["Sugar Sugar" by The Archies playing]
[Meghan] Roy Choi's coming over.
Now, one thing I know about Roy, who's also from LA,
is that he loves donuts.
So, let's try to make donuts.
First things first, we're going to sift together some flour.
And cue The Archies.
♪ Sugar ♪
Letting it snow.
Now we're going to mix some sugar
with some melted butter in a separate bowl.
♪ And you've got me wanting you ♪
I think baking donuts
feels like a safer choice for my first time at this rodeo.
♪ Ah, sugar, sugar ♪
[Meghan] Woo!
♪ You are my candy girl ♪
Donuts in general just remind me of my childhood.
I once had a job at a donut shop called Little Orbit Donuts.
They made tiny, tiny, little… Not donut holes, tiny mini donuts.
They would sell at craft venues. I helped.
[Michael] Maybe add this to your surprise breakfast stuff with your kids.
My kids would love this for a breakfast.
What child wouldn't love a donut for breakfast?
♪ Sugar ♪
This has that yummy buttermilk in it, so it'll have a little bit of tanginess
and sweetness with the sugar.
Mm-mm-mm.
Isn't it nice to try something new, though,
and realize it's very, very, feasible?
I'm always grateful for learning, right?
I don't know, it's the little things that bring me a lot of pleasure.
We're gonna pop it in the oven at 350 for ten minutes.
♪ Oh, honey ♪
While they're baking for ten minutes, we're gonna make our glaze.
Buttermilk and sugar. I mean, I just…
♪ You are my candy girl ♪
♪ And you got me wanting you ♪
Before the donuts come out, clean up as we go.
I need to impress this man.
Not just with my donuts, with my tidiness, with my kitchen savvy, my cleanliness.
- [oven bell dings] - Let's get those donuts.
That's pretty great, I have to say.
♪ Like the summer sunshine Pour you sweetness over me ♪
♪ Pour you sweetness over me ♪
Come on!
- ♪ Sugar ♪ - ♪ Sugar ♪
How fun.
[Michael] I mean, look at that. It's crazy.
[Meghan] It's extremely satisfying.
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
[Meghan] So before all this glaze sets,
it's a nice time to, if you're going to put sprinkles on them,
this is the time to do it.
Chocolate chips, anything, flower sprinkles.
♪ Baby ♪
Stop it, how sweet is that?
♪ Ah, sugar ♪
Roy Choi is this-- He's an iconic LA chef.
And Korean food is a staple of Los Angeles culture.
So, I thought we could make some classic Korean fried chicken together.
This is pretty easy and very, I hope, impressive.
Let's get ready for our friend to arrive.
We're not friends yet. We're going to be.
He might not know it yet, but it's true.
♪ You are my candy girl ♪
♪ Parara-papara ♪
[music fades]
[waves crashing in distance]
[upbeat music playing]
[Meghan] Do you believe my little donuts? You guys, I made those for you.
- You baked them from scratch? - I made--Yes!
- [Roy] Wow, that's nice. - And I made the matcha.
This one I think you're going to like. Can we just start having these things?
Let me get some napkins. I'm so happy you're here.
- Roy Choi's here! - [Roy] Happy to be here. Yeah.
I was blown away that I was even asked to do the show.
- That you even knew who the hell I was. - Are you joking?
- Because I'm a huge fan of you. - [exclaims]
- What are you talking about? - "How do I even register on your GPS?"
- We're just two kids from LA. - Yeah, for sure.
- Hold on. Let me try this. - Okay, great. Do you want me to get--
Great. I was gonna get a--
- That's good. - Is the buttermilk doing it? Is it sweet?
- Oh my God. - Easy!
- That's really good. - Mm-hmm.
- They're beautiful. - I heard you like donuts.
Mm-hm. I do.
I like apple fritters. I like long johns.
I like maple bars. Twists.
I just had, um, had one last week on the way-- on the way to the airport.
- From Yum Yum? - No, Randy's.
- Randy's. - Yeah.
That's the LA in us.
By the way, did you know that LA is the donut capital of the world?
