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When my nephews Nic and Stu came to the ranch to visit a few weeks ago, they worked cattle, built fence, hauled hay, mowed, weedeated, and passed out from exhaustion by seven every evening. They also got poison ivy, a few hundred chigger bites, and lots of scratches from the barbed wire. Marlboro Man and I love building happy memories for them every summer!
Ahem.
Nic and Stu also ate my cooking, and on the night before they went back to Dallas I made steak fingers and gravy—quite possibly the most fitting meal to feed two teenage boys after a long two weeks of hard labor.
They ate it. They loved it. Then they hugged me and said they’d be back soon.
It was music to this crazy ol’ auntie’s ears.
Here’s what you need: Tenderized round steak or cube steak cut into strips, flour, seasoned salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, ground thyme, milk, and egg.
And canola oil and butter for frying.
And a great big appetite.
It cracks me up that you use finger steak to make steak fingers.
I think we should just take the word “finger” out of there and call it a day.
In any event, melt some butter with some canola oil in a skillet over medium to medium-high heat.
Add some flour to a baking dish or pie pan…
And sprinkle in some seasoned salt…
Some pepper and ground thyme…
And some cayenne pepper for a little spice, baby.
Can I call you baby?
Stir together the flour mixture, schnookums.
Can I call you schnookums?
Next, pour some milk into a dish…
With some aigs.
I mean eggs.
Whip the milk and aigs together and set this aside.
Throw the strips one by one into cube steak into the flour…
And turn ’em over to coat ’em.
After that, quickly dip the strips in the egg/milk mixture.
Finally, throw ’em back into the flour mixture and turn it over to coat them.
Lay the strips on a plate as you bread them and continue until all the strips are breaded.
Heat some canola oil and a little butter in a skillet over medium-high heat and fry them until golden brown on one side…
Then flip them over and fry them until they’re done.
Remove them to a paper towel-lined plate as you fry them. Keep going till they’re all done!
To make the gravy, pour off all the grease in the skillet, then add back in about 1/4 cup and turn the heat to medium-low.
Sprinkle on a few tablespoons of the flour mixture.
Whisk it together until it’s a smooth paste (add more flour if it’s too greasy) and let the paste brown just a bit. (Those bits in the roux are pieces of the breading from the steak fingers. They’ll be yummy in the gravy!)
Pour in a couple of cups of milk, whisking together the whole time.
Let the gravy cook for a few minutes, adding in more salt and pepper (taste as you go!) If it gets too thick/grainy looking, just splash in a little more milk.
Steak fingers and gravy are yummy with mashed potatoes or biscuits, of course. But in the hot summertime, cold grapes are pretty much the perfect pairing.
Enjoy this simple meal, guys! Kids and grownups love it.
Here’s the handy printable:
