♪ Chickenwatch ♪
♪ What time is it ♪
♪ Chickenwatch ♪
♪ What time is it ♪
♪ Chickenwatch, check it ♪
♪ Chickenwatch, Chickenwatch ♪
- [Man] Don't believe me Chick Watch.
(exploding)
- Welcome to another episode of Chickenwatch.
We're in Santa Monica today, we got Kwesi.
- Yo, check your watch.
- We got my brother Brian.
- Hi.
- Both authentic Caribbean-- - Well, no.
But today, we are eating Caribbean chicken,
in our search for the best fried chicken in the world.
Kwesi-- - Yo.
- What part of the Caribbean do you hail from,
or does your family come from?
- Trinidad. - Trinidad?
What's the coolest thing you've ever done in Trinidad?
- Uh, play steel drums.
- Oh, that's awesome. - That's pretty cool,
I would love to play some steel drums.
- You can play steel drums?
Why don't they call it a xylo-bowl?
- Alright, Keith.
(all laugh)
- Well, let's head to Cha Cha Chicken on--
- [Group] Chickenwatch!
- Is the Cha Cha dance a thing that you guys do?
Am I totally--
- Alright.
(Cha Cha music)
- Hey, how's it going, welcome to Chickenwatch.
So, who are you and where are we?
- You are at the spot, Cha Cha Chicken.
You Cha Cha'ed your way up in here
to try some of our famous coconut fried chicken,
just like you came in with a dance,
we provide the dance, but it's on your palate.
You're feeling the sand between your toes,
the palm trees and sunshine and everything,
you know, and the reggae does the rest,
you know what I'm sayin'? - Nice.
- I could listen to you talk for days.
- Yeah, man. - This is just lovely.
- We do all these amazing other chickens.
Jerk chicken wings, Cha Cha chicken--
- So it's not one particular Caribbean island, it's--
- No, no, no, see, so we took a little Cuban,
a little Jamaican, a little Puerto Rican,
a little Mexican, we just kinda mix it all up,
like Bob Marley said, "One love," you know?
- Dig that. - So, yeah,
welcome. - I'm sold.
That was the greatest pitch I've ever heard,
and I'm gonna say that, and I'm gonna say "On Chickenwatch!"
We'll all say Chickenwatch together.
Alright guys it's time--
- Well sorry, we're doing part two?
- Whatever you wanna do. - A'ight, for sure.
- [Group] Chick--
(Keith whoops)
- We watch-- - For the chicken.
- You watch-- - For the chicken.
- We watch-- - For the chicken.
- Chickenwatch. - 2018.
- Two thousand?
- Alright, learning to cook
Cha Cha fried coconut chicken, take one.
- And how do you prepare that chicken?
- It goes through a one day marinating process.
Citrus, orange, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, jerk spice.
It's been marinated for a day,
then it gets oven roasted,
and then from there, gets braised
in the kind of like, sauce?
- So it's roasted, and then you put the breading--
- Exactly. - And then you fry it.
- Wow. - And have it soaking
in the literally, the coconut milk.
So we're gonna put a little bit of regular,
all-purpose flour into our chicken,
just to get it started there.
- You're putting the flour in the chicken,
not the chicken into the flour.
- Usually-- - No, no.
- Reverse, reverse.
Cha Cha real smooth.
- [Restaurant Owner] We add coconut
shavings in with the milk.
- Can I throw some coconut in there?
- Yeah, throw some coconut in there.
- Well, off that tip.
- Oh, it's in your shirt now.
- Trinidad.
- We got chicken on chicken on chicken on chicken.
We go through about three or four shavings a week
of about a thousand pounds of chicken.
- Five thousand pounds?
- We get 5,000 pounds of chicken?
- We can't get it out of the oven fast enough to serve.
- That's a lotta chicken.
- And we just dunk it in there for about six minutes
and you get a nice, crispy texture,
and like a nice soft, tender chicken inside.
- Wow. - It's really good.
- I've never had fried, roasted chicken.
I've never eaten the chicken batter
off the chicken before!
- Tastes pretty good, right? - Mm, flour.
- [Chris] Whoa, that looks different than most of our--
- [Keith] What? Huh?
- [Chris] It kinda looked like cauliflower.
- You guys ready to dig into this or what?
- Oh my God, it looks so good. - Yeah.
- [Keith] Look at this.
- [Kwesi] Cha Cha real smooth.
- [Kwesi] Alright. - Kwesi, where you going?
- [Group] Chickenwatch!
(cool guitar music)
- Alright, we got our tropical drinks,
our coconut fried chicken, Cuban fries, rice and beans.
Where should we dig in, Keith?
Wait.
- To the left now, y'all!
(dramatic laughing)
That's my brother, Brian. I'm Keith.
- Ah, chicken prank.
- Alright, let's eat the chicken.
(cheery music)
(assorted "mm" noises)
- Thank you, God.
(Kwesi laughs)
We actually haven't had a ton of fried chicken
that in any way lends sweet.
- [Restaurant Owner] Yeah, the chicken and stuff
has a really mellow sweetness. - Right.
- But it's not like when you have coconut shrimp,
that really sweet, kinda hit you
over the head with coconut flavor.
- The outside just has this tiny bit of sweetness
and inside, it's crazy flavorful.