- Yeah. - Oh, of course you do.
- [chuckles] - [Meghan] Growing up,
driving down Highland to get to school,
there was always a Yum Yum Donuts right there.
- Highland and Melrose. - Exactly. Is it still there?
Yeah, it's still there.
Oh my God. I should go back in.
So many people, I think, have an idea of what Angelenos are like,
but they don't know people who are from here.
But you're here, and I have been working very diligently
to make sure I do all of the prep and sous-cheffing for you.
Okay.
- Accordingly. - Yeah.
We're gonna make pickles, a crudités platter.
We're gonna eat kimchi with it, and then eventually
we're gonna make this, like, Korean-style fried chicken.
- We've got a busy day. - [Roy chuckles]
I've never heard, by the way, of putting milk in a brine.
Oh yes.
Also a first for me.
[upbeat music playing]
Roy sent me his recipe for how to brine this chicken.
So, whereas I would normally wing it, um, I'm gonna follow this to a T
because he's put his stock in this stock.
So we're gonna figure this one out together.
All good stock starts with water.
"Have each piece of citrus."
So let's get our goodies. A lemon, a lime, and an orange.
It's funny when I make a brine, you use what you have
and kind of toss it all together.
But this is specific.
Peel and chop the ginger.
Juice of half a lime, juice of half a lemon,
and juice of half an orange.
Lime, lemon.
Some salt.
Sugar.
There's our rice vinegar.
Two cups of beer.
He says whatever's in your fridge.
Then a half a cup of whole milk.
I have never put milk in a brine.
Yeah, it must be something with the lactic acid.
You're gonna bring it to a boil,
but how is that not gonna curdle with all the citrus? I don't know.
[jazz music playing]
Would you like some beer?
We're working hard over here.
- [Michael] We really are. - [Meghan] Working hard or hardly working?
I'm gonna give it to you in a glass.
Here you are.
Cheers. Okay.
That's good.
Peppercorns. I think we're all set.
Let's bring it to a boil.
[jazz music continues]
Okay. Woo-wee!
I think soaking or marinating chicken in milk, it just tenderizes it.
So we're gonna strain it, let it cool, and then our chicken will go in.
Smells great.
So we're gonna let this cool over here.
[music ends]
We have our raw chicken.
We are not gonna season this because the brine is our seasoning.
Now, with our cooled brine, let's just put all these in there.
Roy says we could let it sit in the brine for a couple hours or overnight.
I'm gonna go with overnight.
Put a lid on it.
Let… [inhales].
Let this do its magic.
You could make your life easier and open your fridge door first,
but when you've had kids, you're used to balancing things on your hip.
We're okay.
Chicken is in its brine bath, and tomorrow, we'll parboil the chicken.
[pleasant music playing]
That recipe comes from old Korean-style pub fried chicken,
and what they did was they would take all the beer from the night before
or the end of the night, they would pour it in a huge container,
and then they would pour milk into it, and the milk breaks down the enzymes.
- Is it the lactic acid? - Yes, the lactic acid.
But first, I know you have, um, all sorts of other goodies that you want to make.
Yes.
[upbeat music playing]
I think we're gonna start with the pickles.
What else do we need?
- [Meghan] Okay, bonito. - Yeah, we could grab whatever.
[Meghan] Furikake.
The great thing about pickles is that they can be designed to whatever you want.
Coriander, garlic, sugar.
Which spices do you think will be best for pickles?
Let's just put in what we think is right. That's the best way to cook.
It's so funny because I don't think people,
if you're not from LA, I don't think people understand
what a huge part of our culture, Korean-American culture, is.
Yeah, yeah.
I like the community that comes with it, and to grow up with many Korean friends,
and then outside of hearing "Anyang haseo,"
what did I hear more from moms? Hajima!
- Hajima. Don't do it. Yeah, stop it. - Stop it! [laughs] Stop! Enough!
I know that pickles can sometimes be intimidating.
People sometimes think it's more than it is.
Pickles are actually really easy, um, especially quick pickles.
So I figured we'd make a recipe that I call quickles because they're quick.
