Cracker Barrel Country Fried Steak is one of the most popular items on the menu. Homemade country fried steak is delicious comfort food, especially when served with gravy. This country fried steak is fried to golden brown perfection and served with a delicious creamy gravy. Serve this with mashed potatoes, and green beans and you will have a comfort meal everyone will love.
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What makes the Cracker Barrel Country Fried Steak so good?
Simple, inexpensive, and hearty, Cracker Barrel Country Fried Steak is the ultimate hunger buster. It’s a signature dish on the restaurant’s menu. This recipe combines everyone’s favorite part of fried chicken, the thick, crispy coating, with a tender, perfectly pan-fried steak.
Pour on creamy sawmill gravy, add a side or two, and you can recreate the Country Fried Steak Cracker Barrel Old Country Store customers have been raving about for years!
Why you’ll love this copycat recipe?
We have unlocked the secret for helping you have a perfectly crispy crust, and a tender steak waiting for you on the inside. Enjoy southern-style recipes at home with this easy copycat recipe. Our breaded steak is flavorful, and your Cracker Barrel fans are going to love this classic dish.
Ingredients for Cracker Barrel chicken fried steak
To make Cracker Barrel Chicken Fried Steak, you’ll need:
- Cube steak – Pre-tenderized beef that stays tender during frying and cooks quickly
- Saltine-style crackers crumbs – Create a signature crispy coating that’s lighter than breadcrumbs
- All-purpose flour – Provides an initial coating that helps other layers adhere properly
- Salt – Enhances flavor throughout the coating and seasons the meat
- Black pepper – Adds aromatic spice and classic Southern flavor profile
- Buttermilk – Tenderizes meat and creates tangy flavor while helping coating stick
- Water – Thin buttermilk slightly for an easier dipping and coating process
- Oil for frying – Provides neutral flavor and high smoke point for perfect frying
You can add a pinch of cayenne pepper or other spices to suit your taste.
What type of meat should you use?
Keeping the meat succulent even after deep-frying requires tenderizing. The preferred method uses a machine called a cuber.
Running the beef several times through a cuber flattens it and cuts up the long fibers, preventing them from seizing during cooking. Most supermarkets cube USDA choice budget cuts like bottom and top round steak or sirloin steak. If you have a meat tenderizer at home, you can use any quality of meat you prefer.
You can also use hamburger steak if you cannot find cube steak at your grocery store.
How to bread a steak
The best way to bread the steak for this copycat Cracker Barrel country-fried steak recipe is by using the wet-hand/dry-hand breading method.Â
- Arrange three shallow containers in a row for a breading station. Place a wire rack on a baking tray, and put it at the end of the row.
- Put the all-purpose flour in the first container.
- Combine the buttermilk and water in the second container.
- Mix the finely crushed saltines with salt and black pepper in the third shallow pan.
- Use one hand (your dry hand) to put the cube steak into the first container. Coat the steak with the flour mixture, and shake off the excess.
- Use the same hand to place the floured steak into the container with buttermilk and water.
- Use the other hand (your wet hand) to flip the steak over in the liquid. Transfer the steak into the container with the cracker crumbs with the same hand.
- Use your dry hand to steak with seasoned cracker crumbs, shake off excess, and put on the wire rack.
- Repeat until you bread all the steaks.
- Place the breaded steaks in the fridge until ready to fry.
How to make country fried steak like Cracker Barrel restaurants
To finish cooking this Cracker Barrel Country Fried Steak recipe:
- Preheat your oven to WARM.
- Heat at least 1 inch of vegetable oil in a cast-iron or large frying pan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat on the stovetop until it reaches 350°F. Use a thermometer to make sure the oil is at the correct temperature.
- Add one or two coated steaks at a time to the pan to prevent the oil from cooling too much. Cook in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan. Â
- Let the steaks cook on one side, allowing the bottoms to begin browning nicely, for about three to five minutes.
- Use tongs to carefully flip the steaks away from you. Cook for an additional 2 to 4 minutes, until the steak is evenly browned on both sides. You may need additional vegetable oil for the batches.
- Remove the cooked chicken-fried steak from the pan. Drain on paper towels and place in the preheated oven to keep warm.
