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(cheery band music)
(smooth music)
All right, let's start off with that most simple of snacks
to eat while watching stuff: popcorn.
But not just any popcorn, we're gonna add
some fun seasonings, starting with za'atar.
We're tiny-whisking together
one tablespoon of the toasty, zesty Middle Eastern spice
with one tablespoon of kosher salt.
Then, as for the actual poppin',
we're placing three tablespoons of coconut oil
in a large stock pot, heating over medium-high heat,
and adding two or three kernels of unpopped popcorn.
These are gonna sort of act as the canaries
in our popcorn coal mine.
When they start to pop, the oil is fully heated,
and we're gonna add a third of a cup of popcorn kernels.
Toss them around in the fat to coat them evenly,
remove them from the heat, and cover them,
letting them rest for 30 seconds.
Then we're placing them back over medium-high heat
and shaking them constantly until the kernels are popped.
This should take anywhere from one to two minutes,
and is a perfect opportunity to make silly faces
in the reflection of your pot lid.
Okay, that's a little scary.
Oh God, no, that's terrifying.
Keep it moving until you're down
to one to two pops per second,
occasionally cracking the lid to vent steam.
Take it off the heat, then you'll be delighted to find a pot
of as-perfectly-popped popcorn as is presently possible.
There are precious few seconds
that your popcorn is going to be receptive to toppings,
so it's imperative that you coat them immediately
with the seasoning of your choice.
You can also drizzle a few tablespoons of melted butter
over the popcorn for even better stickage.
Add a good sprinkle of seasoning, toss it around,
add some more, get everybody as evenly coated as possible,
and there you have it, seasoned popcorn,
burdened with the tangy, nutty flavor of za'atar.
But what if you're in the mood
for something a bit on the spicier side?
Might I suggest gochugaru?
This time we're combining one tablespoon of salt,
one teaspoon onion powder, one teaspoon sugar,
half a teaspoon of black sesame seeds,
and two teaspoons of gochugaru, or Korean chili flakes.
T-whisk that together until homogenous,
and this time we're gonna pop our popcorn
using a mix of two tablespoons of vegetable oil
and one tablespoon of sesame oil.
Toss together as before, and you got yourself
a big old bowl of spicy, sweet, savory snackin' stuff.
This one was my personal favorite,
but a close second was a sweet spiced chai popcorn.
This time we got two tablespoons of sugar,
half a teaspoon of kosher salt,
two teaspoons of cinnamon, half a teaspoon ginger,
eighth of a teaspoon of clove,
quarter teaspoon of ground cardamom,
eighth of a teaspoon of allspice,
and about a half teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg,
optional.
Also a couple twists of freshly ground black pepper
to round out the spice.
This time we're back to coconut oil
before popping and tossing our corn.
And there you have it, a sweet popcorn that,
I never thought I would say this,
gives kettle corn a run for its money.
Flavored popcorn is a super easy game day snack,
but it's about as easy to make as it is filling.
So why don't we take a crack
at something a little more satisfying?
Nashville hot chicken and waffle skewers.
We're gonna start with a pound and a half
of the boneless skinless chicken of your choice,
you can use dark or white meat.
If you're using thighs like this,
make sure you trim off all the excess fat and sinew,
and then cut it into one- to two-inch bite sized pieces,
which we're going to optionally brine in buttermilk
for optimal juicy flavor tenderness.
One and a half cups of buttermilk,
one tablespoon of kosher salt,
and a few twists of freshly ground black pepper.
Tiny-whisk to combine, drop the chicken inside,
toss to coat, and refrigerate for at least eight hours.
This is optional, but highly recommended.
If you don't have the time or the inclination,
you can go ahead and skip straight to the next step.
In a wide bowl or pie plate, we're combining
one and a half cups of flour, half a cup of cornstarch,
one and a half tablespoons of salt,
and one tablespoon of freshly ground black pepper.
Miniature-whisk that to combine,
and that's the dry dredge for our chicken.
The wet dredge is already half made.
Straight to our butter chicken mixture
we're gonna add one large egg thoroughly beaten,
along with a few dashes, about a tablespoon's worth,
of Louisiana style hot sauce.
Toss everything together until it is thoroughly combined,
and then for extra crackly, crispy chicken crusts,
we're going to dump about a tablespoon of the marinade
into our dry mixture, tossing it around with a fork
until it forms little crumbs.
And then, shaking off the excess marinade,
we're gonna dump our chicken straight into the dry stuff,
tossing it around to evenly coat,
and then letting it sit for like 10 minutes.
This is gonna help the coating adhere to the chicken
during the frying process, which we're gonna perform
in about two quarts of peanut oil,
or the deep frying oil of your choice,
heated to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Add the pieces of chicken in batches so as not to overcrowd,
and fry for anywhere from 12 to 15 minutes,
flipping occasionally
until the chicken is golden brown on the outside
and registers 175 degrees Fahrenheit on the inside.
Once it's done, it's best to drain on paper towels.
This helps soak up excess oil
and keeps the chicken crispier longer.
