A Hassleback potato is not really a hassle to make at all.
What you do is you take your big ol'
Russet or Idaho potatoes, give 'em a good scrub,
you leave the skin on, skin's tasty,
and you cut them down, but not all the way through.
That gives it the Hassleback,
this neat little feature here, right?
You take some butter, get it super cold,
and slice it paper thin, and you can keep this
right in the freezer for several months,
and you have the butter thinly sliced and ready to go
all holiday season long.
So this is what the potatoes look like
after you spray them just with olive oil spray,
salt and pepper.
So you roast them up, and then we're gonna
top them with cheese.
I like just a cheddar cheese on this.
Then you gotta put 'em back in the oven to melt the cheese.
We'll get to that later.
Chicken-fried steak is super big in Texas.
It's most commonly made with round steak,
so you can get eye round or top round,
and you tenderize it.
You hit it with the bumpy side of the mallet
to tenderize it, and you hit it
with the flat side of the mallet to make it bigger.
Salt and pepper on both sides.
I have about two and a half cups of flour
with a half a cup of corn starch to make it extra crunchy,
and we're gonna whisk that together with salt and pepper,
and we're gonna spice this mixture up with three palm fulls,
three tablespoons of smoked sweet paprika,
and two palm fulls each of cumin,
or two tablespoons or so,
garlic and onion,
and one tablespoon of oregano, with your salt and pepper.
Mix that all together.
I took the spiced flour, which also is cut
with some cornstarch, and divided it.
About a cup and a half on each
of two shallow dishes or trays, okay?
In the middle, I have buttermilk and a couple of large eggs.
I'm gonna add about a cup of beer.
That gives it a little tang, little attitude,
and as I said, this is a Texas classic.
No shortage of beer in Texas.
(audience laughs)
I like a nice light crisp beer
if I'm gonna be cooking with it.
I've got oh about quarter to a half inch
of a neutral cooking oil.
So oil that you can see through
so it can have a higher cooking temperature,
and I have this getting hot between medium,
and medium-high heat.
I have a transfer tray with a little wire rack in it
to keep our chicken-fried meat nice and crispy in the oven,
otherwise the bottom could get a little soggy,
so you wanna put that wire rack in your transfer tray
to keep it warm in the low oven.
The reason we divide the flour
is to take it through the flour
in to the egg, and buttermilk, and beer,
and then back in to the flour.
Now I get two or three coated at a time
and cook 'em in two batches.
I'm gonna take a quick break,
we've got some frying up in the back.
(audience applauds)
I'm transferring our spicy chicken-fried steaks
to our big ol' serving platter.
You make a cream gravy for this.
Isn't really cream, it's creamy gravy.
It's just thickened milk, like you were gonna make
macaroni and cheese, so flour, and butter, and milk,
and then I spice it up with a little Worcestershire sauce,
little bit of hot sauce, and if it gets too thick,
thin it out with a little bit of beef or chicken stock.
So we take our gravy over,
pour that gravy down over the chicken-fried steaks, yum!
I know, it's a rich dish, you're gonna have to go
an extra hour or two at the gym tomorrow, but.
(audience laughs)
then we have our cheesy Hassleback potatoes.
We filled them with butter, we finished roasting them
with cheddar cheese, and then we're gonna top them
with dill, parsley, and chives, and bacon.
(audience cheers)
Yes, then some pickled jalapeno peppers,
'cause it's Texas. (audience applauds)
And I say those can go anywhere,
those can go on the steak too if you really want some.
Whoo, there you go, Texas!
(audience applauds) (bells chime)