Air Fryer Chicken Fried Steak with a creamy, peppery, country gravy is a traditional Southern dinner, made healthier and with less mess.
“This was really delicious, and such a great way to cook a cube steak! My kids and husband loved it, so I will be making it often. Thanks!”
Tender cube steak is given a flavorful makeover in this air-fried chicken fried steak recipe. This is the same delicious, comfort food meal you remember, but better.
Air Fryer Chicken Fried steak is much easier to clean up than its traditional alternative, and it’s ready in less than 20 minutes.
We’ll also be making a creamy, traditional country gravy recipe. It’s a total classic and makes our Chicken Fried Steak in the Air Fryer just as amazing as anything you’ve had in a restaurant or your grandma’s kitchen.
Gather You’re Supplies
- Cube Steak – You need one pound of cube steak, cut into 3 or 4 portions. Cube steak is a cut of beef that’s been pounded for tenderization. You can find this in your grocery store meat case.
- Flour – We’ll use a simple flour coating to create the crispy outside of this fried steak. Any all-purpose flour, including gluten-free, will work.
- Garlic Powder – This is my favorite flavor-adding ingredient!
- Onion Powder – Adding onion powder gives the flavor of sweet, slow-cooked onions, without the fuss.
- Salt and Pepper – To season the flour.
- Buttermilk and Egg– These two add a liquid component to the breading, helping the flour to stick to the meat. Substitute regular milk for buttermilk in a pinch.
- Butter – To make a country gravy, we’ll start with melting unsalted butter and mixing it with flour.
- Milk – This is a creamy, white gravy. Milk is the key! I suggest using whole or 2% milk for best results.
- Hot Sauce – Just a dash adds the perfect amount of flavor to the gravy.
How to Make It
- Preheat the Air Fryer. For this recipe, we want the machine to be hot before we add the meat. It takes about 10 minutes for my air fryer to pre-heat properly.
- Mix the dry ingredients for the breading in a bowl (flour, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper).
- Whisk the buttermilk and egg together in a second shallow bowl.
- Dip each piece of steak into the flour mixture.
- Then dredge through the buttermilk mixture, allowing any excess to drip off.
- Press in back into the flour mixture, ensuring each piece of steak is fully coated.
- Place the cube steaks in the air fryer in a single layer. Spray with cooking spray or oil. Cook as directed in the recipe card below
- Flip over halfway through cooking time, spray with more oil, and continue cooking until fully cooked.
How to Make the Gravy
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan set over medium heat.
- Slowly whisk in the flour, and cook for a few minutes until combined.
- Whisk in milk, salt and pepper.
- Cook until thickened, then remove from heat, stirring in hot sauce to taste. Serve with cooked steaks.
How to Serve
For an amazing country-style dinner, I like to serve air fryer chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and a veggie like green beans.
The great part about this dish is that it has simple, classic flavors and will go with almost any side dish!
To keep the Southern theme going, you can make Air Fryer Cornbread or Air Fryer Hushpuppies. Air Fryer Green Bean Casserole or Air Fryer Creamed Corn Casserole would also taste amazing with this crispy steak.
Make things a bit healthier by serving with a simple green salad with oil free salad dressing or your favorite steamed veggies.
Tips and Tricks
There are a few tips that I can share that helped me get this super crispy coating on my chicken fried steak in the air fryer.
- Dry the meat with paper towels before breading. This will remove any extra moisture.
- Spray liberally with oil both before air frying and after flipping the meat at the halfway point.
- Don’t crowd the air fryer basket. I can fit one pound of thin cube steaks in my Cosori air fryer without overlapping, but if your basket is smaller, cook these in two batches.
- Clean up easily by lining your air fryer basket with parchment paper round or square. These have holes in them to allow airflow, but keep your air fryer nice and clean!
More Air Fryer Steak Recipes
Steak in the air fryer is easier than you might think! You can make a simply seasoned Air Fryer Cube Steak or even cook Steak in the Air Fryer.
My favorite are these Air Fryer Steak bites. they cook up quickly and taste amazing!
Go healthy and summery with a Grilled Flank Steak Salad too.
FAQs
Cube steak gets its name from its appearance. When tenderized from a butcher, a cut of steak gets a square pattern on it from the tool or machine that’s used.
Cube steak is generally a top-round steak or top sirloin steak, which is inexpensive. Tenderizing it manually makes it more tender and enjoyable.
If you don’t find cube steak already prepared, you can purchase one of those cuts and tenderize it yourself with a good meat mallet.
Sure! Use a meat mallet to pound out chicken breast cutlets to about 1/4 inch thickness. Then follow the recipe to create a delicious country-fried chicken! Remember to cook chicken to at least 165°F.
Cube steak is generally cooked to well done. Use a meat thermometer to check that the steak is at least 145°F in the center. Add a few minutes of additional cooking time if it’s not done at the end of the recommended cooking time. All air fryers cook a little bit differently!
Air Fryer Chicken Fried Steak
Equipment
- Air fryer
- 2 shallow bowls
- Meat thermometer
- Whisk
- Saucepan
Ingredients
For Chicken Fried Steak
- 1 lb Cube Steak Cut into 4 portions
- 1/2 cup All-purpose flour gluten free if needed
- 1 tsp Garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp Onion powder
- 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1/4 tsp Black pepper
- 1/2 cup Buttermilk
- 1 egg large
For Country Gravy
- 2 tbsp Unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp Flour
- 3/4 cup Milk
- 1/4 tsp Kosher salt plus more to taste
- 1/4 tsp Black Pepper plus more to taste
- dash Hot sauce optional
Instructions
Chicken Fried Steak
- Preheat the air fryer to 400 degrees F for 10 minutes.
- In a shallow bowl, whisk together the flour, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper.
- In a second shallow bowl, whisk the buttermilk and egg.
- Dip each piece of steak into the flour mixture
- Then dredge through the buttermilk mixture, allowing any excess to drip off.
- Press it back into the flour mixture, ensuring it is fully coated.
- Place the steaks in a single layer in the air fryer, spraying lightly with cooking spray. Air fry for 8-10 minutes, then flip.
- Spray the other side with cooking spray, then cook for another 8-10 minutes, until fully cooked.
Gravy
- Melt butter in a small saucepan set over medium heat.
- Whisk in the flour, and cook for 2 minutes until well combined.
- Slowly whisk in the flour, milk, salt, and pepper.
- Cook until thickened then remove from heat, stirring in hot sauce to taste, if desired.
- Serve over cooked steaks.
Video
Notes
- If you don’t have buttermilk, you can use regular milk instead. Any plant based milk will work as well.
- This recipe is gluten free if you use a GF all purpose flour for both the breading and the gravy.
- Don’t overcrowd the basket. Do two batches if needed.
Nutrition Information
This was really delicious, and such a great way to cook a cube steak! My kids and husband loved it, so I will be making it often. Thanks!
We really liked this. The meat stays a little tougher than pan frying but I like saving the calories. And not having the huge mess to clean up afterwards!! I will definitely make this again.