Craving the ultimate low carb comfort food? Chicken Fried Steak goes from junky to healthy with a few easy tweaks.
It’s always funny to compare my Canadian upbringing with that of my Yankee husband. On the one hand, things were not so very different on our opposing sides of the border. We spoke the same language, played the same games, watched the same TV shows and read the same books. And for the most part, ate the same foods. But then there are those things that one of us references and the other person gets that totally blank look. The “huh?” expression where we know we’ve hit something that doesn’t translate between our two countries. So many of my American friends will be amused to find out that chicken fried steak is one of them. I’d never heard of the stuff until sitting across from my then-boyfriend, now-husband at a diner in southwestern Colorado. It was one of his favourite dishes and I, for the life of me, couldn’t see the appeal. A cheap piece of steak pounded thin, fried in batter and slathered in viscous gravy? Nope, it just wasn’t for me.
But a Canuck can always change her mind, right? Especially when that dish comes out of Kyndra Holley’s new cookbook, The Primal Low Carb Kitchen. Just consider the subtitle of the book: Comfort food recipes for the carb conscious cook. Comfort food. We all need comfort food in our lives, the foods that bring back that flood of childhood memories, the foods we turned to in stressful, hectic times. Specialized diets should not be devoid of food that brings us such comfort. Many people who start a low carb diet think they have to give up so many of those beloved foods and this book proves them wrong. Not everything in the book is as low carb as I like to eat (there are some recipes with sweet potatoes and the like), but it’s a great jumping off point for many of your old favourites. It’s a great addition to any low carb or primal cookbook shelf!
So back to the chicken fried steak. Despite having lived in the US for close to two decades, I still wasn’t really a convert to this well loved southern dish. I’d had a bite or two of my husband’s occasionally and it was fine. But all that goopy white gravy wasn’t really my thing. And having embraced the low carb way of life, that breaded steak and flour-filled sauce became particularly uninviting. But Kyndra’s recipe is absolutely delectable! The thinly pounded steak is “breaded” in a combination of pork rinds, parmesan cheese and spices, and the gravy requires no flour to thicken it. I did tailor it a little more to my liking, cutting out the 3/4 cup of chopped onion to save a significant amount of carbohydrates. The whole family loved it and my son declared that the steak itself was better than a burger. That’s high praise from him!
Consider adding The Low Carb Primal Kitchen to your cookbook collection.
- 1 lb cube steak cut into 4 pieces (I used chuck steak) and pounded to 1/4 inch thick
- Sea salt and black pepper
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups crushed pork rinds
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese grated
- 1 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- Pinch cayenne
- Oil for cooking (I used a combination of butter and light olive oil)
- 2 tbsp butter
- 12 oz pork breakfast sausage
- 2/3 cup onion diced (I skipped the onion for a lower carb count)
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley chopped
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
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Sprinkle the cube steaks with salt and pepper on both sides.
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In a shallow bowl, combine the heavy cream and eggs. Whisk with a fork.
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Combine the crushed pork rinds, Parmesan cheese, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika and cayenne. Spread into a thin layer on a large plate.
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In a large skillet, preferably cast iron, over medium-high heat, heat 1/4 inch of oil.
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Dip cube steak into the egg wash and then dredge in pork rind breading, coating thoroughly on both sides.
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Place into hot oil and fry until crispy and golden brown, about 3 minutes per side.
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Heat butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Once butter is melted, add sausage (crumbled if ground, slice if using sausage links). Cook until sausage is browned. Remove using a slotted spoon and set aside.
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Add onion (if using) and garlic to drippings in pan. Reduce heat to medium low and cook until onion is translucent, stirring frequently.
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Add cream, parsley and salt. Increase heat to medium and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer. Once gravy begins to thicken, add sausage back into pan.
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Pour over chicken fried steak.
Serves 4. I've broken out the nutritional counts of the steak and gravy separately below. Suffice it to say...it's more than a meal!
