FNCCC 13 – Brian Boitano – Chicken Fried Steak on a Stick with Whatsthishere Sauce
September 7, 2010 3 Comments
I’m a southern girl, and I’ve made my fair share of chicken fried steak. Usually it consists of dredging cube steak through flour, egg/milk mixture and saltine cracker crumbs. Never while making chicken fried steak have I wondered, “What would Brian Boitano do??” Yet here it is — chicken fried steak on a stick with whatsthishere sauce! Instead of cracker crumbs, Brian mixes in some corn meal with the flour. He also threads the steak onto skewers before dredging and frying. I have a theory that he has a minor OCD problem like Wil and just doesn’t like getting his hands all nasty during the dredging process. I, however, don’t have a problem with this, and I just didn’t see the point in using skewers. I also didn’t want to use a TON of oil to deep fry the strips, so I just pan fried them like I usually do. The corn meal gave a nice little crunch to the steak fingers without soaking up grease like the cracker crumbs usually do. It was delish!
The whatsthishere sauce was awesome. I originally picked this recipe just because I thought it was cutesy and catchy. Little did I know that Brian had his finger on some pretty great flavors. I’ve never actually used horseradish in anything, and while I realize it’s in shrimp cocktail sauce, I’ve never really consciously made the flavor connection. When Wil had to buy horseradish for something he was cooking earlier in this series of FNCCC, I wondered, “What on earth will we do with that WHOLE jar of horseradish??” Well, I’ll be using it for this sauce, and I just might break it out and make my own cocktail sauce for when we have fish.
I think what truly amazed me about this whole meal was how well it went over with the family. Of course the hubby loved the steak strips and the sauce, but the kids.. the kids were surprised. Caleigh (the 11-year-old) loved the steak, but didn’t try the sauce. Alexandra (the 19-month old) on the other hand loved both the meat and the sauce. She would take her little bits of steak and dip it in the sauce, and when the steak ran out, she just started dipping her fingers in and licking it off.
I’m definitely adding this one to the recipe collection. Maybe I should start asking myself what would Brian Boitano do just a little more often!
Wait, you found a recipe of his that didn’t have bacon?! I was pretty impressed with the recipes I made of his way back when too.
*add bacon to taste.
I’ve watched a few episodes of Boitano’s show, but I just can’t get through them. I will admit he has some decent recipes though. I was pleasantly surprised by the steak fingers and sauce. ‘Twas yummy.