Turkey Steaks

I had never heard of Turkey Steaks before I married Dad, so he had to teach me what they were and how to make them. Pretty easy, and one of this family's favorite meals. 

When I buy a turkey, I cut off the breast and slice it into chicken-breast-size pieces (actually I way prefer Dad to do this part, as he's way better than me at it). Tenderize each piece of meat with a meat pounder, and lay in a pan. Sprinkle each layer with Lawry's salt, and refrigerate until suppertime.

Scramble about four eggs; refrigerate until you're ready to fry the steaks.

Grind (Vitamix) about 3 cups of crackers crumbs; set aside in a flat-ish container.

About half hour before supper time, heat some oil in a skillet. When we're not serving a crowd, I use just the electric skillet; but for Josh's birthday we were having most of the family in so we used both skillets. Either works fine. Just don't heat the oil too much...

Dip each piece of meat into the eggs; let drain a few seconds. Then coat the meat with cracker crumbs. Fry until golden brown (see px), about 5-6 minutes per side. Place fried steak into a paper-towel-lined cake pan and keep warm in oven while rest of steaks cook.

When steaks are all cooked, make gravy from cracklings in the skillet. Monday night I did both batches so as to not waste the delicious cracklings; and this family gets very irate when the turkey gravy runs out before the steak and mashed potatoes so the more the merrier. Oh yes. This must be served with mashed potatoes. I risk a revolt from this family if I would serve turkey steaks without mashed potatoes. 

Yes. This family might be a tad spoiled and I think I am to blame😒

So here is Jewel just frying away.

And the skillet I was using. This task doesn't take long, but it does take one person per skillet.

And that's about all there is to it. I don't salt or pepper; the gravy adds that flavor. I do put salt & pepper on the table but Idk if anyone ever uses it. The crackers add flavor to the steaks, and like I said, the gravy is pretty prime also. My goal is to have the potatoes cooked, mashed, and seasoned before I start frying steaks; if I don't get that done I have a helper do the potatoes. And it's a timing thing to have the steaks fried and in the oven crisping while making the gravy.

In case you don't know how to make the gravy.... well, I don't have a recipe so you're kind of on your own for that one. It's pretty easy though; there just aren't exact proportions. I'll share what I did Monday night to give you a basic idea of how it works, but it's certainly not exact. 

Add about four chicken bouillon cubes to about a quart of hot water (I used my potato water so as to capture all that wonderful nutrition); let set until cubes are soft enough to smash. Add broth to hot skillet, being very cautious of the inevitable splatters that will try to get you. Whisk carefully, mixing in any cracklings that survived kitchen moochers. Let simmer while you prepare the thickener. Add about half cup (??? this is a guess) flour to about two cups of COLD water. Whisk well, then slowly add flour/water to the hot skillet/broth/cracklings. Whisk as mixture thickens. Add celery salt, salt, garlic salt, onion salt, and pepper to taste. Or don't. It will be bland if you don't, but if that's your preference, why then gofer it.

That's it. Delicious!!