So we'll just take the vinegar.
I'm so curious to know how you make it, how you do it quickly.
Equal parts water and vinegar, and then throw all that stuff in there.
- Garlic. - Garlic, spices.
I don't know how much sugar we put in there--
- [Meghan] Yeah, that's good. - And then we put some salt.
- Do you have salt and pepper? - [in singsong] Absolutely!
Uh, and then we'll throw fresh dill. Bring it to a boil and a light simmer.
[pleasant music playing]
While that's coming to a quick boil, I'll clean up a little.
- Oh, see, I do that too. - You do that?
I am not messy in the kitchen. I always clean as we go.
I clean up hotel rooms before I leave. I don't know if you do that.
I do.
No. Just tidy. Like, make the bed or put the dirty towels in the bathtub, right?
Even when I was young, when we would party in hotel rooms,
everyone would leave all the beer cans and everything, and all the towels.
They'd leave, and I'd clean everything up.
- It becomes embarrassing. - Yeah.
Even if you don't know the people, even if they don't know who you are,
I would picture my mom or grandma going, "Where is your home training?"
[Roy] We have daikons, or just pickling whatever?
Yeah, and a garden.
- Cool, you do have a daikon. - The daikon is there.
[Roy] So we'll do cucumbers, daikons, and then your carrots and onions.
Basically cooking the whole garden.
I don't have a green thumb.
I've worked with produce my whole life as a chef.
A lot of the farmers have a spiritual connection to the land.
They can stick their thumb in the soil,
and they know exactly what will happen in the next three months.
It's the same thing with me and food. If I touch this daikon,
it's almost like a science fiction movie.
Pulsating through my body. I know exactly--
- You're one with it. - I am.
I know what to extract from it,
how to get the flavor, what life this went through.
- You're serious about that daikon. - [chuckling] Yeah, I'm serious about it.
[Roy] How long you've been gardening? I'm horrible.
Oh, I love it. So--
Is this something that you've always done,
or you picked it up as a hobby and fell in love or were meant for it?
They had, in science class, a lot of time in the garden.
I was probably like 10 or 11.
We learned composting, what nasturtiums are, and spending--
- And look, that's Highland and Fountain. - Yeah.
So, that's an equivalent of urban gardening for sure.
I loved as a kid being able to go, "Wait, I planted this thing."
I'd sit there patiently waiting.
And then suddenly you go, "It's grown, and I can eat this."
And it makes you so grateful for food, and so grateful for--
- It's a lifelong thing. - Yeah.
We're fortunate to live up here, so I have space.
- I can share that with my kids. - You gotta start young and make it fun.
- [Meghan] Yeah. - All right, so that's ready.
- You want to get anything from the garden? - Sure.
[gentle music playing]
[Meghan] It is gorgeous today.
This place has a lot of feng shui. That mountain coming straight down.
The whole flow of this.
- Bro, I'll kill this garden if I touch it. - Okay.
I will kill this.
Me and vegetables, we meet at a different point.
In their habitat, they don't want me around.
But when they reach their next destination…
- You commune at chapter two. - That's when we hook up, yeah.
[upbeat music playing]
[Roy] Here we go.
We could do strawberries if you want to mix it up.
[Meghan] Pickled strawberries? Never heard of that.
[Roy] Never? So good, pickled strawberries.
I can't wrap my head around that that'll taste good, but I trust you.
You're Roy Choi.
- You're gonna love it. - Okay.
So, we have some strawberries. Not a ton right now. But that's okay.
- We've got the carrots. - Perfect. Should be enough.
Okay, cool.
- We'll come out again… - Some chilies…
- You wanna do chilies? - Yeah.
These have a lot of heat. I bit into one the other day to make sure…
- Really? Those don't look spicy at all. - Are you joking?
- They look like banana peppers. - Try one.
- Okay. - [Meghan giggles]
- They have heat. You don't think so? - These aren't spicy.
- Or like a shishito where it's… - They're super hot!
Stop that! That's not fair, I promise you.
These are not spicy. These are like pepperoncinis.
