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Air Fryer Chicken Fried Steak – delicious rich, spicy, buttermilk dipped air fryer chicken fried steak that is crispy without deep frying in oil!
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We add lots of tips in our recipe – so you can make this dish, understand why it works and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe.
Table of contents
Chicken Fried Steak in the Air Fryer
Chicken fried steak in the air fryer is cirspy and delicious without all the oil of deep frying – air fryers are like convection ovens that circulate air quickly over food to help you heat food fast like oil would – without the added calories and fat.
If you love chicken fried steak, you’re going to love this recipe – its easier, less mess, and so delicious!
We’re kicking up our take on this homestyle classic with cayenne pepper and smoked paprika, as well as some herbs and spices that give so much flavor it’s a knockout!
Air fryer steak uses cube steak to make a crisp and crunchy, tender, juicy breaded steak that is delicious with gravy, white gravy, or on it’s own.
Serve it with soft dinner rolls, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, or a BLT salad – it’s great with tons of side dishes!
We hope you love this recipe as much as we do.
How to Air Fry Chicken Fried Steak
Chicken fried steak is fairly simple to make if you’ve made breaded dishes before that are dipped and fried – we’re using a similar dredging process, only using an air fryer instead of a deep fryer so we can reduce the oil content and crisp our steak batter by using the high heat and air circulation.
- Preheat air fryer to 400 degrees.
- Lay our three large plates with a deep rim (think pasta plate)
- Add milk and hot sauce to one bowl.
- Add flour, 1/2 salt and pepper, herbs and spices to one bowl, mix well
- Add eggs to one bowl, beat until lightly foamy.
- Remove cube steak from packaging and pat dry with paper towel.
- Season generously with remaining half of salt and pepper.
- Dredge steaks by dipping first in milk, then flour, then egg, and finally flour again to fully coat in breading. Shake off any excess flour.
- Open air fryer basket and spray nonstick cooking spray.
- Place steaks in air fryer and air fryer 10 minutes at 400 degrees F.
- Flip steaks and cook additional 5-10 minutes, until steaks are crispy golden brown and meat is 150 degrees internal temperature when read with a digital thermometer.
- Remove from air fryer, let rest at least 10 minutes before slicing.
- Top with turkey or white gravy or chives.
- Enjoy!
Tips to Perfect Air Fryer Chicken Fried Steak & FAQs
These steaks are simple and delicious – but there are a couple tricks we’ve found to help them turn out great, every time!
What Kind of Meat is Chicken Fried Steak. Chicken fried steak uses cube steak.
What is Dredging. Dredging refers to dipping something in a series of milk, egg, and flour mixtures to create breading.
How To Keep Your Hands Clean Dredging Steak. We usually use a fork or tongs to dredge, but a lot of people like to use their hands dredging, and that works great too.
To keep your hands, or other tools from getting totally full of clumps when dredging, we recommend designating a dry hand and a wet hand. Only dip one hand in milk and egg mixtures, and use the other hand for flour.
How To Tell When Steak is Done. Steak is done when internal temperature reaches over 150 degrees Fahrenheit and batter is crispy and golden brown.
Preheat air fryer. We find it is always best to preheat air fryers before adding food to get the best results – you want a high heat to cook food fast, so preheat for at least 5-10 minutes.
Use nonstick spray. This recipe cleans up easily with nonstick spray – we find it was essential for keeping flour and batter from sticking to air fryer basket and coming off chicken fried steak as well. HOWEVER – some air fryer baskets are not recommended to use with
Shake off excess flour. Nobody likes too much flour and breading on a steak- shake off any excess.
Check steak temperature. Be sure to make sure steak reaches an internal temperature over 150 degrees Fahrenheit.
FAQs
Chicken fried steak is a dish made with a breaded and fried beef cutlet that is typically served with gravy.
To make air fryer chicken fried steak, coat the steak in a mixture of flour, spices, and egg, and then place it in the air fryer. Cook for about 10-15 minutes, flipping once, until the steak is crispy and cooked through.
Cooking chicken fried steak in an air fryer allows you to achieve a crispy, fried texture without using as much oil as traditional frying methods.
Chicken fried steak is typically made with a tenderized cut of beef, such as cube steak.
Air fryer chicken fried steak is typically served with gravy and sides such as mashed potatoes, green beans, or corn.
What to Serve With Air Fryer Chicken Fried Steak
Chicken fried steak is delicious served with soup, salad, vegetables, potatoes and other side dishes – it’s a really flexible, classic homestyle dinner.
We love serving chicken fried steak with Air Fryer Baked Potatoes, No Knead Bread, Whole Roasted Onions, Garlic Butter Roasted Potatoes, Roasted Tomatoes, or some of our favorite recent recipes:
You can find the rest of our easy side dish recipes in our complete side dish recipe index here.
Air Fryer Chicken Fried Steak Recipe
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Air Fryer Chicken Fried Steak Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound cube steak – 4 large slices
- 1 ½ cups buttermilk or 1 1/2 cups regular milk plus 1 1/2 tbsp white vinegar
- ¼ cup hot sauce optional
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Italian herbs
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
- Preheat air fryer to 400 degrees.
- Lay our three large plates with a deep rim (think pasta plate)
- Add milk and hot sauce to one bowl
- Add flour, 1/2 salt and pepper, herbs and spices to one bowl, mix well
- Add eggs and water to one bowl, beat until lightly foamy
- Remove cube steak from packaging and pat dry with paper towel
- Season generously with remaining half of salt and pepper
- Dredge steaks by dipping first in milk, then flour, then egg, and finally flour again to fully coat in breading. Shake off any excess flour.
- Open air fryer basket and spray nonstick cooking spray.
- Place steaks in air fryer and air fryer 10 minutes at 400 degrees F.
- Flip steaks and cook additional 5-10 minutes, until steaks are crispy golden brown and meat is 150 degrees internal temperature when read with a digital thermometer.
- Remove from air fryer, let rest at least 10 minutes before slicing.
- Top with turkey or white gravy or chives.
- Enjoy!
Looks good! I’m hoping to make this sometime this week. I didn’t see milk listed in the ingredients. Did you use buttermilk or regular? Thanks!
Woops, I fixed the recipe to add the quantity for buttermilk, see the note in there about mixing regular milk with some vinegar to make it into buttermilk. Enjoy!