Country-Fried Steak

COUNTRY-FRIED STEAK IS a thin cut of beef dredged in seasoned flour, fried, and smothered in a peppery gravy made with the steak drippings. This classic cowboy dish is usually made with cube steak, a tough cut from the round that is mechanically tenderized. I wanted to stick to the spirit of this dish’s frugal roots but give it a refresh.

I started by making several recipes that called for cube steak. When my tasters and I sampled them, we were surprised to find that the mechanically tenderized steaks were still chewy. To add insult to injury, most of the fried