- That's different than yesterday. - See?
It's not a lot of heat.
[jazz music playing]
Okay, so I'm just going to throw those chilies that you had.
- The super spicy ones. - The non-spicy--
[chuckles] The super spicy.
And this is a lot of cooking too. Just improvisation.
"Oh, you have chilies. Throw that in."
[Meghan] We've got our daikon. Our cucumbers.
We're gonna pour it right into the…
[Meghan] How long do you let all this macerate? How quick are the quickles?
These are quick. So, literally till it cools down.
- So, we're going to do this. - Really? Yeah.
[Roy] I'm gonna do this.
[Meghan] Do that.
[Roy] Go ahead and do that with the daikon.
[Meghan] Yeah.
- [Roy] We have enough for one more. - [Meghan] One more.
- You wanna do strawberries. - …because you've never had--
I don't understand. I mean, I grow a lot of strawberries.
I make a lot of jam and preserves at my house.
I've never heard of anyone having a pickled strawberry.
Then we'll pour that right over it. We'll pour these over this.
[upbeat music playing]
- [Meghan] Love it. - [Roy] Okay.
Here's the cover of your cookbook.
- [chuckles] - And here, look at that.
[both] Isn't she pretty?
- [Meghan] Showing off. I love it. - We're done.
[Meghan] I'm in it. It's great.
[Roy] The quickles were an introduction. We'll start with the kimchi paste.
[Meghan] Okay.
The thing about this kimchi paste that makes it so great
is it can be used for the fermentation and preserving of things.
But it can also be used as a dip and you just eat it right away.
You can make it into a quick snack, so…
- Okay. Bowls. - Do it with a blender.
- All in. - Everything in a blender. Think margarita.
- And, uh… - Okay.
You already mised everything out, but we're gonna add stuff. Um…
We have to chop a couple of things. Go ahead and rough chop that ginger.
And then we go in the blender.
The funny thing about blending was, my mom used to make this, kimchi paste.
[chuckling] But she'd make milkshakes right after.
All our milkshakes tasted like kimchi paste.
- So, throw that in there-- - Let's christen this one.
- We'll christen this. - Great.
Um, and then you can cut that one up.
- Got it. - Throw in there as well.
That was really good knife skills. Like, that was awesome.
[Meghan] Thank you. This is a great day.
Now, what we have to do, basically--
Since we've mised everything out, we're gonna start dumping.
And basically purée them.
- That's gochugaru, Korean red chili flake. - Gochugaru.
- [Roy] More onion. - [Meghan] Great.
- Garlic. - Nice blend.
- Garlic. That's ginger. - So more ginger.
- And then sugar and salt. - Mm-hmm.
Then we add our liquid. Oyster sauce.
Mm-hmm.
You could omit that if you're vegan.
Sesame oil.
- This one here? - Mm-hmm.
Soy sauce.
- I think that's mirin. I think it's mirin. - Yeah, mirin, yeah.
[Roy] Definitely mirin.
- I think that's water. Is it? - Yup.
- I don't know my own recipes. - I'll smell it. I mised it.
And then, we just blend it.
[whirring]
Yeah. You going in?
We'll taste it now. See if we did it right.
- Damn, that's good. - I love this.
- You like garlic? - Try this.
- Come on. Come on, Brooklyn. - Mm.
I knew you were gonna start sweating. I knew it. His glasses got foggy.
- Something just flew into my eye. - [Roy] Yeah.
- [Meghan] I knew it. - I deny it.
[Roy] This is gonna be a dip. We'll also make a quick kimchi with it.
♪ When I dip, you dip, we dip ♪
[Roy] Then we'll make a beautiful crudités platter.
Crudités are everywhere, but boring. We only serve them with ranch dressing.
- I can make a nice-- - We could do something exciting with it.
Maybe make your really great crudités and then have this as a dip.
[Meghan] Oh, nice.
[Roy] See what looks best.
[Meghan] Carrots, good.
♪ When I dip, you dip, we dip ♪
[Meghan] I'm doing a color story here.
