The Real Story Behind Chicken-Fried Steak and Oklahoma

Even if you don't order it, well, ever, true Oklahomans know how good a proper chicken-fried steak is. Still, it's almost rare to see it on a menu at most chain restaurants across the state.

Its downfall came during the fried-foods controversy that also took down the Super-Size Fries at McD's. As the public became more health-conscious, experts blamed the actual frying of food rather than the poison we had been frying in the whole time.

The times have changed though. Restaurants are slowly opting for animal fats to deep-fry in again instead of the seed oils inadvertently contaminated by our farmers. Can't place that blame on them, the herbicide companies and the government said they were safe... Declarations like that weren't the big red flags back then as they are now.

Still, it's hard to pass up a good chicken-fried steak. It's a wonder how it's not the main dish on the official Oklahoma State Meal. More interestingly, the origins of our own soul food are widely unknown, but shockingly interesting.

The Birth of Chicken-Fried Steak

While most of Oklahoma's most widely known foods were born during the Great Depression - smoked bologna, bean chili, and onion burgers - the chicken-fry came about as a different sort of struggle meal in a different time.

Now historians can't agree whether the dish comes from Oklahoma or Texas, but they can all agree on the timeline. Born in the late 1800s thanks to German immigrants.

If you know your Oklahoma history, you know what was happening in the late 1800s that was popular with immigrants?

The Land Runs

As the government opened up the Oklahoma Territory, they gave away plots of land to whoever could stake it as their own. A shot in the air at noon, thousands of people raced to find their free land.

While on the trail, as the theory goes, German immigrants who were used to eating European pork found themselves in cattle country. Naturally, instead of flat-pounded pork schnitzel, they stretched the budget for cheap cuts of tough beef. Also pounded flat for tenderness, but breaded and fried in a shallow pan... very common cookware and style of preparation on your average covered wagon.

Oklahoma Schnitzel Was Born

Would you be correct in saying chicken-fried steak was invented in Texas? I don't think it would be wrong from a weirdly misplaced technical aspect, but it may be more correct to say it was invented and carried into history by first-generation Oklahomans.