Cowboy cooking is my weakness. Round up all those frontier favorites—big sky, crackling campfires, ponies, and men who cook—throw in some good story-telling, and I’m ravenous. Maybe it was those few months I spent in Texas that did it. Or those childhood roadtrips through the Arizona outback. But most likely my kinship with all things western came with my first mouthful of chicken-fried steak. It was a rib-sticking staple that my dad insisted we kids order up whenever we were lucky enough to spot it on a diner menu.
It’s not just the steak that makes me want to hitch up to my plate forever. It’s the mound of mashed potatoes and blanket of beefy gravy that make it a full package. Throw in a starry sky overhead and I am one happy buckaroo, who until now, thought this was a dinner best made by real cowboys.
Kent Rollins (“Official Chuck Wagon Cook of Oklahoma”) is a real life cowboy. We know this for sure because he beat Bobby Flay at their chicken-fried-steak smackdown on Food Network. He also won the Lubbock, Texas Chuck Wagon Cook Off and the Will Rogers Award for Chuck Wagon of the Year. Kent’s a storyteller and a cattleman, and knows how to handle a proper Dutch oven. This man has credentials.
He also knows how to make the best chicken-fried steak ever. And now we city-slickers can make it too.
— Shelly
“It’s safe to say I have fixed more chicken-fried steaks than any other person. It’s probably the most requested dish from the wagon. First of all, it ain’t chicken! It’s beef: a cut from the sirloin. There are three secrets to this dish: our seasoning, the Golden Fry Batter, and a good cut of meat.”
—Kent Rollins
A Taste of Cowboy
Ranch Recipes and Tales From the Trail
by Kent Rollins
Photographs by Shannon Keller Rollins
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- 2¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup seasoned salt
- 3 tablespoons lemon pepper
- 1 tablespoon garlic salt
- Canola or peanut oil for frying
- 4 (5-ounce) pieces tenderized top or bottom round steaks (see Notes)
- Golden Fry Batter (recipe follows)
- Creamy White Gravy (recipe follows)
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, seasoned salt, lemon pepper, and garlic salt. Set aside.
- In a large saucepan, pot, or Dutch oven, pour in enough oil to deep-fry the steaks (2½ to 3 inches). Heat the oil over medium-high heat until it reaches about 350°F.
- Pick up one piece of meat with tongs and dip it into the batter and then into the flour mixture. Be sure both sides are well coated. Repeat, or as I call it, “double baptize.” Repeat with remaining steaks.
- Fry the pieces for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack. Serve warm with the gravy.
- 3 T. powdered whole egg
- 3 T. powdered milk
- 1 t. baking powder
- ½ t. smoked paprika
- 3 cups warm water
- In a small bowl, whisk the egg, milk, baking powder, and paprika together.
- Dissolve the mixture in water.
- ½ c. bacon, sausage, or other meat grease
- 5 T. all-purpose flour
- 1½ to 2 c. milk, warmed
- Salt and black pepper
- Heat the grease over medium heat in a large cast iron skillet.
- Sift the flour and let it come to a boil for 2 minutes, stirring and mashing down constantly with a flat spatula.
- Slowly stir in 1½ cups of the milk and bring it back to a light boil. Continue stirring until the mixture is smooth and reaches the desired consistency, about 2 minutes. You can add more milk or water to thin the gravy, if necessary.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.
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