Greasy Mess & Onion Gravy

That is what I ended up with after making Chicken Fried Steak. Oh, and the flour club hand! I have never been able to get the dredging in flour and egg thing right. I'd share a picture, but I didn't want to dredge my camera by mistake! I do have a picture of the final outcome though near the bottom of this post.

As promised on Menu Plan Sunday, I loosely followed this recipe. I say loosely because I didn't have all of the ingredients and can't read my computer while I am in the kitchen. It's all from memory baby!

I started with chopped beef steak patties (fancy name for cheap, gonna fall apart hamburger meat?). I dredged them in flour that was seasoned with just salt and pepper. Next, as they began to fall apart I gave them a bath in an egg and milk wash. After that, back into the flour for another crumbly coating session and the finishing touches on my club hand.

As I slipped them into the heated skillet of vegetable oil, I forgot the first rule of frying - lay the meat AWAY from you. I've certainly watched enough Food Network to have this rule imprinted on my memory, but somehow in the heat of trying to not get my club hand all over the handle of my skillet, I forgot. Now, I have 2 nice little burn marks on my forearm to remind me. Anyway, I let the meat cook in the oil for a few minutes on both sides then laid it on some paper towels to absorb the oil. There was A LOT of it! This is why I don't fry things very often. (Even though I do have 30+ bottles of vegetable oil left!)

With the bits and stuff left in the pan I got to do one of my favorite cooking tasks - deglazing a pan! It is so much fun to see all the yummy goodness that is stuck to the pan come off the bottom to make a beautiful and yummy sauce!

Everytime I deglaze a pan I do it differently. Here's tonight's version and where I REALLY departed from the recipe. First, I poured in a large handful of frozen, chopped onions (maybe 3/4 cup?). After they cooked down and I scraped all the yummy bits off the bottom of the pan, I added about 1/2 a cup of chicken broth. Once I had stirred this all together I sprinkled in a couple of tablespoons of flour. As this was going in, I quickly stirred so that it wouldn't clump. By no measure am I a master at this, I just move my arm fast so my sauce doesn't taste like flour. Yeck! I let the sauce cook down to see if it was thick enough and decided that I actually didn't have enough. More broth and flour went into the pan until I was satisfied that there was enough to feed 4 people. (Why 4? I don't know, because I had 4 beef patties?)

I plated up a meal for my husband (who is working late tonight) and then decided to eat some of this wonderful dish myself. I was too tired to make another potato for myself and not really hungry after staring at all that grease, so I just had a small portion with onion gravy on top. I really outdid myself on the gravy - I think it was the best part! Hmmm... who would have thought I'd like onion gravy???

From my stash, I used the beef and broth. The beef was bought when I was participating in Angel Food Ministries. This is a great ministry that trys to get good food into the hands of needy people for a reduced cost. I highly recommend seeing if there is one in your area. As for the broth, since I didn't need the entire can, I took the rest of it and froze it in 1/4 cup portions so I can use it again. Just because I want to use up my stash doesn't mean I can afford to be wasteful and throw away 1/2 a can of good broth!