Foodbuzz 24×24: Fried Chicken Face Off
Fried Chicken. The words just sound comforting don’t they?
I love it, and so I submitted a proposal to FoodBuzz 24×24 to do a FRIED CHICKEN FACE OFF, you know how I love a good taste test.
Much to my surprise they accepted my proposal and I found a bunch of friends who were more than willing to sacrifice their hearts and minds for this challenge. I say that literally because with 8 different fried chickens I think they now have clogged arteries.
The competitors:
A: Popeye’s
B: Knott’s Berry Farm
C: KFC
D: The Loft Hawaiian style fried chicken
E: Louisiana Fried Chicken
F: Albertson’s supermarket
G: Dinah’s Family Restaurant
H: Litz Restaurant
I laid each one out in it’s own basket, then gave everyone ballots to record their thoughts.
Tastiest flavor. Most Juicy. Greazy factor. Best Overall Chicken.
Everyone had a different opinion. Some liked spicy, some people liked more crunch, some people thought greazy was a good thing while others thought greazy was a BAD thing.
I invited friends all with kids around the same age – and the kids took part too. While they didn’t eat all 8 fried chickens of course, they still enjoyed ‘filling out the ballots’ and choosing their favorite. I don’t know if they realized I had only given them two different ones to try…
I put out some palate cleansers for in between bites: Chicken in a Biskit, Corn Salad, Celery and Carrots and of course…
…cupcakes! I CAN’T have a party without making cupcakes.
But chicken was the focus here. And the winner?
Albertson’s. What.
It was a true shocker because it was the one I added as kind of a joke. A supermarket fried chicken? The cheapest of them all? Crazy. But everyone loved it and it got the most points overall. The second place by only a few points was Dinah’s, which was also mighty tasty. The loser? Knott’s. ~sniff~
All in all it was great fun, and like every taste test there are surprises. Now I just need to figure out what to do with 10 zillion lbs of leftover fried chicken. Yikes.
**I know everyone is saying, where’s Honey Kettle, where’s Roscoe’s, Huckleberry, etc. and believe me, they were all on the list plus many more. But in alllll the years of taste tests I’ve done – 8 or 9 is pretty much the limit on anything. After that it’s all a blur. Therefore a Round 2 is probably in order…
Ice Cream Cupcake Sandwiches
Whenever I make 50+ cupcakes I always make extra, but you can only eat so many leftover cupcakes…right? So I had to think of new ways to ‘use’ them.
Combining the ice cream and the cupcake means it can stay frozen for longer periods and I could just pull them out and eat them in the future. Er…the future being more like an hour later not months from now, but you get my drift… ~no self control~
ingredients:
cupcakes
ice cream (slightly softened)
sprinkles
Most cupcakes have a rounded top, so I like to even it out by slicing off the top to make a flat surface. This makes the cupcake more like a ‘sandwich’ and less whoopie-pie looking.
Take your leftover cupcake and cut it in half. You’ll find of course, that the bottom is slightly smaller than the top since the liners taper up. If you are fine with that, good for you, but I am insanely perfectionist and feel the need to cut TWO cupcakes so that I have two even slices of cake – i.e. two bottoms and two tops. Yes, I need therapy.
Once you have the two EVEN slices of cupcake, spread the softened ice cream on the cake. As opposed to ice cream cookie sandwiches, the cupcakes can be pretty delicate. If yours are too crumbly just place the cupcake slice in the freezer for a few minutes so that it firms up.
Place the other slice of cupcake on top of the ice cream. Now I like to wrap the whole thing tightly in plastic wrap just to get it all nice and ‘sandwich-like’. Place it in the freezer for a few minutes or until the time you are ready to serve.
Once you are ready to serve – take it out of the freezer and roll it in sprinkles, nuts, chocolate chips, whatever your heart desires.
These make a nice presentation for a dinner party, you can just pull them out of the freezer and serve them quickly and elegantly with a fork. Or do as the Baby does and eat them with your hands until your entire brand new Iron Man shirt is destroyed. Whatever works for you.