♪ …when you dip, I dip, we dip I put my hand upon your hip ♪
You said crudités platters are boring.
- Fighting words. - [Meghan] What you talkin' 'bout?
I didn't know your trigger point is crudités.
[giggling] It's all about crudités.
We have them every day because
that's how our kids love eating vegetables.
You make it present beautifully. With your eyes first.
I got scared. The LA came out in you.
You were like, "Crudités. Fighting words!"
Oh, yeah. 'Cause we were all talking about crudités at Immaculate Heart…
Can you imagine?
I used to go to your school dances because my cousins went to Loyola.
- Really? - I went to three dances in the gymnasium.
Oh, my God. Yeah.
- We were so awkward at 13, 14 years old. - Of course.
- The girls on one side, boys on the other. - All the wallflowers.
- Oh, gosh! - Nobody would approach the middle.
[upbeat music playing]
I'll do the watermelon. We'll make this new-style watermelon kimchi.
[Meghan] This'll be a fiery plate with these colors.
- Is it good? Thank you. - Good.
And it just needs a bit of time to…
That's so good.
That's like growing up in LA,
and you get the mango on the side of the road,
and put the chili and lime--
Thank you for picking up on that.
This was designed with the fruit carts in mind.
I love kimchi so much.
That was the thing. My mom's always loved Korean spa culture.
Oh yeah.
That's a powerful thing as a young girl to see culturally,
multi-generations all enjoying this experience.
And eat. They have amazing restaurants and kimchi. You sit and eat.
[Meghan] I love all of that.
But then the best thing about, uh, Koreatown,
you could go to all-ages clubs and Karaoke bars.
I was part of dance crews. All that stuff.
- You were? - Yeah.
No one talks about all the dances that were such a big deal.
- Not the actual dance-- - Roger Rabbit?
The Roger Rabbit and the Kid and Play. Ah, it was just so much fun.
Man, you and I are so similar. We should have met a long time ago.
You listen to music when you're cooking?
I do. A lot of lyrical hip-hop, jazz, sometimes speed metal. Death metal.
No, you don't.
- What's speed metal? - It's like dark…
That doesn't sound like The Choi of Cooking.
Yeah, we all have different sides to who we are.
- That's true. Multifaceted folks. - Yeah.
That's what we are.
It's good for when you're butchering. So, I cut these into, um, squares.
While you're doing all that,
I'll cut this up and make a quick kimchi. A traditional style kimchi.
[hip-hop music playing]
[Roy] So, here we have cabbage and some different types of spring onions.
I-- I try to defy the laws of the way recipes are supposed to be.
Put everything together and eat it.
Riffing in the kitchen is where the playfulness and joy come in.
Absolutely.
I just think it's a beautiful opportunity to have fun.
Is that for me to try?
So, you taste this. This could be a quick kimchi.
But now we can pack it into a mason jar and this will ferment.
It's good. My daughter does the same.
When she likes what she's eating, she sways a little bit.
This type of cooking, it's fun.
It's life to its fullest in ordinary moments, you know?
- We're in a flow. I'll take it. - That's what I'm saying.
We've got our beautiful spread.
Amazing what you can do with one paste and a load of vegetables.
Absolutely. We'll do sauces and salts next.
Yes, we will.
- Yes, we will. - Yes, we will.
[upbeat music playing]
♪ All right ♪
[Roy] Now we have to get into the sauces for the chicken.
We're going to do three styles of chicken.
We'll start with the sweet chili sauce.
This is based off of my love for Thai culture and food.
- Mm. - Silly name. It's Sweet Child of Mine. Uh…
[chuckles] That's great. So, we've done a lot of the prep.
- Should I start putting this in? - Yeah.
So, some green onion.
Yeah. Minced green onion. Next, we have the garlic.
Garlic.
- [Roy] Ginger. - Yeah.
- Serrano chilies. Or Thai bird chilies. - Serrano.
- Um… onions. - Onions.
Some Thai basil and some cilantro.
[Meghan] That smells so good.
- Sesame seeds, uh, chili flakes. - Mm-hmm.
