Chicken Fried Steak with Sweet Potato Fries

OK, this post is for Chicken Fried Steak.


But really, don't the baked sweet potato fires make the picture pop...

Speaking of the sweet potato fries, I used a recipe I found on JoAnne's Blog, EATS WELL WITH OTHERS, for Honey Lime Chipotle Sweet Potato Fries.  I just love SPFries, and wanted to give these a shot.  JoAnne is in the midst of a "reinvent a classic" contest and is working on sweet potatoes.  Her blog is great reading for a variety of reasons, but sweet potatoes right now are drawing my interest.


She did say this was a close second choice for the recipe she will submit.  I thought they tasty great.  An additional benefit is the slight tacky sticky (in a good sense) that the honey adds to the potatoes.  Next time I make these, I will add some lime zest and coarse grind seas salt.  The honey will aid in the seasonings sticking (something the "plain" sweet potato fries does not do).  Also the extra little green flecks will add to the look.


But as far as taste, loved it!  follow this link to get to her recipe... top notch!

But, before I digressed, I had started a post on chicken fried steak, with an onion milk gravy.


What I particularly like about this is that I used a leftover piece of steak as the ingredient.  I have an obsession with leftovers.  I do my best to cook a new and different meal from the leftovers so dinner isn't boring.

I had grilled a beautiful London broil size steak.  To me, it was cooked perfectly, rare to medium rare.  But the steak was nicely um... sloped (for lack of a better word), with a thinner section at an end.  this thinner section was more medium well done (my wife's preference).  Well, I had already sliced off the bad section (the medium well that she liked) the night before for her.  All I had for leftovers was a large section, perfectly cooked, rare to medium rare.  The perfectly cooked section was something I could eat as candy.  But something my opinionated (even when she is obviously wrong) wife would not touch.


So, let's get creative.  Make something new out of the old dish and also something I would enjoy but that my wife ended up LOVING..


Here's what I did...


I sliced the thick steak into about 3/4 inch medallions.  As always, but even more important is to cut against the grain.  Reheating steak will always toughen it up a bit, so make sure your finished product is as tender as possible by always cutting against the grain of the meat.


Next, I soaked the pieces in buttermilk for about 30 minutes.  really!  Adds a bit of snap to the taste, but also keep the meat moist and tender even though it is fired!


While that is happening, est up a dredging are.  three stages, plain flower first to coat each piece.


Next, through beaten eggs.


And finally through some seasoned flour.  I just added garlic flakes, a tiny bit of Cayenne Pepper, some course grind sea salt and sesame seeds.


And fry up in about 1/2 inch of Canola Oil.  Canola oil is best for frying as it has a higher burn temperature than olive oil.  Since the meat is already cooked, all you are really cooking is the outside coating.  Just fry until golden brown and delicious. 

And that's it!

I made a simple milk gravy (actually, buttermilk) with onions.


I poured off most of the oil, only leaving the drippings and maybe a TBS of oil.


I added diced onions, large dice size, about the size of a dime and sauteed them in the oil and drippings until tender.

I added 1 cup of buttermilk and simmered this for a few minutes.


And finally, I had a cup of water standing by to thin the gravy if needed.  I ended up adding just 1/4 cup.  i like thick gravy.

So there you go... Leftovers!


Thanks JoAnn for the Sweet Potato recipe.  Good luck with the Sweet Potato contest.  you always have my vote!


Come see some terrific ideas for leftovers. There have been LOTS of submissions, just perfect for the HOT DOG DAYS OF SUMMER!

You can find this recipe on eRecipeCards.com.  


And if you think you want to try this again in a few weeks, you can easily store the recipe in an electronic recipe box you set up, you control and only you see.  It's a great feature that lets you store all those amazing recipes you see on the internet.
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