Here are some flavor combinations that I think work pretty well:
Red Velvet Cupcake + Strawberry Ice Cream
chocolate cupcake + Coffee-Chip Ice Cream
Fresh Strawberry Cupcake + Green Tea Ice Cream
Peanut Butter Cupcake + Vanilla Ice Cream
Chocolate Bark
The fun thing about this is you can change it up any way you want. The kid LOVES pepitas and eats them for snack all the time – so I always have plenty in my cupboard. Same goes for the cranberries. Those two are big snacks in our house. Dig deep in your pantry – you’ll find there’s tons of things you can add to make it your own.
ingredients:
1 lb good milk chocolate (I used Belgian: Callebaut)
1 cup pepitas
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup dried cranberries
Prep a baking sheet by lining it with a silpat. Set aside.
Melt the chocolate over a double boiler until you get a nice smooth consistency. Pour the chocolate right on top of the silpat, spreading it around to get a nice even layer.
Over the melty chocolate, sprinkle with pepitas, pecans and cranberries. If you are lucky, you have a tiny sous chef with clean hands to help you. Although my sous chef was particularly meticulous, so this process took double in time…
Let set, or to set faster – place the pan in the fridge.
Once the chocolate has hardened, lift it off the silpat. Then break it up into pieces. You’ll be surprised at how great this tastes for basically doing NO WORK. I bagged some up as gifts for teachers – this makes a great present because people think you worked so hard on it when really it was a just melting down some chocolate!
Guava Jelly Chicken
Check any local Hawaiian church cookbook and you’ll probably find a recipe for guava chicken. Most call for frying the chicken, but who has time for that. Instead I marinate it in the sauce all day then bake it right before dinner. Such a time saver.
ingredients:
6-8 chicken thighs
one 10 ounce jar guava jelly**
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Hawaiian Sun jams and jellies
In small bowl combine the jelly, cider vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, salt and pepper.
Place the washed and dried chicken into a freezer bag. Add the sauce ingredients. Marinate for 4-6 hours.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Prep a baking pan with non-stick foil. Place the chicken skin side down and bake for 25 minutes. Turn the chicken over and bake for another 20 minutes.
SIMPLE, right? Told you. I’m not big on wasting time…
This chicken is sweet and fruity and perfect with rice. The kids love it!
Tiny Rainbow Sherbet Cupcakes
Every year Cupcake Project and Scoopalicious host the Ice Cream Cupcake challenge. I love to enter because the combinations are always fun to think up. In the past I’ve done root beer ice cream float cupcakes, chocolate and green tea ice cream cupcakes…This year I wanted a lot of flavor in a tiny little bite sized package. And boy do I mean TINY.
ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup milk
1-1/2 teaspoons lemon zest
1-1/2 teaspoons orange zest
1 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
rainbow sherbet
whipped cream
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a mini muffin tin with small liners.
In a bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and the sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time until combined.
Alternate the flour mixture with the milk.
Stir in the lemon zest, orange zest and lemon juice.
Spoon the batter into the liners by the teaspoonful. This is time consuming, no doubt. Bake for approx 10 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.
Once the cupcakes have cooled – using a small disher (like a Size 100
Top each with a little dollop of whipped cream and a little candy heart and you are ready to serve. Does it not seem worth it for such a small package? I beg to differ. It’s the perfect size for a little treat. And who says you can’t go back to the freezer 10 times for another one….hm?
Star Wars Cheese Sandwiches
The Dark Side…of cheese. You didn’t think I was going to use these Star Wars cookie cutters for cookies, did you? Well. I am – just not yet. No, first I needed to make lunch for the Kid, and we all know how much he loves cheese…
ingredients:
soft white bread
cheese
Man, that’s a pretty sad ingredient list. Anyway, I used very, very soft fresh bread from a Japanese bakery, but I’m sure Wonderbread or another soft white will do fine.