Korean red chili, which you're using.
Or use any other type of red chili flake.
- We have sriracha. - Yum.
And then, this kind of like, Thai chili sauce.
Lime juice, lemon juice and orange juice. And now just blend that up.
[whirring]
- Very strong. - Let me taste first.
- Oh, damn, that's good. - Is it?
Of course it is.
That's so good.
People don't consider
how many ingredients go into that one sauce.
- [Roy] We'll save that. - [Meghan] Okay.
We have our Korean crying tiger sauce.
So what we did here is we made, like, a little soy, ginger, sesame oil.
And we put all that in there and we poach it a little bit.
Then we're going to add all the same type of herbs. Sugar.
- Mm-hm. - And then some Thai bird chilies.
Woo! Here.
- Which are really spicy. - Yup.
Then some sambal or chili garlic sauce.
- [Meghan] Love that. - Throw that in.
And then this one's, um, fish sauce, yeah?
- Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. - Great. Okay.
[Roy] We're going to whisk this together.
Mm-hm!
Oh, that's good. That's so good.
[Meghan giggles]
- Okay, good. - You could just eat…
[Meghan] Sauce.
You could just eat sauce, you know? Why not go to a place and just eat sauce?
Oh, wow.
Okay, so there's that.
You don't see that one at first.
- Right? - At first you're like, "It's nice."
And then you're like "Oh!" The depth of flavor.
Like you are with crudité platters, I am with sauce.
- [Meghan] I can see why. - Yeah, it's beautiful.
[Meghan] Beautiful.
[jazz music playing]
[Roy] Now we're going to do our dry salts for seasoning the chicken later.
- There's MSG in there. - A little bit of MSG?
- Yeah. - [Meghan] I don't know enough about it.
I just remember there came a time in the '90s or early 2000s
where it was just, when you're ordering food, "No MSG."
And I don't quite know why that happened.
Yeah. Do you want to know the real reason without sanitizing?
- Yeah, I would. - It was racist.
It was racist against Asians, you know?
It was, um, a thing about Chinese restaurants.
It's not any different than, again, bouillon powder.
Wow.
It exists in all of the fast food that America was raised on.
What we have now is we have this more democratic food culture
where information can be accessed.
And, um, you don't see any young people saying MSG gets you sick anymore, right?
- That's very true. - All that was fallacy.
- I'm glad we've evolved in that way. - Yeah.
- This is ancho chili powder? - Mm-hm.
Cayenne. More chili powder.
- Cumin. - Oh, I love cumin.
I love a smoky flavor.
Chicken powder?
Chicken powder is something I have never heard of.
- This is really just like bouillon powder. - Okay. Sounds chicer than chicken powder.
It does.
This is, um, let me see if this is right.
- I think it's great. - It's great.
We'll save this for the chicken later.
- We're ready to fry some chicken. - Let's do it.
- Let's do it. We're ready to go. - Okay.
[Roy] Did you poach the chicken?
- I parboiled it for you. - Parboiled it?
- Yes, in the brine. - Awesome.
[mambo music playing]
Whoa.
So this is the second part of Roy's chicken prep.
What we're doing is getting all of this yummy chicken
that we have had in our brine overnight.
Remember the brine that has beer and milk.
So we're going to take this out.
We're going to bring the brine to a boil.
And then we're going to put all the chicken back in.
We're going to parboil it, which is just another way of saying partially cook it.
Okay. We have our chicken. Let's bring this back up to a boil.
Cue some more waiting music.
- [Latin jazz music playing] - [humming]
I think we're in good shape.
Roy said to poach this for 8 to 12 minutes at a medium high boil.
To parboil some chicken is news to me.
I've never thought that the meat will still stay tender.
Even if we're going to fry it after this.
I'm excited to see. Roy knows what he's talking about with this chicken technique.
So we're just going to wait. Guy's having a grand old time.
So,
this chicken has… parboiled.
Who knew this was something you could do?
Smells good.
We have the parboiled chicken. We're going to make the batter.
Okay.
Here's some tempura flour. Can you put it in this one?
