Breading not sticking to Chicken Fried Steak?

So I've been having issues with the breading on my Chicken Fried Steaks. It starts off well, but after a bit, before it's near being done enough, the breading begins to 'balloon' in the oil and come off the meat.

I'm not a hundred percent sure what the issue is. I've tried drying off excess moisture, and I believe that helps a bit but it seems like it's not helping in all cases. Am I just not getting enough off? Perhaps I need to hit it with a meat tenderizer right before frying?

Right now, we're basically doing: *Drying with paper towels *Putting it in the flour mixture *Dipping in buttermilk *Putting it back into the flour mixture

And then frying until it's golden brown.