Colin Mallet was sitting in a bar 7 years ago with friends when he thought of trying to make chicken fried eggs. He had made eggs with truffle oil, coated in parmesan cheese while working in a restaurant 8 years prior, but it never occurred to him to try a different coating. "They all told me it wouldn't work. But because I had done it before, I knew I could do it."
And that is the beginning of what Sassafras American Eatery now serves alongside a buffalo potato hash. "It's been on the menu since we opened three years ago. It's the server's favorite dish to sell and it always grabs people's attention when they read the menu."
The process of the dish starts with the hash. The meat is rubbed with chile, garlic and mustard powder, along with brown sugar, cinnamon, paprika, cayenne pepper and all spice. It's then smoked over pecan wood which gives the whole plate a smoky flavor. Potatoes, fresno chiles, cilantro, and spices join the buffalo, the star of the dish, in the grinder before being fried on the grill.
The six-minute eggs are shocked in ice water and the peeled ever so carefully. They are breaded with the same flour they use to fry their chicken, dipped in an egg wash, and then floured again. They are flash fried and then sit on top of the hash with a delicious chili hollandaise spread beneath them.
"The whole dish is like a little event. You get it and it's wrapped in a pretty present and when you cut into it, there's a surprise inside. My wife calls the egg yolk God's gravy. The event is God's gravy pouring out onto the plate."
The chicken fried eggs and buffalo hash are served at both Sassafras locations, open until 2:30 every day of the week.