Willie Nelson Cubed Steak–seasoned, breaded cube steaks cooked in your air fryer (or Instant Pot with air fryer lid) for perfectly crispy chicken fried steak.
Willie Nelson Cubed Steak
Willie Nelson cubed steak will always be on your mind 😉! It’s breaded cube steaks that are cooked in your air fryer or Duo Crisp Instant Pot. By using your air fryer or Instant Pot with air fryer lid to cook chicken fried steak you eliminate all the oil and you can still enjoy the crispy outer texture. You’ll be craving the Southern flavors of Willie Nelson steak so often that you’ll be getting on the road again and again to buy the ingredients to make it 😆!
Ingredients
- Cube steaks
- Salt and pepper
- Milk
- Egg
- All purpose flour
- Seasoned salt
- Pepper
- Paprika
- Cayenne pepper
- Non-stick cooking spray
- Gravy packet–optional
Steps
Salt and pepper the cubed steaks.
In a dish whisk together the milk and egg.
In a separate dish whisk together the flour, seasoned salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne.
Dredge each steak in the flour,
then the milk mixture
and back into the flour mixture again.
Place steaks in one layer (you may have to work in batches) in the air fryer or on a greased rack in the Instant Pot Duo Crisp. Spray the tops of the steaks with non-stick cooking spray.
Air fry at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. Flip over and and spray other side with cooking spray. Air fry for 6 more minutes and check for doneness.
Serve and enjoy! (I made gravy with a turkey gravy packet I had. The gravy made the chicken fried steaks even better.)
Notes/Tips
- Serve with mashed potatoes and gravy. You can make white peppery gravy or rich brown gravy. I used a gravy packet for sake of ease. However, if you have a good homemade recipe you can use that!
- I used my Duo Crisp* Instant Pot and my Instant Vortex*. I liked how it cooked in the Instant Vortex better. But both worked fine.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container* in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Warm up leftovers in the air fryer to retain the crispy consistency.
- Recipe adapted from Cooking Professionally.
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Did you know you can filter the recipes on my website to search by meat type, IP or Crockpot, low carb, gluten free, etc.? Use the filter to find exactly what you are looking for.
Willie Nelson Cube Steak
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 16 minutes
- Total Time: 41 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
Seasoned, breaded cube steaks cooked in your air fryer for perfectly crispy chicken fried steak
Ingredients
- 4 cube steaks (about 1.2 pounds)
- Salt and pepper
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 egg
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp seasoned salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
- Non-stick cooking spray
- Optional: Gravy packet
Instructions
- Salt and pepper the cubed steaks.
- In a dish whisk together the milk and egg.
- In a separate dish whisk together the flour, seasoned salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne.
- Dredge each steak in the flour, then the milk mixture and back into the flour mixture again.
- Place steaks in one layer (you may have to work in batches) in the air fryer or on a greased rack in the Instant Pot Duo Crisp. Spray the tops of the steaks with non-stick cooking spray.
- Air fry at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. Flip over and and spray other side with cooking spray. Air fry for 6 more minutes and check for doneness.
- Serve and enjoy! (I made gravy with a turkey gravy packet I had. The gravy made the chicken fried steaks even better.)
- Category: Beef
- Method: Air Fryer
*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Thank you for a recipe that we can air fry. I can’t wait to try this. Hope I can find the cube steaks.
I hope you like it Sherry!
I shall google a few terms later but for now, what are ‘cube steaks’. My intuition says they are steak cut into cubes but the pictures do not show that. It is difficult to see what they are from the photos. Secondly why is this described as ‘Chicken Fried Steak’ when I see no chicken in the ingredient list only tyrkey but that is for an optional gravy. I have seen the term before and wondered then also.
Hi James, Cube steak or cubed steak is a cut of beef, usually top round or top sirloin, tenderized and flattened by pounding with a meat tenderizer. The name refers to the shape of the indentations left by that process. When you buy it at the store it almost looks like ground beef because of the indentations. The term chicken fried steak is steak that has been fried like fried chicken is. But weirdly enough there is not chicken in chicken fried steak. It’s a weird American thing!