Chicken Fried Steak Review: Hickory Hollow in Houston

DECEMBER SPECIAL: Buy $100 gift certificate and receive a $35 gift certificate ($50 certificate gets you a $15 certificate). This offer is good until Christmas.

Hickory Hollow has three locations in the greater Houston area, Fallbrook, The Heights, and Magnolia. I went to the Fallbrook location which is on the backside of the Sam Houston Race Course. Hickory Hollow was voted as the best Chicken Fried Steak according to the readers of the Houston Press. They were right on the money.

Here is the recipe. Hickory Hollow had the Chicken Fried Steak as a special so I ordered it. The sign said medium. I paid at the counter got my hand vibrator and found a seat. After a few minutes the LARGEST Chicken Fried Steak appeared after my hand held vibrator went off. I just didn’t realize that their medium was HUGE. You can see by the picture how big it is and that it’s served on a pizza plate.

The size was a little decieving as I began to chow down. They had 2 steak cutlets (they refer to their steak as cutlets) breaded together which made for a lot of extra breading (as you can see by the after picture). Here are your choices when it comes to Chicken Fried Steaks at Hickory Hollow:

Small (Plowman): $8.29 (5 ounces)
Medium (Hired Hand): $9.99 (8 ounces)
Large (Rancher, The Saddle Blanket): $11.49 (10 ounces)
They all come with: 2 sides and a visit to the salad bar
Poboy: $5.79 (2 ½ ounces)
Kids portion (fries, drink and a sweet treat): $4.29 (2 ½ ounces)
Note: They also have the Chicken Fried Stek as past of their combo plates (5 ounces)

Back to the meal. The breading had a great color and had a great crunch, but didn’t have a lot of seasoning, and it didn’t stay on the steak. The steak was thick, tender and juicy and there was no grease.. The mashed potatoes were good but a little dry. The green beans were great. They had smoked ham pieces and onions in the green beans which just set it above others I’ve had. Now for the best part of the meal. Their Texas River Bottom Gravy. You dip your Chicken Fried Steak into their Texas River Bottom Gravy, put it in your mouth and wait for instant gratification. This gravy should be bottled and sold at the counter. This is a brown gravy (I guess you could have figured that out by the name and the picture). I did find out that it begins as a roux (flour & oil, and carefully mixed until it gets a light brown color), a chicken base and seasoned with pepper.

I also brought home some of their sliced brisket and their bbq sauce to enjoy the next day. There was one problem. It didn’t last until the next day. Both were also great.