. I added a little drizzle of sriracha for some heat and a few sliced jalapeños.
This dish is breakfast at its best. It is hearty and rustic! If you give it a try, leave me a message on how it goes!
Happy Hunting!
Elk Country Fried Steak
Ingredients
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon cayenne
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 4-6 six elk steaks
- 1 and 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup corn starch
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 egg
- Small onion, diced
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon cayenne
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
Instructions
- Cut your steaks into individual servings, one steak per person, and clean up any tendons or excess fat off the steaks.
- Put the steaks in a ziploc bag and using a meat mallet pound the steaks out to about 1/4 inch thick each.
- To make the marinade, mix together the buttermilk, paprika, oregano, cayenne, and garlic powder.
- Place the steaks in a sealable bag, pour in the marinade, massage the mixture into the meat, and place in the fridge,
- Allow to refrigerate at least four hours.
- The key to a good batter on the steaks is to double dip the steaks in the battering mixture
- On a plate, mix together the flour, corn starch, baking powder, salt and pepper.
- On a second plate, scramble the egg with the buttermilk liquid leftover from the marinating bag.
- Coat each meat cutlet in the flour mixture, then the egg mixture, and finally again in the flour mixture.
- In a large skillet, preferable cast iron, add an inch of cooking fat. I used bear fat, but vegetable oil, canola, or avocado oil would work great.
- Heat the oil to medium high, or 350 degrees. Fry the steaks for four minutes per side, until golden brown. Be sure to not overcrowd the pan when heating so the oil temperature will stay consistent.
- In the skillet for the steaks and using the fat and drippings left over, add the diced onion and cook on medium until onions are soft and translucent, about five minutes
- Add the flour and whisk until paste forms. If there isn't enough fat left from the frying you may need to add a tablespoon of butter to create the flour paste, or roux.
- Cook the roux for an additional minute to remove the flour taste.
- Slowly add the milk and cream to the pan, whisking continually as you do so. Continue to stir while the gravy starts to thicken.
- Add your flavorings: the oregano, cayenne, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, and tomato paste. Season with salt and pepper.