Once you have rinsed and repeated
with the remaining chicken, you can just stop there
if you want plain old fried chicken and waffles.
But if you're like me
and you've got a girlfriend who craves spicy food,
we can transform this into Nashville hot chicken.
Into a very heatproof bowl goes
three tablespoons of cayenne pepper,
half a teaspoon garlic powder,
half a teaspoon paprika, and one tablespoon...
Come on little guy, one tablespoon of light brown sugar,
to which we're gonna add about half a cup
of the still ripping hot fry oil, hence the heatproof bowl.
Tiny-whisk until it forms a devilishly red,
extremely spicy-looking paste,
which we're going to generously slather
all over our fried chicken bits.
The cayenne pepper in this paste
can be adjusted to your liking
to make it more or less spicy,
but if you ask me, proper Nashville hot chicken
is spicy enough that you cannot eat it with a straight face.
Rapidly blinking eyes, shallow breaths, and a flop sweat
are signs that you've done your job correctly.
Now, with all this spice,
it's nice to have something sweet, hence waffles.
While the chicken stays warm in a low oven,
we are combining one cup of all-purpose flour,
a half teaspoon each kosher salt and baking soda,
one teaspoon baking powder, one tablespoon of sugar,
and one tablespoon of cornmeal in a medium bowl.
Tiny-whisk until homogenous,
and then in a separate, smaller bowl,
three quarters of a cup of room temperature buttermilk,
half a teaspoon vanilla extract,
four tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled,
and one large room temperature egg.
Now tiny-whisk that until homogenous,
add it to the dry stuff, and gently fold together.
The gentlier, the better.
Overmixed waffle or pancake batter
results in gluten development,
which results in tough, dense cakes.
So don't worry about getting all the lumps out.
Now it's time to bust out the old waffle iron,
I'm going Belgian style,
lubing generously with nonstick spray
and loading up with half of our waffle batter.
That's right, this recipe only makes two waffles,
but that's all you're gonna need.
Cook according to your
waffle iron manufacturer's instructions,
or until golden brown, crisp, and cooked through.
Once you got your waffles made, it's a-time to skewer.
I'm gonna start by dividing the waffles
into bite-sized pieces
to accompany our bite-sized pieces of chicken.
Makes sense, right?
Then onto some long wooden or metal kebab skewers they go,
alternating between chicken and waffle
for a decorative flair.
Skewer 'em up, stack 'em high,
and that's all there is to it,
a sweet, savory, spicy, handheld
chicken and waffle delivery system.
You could of course serve these with maple syrup,
but I've got an even better idea.
My bald-headed brother, Sean Evans,
sent me a bottle of this stuff, it is Hot Ones Hot Honey.
And I think it's gonna be just right
for what we got going on here.
After all, what goes better with sweet and spicy
than sticky?
So there you have it, Nashville hot chicken and waffles
drenched in spicy honey.
This will undoubtedly satisfy the hotheads
cheering on your favorite sports with you.
But what about those seeking something sweet?
To them, I humbly submit cannoli dip.
First up, to make the dip, in a medium bowl
we are combining four ounces of Mascarpone cheese,
or alternately you can use cream cheese
and four ounces of ricotta.
To this we're gonna add half a teaspoon of kosher salt,
a quarter teaspoon of ground cinnamon,
an optional, but I think very necessary,
two tablespoons of amaretto,
and half a cup of sifted powdered sugar.
We're sifting because this will prevent a lumpy dip.
Go ahead and regular-size whisk this together,
this is no job for tiny whisk,
until it is smooth and homogenous and creamy and dippable.
Then optionally you can add a third of a cup
of your preferred cannoli mix-ins.
I like miniature chocolate chips,
but you can use pistachios, or hazelnuts,
or, I don't know, sprinkles for all I care.
Once you got that all mixed up,
you can cover and refrigerate until ready to use
whilst we make our cannoli chips.
Now, making cannoli dough from scratch
is a bit of a fussy affair.
You can click the link in the upper right-hand corner
right now if you wanna see how to do it yourself,
but it requires a lot of time and special tools,
and perhaps worst of all, patience.
A great workaround for something like cannoli dip I've found
is frozen wonton wrappers.
You can buy these at your local Asian grocer,
and once they are defrosted and patted dry,
you can cut them into decorative shapes.
And then, just like you would real cannoli dough,
deep fry them at 360 degrees Fahrenheit
for two to three minutes, flipping once halfway through,
until they are golden brown and crisp
and dappled with beautiful bubbles.
Likewise, we're gonna drain those on paper towels
to keep them crisp,
optionally adorn our cannoli filling
with extra miniature choco chippos,
surround with our tender, crispy cannoli chips,
serve up, and watch them disappear.
You could also dust these with powdered sugar
if you wanna class up your Italian chips and salsa dessert.
But I think they're plenty pretty just as is.
Hope you guys try these for yourselves,
and have a great big game celebration day.
Happy team, go sports.
This is the year we're gonna go all the way.
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(smooth music)