Chicken Fried Steak

I had never heard of chicken fried steak (CFS) before I moved to Texas in 1976, and I was a little afraid they were going to serve me some kind of mutated half chicken, half cow the first time I ate it. But that was not the case. I fell in love with a cheap cut of steak battered up like fried chicken and fried up in a pan with white gravy. Of course you also have to have the appropriate sides, which I say are mashed potatoes and green beans. A roll with butter and iced tea would complete the official meal of Texas.

Now I have written recently about Texans having two main food groups: Mexican and BBQ, but I was negligent in leaving out the CFS. Every little cafe and tavern in Texas seems to have CFS on the menu. This makes me wonder, where did CFS come from? We know Tex-Mex is our take on Mexican food and all the southeastern states that were settled before us have BBQ. Although the Texas version is a little different, I don't think we can lay claim to inventing BBQ. So did we invent CFS?

A quick search of the interweb gives us the definitive answer: The precise origins of the dish are unclear but many sources attribute its development to German and Austrian immigrants to Texas in the nineteenth century who brought recipes for the classic Austrian dish wiener schnitzel. Lamesa, on the Texas South Plains, claims to be the birthplace of chicken fried steak. Good enough for me.

As much as we love Mexican food and BBQ, I think we now have to say, chicken fried steak is the "official meal of Texas."