Raising the steaks: Does anyone in D.C. serve authentic chicken-fried steak?
I know you may not want to be thinking about meat. There’s probably still some turkey dregs in your refrigerator or at least the memory of the majestic bird, glistening in your mind’s eye at the center of your Thanksgiving table.
But think about meat we must. Last week, I recounted the truly heartbreaking story of my flirtation — unconsummated, as it turned out — with chicken-fried steak. I wanted some. I didn’t get any. Where could I get some?
Well, helpful readers came forth with many recommendations. Catherine Sanchez of Ellicott City, Md., says her son Rob got hooked on the delicacy when the family lived in Houston. He insists local mini-chain Ted's Bulletin is the place to go for it in our area.
William Tayloe likes the chicken-fried steak at the Hunter's Head Tavern in Upperville, Va., where he orders a side of macaroni and cheese and a cold Guinness stout.
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Chicken-fried steak is on the menu at the District’s American City Diner near Chevy Chase Circle and at Southside 815 in Alexandria. Country-fried steak is served at King Street Blues, with locations in Alexandria and Crystal City and at the Yorkshire Restaurant in Manassas, Va. It’s at Bob & Edith’s Diner, too (Arlington and Springfield).
Chris Tharrington of Bethesda went to college in Texas and believes that the best restaurant around here for getting the Lone Star staple is the Texas Roadhouse, a national chain with locations in Bowie, La Plata and Frederick, Md., and Chantilly, Va. The entree there is "like something you would find at a genuine hole-in-the-wall diner in Texas: golden brown crispy batter with a fantastic creamy gravy," Chris wrote.
Several readers said that when they have a hankering for country-fried steak, they head to good old Cracker Barrel. Others are partial to Bob Evans, which also serves country-fried steak.
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If you’ve read this far, you’ve probably noticed I’ve mentioned a lot of “country-fried” steak and precious little “chicken-fried” steak. Isn’t it the same thing?
No, said Don Carr of Woodbridge, Va., who wrote: "Bottom line up front: There is no 'good chicken-fried steak restaurant in Washington.'"
What there is, Don wrote, is the abomination known as “country-fried steak.”
The difference is twofold, Don wrote. “First, true chicken-fried has a crisper, crunchier coating that comes from putting the meat FIRST through the dry mix (flour, etc.), THEN through the wet (milk-egg mix), THEN — critical — BACK through the dry. Those lazy country fryers slash it through the wet, slap each side quickly in the dry.
“The other difference is in the gravy used. Honest chicken-fried steak is served with a white creamy gravy. Country fryers use a brown concoction, which really doesn’t matter since the blasphemy has already occurred back when the steak was done!
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“Restaurants up here just don’t get it and just don’t care! Makes me want to cry when I ask in a restaurant, ‘Y’all have chicken-fried steak?’ and the answer is, ‘No we have country-fried steak, it’s the same thing.’ NO IT AIN’T, by Gawd, not by a country mile!
“I grew up in Texas with a loving mother and a lot of plump, doting aunts who knew the Art of Chicken-Fried Steak and mashed potatoes. My Mom passed her recipe to me. So, where to find good (as in GENUINE) chicken-fried steak up here? My house and anywhere else true chicken-fried steak aficionados know that, to get it, you just got to make it yourself.”
Well, okay then.
I'll let John Richardson of Arlington have the final word. He spent the summer of 1958 working as a roustabout in the Oklahoma oil fields. "This Eastern college kid fell in love with Oklahoma, not least with chicken-fried steak, which was available at every cafe and restaurant," he wrote.
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In 1965, John found himself in Libya, pre-Moammar Gaddafi, on a short-term assignment for a group called American Friends of the Middle East. "Our crew ate regularly in the Loffland Brothers Drilling Co. cafeteria, which was open to all expats," he wrote.
On John’s first evening there, he was surprised to walk in and see the native short-order cooks — brought in from the southwestern Libyan state of Fezzan — whipping up chicken-fried steak and other resolutely American dishes. Wrote John: “The oil companies were smart enough to know that their American expat workers, far from home and with few local pleasures, demanded comfort food, and chicken-fried steak was at or near the top of the list.”
Perhaps they’re making it there still, though I’m not about to head to Libya to get some.
Twitter: @johnkelly
For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.
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