- Holy (bleep!
- Gently!
- Whoa, whoa!
- Did it splatter?
- A little bit.
- Okay, you okay?
- I'm good, thank you.
- Hey guys, it's Carla,
I'm here in the Bon Appetit
Test Kitchen today with rapper Rich Brian.
- Rich Brian.
- And today, we are going to
make together, chicken parm!
- Amazing!
- And we're gonna see
if Rich Brian can follow along with me
through verbal instructions only.
So like, do you cook at home?
- I love cooking at home,
it's like the most relaxing thing to me.
I love the whole process
- Really?
- If it's like goin' to the grocery store,
just like everything.
- Okay, so now on the count of three
we're just gonna turn around
- Okay
- We have the same setup.
- All right
- And then we're just
gonna start cooking!
- Okay!
- Okay ready?
- All right yeah!
- All right, three, two, one!
- All right
- Yay!
- So
- So, first thing
you may notice the raw chicken.
- Uh-huh
- But just disregard
that for now, we're gonna
set up our breading.
- Breading
- So, you've got
a pan of bread crumbs, eggs, and flour--
- Okay.
- So just get the fork out
of the pan with the eggs.
- Okay
- And just crack those
three eggs into the pie plate.
- [Rich] Cool
- Are you familiar with the
three step breading--
- Cracking of the eggs?
- Oh yeah cracking [laughs]
Are you familiar with cracking eggs?
- I'm sort of familiar with that, yeah.
Little bit.
- Cool, do you have a
method for cracking eggs?
Some people do.
- No, I've tried multiple
times to crack eggs
with one hand
- Uh-huh
- But I'm really bad at it.
All right so I cracked the eggs--
- You got your eggs.
Okay so now there's a bowl of salt
and a pepper mill
- Okay
- And I just want you to
aggressively season the breadcrumbs
the eggs and the flour
- Okay, okay, cool
- With salt and pepper.
- I will be honest and
say that this is something
that I'm not really good
at because this one time
I tried to make fried chicken and then
I was following a YouTube tutorial.
- Mmm
- And I was following exactly
what he was doing
- Yeah
- And then it just tasted
like absolutely nothing.
- You can't trust what you
see on YouTube, you know?
- Yeah, totally, it's insane!
So, I season this.
- Okay, so then once
you're seasoned up go
ahead with that same fork
and scramble the eggs.
- Okay, cool.
Should I mix the seasoning
around in the crumbs
- Yeah, exactly
- with my hand?
- Very intuitive.
- Okay
- Yeah
I just used my hands for the dry--
I guess I use my hands for the breadcrumbs
and I use the dry fork for the flour.
The eggs don't have to
be completely homogenized
but pretty well beaten
- All right!
- And then the fork you can
drop onto that metal tray
just so we don't get egg
on our cutting board.
- Gotchya!
- All right,
before we bread the chicken,
I just wanna check the fry oil
and let me know where you're at.
- I am at around 346, 347?
- Same, exactly the same!
- Okay cool
- All right, we gotta turn
this up because I actually
wanna fry at like 425.
- Okay
- So on the dial,
just go up to like 415 and we'll see,
these heat up fast.
- 415, that's like--
- Yeah, 415 and then we'll
bread the chicken then
we'll check it out again.
- Okay
- Okay so now
you may want gloves if you
don't wanna touch raw chicken.
- Okay
- I don't really care
but I am wearing rings and
then I'd have to take 'em off.
Okay so now what we're
gonna do is we're gonna
butterfly the chicken breast.
So holding your knife
parallel to the cutting board
and then like cutting into
the breast from the side.
- So you're kind of like
splitting it in half
like you would cut like a
hotdog bun or something?
- Exactly!
- Okay perfect.
- So then yeah, just making
like a long cut length wise
- All right cool, cool
- On one side
and just trying to get it sort of halfway
so that in the end we're
gonna end up with something
that's really wide and really thin.
- Okay
- So as you go through just
like leave it attached on that one--
And it'll sort of be heart shaped.
You got it open?
- I'm working on it.
- Okay [laughs] no rush.
We got time, I already
tore mine, so it's cool.
