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Smashed Potatoes and Bacon Gravy


A couple of years ago ago, at a restaurant that was cute but ultimately disappointing*, I decided to order fried chicken with smashed potatoes and bacon gravy, and green beans with slivered shallots**.

As any cook worth her salt will tell you, restaurant fried chicken is a foolish order. The best fried chicken is lightly floured*** and shallow-fried, producing plenty of nice fat and cracklins for milk gravy, which is IMHO the entire point of fried chicken. Restaurant fried chicken is usually heavily breaded and deep fried, and the gravy, if it exists at all, is a sad broth based thing, or nothing more than white sauce. Also I don't like chicken very much. Nonetheless, I ordered it because I had never considered putting bacon gravy on potatoes.

Readers, it was a divine combination. The potatoes were buttery and slightly lumpy (in a good way) and the gravy was just the right texture, smoky and not too rich with a good dash of pepper. I made it the next week at home, and I'll make it again tomorrow. You could serve it as a side, but I usually just heap some other veg in the bowl and make extra gravy. (Pictured here, green beans and corn cut off the cob.)


Smashed Potatoes with Bacon Gravy for two
8-10 Yellow potatoes about the size of an egg
2 Tbsp. butter
2 slices good bacon
1 Tbsp. flour (gluten free will work fine)
1 cup milk, preferably whole

Boil the potatoes until very tender in salted water. They may even explode a bit, which is fine. Drain and put back in the pot to dry out a bit. (If you're fussy, you can peel the skins off here, but I can't be bothered.) Bash the potatoes about with your weapon of choice - a potato masher, or a ladle, or a wooden spoon. You want them to break down into a creamy yet lumpy mass. Add butter and salt and pepper to taste (go light, because bacon.)

Meanwhile, cut the bacon into short lengths and fry it until your platonic ideal of crispy. Remove from pan. If you have more than a tablespoon or so of grease, spoon some off****. Reduce heat to low and stir in flour. Cook gently for a minute, then stir in milk, slowly. Cook until thickened to your ideal gravy texture, adding more milk if needed. (Frankly I never measure the milk, I just keep adding and reducing until it's what I want.) Add bacon back in, salt and pepper to taste. Serve over potatoes. Or stand at the stove and eat it.

*The menu concept and decor were excellent; the service ranged from inexperienced to incompetent, and the kitchen might have been drinking.
**As is often the case, I ordered for the sides
***Brining or buttermilk soak optional
****Into the bacon grease jar. You have one, right? Don't throw away flavor!

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