I positioned the cutters so I could maximize the bread and got both a Vader and a stormtrooper out of one piece. It’s pretty lame how excited that made me.
Once I cut the face out, I then pressed down to imprint the image. Voila – instant evilness.
Then I used just the outside to cut the outline of the cheese to fit.
Sure you could butter these bad boys up and make grilled cheese, but there was something nice and subtle about the shadow images of the faces pressed into the soft bread. Something…super evil. But mostly…super cute!
Cut-out Heart Cupcakes
Nothing says love and wedding like cupcakes – sweet heart cupcakes to be exact. I made 65+ of these for a lovely May wedding reception.
I did them pretty much the same way I did for the Lemon Heart cupcakes (recipe, here), except as requested – I did these in both lemon and red velvet.
I overfilled the cupcake pans just a touch, so that when I pulled them out they had sort of fluffed over. I carefully cut off the top and cut out a heart. Then I frosted the bottom cupcake and then replaced the top so that the frosting peeked through the open cut-out heart.
It’s a nice way to not go overboard on frosting, but still have a delicious and unique presentation.
They are time consuming, that’s for sure, but when you have them all laid out for guests – wow – they are really eye catching.
After they were served, the rest were packed up in clear boxes as favors for everyone to take home. The clear boxes really showcased the cupcakes – and made a wonderful parting gift for the guests!
WWYE: What Would Yoda Eat? – Chicken Meatballs, What.
SURPRISE. I don’t think anyone wants to hear that when it comes to lunch, but these mini meatballs with a surprise edamame in the middle are pretty cute. Especially when you jazz them up with crazy bento picks. Look at that. The pick looks like a chicken bone. Freakin’ adorable.
Chicken Edamame Meatballs recipe here.
See all Yoda lunches, here.
MINI chocolate dipped apples
Warning, I am on a melted chocolate kick. Prepare for even more posts ahead. It’s like a Wonka factory up in here lately. With melted chocolate comes happiness, and to me happiness equals anything MINI.
ingredients:
16 ounces milk chocolate (I like Belgian : Callebaut)
10 mini apples
sprinkles, etc.
Now I like things tiny, but these apple I found at the Farmer’s Market were TIIIINY. We’re talking 1-1/2″ in diameter. Too cute for words.
Wash and thoroughly dry the apples. Set aside.
Melt the chocolate over a double boiler. Take the chocolate off the heat and by holding the tiny apple by the tiny stem, dip it halfway into the chocolate.
I don’t need to tell you that stem holding is vital in this process. That little thing gets away from you and you’ll have chocolate everywhere.
Sprinkle or dip the fun stuff on the melted chocolate. Sprinkles, sanding sugar, nuts, mini chocolate chips, any of that will work.
(Get a small child with clean hands to do it for you like I did.)
Put them on a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet once they are dipped and decorated. They can be kept in the fridge to set.
See how cute and tiny they are? SUPER TINY.
These were gifts for the kid’s teachers during Teacher Appreciation week, so I put them in bags and wrapped them up. They turned out super cute and the tiny apples were really sweet.
Congratulations O.G.!
On Saturday O.G. graduated from college…seventy years after she first enrolled. She was attending UCLA in 1941 when the government ordered her and all the other Japanese-Americans to be rounded up with only what they could carry, and be put into internment camps. It was a sad time – but now all these years later, these people who lost their futures got their diplomas.
There’s only one thing to do when you have an celebration – buy a cake from King’s Hawaiian of course! I drew a picture of O.G. in graduation garb and took it down to the bakery who printed it on edible sheeting. It was a happy surprise when the cake was unveiled at dinner.
While I personally love the Paradise Cake, O.G. specifically asked for guava chiffon cake. The taste is subtle yet flavorful, and you just can’t deny that gorgeous pink-y goodness.
Congrats O.G., you have a bright future ahead of you!
L.A. Times story on UCLA Japanese American honorees
L.A. Times pictures from the ceremony
Channel 2 news story