I have a little hole in like
the thin part of the tender.
But, I'm just gonna go with it.
So once you have it
butterflied, let me know.
- [Rich] I think I do!
- Okay so once it's open,
there's a piece of plastic
wrap over by the sink.
- Okay
- Put the chicken breast
on top of it
- On top of it.
- And then fold the
other half like over it.
We're just sandwiching the chicken breast
in the plastic wrap, but
you can bring it back
over to your cutting board.
All right, you sandwiched?
- Uh how many layers?
- Just like uh, there
should be a bottom layer
- Okay
- And then,
like a top sheet.
- Okay!
- Yeah!
- I have that
- Okay cool, so then find the meat mallet
which is in the metal
container on your station
- Got it
- And then with the flat side
- Okay
- I just want you to start
to pound it out, the goal
is to like get it as thin
as you can without ripping it
or busting a hole into it.
- Is it to kind of make the meat thin
and kind of wide?
- Exactly!
- Okay
- Like we want a big,
like almost plate sized, thin cutlet
and it's gonna cook really fast.
- Cool
- I find like
starting from the center
and working out to the edge
is the most even way to do it!
All right, mine is pretty thin
and it's definitely heart shaped,
what is yours looking like?
- Looks like a sting ray
- It looks like a sting
ray, yeah, exactly!
Oh my God,
perfect description.
- Yeah
- All right, I feel like if I go anymore,
I'm gonna rip it, where are you?
- Uh, I can go a little bit more, I think.
- Okay, what do I think
about when I'm doing this?
I think about trying not to
saying pounding the meat.
That's literally all I'm thinking about.
- I'm trying my best not
to say beating my meat.
- So that [laughs], flattening,
I'm trying to say flattening
as much as possible.
Okay, I'm good, I'm scared, I'm done.
- You know what I'll be done too.
- So yours, is it very thin?
- It's quite thin
- It's quite thin.
- Okay yeah
- And no tears?
- Uh, as you just said that,
I might've torn like an edge.
- Okay that's fine
- Yeah
- I have a little hole,
I'm good, I have a fisher.
I'll say
- Okay
- Let's get rid of these gloves.
You can drop them in that garbage bowl
and then for this next
step, we're gonna bread,
we're gonna go flour, and then egg
- Okay
- And then breadcrumb.
I think it's good to have gloves again
because I always, there's
a way that you do this
where you use one hand
for the wet ingredients
and the other hand for the dry
and I never do it right and
I just bread my fingers.
- So, are you doing one glove?
- Yeah, so gloves back on,
let's season this top
side with salt and pepper.
- The top side of the chicken?
- Yeah
So pull that plastic open
and with it still sitting on the plastic,
just season salt and pepper
'cause even though our
toppings are all seasoned,
I wanna season the protein itself.
All right so then careful
because it's so thin,
I want you to put it flat into the flour
and kind of press it.
So the secret to making the coating stick
is actually this flour
coating being really thin.
After it's been hit on the second side,
lift it up and kind of
pat any excess flour off
- Okay
- Because we need a really
thin even coating of
flour, if it's too thick,
it's gonna be like gunky under there
and if there's any bald spots
then the breading won't
stick to those places
and we won't have an even coating.
- Gotchya
- So, nice and thin with
the excess shaken off.
I have a massive tear in my cutlet.
- It's okay, I have a little bit too.
- Do you?
- Yeah
- All right, you're making me feel better.
I tore my cutlet, that's gonna
be my next autobiography.
Okay so then, lift it out of the flour
and then kind of the same
thing, dunking it into the egg
on one side and then just
lift it up, turn it over,
hit the second side, and
then lift it up again
and let the excess drip off.
You can give it a little
shake, get the egg off.
- Okay
- Have you done this before?
- Um, no.
- You haven't made a cutlet before?
- No, I've never done that.
- Oh my God, the wonderful
world of cutlets is open now.
- So when you say a
cutlet do you mean like
the whole thing where you
cut the chicken breast
in half and stuff like that?
- Yeah, like a boneless chicken cutlet,
anything breaded and fried,
you can do this with pork too.
- Gotchya
- Make chung-kat-su.