- Repeat.
- Serve country-fried steak with a side of vegetables and bread. You can garnish with parsley if desired.
What goes with chicken fried steak?
The only thing you have to serve with chicken-fried steak is sawmill gravy. Sometimes called country gravy, sawmill gravy is a rich milk-based sauce flavored with meat drippings and plenty of fresh ground black pepper. You can check out the recipe for Cracker Barrel Sawmill Gravy.
Other than the requisite Sawmill Gravy, country sides and veggies, such as mashed potatoes, green beans, and corn on the cob, make great accompaniments. You can also serve chicken-fried steak with buttermilk biscuits, cornbread, or corn muffins, accompanied by real butter.
Storage and Reheating Instructions
Love Cracker Barrel? Try these Copycat Cracker Barrel recipes.
- Banana Pudding in a Jar
- Chicken Cornbread Casserole
- Cracker Barrel Hashbrown Casserole
- Cracker Barrel Roast Beef
- Cucumber, Tomato, and Onion Salad
- Southern Fried Chicken
Favorite comfort food recipes
- American Chop Suey Recipe
- Braised Beef Shank
- Cabbage and Sausage Recipe
- Cheesy Crockpot Potatoes
- Homemade White Gravy
- Instant Pot Roast Beef and Gravy
- Pork Chops and Gravy
Check out more of my easy comfort food recipes and the best Cracker Barrel recipes here on CopyKat!
Cracker Barrel Country Fried Steak Easy Copycat
Ingredients
- oil for frying
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup saltine cracker crumbs
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 pound tenderized cube steaks
Instructions
- Pour 3 to 4 inches of oil into a deep fryer or large pot, and heat the oil to 350°F.
- Combine the flour, cracker crumbs, salt, and pepper in a shallow dish. Mix well.
- In another shallow dish, combine the buttermilk and water. Mix well.
- Dip the cube steaks into the flour mixture and shake off the excess.
- Dip the flour-coated cube steaks into the buttermilk, shake off the excess.
- Dredge the cube steaks in the flour again.
- Place the breaded steaks on a wire rack resting on a baking sheet. Allow the breading to set up for 5 minutes. This helps to set the breading on the steak.
- Place the breaded steaks into the hot oil. Fry the steaks for 3 to 5 minutes on one side, until the sides of the meat start to brown and the top of the meat starts to cook.
- Gently flip the steaks away from you to avoid splashing hot oil onto yourself, and fry for 3 to 5 minutes on the other side.
- When both sides are golden brown and crispy, remove the steaks from the hot oil and drain on a clean wire rack over a baking sheet.
Oh my, this Chicken Fried Steak recipe takes me right back to Cracker Barrel’s cozy dining room! I whipped this up for Sunday dinner, and my three grandkids couldn’t get enough. They said it tasted just like the “special restaurant steak,” and let me tell you, there were no leftovers! Thank you for sharing this delightful recipe. It’s a new family favorite! 😊
Recently I successfully made country fried steak with round steak that I cubed by hand. I
pounded the steak thin, then used a heavy knife to make cuts all the way across one direction, then turned steak half way and did it again, then once more on the angle. Flipped the meat over and repeated on the other side. It was so tender and good! It’s hard to find cube steak here so I’m making my own from whatever tough cuts I have from now on!! I remember my grandma taking a salad plate and pounding the meat with it on edge. I like using the knife.
Wow, this recipe is an absolute winner! I made it for dinner last night, and it was a huge hit with my family. The flavors were perfectly balanced, and the step-by-step instructions made it a breeze to follow.
Greetings. I was wondering if you have tried to do the initial fry in an Air Fryer instead of frying in oil? I see your instructions on Air Fryer reheat, but was wondering about the initial fryer. I recently got an air fryer and I’m trying to cut way back on frying foods smothered in oil. Thanks and have a great day.
To be honest, I haven’t tried cooking this in the air fryer, if I wanted to make a CFS in the air fryer, I would do it panko crumbs to make sure they are crispy, and this would be different from the Cracker Barrel version. I have not tried air-frying a seasoned flour breaded anything in the air fryer.
I love the recipe.