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Chicken Fried Steak with Country Gravy – Primal Low Carb Kitchen Review

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Craving the ultimate low carb comfort food? Chicken Fried Steak goes from junky to healthy with a few easy tweaks. 

Low Carb Grain-Free Chicken Fried Steak Recipe with Sausage Gravy

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.

Low Carb Chicken Fried Steak breaded in crushed pork rinds and parmesan cheese and topped with flourless sausage gravy.

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!

The Primal Low Carb Kitchen book review

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.

Craving the ultimate low carb comfort food? Chicken Fried Steak goes from junky to healthy with a few easy tweaks.

5 from 8 votes
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Chicken Fried Steak with Country Gravy – Primal Low Carb Kitchen Review
Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
25 mins
Total Time
40 mins
 
Shared with permission from The Primal Low Carb Kitchen
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Main Course
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 1283 kcal
Ingredients
Steak:
  • 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)
Country Sausage Gravy:
  • 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
Instructions
  1. Sprinkle the cube steaks with salt and pepper on both sides.
  2. In a shallow bowl, combine the heavy cream and eggs. Whisk with a fork.
  3. Combine the crushed pork rinds, Parmesan cheese, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika and cayenne. Spread into a thin layer on a large plate.
  4. In a large skillet, preferably cast iron, over medium-high heat, heat 1/4 inch of oil.
  5. Dip cube steak into the egg wash and then dredge in pork rind breading, coating thoroughly on both sides.
  6. Place into hot oil and fry until crispy and golden brown, about 3 minutes per side.
Country Sausage Gravy:
  1. 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.
  2. Add onion (if using) and garlic to drippings in pan. Reduce heat to medium low and cook until onion is translucent, stirring frequently.
  3. 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.
  4. Pour over chicken fried steak.
Recipe Notes

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

Nutrition Facts
Chicken Fried Steak with Country Gravy – Primal Low Carb Kitchen Review
Amount Per Serving
Calories 1283
% Daily Value*
Cholesterol 461mg154%
Sodium 1950mg81%
Carbohydrates 8.99g3%
Fiber 0.6g2%
Protein 59.99g120%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Nutritional Disclaimer

Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.

Reader Interactions

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Comments

    • 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.

      Reply

  2. 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!

    Reply

  3. 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.

    Reply

  4. 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!

    Reply

  5. 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.

    Reply

  7. In the stupid question category, does the nutrition information cover 1 serving or the entire recipe? It looks awesome !

    Reply

  8. I’m never sure… is the Parmesan cheese the one from the can of Kraft grated or the real stuff grated??
    Thanks.

    Reply

  11. 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 🙂

    Reply

    • 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.

      Reply

    • 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. 🙂

      Reply

  12. 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! 🙂

    Reply

  13. 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.

    Reply

  15. 5 stars
    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.

    Reply

  16. 5 stars
    This was the best chicken fried steak I have ever had!!! It is even better than my favorite restaurant, Henry’s. The cream gravy was also delicious! The only thing I did differently to the recipe was instead of cooking sausage, I used the drippings from the chicken fried steak. Even my fussy son loved it! Thank you!!

    Reply

  23. 5 stars
    As a southern gal, I love being able to have chicken fried steak again, and have made this a few times (a couple of times doing a double dredge to get that extra thick crust)! It’s excellent to use for chicken fried chicken as well!! Thank you so much for sharing!! For sausage gravy, I cook the sausage and without draining, I sprinkle about 2T of almond flour and 1T coconut flour, and 1/4 tsp of xantham gum, and stir until coated and oil is absorbed, then add @2T softened cream cheese until blended and then add about 3/4 cup cream along with some beef stock and let it cook until it thickens, and then add quite a bit of hot sauce, minced garlic, pepper and a bit of fennel… turns out to be about 1.4-2g net carbs per serving, depending how much cream I end up using, and yields about 10 servings @90g each. It’s very close if not better to the sausage gravy I grew up on here in the south (which some places you can just taste the flour… blech!). This ends up rich and creamy, I always make sure to have some in the freezer.

    Reply

  24. I love your white sausage gravy but I am looking for a brown gravy, do you have a recipe for it. I have looked and can’t find one. I am the type of person that needs a recipe or things go bad. Can you help.

    Reply

    • Sorry, I don’t because I just do it ad hoc from the drippings of whatever roast I am making. I use glucomannan to thicken it.

      Reply

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