Okay so then right into the bread crumb
and then for this I wanna
press it pretty firmly.
- Okay
- In there,
I'm using my fingertips
so I don't like smoosh
all the egg off but
turning it on both sides
and I really want
breadcrumb like everywhere
and these are pretty fine
so they have a tendency
to absorb right away and
then you can actually
pack more on so when can turn this cutlet
back and forth a couple times.
- All right.
- Is your cutlet coated?
- It should be right about now.
- Okay so now, grab a pair of tongs.
- Got it
- I'm gonna pick the chicken
up with the tongs on one side
- Okay
- And I'm gonna use my hand on the other.
- Okay
- So when you put
the chicken into the oil,
imagine like you know how
seals go into the ocean
when they're on the edge and
they just like belly slide in?
- Yes, I know exactly what you're saying.
- You know what I'm talking about?
So put the chicken into the oil like that,
like not jumping but just
down and then across.
- Okay, cool, oh are you doin' that
right now?
- It's very--
I'm doin' that right now.
- So are you putting it in
with the tong and the hand?
- I use my hand just 'cause
I'm gonna rip it if I only
hold it on one side
- Okay
- But don't obviously
put your hand in the oil.
That'd be terrible.
- So you use the tong to transfer
it into the baking thing?
- Yeah, it was in the baking
sheet, I use the tongs to
pick it up and then kind of
gently lower it into the oil.
- All right
- And it's gonna slide
like let it slide across
the fry oil away from you.
And it should be boiling
and browning like pretty--
- Cool!
- Pretty fast.
- Cool!
And then you can take the
breadcrumb and just put 'em off
to the side
- Okay
- Oh, it's browning!
- Yeah, I see it.
- Right?
- Mhm!
- [Carla] Okay, I was like
30 seconds ahead of you
Brian I think and I'm like very brown
- Okay
- So I'm just using
my tongs again to turn the cutlet over.
- Okay, kinda flip it?
- If yours, is it really
dark golden brown?
- It's yeah, like darker
than a brown paper bag?
- Yeah!
- Okay, you can flip it, turn it over.
- Oh [bleep]!
- Gently!
- Whoa, whoa!
- Did it splatter?
- A little bit
- Okay, you okay?
- I'm good, thank you!
It's always crazy how that never--
You know, knock on wood.
But I can't believe
that never hits my eye.
It's always close
- It's kind of amazing
'cause I actually have
had it hit me all places
- Okay
- but it's amazing
that your eye closes
at the perfect moment.
- Yeah!
- But I have gotten
burned on my eyelids
- It's insane,
I love it, okay!
So I flipped my chicken by the way.
- And yours was very thin, right?
- Uh-huh!
- So, I want you to go for like,
I have to take mine out.
- Okay
- I was ahead.
And I'm gonna use the spatula also,
there's a spatula in that equipment kit.
- Okay
- And just take this out
- All right
- But you might be a little bit behind me.
I'm looking for like a very
deep, dark golden brown.
- It's pretty dark, golden brown to me.
- Okay, great.
Take it out!
- With the spatula also?
- I use the spatula just for support.
- Yeah, okay
- And the tongs.
And then just put it right
onto your cooling rack.
- Cool!
- Amazing!
And then just hit the
power switch on the burner
so that the oils not still going.
- Done
- All right, perfect.
So now there's a little
pot of tomato sauce
- Okay
- Drag that over, you
wanna spoon enough marinara
to really go like wall to wall,
all the way to the edges.
- So what are we doing?
- Spooning the tomato
sauce over the cutlet
and kind of using the
back of the spoon to push
it all the way to the edges.
- Okay
- So I don't want
it super thick but I want it everywhere.
- Like an even coating all over?
- Like an even coating,
and I don't really wanna see breading
through the tomato sauce.
- Gotchya, I'm kind of
surprised that I'm--
I feel like I'm doin'
pretty well actually.
- You're surprised?
- Yeah
- But you're like, you cook--
- Yeah, but I'm not good at
deep frying stuff, you know?
- I know, deep frying is intimidating.
- I feel like splattering
happens to me no matter what.
