Chicken Fried Steak with Corona Onion Gravy, Broiled Potatoes, and A Rather Unorganized Vegetable Assortment

I. Love. Chicken. Fried. Steak. Ask anyone who knows me even slightly and they will tell you. There was a time that I could not walk into an eating establishment that served it and not order it! That changed when I had my baby and needed to shed that baby weight and got a little anal about what I ate. However, there are still two places where you will not catch me dead with any other item on my plate. Luby's, and Kelly's Country Cookin'! That is the reason I don't go to those places but very rarely! At Kelly's, it is the size of my back, just about, and, for breakfast, comes with a biscuit (Which is the size of a coffee saucer. Everything is huge there. Everything.) and gravy (I get mine with sausage! Oink oink!), two eggs, and grits or hashbrowns (Grits for me!). Start with the eggs, since you don't want to take them home, reheated eggs are gross, and the rest can feed you for four meals. Four. Seperate. Meals. It's $9, too! Value? I think so!

I am aware that "A Rather Unorganized Vegetable Assortment" is an odd name, but this was the last thing I made before I moved, so this was a way of throwing my remaining vegetables together into a hot, tasty, mess of a side dish!

No Kelly's outside of Texas. Boo! So I made my own, and tried to make it a little more healthy.

It reads like it would be super spicy, but it really isn't.

Here's how it went down:

The Chicken Fried Steak and gravy takes roughly 25 minutes to prep and make.

1 pound cube steaks, cut into 4 portions, if necessary

salt

pepper

1 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 teaspoons hot sauce

2 cups fresh bread crumbs (from 4 slices whole wheat bread, torn and processed)

1/2 teaspoon cajun seasoning

cooking spray

2 teaspoons Canola or vegetable oil

1/2 yellow onion, sliced thin

1 clove garlic, minced

1 bottle Corona

1/2 cup beef broth

salt

pepper

dash hot sauce

juice of 1/2 a lime

cilantro, chopped

Pat cube steaks dry and season with salt and pepper. Whisk together buttermilk and hot sauce, pour into a Ziplock bag, add steaks, turn in your hands to coat, and let stand 15 minutes.

On a plate, combine bread crumbs, cajun seasoning, and pepper. Remove steaks from bag, allowing excess to drip off and dredge in bread crumbs, pressing to adhere. Transfer to a wire rack to allow the coating to set a minute while you heat the pan.

Spray a large skillet with cooking spray and add oil. Heat over medium heat until oil begins to ripple. Swirl pan to evenly distribute the oil, add steaks and cook for 5 minutes on each side until golden brown and just slightly pink in the middle, spraying the pan with more spray, if necessary, when you pick up the steaks to flip. Remove from pan and set aside.

Spray the pan with more cooking spray. Add onion and garlic and saute until onion begins to soften, a couple of minutes. Pull from heat and add 1/2 bottle of Corona. Return to heat and scrape up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add chicken stock, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until thickened, 5 to 10 minutes. Add a little more Corona to thin it out a little, if desired, and add hot sauce. Simmer another minute and stir in lime juice. Spoon gravy over steaks and garnish with cilantro. Enjoy, Lord knows I did!!

This recipe serves 4.

For the vegetable hodgepodge;

This took maybe 10 minutes to cook. If that.

cooking spray

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

cajun seasoning

pepper

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 cup frozen corn, thawed

1 cup frozen peas, thawed

1 can (or baggie) red kidney beans, drained

juice from 1/2 a lime

In a medium skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat, saute the onion and garlic until beginning to soften, about 2 minutes. Season with cajun seasoning and pepper (no salt, the seasoning blend has enough) and add the bell pepper and carrot. Cook until beginning to soften, roughly 5 minutes. Add thawed corn, peas, and beans and heat through. Stir in the lime juice, and any remaining Corona from the gravy, if you have any. Sprinkle cilantro over the top, and, tada!! You are done!!

This recipe serves 4.

The broiled potatoes may be even easier than the vegetable montage;

This takes about 25 minutes to make.

2 descent sized potatoes, sliced moderately (not terribly thick but not paper thin)

2 teaspoons oil (It's up to you!)

salt

pepper

whatever seasonings you so desire

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a foil lined baking sheet (Or two, depending on how many slices you get.) with cooking spray. Toss potatoes in oil and seasonings to evenly coat and spread in an even layer onto the baking sheet(s). Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until tender. Pull out any that may have crisped enough (any thin ones will be crisp to a little burned by now), flip on the broiler, and broil for 2 to 3 minutes until the tops begin to brown. Eat them up!! This is one of few things that, if I leave sitting on the stove, my husband will stand in front of, after having finished his meal, and finish off what's left, even if it's an entire sheet pan full!

This recipe serves 4. (Or 1 if my husband gets to them first! Lol!)