Air fryer chicken fried steak is one of the most indulgent and most popular Southern dishes. It holds a great reputation for its healthy makeover with an air fryer. You will need a few spritzes of oil, and no deep baking is involved in this low calory or calorie-reduced chicken fried steak. It is as easy-peasy and quick as other air fryer recipes, such as the air fry chicken nuggets, air fryer cheese sticks, or air fryer frozen fish.
I’m very particular about this recipe as it requires a little preparation time and only 20 minutes to get the cooking done. On top of that, these steaks are very easy to cook thoroughly and beats any steak from a restaurant. But do you know how to cook chicken fried steak in air fryer? Even if you know, it not easy to reach perfection unless you have proper instructions, tips, and tricks.
In this article, you are going to get them all. Let’s move into the recipe…
Air fryer chicken fried steak with gravy
Another important thing is the gravy that must be prepared with chicken fried steak, or you will miss the southern taste by a mile. In fact, gravy is the key element differentiating between the air fryer country fried steak and today’s recipe, the chicken fried steak.
The country fried steak arrives with brown gravy, while we will enjoy our air fryer fried chicken steak with a peppery white gravy. But the interesting fact is: chicken fried steak goes perfectly fine with both the gravies, which is not true for air fryer country fried steak.
Frankly speaking, without the traditional and signature peppery white gravy, our today’s dish falls short of being a complete southern classic. More specifically, the gravy just lightens up this southern classic.
So, go ahead and prepare the steaks along with gravy, and enjoy the wonderfully crispy steaks any time of the day.
Ingredients
Ingredients for the chicken fried steak
- All-purpose flour (1/2 cup)
- Cubed steaks (4 pieces)
- Buttermilk (1 cup)
- Fine breadcrumbs (1 cup)
- Black pepper (1/2 teaspoon)
- Garlic powder (1/2 teaspoon)
- Divided salt (1 and 1/2 teaspoons)
- Any type of cooking oil or cooking spray of your preference
Ingredients for the gravy
- All-purpose flour (3 tablespoons)
- Bacon drippings or butter (2 tablespoons)
- Milk (1 cup)
- Finely minced onion (1/4 cup)
- Garlic powder (1/4 teaspoon)
- Cayenne pepper (1 pinch)
- Dried thyme (1/4 teaspoon)
- Worcestershire sauce of your liking (1/4 teaspoon)
Directions
Directions for preparing the chicken fried steak
- Take a shallow bowl and add all-purpose flour, garlic powder, pepper, and 3/4 teaspoon of the divided salt in the bowl and stir to combine finely.
- In another bowl, place the buttermilk. In a third shallow bowl, mix the remaining 3/4 teaspoon of the divided salt with breadcrumbs.
- Now, take the flour mixture bowl and dredge the cubed steak into the mixture. Then dip the steak into buttermilk. At last, coat the cubed steak in the breadcrumbs.
- Spray the cubed steaks with oil/cooking spray on both sides.
- At this point, preheat your air fryer to 400-degree Fahrenheit or 204-degree Celsius and spray the air fryer basket finely using the oil/cooking spray.
- Now, place the steaks on the air fryer basket and air fry every “2 steaks batch” for 10 minutes. But after 5 minutes, flip over the steaks. You may need a little more time based on the air fryer quality and steak size, but the base time should remain 10-minute.
- Then repeat the same process for the next and last batch.
Directions for preparing the gravy
When the steaks cook, you should get a head start by starting to prepare the gravy right away.
- In a medium saucepan heat, over medium heat, the bacon drippings or butter, whichever you are using.
- Then add the onion to the melted drippings/butter and cook for another 4 minutes over medium heat.
- Now, add the cayenne pepper, dried thyme, and garlic powder one by one.
- Add the flour and start stirring to combine all the ingredients. Then cook for another 4-6 minutes, stirring continuously. When the mixture begins to get brown, stop cooking.
- Then add the whole milk, stir and cook to bring to a boil. When the mixture is thick enough, as per your preference, remove the saucepan from the heat.
- Add the Worcestershire sauce and stir to combine.
- Then season the thickened mixture or gravy with pepper and salt.
- To finish off, serve the gravy over the chicken steak and enjoy the fabulous taste!
No air fryer? Your oven will do the job.
You can bake the chicken fried steaks in an oven. Thus, it becomes baked chicken fried steak.
- Place the battered steaks patties on a greased baking sheet.
- Preheat the oven to 400-degree Fahrenheit.
- Place the steaks in the oven.
- Cook for 7-8 minutes at 400-degree Fahrenheit. Then flip over and cook for another 7-8 minutes at 400-degree Fahrenheit. (The base time is always 7-8 minutes.)
- Take out and enjoy with gravy.
How to serve the fried chicken steaks?
While the gravy is the ideal topping for this recipe, you can utilize other options as well. For instance, serves the steaks with steamed green beans, oven-fried or mashed potatoes. Southern green beans, preferably skinny also go fine with this dish.
So, utilize your options to make this a down-home comfort food meal.
Recipe Notes
I always recommend using any cooking oil instead of cooking spray, be it non-stick or not. Sometimes, the chemical used in non-stick cooking sprays may damage your air fryer basket’s non-stick coating in your air fryer.
Nutritional Information
This is a calorie-reduced dish, yet it offers 700 calories, out of which 90 calories come for fat alone.
| Nutrient Fact (Per 477-gram serving) | Value | Daily Value |
| Calories | 700 (2870kJ) | – |
| Protein | 68g | – |
| Carbohydrates | 82 g | 27% |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g | 12% |
| Total Sugars | 4 g | – |
| Total Fat | 10 g | 15% |
| Saturated Fat | 3.5 g | 18% |
| Trans Fat | 0.0g | – |
| Iron | – | 45% |
| Cholesterol | 220 mg | 73% |
| Sodium | 590 mg | 26% |
| Calcium | – | 30% |
| Potassium | – | 14 % |
| Vitamin A | – | 4% |
| Vitamin C | – | 2% |
There are a few ways to cook air fryer chicken fried steak, but the only ideal way is to cook the cube steak in air fryer.