[Carla laughing]
But the thing is with
like deep frying stuff
it's just, I never know when it's cooked.
- Oh yeah, see this is so thin that like
it almost cooks immediately.
- Yeah
- All right,
let me know when you're sauced.
- Uh, give me a sec.
- It is taking a while
to put the sauce on,
I'm gonna say [laughs].
- All right, I'm done.
- All right so now grab the hunk of parm
and grab your grater.
- Okay
- And I want you to use the
one kind of narrow side.
- Okay
- So not the really big
holes and not the one
opposite the big holes.
- Okay, I think I know what
you're talking about, yeah.
- And then holding the cheese
grater right over the parm,
oh my God, my hunk of
parm broke immediately.
Just grate--
- How much cheese
would you say?
- A really even coating.
- [Rich] Okay
- [Carla] So it should
just be white on top
- Okay
- [Carla] A snow capped cutlet.
- This is beautiful
- Right?
Like I'm using this hole on the grater
because this cheese will
also melt really fast.
- Yeah
- Like the big
strandy ones kinda get
gunky and this will just be
that like perfect, even coating.
- Like the first coating
of cheese is kind of like
being absorbed by the, it's
like absorbing the sauce.
- [Carla] Right
- [Rich] Should I keep
going until it's kind of--
Yeah, keep going until
it looks pretty like,
it's just been topped with
an even coating of cheese.
- [Rich] Okay!
I might be good.
- Yeah?
- Yeah!
- Okay, amazing!
- Yeah
- So now, the really fun part.
We can get rid of our tongs,
just set your tongs aside.
- Okay
- And grab the large
torch
- Oh, large torch.
- Large torch!
So this is a sears-all
- I've heard of this!
You've seen these?
- I'm obsessed with making steaks
- Really?
- So I've seen
a lot of steak videos
where people use this so yeah.
- Have you ever used one?
- No
- Okay, amazing!
All right so the only thing--
A couple things.
One is like what's gonna come
out of the top of the cone
is fire, so just beware.
- Okay, okay.
- And then the other thing,
you don't want the tank to
ever go like more than parallel
to the floor so like you
don't wanna invert it
all the way upside down.
- Okay, gotchya.
- Okay, so just try to keep
that so that it's more like
- Got it
- An arch
okay cool, so then turn, there's
a red button in the front.
- Okay
- Turn that to on.
- Okay
- And then,
that same button, pointing
the torch away from you,
just click that button on.
- Oh I'm supposed to hold it?
- Okay, and then you have to
keep your finger on the button
and if you release your
finger, it'll turn off.
- Okay
- But that's fine, and so
now we're just gonna take
the torch and like moving it
back and forth over the surface
- Over the cheese
- Over the cheese,
cooking the cheese until it
melts and turns golden brown.
So the beginning it seems like
maybe nothing is happening
- Yeah
- But like the torch
is heating up and the cheese is heating up
so just sort of move it slowly around.
- Oh, it's happenin'!
- Is it happening?
- Yep!
- What does it look like?
- The cheese is melting.
- Is it bubbling?
- [Rich] Uh not yet.
- Okay.
So it's gonna go like
melting and then bubbling
and then browning.
- Okay.
- And then also, this is when
we find out how strong we are
- [Rich] 'Cause you gotta
carry the propane tank?
- We have to literally carry the torch.
Oh browning, bubbling!
- Oh no!
- What's happening?
- I just scraped [laughs]
I accidentally scraped
a part of it
- Oh no!
- With my sears-all.
- That's okay!
You can turn your torch off
if you wanna do a quick repair
Just grab a spoon a do a
little smoosh it back over.
- I was thinking of
adding more cheese on it.
- You can do that, do that, genius!
Great instincts, really.
All right, are you happy
with your coating now?
- I'm ready to torch again, yeah.
- Torch again.
- Okay
The longer you hold it on one spot,
the faster it will go in that spot.
- Keep going until it starts browning?
- Yeah you want like the
sauce is gonna peek through
as the cheese melts,
all right let's asses.
- Let's stop?
- Let's asses.
I mean evenly melted, some brown spots.
I think I did a really
thick layer of cheese.
