Chicken Fried Steak Eggs Benedict

Yes, it is as delicious as it sounds, a poached egg served on top of a piece of chicken fried steak covered in homemade hollandaise sauce.

This is a recipe for Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs Benedict lovers. I mean who doesn’t love these two dishes? A perfect this for both world. If you are not a fan of the Chicken Fried Steak, tune in for the secrets on how to make the perfect poached eggs and homemade hollandaise sauce. If can make it, so can you!!!

Here is a grocery list of all the things you will need. Don't be intimated by the lists as a majority of this can be found in your kitchen cabinet.

• 1 lbs. of Tenderized Beef Cube Steak
• 1 cup of Buttermilk1 dozen eggs (spares one for mistakes)
• Salt
• Paprika
• black pepper
• onion powder
• garlic powder
• baking powder
• cayenne powder
• Tabasco sauce
• Cornstarch
• All purpose flour
• 2 lemons
• 6 english muffins
• Chives (optional for decor)
• Canola oil for frying

Cut the steak into roughly the size of the English muffin. Season the steaks with a pinch of salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. Let it sit at room temperature while you prepped the rest of the ingredients. Bringing the steak to room temperature before cooking does not have any major impact on the cooking result of the steak. It is just for convenience purposes of not having to wrap it up and put it back in the fridge. Can you believe that? Yes, I am sorry to break the myth, but apparently bring the meat to room temperature before cooking has no impact on the result.

Mixture 1: (¼ cup of cornstarch)

Mixture 2: (1 egg, 1 cup of buttermilk, 1 tbsp of tabasco sauce)

Mixture 3: (1 cup of all purpose flour, ½ tsp of salt, ½ tsp of paprika, ½ tsp of black pepper, ½ tsp of onion powder, ½ tsp of garlic powder, ½ tsp of baking powder, ½ tsp of cayenne pepper)

Prep all the breading mixtures (mixture 1, 2, and 3). There are three separate batches. Don’t skip the cornstarch (mixture 1). It is a must. I have tried this recipe with just the all purpose flour mixture (mixture 2) and the wet batter (mixture 3). The result was a chicken fried steak covered in a thick oily skin. Don’t make the same mistakes. Cornstarch help form a thin crust and that is what we want. The baking powder raises the pH on the surface of the batter, resulting in a crispier layer.

Dip the steaks into mixture 1, mixture 2 (the wet batter) and drip off the excess, and into mixture 3 and press the seasoned flour onto the steak using your hands. Try to evenly coat the steak including the edges. We want all that crispy evenly cooked crust. Fill a cast iron skillet (or nonstick) pan with enough oil to cover the steak or at least ¾ of it. Turn on the stove to medium-high heat (between 5–6 on an gas stove setting). Wait for the oil to heat up. Cook the steak until golden brown (~4–6 minutes). Then flip it over and cook until golden brown (~4–6 minutes). Remove and set it on a plate/tray covered with paper towel.

To make the perfect poached eggs, here is a trick I learned that works every time. Bring a big pot of boiling water to a boil. Choose a pot that is deep enough to cover the eggs fully and still have about 2–3” of water above the eggs. Add a small splash of distilled vinegar or cider vinegar, whatever is in the kitchen. Lemon juice will also works. This helps bind the egg white to each other, resulting in that nice circle shapes. Crack the eggs into a strainer. Avoid breaking the yolk during this process.

Slowly submerge the eggs into the rolling pot of boiling water. Use a spatula, carefully and quickly push the egg out of the strainer. Swirl the water to form a circle that trap the egg in the middle. This helps all the egg whites bind to each other and form a perfect round poached egg. Cook the eggs for about 3–4 minutes, until the egg starts to rise to the surface. Carefully remove with a skimming ladles (ladle with holes). Directly place the poached eggs into a cold water bath.

This will be the easiest hollandaise sauce you will ever make in your life. This recipe works every time, but the amount of ingredients used for this have to be exact or it won’t works. Binding two ingredients (oil and water) that don’t want to bind is hard, but doable. Add all the hollandaise ingredients into a metal bowl. Place directly on top of the stove. Turn the stove onto the lowest setting possible. Whisk continuously until the mixture thicken into the desired thick consistency. Check out the tips and tricks section for info.

To serve, toast the muffin in a toaster until lightly golden. Place on a serving plate. Spread on a thin layer of hollandaise sauce. Add on the chicken fried steak. Carefully remove and strain the poached eggs from the cold water bath. Place directly on top of the steak. Spoon over enough hollandaise sauce until the poached egg is covered. Sprinkle on some thinly sliced of chive and drizzle over couple drops of tabasco sauce.

Enjoy and don't forget to leave me a comment if you ended up making this.

For the original post and printable recipe, check out my blog.

Type of beef cuts

The answer is basically any cheap cut of steak that is tender. What? The word cheap and tender does not goes together for steak. If you can find cube steak, a type of steak that has been tenderize by machine, use this. If not, buy any cheap cut steak like bottom round cut. Basically any type will work. Make sure to tenderize the steak with a tenderizer.

Is the oil ready or not?

To test when the oil is ready, dip in a wooden chopstick. If there are tiny bubbles forming on the tip of the chopstick, your oil is ready. Don’t have a chopstick? Just sprinkle on a small amount of flour onto the oil. If there is bubbles on the surface, then the oil is ready for frying.

Making the perfect poached eggs

Use a strainer that is smaller than the pot size that you choose to poach the eggs in. Too large of a strainer will make it harder to drop in the eggs. If your eggs are fresh eggs, straight from the chicken to the kitchen, then you might not have to run it through the strainer before poaching it. Here is a good link to a video by Sortedfood on Youtube that gives good tips and hints on how to make the perfect poached eggs. For eggs brought from the store, the strainer method works as it helps remove the excess water from the eggs.

Defeating the hollandaise sauce!

I used Chef John’s (Youtube Foodwishes) recipe. When I first make this hollandaise recipe, my mixture didn’t emulsify, but separated out and it was not good. It turned out I added too much lemon juices. Make sure to measure all the ingredients as precise as you can to avoid the liquid from separating out. The lemon juice also causes the hollandaise to have a hint of sour taste. However, adding a pinch of tabasco sauce helps remove this sour taste while adding a nice spice flavor to the sauce. If you don’t like spicy food, just add a smaller amount. Make sure to whisk continuously until the mixture form foaming bubbles and thicken up. Avoid over cooking the hollandaise sauce or it will separate as well. I learned this the hard way, but hey that is what the spare eggs are for ;). The hollandaise sauce is completed when the surface is covered with layer of foaming bubbles and looks a little thick. Keep the sauce warm or the mixture will separate. To avoid this, just make the hollandaise sauce at the end, right before serving.