The Popular Cut Of Meat Texas Roadhouse Uses For Its Country Fried Steak
Most people visit Texas Roadhouse for its regular steaks, like its ribeyes, New York strips, and more, but the chain steakhouse also sells a slightly different kind of steak — a country-fried one. A country-fried steak is a tenderized cut of beef that's been breaded like a piece of fried chicken, and is then deep fried. The result is a piece of beef with a crispy and crackly exterior, and a dish that fits the bill for American comfort food.
Most country-fried steaks tend to be a cut called cube steak, which is a mechanically tenderized piece of lean meat that can come from multiple parts of the cow, but Texas Roadhouse's version is actually made with a standard cut — the sirloin. People tend not to use cuts like sirloin for country-fried steak, only because we typically don't deep fry perfectly good cuts of beef that'll turn out well on a grill, which is why cheaper cuts are preferred for the fryer. It's certainly notable that Texas Roadhouses opts for sirloin over, say, something like very lean round, which is from the leg.
Sirloin is also Texas Roadhouse's best-selling cut of steak
Sirloin also happens to be Texas Roadhouse's best-selling cut of beef. It's flavorful, unfussy, and affordable, which makes it an appealing steak to reach for when you're out on a regular weeknight. Sure, it might not exactly be as marbled as a juicy ribeye, but it's more versatile in that you can use it for other purposes, like chili. That's why putting sirloin in a country-fried steak isn't exactly the most outrageous thing you can do, as it's already somewhat of a lean cut on its own.
If you think of sirloin as more of a team player or a utility cut of beef that you can also use as an ingredient for things like, say, stir-fries, then the fact that Texas Roadhouse uses it for other purposes then makes more sense. But at least it's good to know that you're not getting what could potentially come off as too chewy; you'll have a full-flavored, popular cut of meat that can stand up to being fried as well as taking a spin on the grill.