Chicken Fried Steak

Trivia & Tidbits

Many people eat comfort food as it is tasty and a way to reward oneself.  Comfort food reminds people of home. Connections are often made over the preparation and serving of food.  Certain smells connote those moods.  Certain foods are associated with specific people and certain meals can send you back in time.
 
Comfort food is usually less expensive and easy to prepare. Many people eat it as a way to reward oneself.  The term "comfort food" has been around since 1972.
 
Chicken Fried Steak is a very popular comfort food.  Lamesa Dawson County on the South Plains, claims to be the birthplace of chicken fried steak, as does Bandera, Texas.
 
The Virginia Housewife by Mary Randolph has a recipe for veal cutlets that is one of the earliest recipes for a food like chicken fried steak. The recipe for what we now know as chicken fried steak was included in many regional cookbooks by the late nineteenth century.  The actual term "chicken-fried steak" was developed around the 1930s.  Chicken fried steak is an official state meal of Oklahoma, added to the list in 1988.
 
Chicken fried steak is deep fried in a pan and served with traditional peppered milk gravy in Texas and surrounding states. There is often brown gravy, and sometimes the meat is either pan fried with little oil, or simmered in the gravy.
 
Each person's comfort food may vary through his or her memories.  Each has different sensitivity to taste, crunch, fats, sugars, fluid, and color.