8 Ingredient Creamy Shit On A Shingle Recipe!

Shit on a Shingle Recipe is an unofficial US military dish served mostly for breakfast. This dish consists of a cream sauce with meat in it poured over toast.

What is Shit on a Shingle Recipe?

Shit on a Shingle is also called creamed chipped beef on toast or SOS. It is a retro war-time recipe that is synonymous with the US armed forces and was developed in the early 1900s. Due to its agreeable nutritional properties, ease and speed of preparing, and relatively low cost to produce in large quantities it was considered a common traditional meal of the military.

It also became a necessity during the great depression when Many mothers would reinvent this recipe to make it taste better with various spices and vegetables as a way to make it more nutritious. It is made with toasted bread, dried chipped beef, and white sauce, all of which were easily available when rations were low. The toast provides the ‘shingle’ and although the name sounds less than appetizing, this is a really quick and delicious breakfast dish.

What is Chipped Beef?

Chipped Beef is very thin slices of salted, smoked beef. It is not as dry as beef jerky and does not have much fat. It can be made from slices of beef taken off a hunk of air-dried beef such as beef round. This beef round is then put in a very salty brine to cure for several days, then drained, and hung in a cold room to dry.

It can also be made from pieces of chopped (“chipped”) beef that are pressed together to form slices. Chipped Beef was first made by the Amish in Pennsylvania and is now available in most stores. It has a high sodium content so it is advised to eat it in moderation and it has to be stored in the refrigerator as it easily spoils in high temperatures.

How To Eat Cream Chipped Beef

Cream  Chipped Beef is traditionally eaten over toasted white bread but now people have realized that it can be eaten with almost anything like biscuits or hashbrowns. It can also be eaten with fried or scrambled eggs, rice, potatoes, and even pasta. You can even include a side of fresh fruit to add a bit of sweetness to the meal.

Shit on a Shingle Recipe Ingredients:

• Dried beef slices 8 ounces 
• Unsalted butter ¼ cup
• All-purpose flour ¼ cup 
• Milk 3 cups preferably whole milk
• Onion powder ½ teaspoon 
• Dried thyme ½ teaspoon 
• Cayenne pepper ¼ – ½ teaspoon 
• Thick-cut white sandwich bread 8 slices

How to make Shit on a Shingle Recipe?

1. First, cut the beef into strips and then into short segments. (Approximately ½ X 1 inch)
2. Place a large skillet over medium heat and add in the butter. Once the butter has melted, whisk in the flour to create a roux. Cook the roux for 2-3 minutes until light gold.
3. Then whisk in the milk. Keep whisking and add the onion powder, thyme, and cayenne.
4. Let it simmer for a couple of minutes so that the gravy thickens.
5. Add in the dried beef, and cook another two minutes to warm the beef and thicken the gravy. If the gravy thickens too much, just add a little milk to reach the consistency you want.
6. As the gravy is cooking, take white bread slices and place them in a toaster. Once the gravy is your preferred thickness, place 2 slices of toast on each plate and cover it with creamy chipped beef.

Cooking & Storage Tips for Shit on a Shingle Recipe

• Cooking Tips: Dried Beef is very salty so Soak the dried beef in hot water for 10 minutes before cooking as this will remove some salt. You also don’t need to add any salt to the gravy or sauce. If you can’t find dried beef you can use thin pieces of pastrami, beef, ham, ground beef, or turkey sliced deli meat. These will not be as salty so you can add a pinch of salt to your cream-chipped beef gravy.
• Storage Tips: Keep leftover cream chip beef in an airtight container for up to four days in the refrigerator.
• Reheating Tips: Reheat in a glass or porcelain container in the microwave, covered, starting at 30 seconds on high for ½ cup of leftover gravy.

Summary