Steak:
Food energy: 583kcal
Calories from fat: 389
Cholesterol: 264mg
Carbohydrate: 2.96g
Total dietary fiber: 0.49g
Protein: 46.11g
Sodium: 890mg
Sausage Gravy (does not include the onion, which raises the carb count considerably):
Food energy: 700kcal
Total fat: 65.64g
Calories from fat: 590
Cholesterol: 197mg
Carbohydrate: 6.03g
Total dietary fiber: 0.11g
Protein: 13.88g
Sodium: 1060mg
Steve Parker, M.D. says
Carolyn, thanks for bringing this cookbook to my attention.
Does “primal” these days refer to Mark Sisson’s version of the paleo diet?
-Steve
Carolyn says
I am not really sure, Steve. I think most people are taking it to mean paleo plus dairy, the way I’ve seen it used. But I know that Mark Sisson doesn’t allow too much dairy.
Sarah G says
Oh, wow! I used to order chicken fried steak with cream gravy EVERY Sunday when my family and I went out to eat! I haven’t had it in YEARS! Wooohoooo!
Carolyn says
Enjoy!
kim says
Thanks for the decarboniziation of America’s favorite guilty pleasure. I am a quazi-canuck (having grown up in the upper peninsula of Michigan) and have two favorite dishes from there I would love to see de-carbed. Cornish pasties and yellow split-pea soup. Is there any hope of making a pasty crust or doing the soup? The closest I have come to the soup is my recent discovery of a very large white bean from Spain and Italy which is very low carb and does not spike my blood sugar.
Carolyn says
Hmmmm, what’s the bean called? I have a good pastry crust that might be used for pasties too.
Helen says
Could you tell me what the recipe is for pasty? I too love Cornish Pasty.
Donna says
I would like to know the name of the beans and how to get them. Thanks for the info in advance. I am going to watch for her answer too.
janet says
Chicken fried steak has always been a big fav of mine, Of course my Brit hubby had never heard of it till coming to the US.
Thanks for giving me a low carb version to try, I have used crushed pork rinds as a replacement for breadcrumbs in recipes, so I guess it’s not a big stretch to use it as breading also!
Sarah G says
Hey,I just went to my Yahoo front page and this recipe from your website was in my feed of news etc! Never seen that before. I guess they really do know what I like. Kinda scary.
Carolyn says
Well yay! It’s funny when I get a bunch of traffic from Yahoo, because I can never see my own recipes when I go to my Yahoo homepage!
Sarah G says
Haha, they’re not onto you yet!
Laura Barajas says
This looks amazing, I will have to give this technique a try.
Pam says
In the stupid question category, does the nutrition information cover 1 serving or the entire recipe? It looks awesome !
Carolyn says
1 serving.
Donna says
I’m never sure… is the Parmesan cheese the one from the can of Kraft grated or the real stuff grated??
Thanks.
Carolyn says
Well I never use the stuff from the can, so I would say the real stuff.
Lela Brunet says
Just discovered your site and just ordered the book! Thanks for the great recipes!
Tara says
I made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious. So rich! 1 serving was definitely satisfying.
Lorna says
Can you tell me where the carbs in the gravy come from? Without the onions I don’t see a carb source. The garlic? Fillers in the sausage? Thanks! Recipe looks awesome 🙂
Carolyn says
Don’t forget that whipping cream is not carb free. It has about 6 g per cup so in this recipe, it adds 9 g to the entire recipe. Then the garlic and sausage would add some too.
Mama Owl says
I thought the same thing! I usually give 1/2 C per Tbl of cream, so 8 per cup, but even at that I can’t come up with that high of a carb count per serving of gravy either. Just goes to show you that you need to figure the counts using your ingredients. 🙂
Hope says
We’ve had this for dinner twice. Once with cube steak and once with boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Both really, really good! A new family favorite. Everyone chowed down! 🙂
KalynsKitchen says
Happy Friday; just letting you know I featured this recipe today for my Low-Carb Recipe Love on Fridays weekly post. Hope a lot of my readers will visit here and get the recipe; looks so great.
Carolyn says
Thanks, Kalyn! Always appreciated.
Kate says
The cream doesn’t seem to thicken????
Carolyn says
Not sure why, it thickened nicely for me!
Dawn says
Thank you for the wonderful recipe! Made it for breakfast this morning and it was delicious. The only thing different I did was cook the steaks in an air fryer since it was easier for me.