Mike Cox's Texas Magazine

Mike Cox's Texas Magazine

The Great Chicken-fried Steak Hoax

A case study in the origin of "fakelore"

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Mike Cox
Dec 17, 2024
∙ Paid

I had a hand in creating one of Texas’ most enduring pieces of “fakelore”—the totally fabricated story chronicling the invention of the chicken-fried steak.

The phony folk tale traces to a friendly running argument with my old friend Larry BeSaw regarding the relative merits of the dish.

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