Chicken fried ribeyes

When you love chicken fried steak the way I love chicken fried steak, you find plenty of variations of the classic to cook. And while the super-economical cube steak works just beautifully, sometimes you want something a little more special.

For those occasions, you just can’t beat a chicken fried steak featuring one of the middle meats (those delicious cuts coming from the rib, loin or sirloin). Tonight, I decided to make chicken fried ribeyes with cracked pepper gravy, rolls, green beans (for the Mr.) and salad (for me). To make the chicken fried ribeyes, you’ll need:

(2) thin-cut ribeyes  

Flour seasoned with coarse sea salt, coarse black pepper and garlic powder to taste

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup beer

2 eggs, slightly beaten

Peanut or vegetable oil

Mix the wet ingredients in a pan or dish. I used the bottom half of a rectangle-shaped Tupperware container.

Dredge the steaks one at a time into the seasoned flour, and then into the wet mixture and then back into the flour. Place the battered steaks on a plate and put them in the fridge for 15 minutes or more.

When you’re ready to start cooking, heat your oil in a heavy skillet to medium-high heat. You know the oil is hot enough when a piece of flour rises to the top right away.

Carefully add the steaks to the hot oil. Fry until golden brown on one side, turn and repeat. Depending on the size of the steaks, they’ll probably take about 10 to 12 minutes to cook. Drain on paper towels and cover in cracked pepper gravy if desired. (In case you missed it, the gravy recipe is here.)

Our dinner looked like this, minus my salad which didn’t stick around long enough to make the photo shoot (What can I say? Sometimes I get hungry when I'm cooking.):