You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can’t keep her from hankering for a good chicken-fried steak.

In honor of Texas Independence Day March 2, the Homesick Texan (a.k.a. Lisa) posted a poetic ode to her home-state favorite: the chicken-fried steak. Amongst the three food groups in Texas (Tex-Mex, barbecue, and chicken-fried steak), this is the dish that has captured her heart and stomach.

As Lisa sees it, chicken-fried steak is a “dish which through hard work and culinary ingenuity catapults a cut of gristled beef from its rough-hewn, lowly beginnings to delectable and iconic heights.”

This post—which includes possibly the prettiest photo of pounded meat ever—offers a recipe, some history, and a wee bit of hand-holding for those not yet initiated into the cult of the Texas chicken-fried steak:


Now, not everyone is going to want to worship at the shrine of what Jerry Flemmons once called the “Great God Beef dish,” and Lisa’s philosophical about this. “[T]here are a select few who just don’t get it,” she admits. “But that’s OK because it leaves more for the rest of us.”

Spoken like a true Texan, cream gravy and all.

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