Mmmmm…. Good eats! Of course, I have a cold and can’t taste anything.

CFS à la Mode

Chicken-fried steak has been on my mind, as well as my plate, all year. Some months ago, I came back from the Dallas Farmers Market with a few pints of ripe Texas blackberries and a couple pounds of top butt. The blackberries were for ice cream, the beef for chicken-fried steak. The next evening, as I watched the blue-black base swirl and churn in the ice cream maker, a thought crossed my mind. At first, I set it aside. But by the time I put the blackberry ice cream in the freezer to firm up, the passing thought had reasserted itself, becoming a fixed determination. I would make chicken-fried steak ice cream. On to the food…

Voilà! Chicken-fried steak à la mode. The dish looked almost exactly as I’d envisioned it–a smooth, tawny quenelle of ice cream slowly melting over a hot, crisp chicken-fried steak. Texturally, the ice cream was everything I could hope for. Smooth, dense, and not a hint of iciness. The light brown ice cream, with flecks of pepper, was reasonably attractive on the CFS.

Flavorwise, this was hands down the most disgusting ice cream I’ve ever had the misfortune to taste. All my opining about the conceptual affinities between ice cream and cream gravy went out the window with the first bite of the meaty frozen custard. The melted ice cream, intended to simulate a rich cream gravy, tasted like fried beef crème anglaise. (Crème Texan?)

In other fried chicken news, there’s KFC’s space sign in the desert.



  1. J says:

    I have to say. Ice cream and french frys are very tasty so maybe…….

  2. Ronnie says:

    You should have tried some sort of pepper ice cream, like the habanero one here. Ginger or Wasabi ice cream might have worked too.

    I’ve had white chocolate and red peppercorns (in a great Brazilian ice cream shop) which was pretty good, and I usually add black-pepper to chocolate ice cream, or actually hot chocolate too.

    Ginger is excellent, easy to get from Whole Foods or something like that, and I’ve had Wasabi before from ColdStone, that was pretty good too.

    My point is a spicy, not very sweet ice cream might go really well with the chicken… I’ve also been known to dip frech-fries in milk-shakes, so I’m biased, I guess…

  3. Mucous says:

    Personally, I’ve always wanted to try Bacon-Mint ice cream topped with butterscotch, lake trout and sausage gravy. Mmmmmmm.

  4. Uncle Dave says:

    If you go to the Gilroy, CA Garlic Festival, you can try some garlic ice cream. Definitely an acquired taste.

  5. tallwookie says:

    the last paragraph is the best

  6. joshua says:

    #2….Ronnie….it’s not chicken.
    I love all kinds of flavors of ice cream, but wasabi is a bit much. And I have been to the Gilroy Garlic Festival 3 times and still hate the Garlic ice cream and I LOVE Garlic.
    I’m also a closet chicken fried steak freak….God thats good.


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