Bunyan's Chicken Fried Steak

1. Pound steaks to about 1/4 inch thickness. Rub both sides with salt, pepper, paprika and garlic powder.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet, oil should be about 1/4 inch high.
3. Beat egg and milk together in a bowl.
4. In another bowl, season the flour with salt, pepper, paprika and garlic powder.
5. When the oil is hot, dredge the steaks in the flour, then in the egg mixture, then back again in the flour.
6. Place them immediately in the skillet. Fry on both sides until golden brown; remove and set aside.
7. Remove most of the oil from the skillet, leaving behind the bits of meat. I leave approx. 3 TBSP of oil. Reheat the oil and add the onion; cook until golden brown then add about 3 tablespoons of flour, whisking it in.
8. Gradually whisk in the beef stock scraping the bottom well, add a little water if it is still too thick. Bring to boil then add cream and parsley and cook another minute.
9. Serve with mashed potatoes, corn bread or biscuits.

Chef's Note & Story

I was a 23 year old Commissaryman 3rd Class in the US Navy 1976 and I was on a Harbor Tug in San Diego. We were the duty boat and it was a holiday. Can't remember which holiday but anyway this meant that we had no actual ship, barge, fuel barge or auxilary bilge tanks to move and as such I didn't have to worry about working on deck as well as cooking chow for the crew so I had all kinds of time to "play" and that's how I came up with recipe. It's been tweeked a little bit from the original to make it Diabetic Friendly, but the flavor is still there! Anyway, I served it up for the crew and they loved it especially the Chief Petty Officer who was in charge of the boat. He told me to make it again for the Commanding Officer & Staff that would be coming aboard to conduct a combat & material readiness inspection. The CO liked it so much he asked me if I would like to come and work in his messing facility and I said yes sir! So, for the rest of my tour of duty at NavSta San Diego I had a job reserved normally for men much senior to me in rate and time in service and it also meant I didn't have to stand military watches! And it got me one of the best Bravo Zulu letters of the 29 I received in my 10 years in the Navy!