Chicken Fried Bacon

Texas is known for chicken fried steak, but chicken fried bacon? Why not?
 
The dish (served with cream gravy) was created in the 1990s by Frank Sodolak and is served at Sodolak’s Original Country Inn in Snook, near College Station. In 2008, chicken fried bacon won an annual food competition at the State Fair of Texas.
     
   
YouTube
Chicken Fried Bacon
 
South Coast Today (1-16-99)
Would you like double grease with that?
SNOOK, Texas
Occasionally throughout history, a visionary comes along who should be honored for his Herculean efforts in swimming upstream against the tide of political correctness.
 
Such a man is Frank Sodolak, who is pretty darned sure he invented chicken-fried bacon.
 
“I ain’t never heard of it anywhere else,” Sodolak said.
 
Sodolak, owner of Sodolak’s Original Country Inn in this small town (population 489) about 13 miles southwest of College Station—that’s about 100 miles northeast of Austin—serves the breaded and deep-fried bacon as one of his appetizers. For that totally brown meal, he says some people order it as an appetizer to go with their chicken-fried steak.
 
“You never know what they’re going to order,” Sodolak said. He concocted the high-in-vitamin-G (grease) food item eight or 10 years ago.
 
“I had some bacon one time, and I was just fooling around to see what would happen,” he explained.

I’m sure Dr. Frankenstein said about the same thing when he created the monster.

Sodolak makes his chicken-fried bacon by double-dipping uncooked bacon strips in milk and flour. Then he tosses the breaded strips in a Fryolator and nukes them in animal/vegetable oil for three or four minutes.
 
For that final touch, the chicken-fried bacon is served with a bowl of cream gravy.
(...)
John Kelso writes for the Austin American-Statesman.
 
Maroon Weekly
Chicken Fried … Bacon?:
Venture to Sodolak’s Country Inn for great country dining
By: Justin Vaughn / Maroon Weekly
Issue Number: 83
Publish Date: 05/31/2007
(...)
Chicken fried bacon is exactly what it sounds like: extra-long strips of bacon, coated and fried like chicken, and served with a side of thick cream gravy.  The taste is rather subtle — a more peppery bacon would probably work out wonderfully — and the strips are surprisingly light on your stomach.
     
RecipeZaar
Chicken Fried Bacon W/Cream Gravy
Recipe #156010
Bacon - it’s the ice cream of the meat world, high in Vitamin-G (grease) and bound to make the food police crazy! This side of fat douple-dipped in fat then fried in fat & served with a side of fat (cream gravy) recipe comes from Sodolak’s Original Country Inn restaurant in Snook, Texas. Cream gravy is my own recipe. I do not admit to ever making fried bacon so prep time is a guesstimate
by 4Susan
6 servings
30 min prep
Change to:  servings US Metric
   
Fried Bacon
1 lb thick sliced bacon, cut in half
1 egg
1/2 cup milk (or cream or half & half) 
1/2 cup flour
spices (optional) 
oil (for frying) 
 
Cream Gravy
3 tablespoons drippings or butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons heavy cream (whipping) 
salt and pepper, heavy on the pepper
 
Heat oil in a frying pan over med-high heat.
Whisk egg and milk together in a bowl.
Place flour in another bowl - season it if you’d like (garlic, pepper, salt, lemon, cajun, etc.).
Double dip - first in the egg mixture, then into the flour and repeat.
Fry in oil until golden brown.
Serve with cream gravy for dipping; also good served with steak.
 
To make cream gravy:.
Put drippings or butter in a sauce pan over med-high heat. Whisk in the flour until well blended; cook over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, until bubbly. Remove from heat and gradually add milk whisking constantly; return to heat & whisk until the gravy thickens; Whisk in the cream, salt & pepper.
 
Dallas (TX) Morning News
Chicken Fried Bacon? State Fair of Texas reveals winning fried foods
10:20 AM CDT on Tuesday, September 2, 2008
By JESSICA MEYERS / The Dallas Morning News
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Start dieting in November.
 
Nothing says State Fair like fried cooking, and nothing says Texas like chicken fried steak. Glen Kusak’s chicken fried bacon combined both, winning him the best taste award Monday at the fourth annual Big Tex Choice Awards.
 
Mr. Kusak has been a fair vendor the past 12 years, but this was his first year entering the annual State Fair of Texas food contest. The event features some of the new creations that will be available at this year’s fair, which runs from Sept. 26 to Oct. 19.
 
“Everything in Texas is chicken fried and bacon makes everything better so we thought we’d put the two together,” said Mr. Kusak, owner of Yoakum Packing, who drives about 250 miles every year from south Texas to sell his smoked meat at the fair.