Dad’s Egg and Chips

Dad’s Egg and Chips is a bit of a British culinary institution, a bit like beans on toast, cheese on toast or a bacon butty.

My recipe for Dad’s Egg and Chips is a very poignant one, and I’ve been wanting to share it for a while. Egg and Chips is a bit of a British culinary institution, a bit like beans on toast, cheese on toast or a bacon butty. It’s simple food at its very best, using just three essential ingredients, that’s eggs, potatoes and cooking oil. But what is lacks in finesse and a long list of ingredients is more than made up for in taste. It’s classic comfort food, and is rooted in lots of happy memories.

I remember my dad cooking egg and chips, (always homemade chips) using an old black chip pan, and usually after a visit to the pub! This recipe for Dad’s Egg and Chips that I am sharing, is just that, fried free-range eggs with homemade chips, which are cooked in a simple pan, no need for an electric chip fryer. The best accompaniment for egg and chips has to be bread and butter, for essential chip butty making.

What is about chips and egg, as Shirley Valentine says in the film of the same name. It’s just such a wonderful combination of two simple ingredients. And, if like my husband you like your egg yolk runny, there’s an opportunity to dip your chips into the yolk. Or, if you are like me and like your eggs over with the yolk broken, then you can pop the egg inside some bread and butter for a egg sarnie. And, when bread and butter is served with Dad’s Egg and Chips, then the only thing to do is to make a chip butty.

It’s all very unrefined, but it’s the food of Gods I think. Simplicity at its very best using fabulous fresh ingredients. Which brings me onto eggs. I hate to be preachy, but as a mother of back-garden chickens, who are completely free-range, please try to use high welfare eggs, such as free-range eggs. You will be rewarded with a better taste, a glorious golden yolk and the knowledge that you haven’t contributed to the awful practice of battery hens.

I think that Dad’s Egg and Chips is perfect as it is already. But I realise that some people may want to add to it, so I’ve shared a list below of other serving suggestions, as well as some helpful cooking and preparation tips.

• Serve with bread and butter for sandwich making.
• You can of course serve baked beans or sausages and ham with your egg and chips.
• Serve with vinegar and sauces or pickled onions.
• The best chipping potatoes are: King Edward, Maris Piper, Rooster or Sante.
• To test if the oil is hot enough, add a small potato chip to the oil and if it floats to the surface and the fat “bubbles” it’s hot enough to fry.
• You may need to fry your chips in batches depending on the size of your frying pan, then just keep them warm in a oven until serving.
• You can make the chips before you need them. Fry them until a pale golden brown, store them and then just before serving, re-heat the oil and fry all the chips until they are very crisp and golden brown.
• You can peel the potatoes beforehand and keep them in water until you need to chip them. This can also be done after you have cut them into chips.

People who know me well, will know that I hate food snobbery, we all have to live, cook and eat according to our personal circumstances. So, whereas I know homemade chips are the best, frozen chips are more than okay when time is tight, and I always have a bag in the freezer. But, I DO love making homemade chips when I have time, and the chips in this recipe are chips “a la dad”. He was a whizz at cooking chips in that old chip pan, as I mentioned before, and at all times of the day and night.

Not only were these chips homemade, but they were made with what I call “dirty spuds” as in they still had the soil clinging to them, and had to be washed before being peeled and chipped. I served these eggs and chips with just salt and brown sauce. My dad would probably have had a round of bread and butter with his too. The gorgeous multi-coloured eggs are from Hen Bant Permaculture Farm, which is just down the road from me, and who are fulfilling our egg consumption very nicely, until my point of lay chickens come into lay, soon I hope.

One of the best things about today’s recipe for Dad’s Egg and Chips is it’s a cheap and cheerful dish. I’ve costed it, and the current cost in June 2020 is just 62 pence a head. (Not including the initial outlay of cooking oil, as that can be used multiple times) If you add bread and butter, it’s just an extra 15 pence per head, so a fabulous but frugal meal that is family friendly.

Eggs and potatoes are essential and easy ingredients to store. And, most people will always have to them to hand, adding to the popularity of this recipe during the post war years. Both my mum and dad remember having egg and chips regularly when they were growing up, just as I remember having it for an after school tea. So, I hope today’s recipe post for Dad’s Egg and Chips will remind you just what a handy meal this is for all the family.

I’ve shared some more easy egg recipes below from other blogs and websites:

• SCANDINAVIAN EGG SALAD by Lost in F00D
• Chorizo & Egg on Sourdough by Curly’s Cooking
• MOROCCAN VEGETARIAN HAGGIS SCOTCH EGGS by Farmersgirl Kitchen
• EGGY BREAD by Feast Glorious Feast
• BREAKFAST MUFFIN FRITTATAS by Jo’s Kitchen Larder
• Spicy Egg One Pot by The Mini Mes and Me
• Easy Spanish Tortilla by Tin and Thyme
• Easy Fridge Raiding Omelette by Sew White
• Pasta-Egg Salad by Surprising Recipes

You’ll find the full and printable recipe at the end of this post.

• Peel the potatoes and cut into wedge shaped chips about 2cm thick and 8cm long. Put the potatoes in cold water to remove some of the excess starch prior to frying, then drain and dry.

• Heat oil in a chip pan or deep frying pan and place all of the chips in the oil. Fry until the chips are light golden brown, moving them around during frying to get them all evenly coloured and crispy. Remove them from the pan and drain on soft kitchen paper. Season to taste with salt.

• When the chips are nearly cooked, heat up some oil in another pan and add the eggs. Fry them to your taste, as in sunny-side up, over easy or over with the yolk broken.

•  Serve the freshly fried chips with the fried eggs straight away, with vinegar and sauces or pickled onions.

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