Ree Drummond's Chicken Fried Steak Trick Is Too Easy Not To Use

Chicken-fried steak is one of those dishes that can turn out absolutely delicious but is rarely at the top of an at-home cook's recipe list, especially if you don't live in Southern states like Texas or Oklahoma. Because of this, some of the best tricks for making the greatest chicken-fried steak possible (such as adding some Old Bay to the mix) aren't evident and can slip through the cracks. Luckily, New York Times bestselling author and Food Network star Ree Drummond made her method of cooking chicken-fried steak with a perfect, golden exterior publicly known to her fans, citing her use of butter alongside frying oil as the biggest difference maker for the dish.

Drummond has been exhibiting her use of butter and frying oil for chicken-fried steak for years on episodes of "The Pioneer Woman" on the Food Network, noting that the butter is able to really enhance the color of the steak's crispy breading. She also noted why she chooses not to use butter alone despite its great contribution to the crust. "[It] allows the oil to get hotter without smoking up the place," Drummond explained. "If it were all butter, it would be smoky and black in here within two seconds."

Another interesting factor that Drummond makes note of is the kind of frying oil she uses. While she often uses simple vegetable oil, the chef sometimes uses olive oil instead, most notably in the Tex-Mex variation of the recipe. This might be surprising to some, as olive oil is notoriously non-optimal for making fried chicken, but is very fitting for this recipe due to its relatively high smoke point in relation to butter.

With that being said, another major element is what happens after the meat is cooked. Making gravy using the leftover fat in the pan is vital for a great chicken-fried steak, and is something that Drummond strongly recommends you do. This white gravy — which is actually what differentiates chicken-fried steak and country-fried steak — is made using the grease leftover in the pan by adding flour, milk, and seasonings to make a nice, creamy topping for the meat. She also sometimes uses the residual oil and butter to brown some vegetables, which usually leads to her using additional butter so that the gravy can still benefit from the leftover flavors in the pan.