Sunday, March 16, 2008

Claim Jumper Chicken Fried Beef Steak

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Claim Jumper is actually one of my favorite restaurants from back home (Southern California).

The portions are bigger then any sane human should ever eat but they do some interesting things with what would otherwise be standard issue chain restaurant fare. Since they don't currently have an Atlanta location the frozen entrees are the closet I can get.

I tried the Chicken Fried Beef Steak. I love chicken fried steak- and I have had and liked Claim Jumpers version before. The frozen version is a generous sized piece of meat, mashed potatoes and a corn cob- and don't forget the white country gravy.

To be honest I discarded the corn. It might very well have been fine but I can't stand frozen corn (yeah, I know fine time to be a food snob). The mashed potatoes are really good for frozen. There are little bits of "skin" (which I love), lumps and a decent amount of pepper.
The steak it's self. The batter is not nearly as crisp and rustic looking as the picture would have you believe, but it does have a good peppery flavor. The meat it, kinda mushy. But at the same time it is tender and not ropey or gristly like frozen beef can sometimes be.
The gravy does have a sausage flavor to it and again is heavy on the pepper. The taste is good but it is pasty.

All in all, for a frozen chicken fried steak it is not the greatest but it is better then most. The potatos alone make it worth it.



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