- I see like yellow melted,
evenly melted cheese.
- Yeah
- I see the sauce
kind of peeking through it.
- Yeah
- So I'm not sure
if that's browning or not?
- Let's do 10 more, I think
ours look exactly the same,
10 more seconds
- Okay cool
- 'Cause I'm also starting
to see that I'm like
a little bit burning my breading
and I don't wanna burn my breading.
- Okay
- Let's just go
10 more seconds
- Okay, all right.
- It's just, I just wanted
to turn the torch on again.
- Whoever made the chicken
parm for the first time
is a genius, I didn't know
it was this complicated.
- Well, only because we're torching.
Right, I'm gonna stop.
- Okay.
- It's bubbling, it definitely melted,
I've got some brown spots
- Okay
- Okay cool.
So now, you can like push
your sheet tray away from you,
towards the middle of the island.
And bring over your dinner plate.
- All right
- And then, that's it.
We're just gonna put
the parm on the plate.
- Okay, what do you use your spatula, or--
- I am
- Okay
- It like almost takes
up the entire plate.
Okay, if you have to scooch your parsley
and lemon out of the way.
- What's that?
Oh okay.
- If you have to scooch
your parsley and lemon out
of the way, that's okay.
Okay, she done?
- Um yes
- Awesome.
Why don't you count us off?
- Do you want me to count?
- Yeah!
- All right
One, two, three.
- Ta-da!
- Ahh!
- Oh wow
- Oh wow
- You made like--
- Kinda similar
- You made like a parallelogram.
- Yeah
[Carla laughing]
That's interesting.
- That's cool!
- Wow
- That's just how, yeah,
you butterflied and then
you had those two halves.
Looks good!
- Cool, thank you!
- Out meltage is very consistent.
- I feel like you have
more browning then me.
- Maybe a little, I think I over-cheesed.
I think I like nervously
just kept cheesing.
- Oh okay
- Yours looks amazing.
I get to eat yours so--
- Okay
- I'm pleased.
- Okay so I have to say this
is one of the most symmetrical
outcomes I've ever seen.
- Yeah, really?
- And yeah, I'm a little
embarrassed that you managed
to get your cutlet like quite
a bit thinner than mine.
- Oh wow, thank you
- Yeah
But I had that rip that
I was contending with,
so I was being kind of--
- Where was the rip?
- Conservative, I don't, I
think it was over here somewhere
but it got like breaded in
- Oh gotchya, got it, got it.
- So no we get to switch.
- Okay, okay.
- Yeah, so I actually
get the thinner cutlet.
- Thanks, okay.
This is actually gonna be my breakfast,
I don't know about you
- Oh same
- I haven't eaten--
- I haven't either either.
- Nice
- And I worked out
before I came here
- Oh my God
- Because I had to hold the torch
and so I wanted to just
be like extra strong.
Love the shape
- Thank you.
- Yeah, okay.
Let's get in there.
- All right.
- Mmm, mmm it's crunchy!
- Nice
- Perfectly cooked
- Nice, let me get some more cheese.
- Oh that's the tear, you
were asking about that torn.
Yeah, that's right there.
He got the little torn
edge, it's like a tender.
- Yeah, cool.
- All right, awesome.
Mmmm!
- Mmm!
- Mmm!
Nicely done!
- Thank you!
- Great coating!
- Wow!
- Love it, mmm!
- It's like not too seasoned or anything?
- No, if anything it
could be a little more.
- Okay
- It's kind of amazing
how much that breading--
- Mmm!
- Wow
- Who doesn't love a chicken parm?
- This is really good.
- Thank you, yours is delicious.
- This is the best chicken
parm I've ever had.
- What?
- Mhm, usually the chicken parm
that I have is like, I don't know,
it's a lot bigger--
- Right
- A lot chunkier
- The mozzarella.
- With the mozzarella
- Yeah
- Yeah, that's the one that I have.
- Who needs, we don't need,
it's not chicken mozzarella.
- Yeah exactly.
- Thank you!
- Thank you!
- That was fun
- Yeah!
- [Carla] We're just gonna
eat our chicken parm now.