- It's like usually you just get one little hop of flavor,
but now it's two hops this time.
Cha Cha real smooth.
- We're very critical of somebody that's tryna do with the
cuisine of the islands of our homeland.
We take a more open approach here
where it's like the flavors are vast.
- It almost is like the whole vibe in here is like,
it matches with the food.
All I know, it's some really good fried chicken, man.
- [Keith] Mm-hmm.
The texture of the chicken meat is like, velvety.
- I'm huge fan of the crunch that is
brought on by the coconut.
- The sucrosity is delightful.
- Ooh, just try the straight up skin.
It's like a little sugary.
- Wow, that's really good.
(cheers)
I can say it's a very sexy, sexy, sexy fried chicken.
♪ Let's get naked, naked ♪
- We haven't seen that once in all of Chickenwatch.
Where the chicken gets baked and then it gets fried.
To be honest, when he said that, I was like,
"Is this still gonna be a really moist chicken
"or is it gonna be overcooked?"
It's not overcooked. - No.
It's very good.
- Chicken technology's still evolving.
- It is so much more in my nose than normal.
- What does that mean?
- Kinda nuts.
- Coconuts. - Coconuts.
(laughs)
- Guys.
- Let me interject once more.
I'm glad you guys are loving the chicken.
The great thing about all this is like
once you're here, once you're having the chicken with us,
once you're drinking this nice drink,
listening to some nice reggae,
got the plantains going on out the resin, it's going on.
Everything starts to make sense.
- [Distorted Voice] Make sense, make sense.
(reggae music)
- [Restaurant Owner] And life is beautiful.
And these flavors that I was telling you about--
You achieve this little warmth and nostalgia.
You feel like you're home and you
feel like you're on vacation.
Vacation chicken right here.
- [Kwesi] There we go. - [Restaurant Owner] For sure.
So, this is what it's all about.
- [Keith] It's relaxed, I'm chill.
You can kinda feel the sand between your toes,
smell the salt in the air.
Little dolphin, jumping out of the water,
gave me a sick high-five, spittin' water out of its hole.
- [Chris] Coconut fried chicken, just hangin'.
I might go move to the Caribbean.
- [Keith] Fuck, guys, everybody clap your hands.
(laughing and clapping)
- Everybody clap your hands. - Wow.
- Thank you, thank you.
- Whoo, turn it up.
- [Group] Chickenwatch!
- Our big question is,
"Is this the best fried chicken in the world?"
- Is the best fried chicken in the world?
I mean, is there a best fried chicken?
Fried chicken at its core is like
the best thing ever on its own.
Everybody has their own different renditions of it.
I sure do like to think that, you know,
my rendition of this chicken is
a beautiful, amazing thing.
It's one of my favorite, but I would
leave it up to you guys.
- Is there a best fried chicken in the world?
- [Restaurant Owner] Yeah!
- I didn't even stop to think about that
before I asked the question about which one was.
The question we always have to ask ourselves is,
"Was this the best fried chicken in the world?"
But, you know, we heard a better question today.
"Is there a best fried chicken in the world?"
I think you might have liked some chicken
more than I liked some other chicken and--
- [Chris] Five out of six chefs
said there is no best chicken.
Everything is all in your personal preference.
- So there must be that one.
- So it's yes, the Indian one.
♪ A Cha Cha ♪ ♪ For the chicken ♪
♪ Bein' fly ♪ ♪ For the chicken ♪
♪ Take a bite ♪ ♪ For the chicken ♪
♪ Feel right ♪ ♪ For the chicken ♪
♪ Upside ♪ ♪ For the chicken ♪
♪ Outside ♪ ♪ For the chicken ♪
♪ I relax ♪ ♪ For the chicken ♪
♪ Oh, back ♪ ♪ For the chicken ♪
♪ Yo, I bake ♪ ♪ For the chicken ♪
♪ And I'm at stake ♪ ♪ For the chicken ♪
♪ And a fry ♪ ♪ For the chicken ♪
♪ I'm a supper guy ♪ ♪ For the chicken ♪
♪ For the chicken ♪ ♪ For the chicken ♪
♪ I'm always watchin', watchin', watchin', watchin' ♪
♪ For the chicken ♪
- Chickenwatch original!
Guys, this has been a really wonderful season.
You know, I'm glad we could end on vacation.
I feel like we deserve it.
We put in a lot of work,
traveling the world via Los Angeles.
- Yeah, that's funny.
(all laughing)
- When I eat fried chicken, I get happy.
It's like the closest I get to a meditative state,
is when I'm eating fried chicken.
- So, you guys looking to hang out,
after the show's all over?
- I hope so.
- I won't see you every day.
I can't go back to my normal life
of not eating fancy fried chicken every day.
I'm just down.
- [Chris] We can still do it, we'll still hang out.
We'll still get chicken.
- Even without the show?
- Even without the show.
Look, the show is just a reason to
hang out and eat chicken with you.
(sentimental music)
- I think that's good, right?
- 'Kay, Chickenwatch? - Chickenwatch?
See you next time.
- [Brian, Kwesi, and Keith] Chickenwatch.
(exciting music)
(singing)
- What the Hell is going on between the sheets in my home?
Baby, wait, let me explain.
Kwesi James don't Cha Cha dance.
(Cha Cha music)
- Alright.