- Pour in, like, a third of that. - Okay.
Uh, there you go. And then give me another half of what's in there in here.
- [Meghan] Oh! - Okay. That's perfect.
- And so we can do that. - Yup. I'm going to whisk.
And just kind of gently mix as I'm mixing the water in.
So we're using ice-cold sparkling water.
And just yeah, keep moving it around.
[Meghan] Does the sparkling water just help make the batter extra crispy?
[Roy] Yes, exactly.
Do you ever put, um, cold sparkling water in your eggs before you scramble them?
- No. - Same sort of effect.
- Helps them rise, a little fluffy. - Really? I'm gonna do that.
Just a tiny splash.
[Roy] We're going to add some ice to that to, um, keep it cold,
but also to break up the batter a little.
Looks good. Let me see.
We're just going to let that kind of sit there.
And you can see it's not like a pancake batter, right?
- That it's not smooth. - Mm-hm.
Especially from a Western point of view, it looks like we somehow
did something wrong or it's not finished yet.
- It's supposed to be smooth. - Especially if it's your first time.
- You would go, "I did something wrong." - But that's what tempura batter should be.
Now we're going to dredge. So go ahead and just cover these.
Okay, great. We're just dredging it. Shake it off.
Dredge and shake it off.
[Meghan] Mm, mm, mm.
[Roy] Beautiful.
Have I fried chicken before? Solo? Never.
My grandma, my mom's mom used to fry chicken, but I love it.
- And my husband loves fried chicken too. - Oh!
So maybe we're going to start making some more of this.
I feel as though if you're making it at home,
you want to make it with friends or family and enjoy the process.
[Roy] This is a great family communal activity.
Especially with all the elements. Everyone gets a job.
Do you fry chicken a lot at home? Or you, at the end of the day,
if you're in restaurants all day, you're over cooking once you get home?
[Roy] I don't cook that much at home.
A lot of times you don't want to eat your own food.
- I hear you on that. - You know what I'm saying?
It's like looking-- It's like kissing yourself all day long.
All day long, all you're doing is French-kissing yourself.
[chuckles]
Tasting your own food.
All of a sudden, you go home, and you cook for yourself again.
You're like, "Eh, I don't want to do it." You want to eat someone else's food.
[Meghan] This is good?
Yes. You're always picking up what I'm putting down.
- I love that about you. - Thanks.
- We connect. - Off to a good start.
Yeah. We're ready to fry some chicken.
[upbeat music playing]
[Roy] We're going to try to do 350 for these.
- [Meghan] You want this wing-- - So we have our batter.
You have this, yeah.
Dunk them in here first. Really, really soak it.
- Try to get it as much as you can. - Okay.
- I'm going to drip it off. - [Meghan] Oh.
- [Roy] Drop it right in. - [sizzling]
[Meghan] How long is that going to live in there?
Well, live is the wrong word.
Yeah. So it'll probably be a few minutes because the wing is already cooked.
- Mm. - Eighty percent. 80 to 85%.
- And so really what we want is more-- - That was that poaching.
- That was that poach thing that you did. - Yep.
- Parboiling it. - [Meghan] In the brine.
[Roy] And then you do a quick fry. And then it allows--
It allows everything to stay juicy.
And then, so now what we're doing is,
we want to get a beautiful golden brown GBD,
which we call "Golden, brown and delicious color."
- GBD. - Yeah, GBD.
I'm a fan of that.
[Roy] You don't want to overcrowd,
taking all this chicken and putting it in at one time.
[Meghan] Do it in batches.
- [Roy] Absolutely. - Yeah.
[Roy] There you go.
Okay, since that has time to do its thing…
Sorry, did you say I should pop a bottle? Okay.
- Yes, champagne. - Yes, chef.
[Roy] I am going to risk my own embarrassment
because I turn bright beet red when I drink, so…
- [Meghan] That's okay. - Champagne and fried chicken, I'm down.
[Meghan] Just a little bit.
[cork pops gently]
[Roy] Nice.
There's--I may not be able to fry chicken, but I can open a bottle of champagne.
