Church of Hell

Last week I was in the mood for something fried before I broke down the deep fryer cleaned out it’s parts. I figured I’d try some kind of chicken fried steak finger with some fresh cut fries.

I grabbed a slab of shoulder from the local market.



Since I own a KitchenAid and meat grinding attachment, I figure I should start grinding my own cuts; for one thing, I’ll know the quality of the meats that I’m using.

I cubed it and ground it up.



Meanwhile, I washed some plain spuds and got out the slicer.



I’m using a Vegetable/French Fry Cutter that I got on Amazon for about $15. It’s well made, has two sizes of cut, it’s easy to clean and handles small to medium sized potatoes (or larger ones cut in half or quarter, like I did here).



Keep the potatoes in cold, slightly salted water as you cut them so that they don’t oxidize and turn brown on you. Meanwhile, heat your fryer up. Since mine tops out at 375 °F,  that’s what I cooked at. If yours goes higher, start it at 375 °F for the first fry.

Unfortunately, I had SD card issues so I didn’t get shots of preparing the meat, but it’s pretty easy:

Crack an egg and add a bit of water, maybe 2 tablespoons or so depending on egg size (use less for smaller eggs). Whisk it up in a bowl.

Put flour in another bowl and add a bunch of pepper and seasoned salt.

Make loose patties with the ground meat and don’t overwork them. You need to be gentle here. Put them in the flour, and flip them gently with a fork, then while holding them lossly, tap the side of your hand to shake off excess flour.

Place them in the egg wash and flip with another fork, then back into the flour.

Let them rest on a plate while you get some oil heated up in your cast iron.

Once the oil is hot, fry them for about 4-5 minutes on a medium high heat. If they brown too fast, turn it down a bit.



Back to those potatoes! I run mine through a salad spinner to make sure they’re really dry. Fry them up for 4-5 minutes at 375 °F, then remove them from the oil. This initial fry it to cook them so you get nice fluffy centers instead of raw potato.



Bring the oil back up to temp. If your fryer goes to 425°F, crank it up. While you wait for the oil temperature to get back to normal, keep cooking the steak fingers.

After 5 minutes or so, flip them and cook another 4 minutes on the other side.



Remember that these times depend on your range’s elements, your pan and the thickness of your patties. This means that  you should probably do a test run first and make sure you temp your meat! You want these to be at least 155 °F or so – too rare and they’ll fall apart; too well done and they’re dry and nasty.

Drop the fries when the temp is back up and cook until crispy. Depending on the amount of fries and temperature it should only be a few minutes. Drain both the meat and fries, and serve ‘em up with some Ketchup.