Monday, October 26, is Texas Chicken Fried Steak Day, and yes, it is official. In 2011 the Texas House of Representatives passed House Resolution 1419, sponsored by state Rep. Ralph Sheffield of Temple, recognizing the date. The push came from Dallas hospitality veteran Jeffrey Yarbrough and singer Jimmy Baldwin, who figured a state that has a holiday for nearly everything ought to have one for its signature plate. The resolution notes that restaurants were already celebrating the second annual observance that fall, so the tradition actually started in 2010.
For anyone new to Texas, or anyone who has only had the frozen version at a highway truck stop, here is what a proper chicken fried steak is. A thin cut of beef, usually round steak run through a tenderizer until it becomes cube steak, gets dredged in seasoned flour, dipped in egg or buttermilk, floured again and fried the way your grandmother fried chicken. That is where the name comes from. There is no chicken involved.
Then comes the gravy. In Texas that means cream gravy, made from the pan drippings, flour and milk, with enough black pepper to see from across the table. Mashed potatoes and green beans are the usual company, with a roll or Texas toast to mop up what is left. Other parts of the South call a close cousin country fried steak and pour brown gravy over it. Texans tend to have opinions about that.
Where it came from depends on who is telling the story. The most likely answer is the German and Austrian families who settled Central Texas in the 1800s and brought Wiener schnitzel with them. Veal was scarce and beef was everywhere, so the cutlet adapted. The 2011 resolution itself gives a nod to schnitzel, along with the pan-fried steaks cowboys cooked on the trail.
Then there is Lamesa. The West Texas town has long claimed that a short-order cook named Jimmy Don Perkins invented the dish in 1911 when he misread a ticket for chicken and fried steak as one order. It is a great story. It is also fiction, written as a gag for the Austin American-Statesman in 1976 and repeated as fact for decades afterward. The Legislature was in on the joke and, in a 2011 resolution, declared Lamesa the Legendary Home of the Chicken-Fried Steak anyway, admitting in writing that the tale was imaginary. Lamesa still throws a chicken fried steak festival every spring, cook-off included.
CraveDFW has been chasing this plate for a long time. Our Ultimate DFW (and Texas) Chicken Fried Steak List covers a lot of ground, from the duck fat gravy at Lounge Here to the road trip out to Mary’s Cafe in Strawn. Starting now, we are making it a weekly habit. Every week we will put one chicken fried steak in front of you, in Dallas, in Fort Worth and across the state, and tell you exactly why it earned the spot.
Here are three places to start.
Rodeo Bar at the Adolphus has been pouring drinks on the corner of Commerce and Akard since 1981. It was originally named for Walt Garrison, the Dallas Cowboys fullback who rode rodeo in the off-season, and it sits inside a hotel that opened in 1912. The room has plenty of neon and old Texas memorabilia, and the kitchen takes the food more seriously than most hotel bars bother to. The Chicken Fried Steak comes with whipped potatoes, black pepper gravy and seasonal vegetables, and it holds up to anything served in a booth with a red vinyl seat. We wrote about the bar’s comeback here. Rodeo Bar is at 1321 Commerce St. and opens at 11 a.m. daily, staying open until midnight Sunday through Thursday and 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
AllGood Cafe in Deep Ellum has built its reputation on this dish since Mike Snider opened the doors in 2000. Snider was particular about it. The kitchen starts with fresh tenderloin, cuts it to size, pounds it out, runs it through seasoned flour and buttermilk and fries it in peanut oil. When Snider retired last fall, musician John Pedigo and his partner Robin Gill took over the cafe, and Pedigo was quick to promise regulars the recipes were staying put. The Chicken Fried Steak is still the reason most people walk in, and the Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs makes a strong case for showing up early. It also won our Chicken Fried Face-Off against Norma’s last year. AllGood Cafe is at 2934 Main St. and is open seven days a week.
Jonathon’s Forestwood belongs to Jonathon and Christine Erdeljac, and Jonathon, the Gravy King himself, has been cooking in Dallas since 1998. He learned the trade at Bread Winners before opening the first Jonathon’s in a little Oak Cliff greenhouse on North Beckley in 2011. In September 2023 the couple opened Forestwood at Forest Lane and the Dallas North Tollway, in the old Kel’s space, a room that had been frying chicken fried steaks for North Dallas for decades. The Gravy King has kept that tradition alive. The Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs covers the plate, the crust stays crisp under a ladle of peppered cream gravy and it comes with two eggs, potatoes and toast. We stopped in for the patty melt earlier this year, but this is the order. Jonathon’s Forestwood is at 5337 Forest Lane and serves breakfast and lunch, 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m. on weekends. The Oak Cliff sibling, Jonathon’s Diner, is at 1619 N. Beckley Ave.
Chicken Fried Steak Day lands on a Monday this year, and all three are open. Breakfast at Jonathon’s, lunch in Deep Ellum, dinner downtown. It has been done before. Next week we start the weekly series, and the first stop will be somewhere you may not expect.
