The Cut Of Beef Texas Roadhouse Uses For Country Fried Steak Explains Why It's So Delicious
Fans of country-fried steak know that the dish is fairly simple to make. While the classic southern dish is often reserved for breakfasts, Texas Roadhouse has offered country-fried steak on its menu, despite only being open for lunch on certain days, and never for breakfast. The dish has amassed plenty of praise for its remarkable size, taste, and quality. The reason for this praise could come from many areas where it excels, but the most fundamental one is likely due to the cut of steak that the chain uses.
While many country-fried steaks utilize cube steak that comes from the round of the cow, Texas Roadhouse takes pride in its use of sirloin for the job, a cut that is often considered high-end and produces a much higher quality taste than cube steak. In fact, Texas Roadhouse advertises this unique cut choice on its menu, with the chain's country fried steak being properly called a Country Fried Sirloin to ensure that customers know the dish utilizes the incredibly popular cut of meat.
How the cut of beef used impacts country fried steak
As is the case with most beef-centric meals, the cut of steak that is used can completely make or break a country-fried steak. Using cube steak is the most common, largely due to its texture being well-suited for being breaded and fried. Many argue that better cuts can make the dish even better. Using sirloin works so well due to the fact that, while the meat is tender and flavorful, its relative leanness compared to many other high-end cuts of steak allows it to be successfully pounded, breaded, and fried without any problem.
With this in mind, using a cut of meat like a ribeye for country fried steak might seem like a bad combination, but it actually works better than you may think. While ribeye is more commonly used in chicken-fried steak recipes, which differ slightly from country-fried steak, cutting out the excess fat on a ribeye and using it alongside oil and butter to fry the breaded ribeye can also give you a dish that's a major upgrade from what you're used to.