- Champagne and fried chicken? - [Roy] It's the best.
[Meghan] Because it cuts through all the fatty, greasy goodness.
Mm! Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm!
- Cheers. - Thank you.
- This has been amazing.
- [Roy] Those are great. Come on out. - [Meghan] Okay, great.
And now we're going to see here.
[eager chuckle]
So let's give this a shot.
It's going to be too hot? Nope?
[crunching]
- Mm-hm! Mm-hm! - Delicious, right?
- Different texture. The tempura batter. - I love it.
It encapsulates the meat on the inside, so then you create this tornado of flavor.
Yes.
I'm one with this wing right now. And it's so good.
Wait till we glaze it. It's going to be crazy.
- Okay. - So…
[both] Let's do some more.
[upbeat music playing]
- [Meghan] Mm. - Drain.
And then… You don't have to shake. Just let it fall off.
- Of course. Also prettier, isn't it? - There we go. Yes. Exactly.
Maybe I'll come stage at your restaurant.
- I would love you to. - Thank you. I'd love that.
We should open a fried chicken joint. People would line up.
- Fried chicken and crudités! [laughs] - Yeah, fried chicken and crudités.
[Roy] So let's season these while they're hot.
Go ahead and generously season those and toss them.
- [Meghan] Okay, great. - That's the salt that we made earlier.
- Take this up here. - Mm!
And then we're going to take our original quickles.
This one's going to be straight-up Korean fried chicken style.
And make, like, a little Tetris mountain over here.
[Meghan] This is feeling very chef-y.
If we were to open a Korean fried chicken joint together,
this would be our signature plate.
Now we have our second version and our sweet chili sauce here.
Gently. Yeah, beautiful.
Woo!
[Roy] Mm-hm.
And this one we'll put on here.
And that watermelon kimchi that we made earlier,
do the same thing you did with that right here.
- Okay, make a little world. - A little more, yeah.
[Roy] And then…
Mm!
[Meghan] Oh, this is so good. And it looks like a little volcano.
[Roy] Beautiful. That's perfect.
Okay, now for the last version, we're going to glaze.
- Mm! - This one will be a little bit different.
- Here we go. Put that-- - Yup.
Yeah, right there. And this is our crying tiger.
And go ahead and just take this stuff and glaze all around the chicken.
And you can use both hands to twirl the chicken.
And yeah, just keep glazing.
It's almost like you're putting, like, lacquer on a car. Like--
- I do that all the time. - Car wax. Yeah. [chuckles]
[Roy] That one we'll serve with the beautiful strawberries.
Put them right on the plate, and stack your strawberries on the side.
[Meghan] Got it.
- [Meghan] Should I try one of these? - Sure.
How do you like it?
- I'm wrapping my head around it. - Good.
They're really good. I love it.
This is, like, a perfect look. What we want.
Everything you did from the brine,
to the parboiling, to the frying, to the salts.
[chuckling]
Everything we do produces this beautiful, crustiful product.
Mm! It's a good day at work.
This is gorgeous.
[Roy] We made pickles. We made kimchi.
Then we made crudités.
We made three different sauces.
[Meghan] And we had donuts.
[chuckling] And now we have this fried chicken.
Oh my God.
Woo!
[softly] Okay.
I feel very accomplished today, I've got to say.
- We pulled it off. - It was worth it.
- It's so good.
We're family now.
Oh my gosh. It might be too much for the two of us, but I have some…
There's a lot of people on the other side of whatever you're watching.
- It's very good. Want to try some, Jake? - Yeah, I would love to!
[Meghan] Dig in.
Here. Yep, napkins, plates, napkins, plates.
[Meghan giggling]
Jen, do you want a piece of chicken?
[crunching]
Look at-- Oh my gosh, girls.
- [laughter] - Right?
[indistinct]
- It's a good day. - It's a good day.
- Beautiful. - [Roy] We did it.
- Aww. - [chuckles]
♪ Feel good ♪
♪ Gonna make you feel good ♪
♪ Bringing joy to the neighborhood ♪
♪ Everybody feel good ♪