Chicken Fried Bacon is a Thing, and You Need to Get Your Hands On It

Acre is an award-winning restaurant in Auburn, Alabama, which was opened by Chef David Bancroft. He was born in Alabama and raised in Texas, which completely explains why a unique dish he’s offering through his venue has taken off the way it has! You may have heard of chicken fried steak and the variations people put on it from region to region. But have you heard of chicken fried bacon?

This creation isn’t new, and Chef Bancroft can’t lay claim to having developed it, but it’s catching on like wildfire and making mouths water all over the U.S. In fact, chicken fried bacon is believed to have been created by a gentleman from Snook, Texas. The late Frank Sodolak came up with this unique culinary creation in the 1990s for the menu of Sodolak’s Original Country Inn. Before that, the idea of deep-frying bacon that was pre-dredged in a buttermilk batter was unheard of. Years afterwards, a variation of this recipe was well-received at the State Fair of Texas, winning an award for best taste.

Photo: Instagram/divine_swine21

Chef Bancroft has since utilized this creation at Acre, and it’s been the start of a phenomenon at the farm-to-table restaurant. It came out on the menu approximately five years ago. “I always come up with fun dishes to do for the staff,” he explained to It’s a Southern Thing. “They cook fancy food all day, so normally they want what cooks want — you know, pizza and Chinese food and wings.” His kitchen staff fell in love with it, and following an Instagram post by Bancroft, his customers did too. The dish consists of several strips of Acre’s house-smoked bacon, dredged in a flour-and-buttermilk mixture, and then deep-fried to a crisp. The chicken fried bacon is then served with maple syrup and sawmill gravy.