At The Hub's request- Chicken Fried Steak

You can take The Hub out of Texas, but you can never take Texas out of The Hub (regardless of what he might say about it)... So once every month or two, I get a request to make him a good-old fashioned chicken fried steak, and I have perfected a technique that maximizes flavor and crunch, and minimizes (as much as possible) mess...

1. I remove the cube steak from the fridge and let it come to room temp. I pat it dry on the outside.
2. I pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
3. I get my "mies en place" (a step which would make my old chefs from school proud) by preparing a bowl with a beaten egg, 1/2 cup of butter milk, and a large pinch of baking soda (ask my mom.. she says it is for a golden color) mixed together; and a piece of wax paper with a cup and a half or two cups of all purpose flour mixed with a handful of corn meal, a tablespoon of seasoning salt, half a pack of ranch dressing mix, and a palmful of cayanne pepper. I place these next to my dutch oven with two inches of veggie oil on the stove and heat the oil to almost smoking. on the other side of the pan I place my roasting pan with a flat wire roasting rack in it - sprayed with Pam.
4. I dredge the steaks in the flour covering all surfaces and shaking off excess, then dip into the egg mixture and remove as much excess as possible.. then back into the flour and coat until dry on the outside again, then into the hot oil.. but JUST long enough to brown that side,(maybe a minute) and then flip to brown other side and then remove to wire rack and place the steaks into the oven to finish cooking...
this last step keeps the steaks from getting burned on the outside, the oil from getting smoky and messy, and allows me time to clean up (toss waxed paper with extra flour, dump egg mix, wipe down any messes) and make gravy and mashed potatoes.. (for gravy I drain off the oil from the dutch oven, add milk and deglaze the bits from the bottom of the pan, thicken with corn starch as needed, and season to taste)
5.In 10 minutes or so, you have a perfectly cooked chicken fried steak, the air has been allowed to circulate around the whole thing, keeping all sides crunchy in the oven, and nothing is burned (and the smoke alarm isn't going off, and some of the grease has even drained OFF OF the steak)..

Extreme close up of the golden goodness:

And lucky H got leftover Thankgiving greenbeans with bacon and my favorite brown and serve rolls (what kind of crack do they put in those things? I could eat them by the bag!) to accompany his requested steak...
Everybody sing it with me "The stars at night, are BIG AND BRIGHT, :::Clap clap clap clap:: deep in the HEART OF TEXAS!!"