- Merle, what is this?
(laughs)
- Oh my god, I know what that is.
- Did I swallow this?
- What's up, everybody?
I'm back.
A lot of you guys recommended that I try this recipe.
So today is the day
I'm gonna make chicken tenders out of grapefruit peels.
(screams)
It's only a matter of time
before people just stop inviting me to dinner parties.
So I saw this recipe first on "Stashe Sauce."
My boy Mark.
I learned a lot from him.
Thank you, Mark.
Shout out to you.
And then I saw it also on the "Edgy Vegan."
Also shout out to you.
But today, I'm gonna kind of combine the two methods
that they used, but can we really, realistically pretend
that it's a chicken tender?
I don't know about that.
All right, let's get to business.
This is a grapefruit.
But we've got the stem on top,
and I'm gonna be cutting it in half.
(record screech)
Oh, no I'm not.
First, I'm gonna peel it.
Okay, so these are peels.
And this is the pith.
The pith is really what we're gonna be using
to make these chicken tenders.
We're gonna cut you in half.
Oh, would you look at that?
So beautiful.
I'm gonna use this spoon.
And I try to go about halfway
or a quarter of the way into the pith,
so you can just get around the nonsense.
Oh my goodness.
Nice try.
By doing it this way,
where you get a little bit of the pith,
it makes it much easier to take it out.
And this is our finished product.
Yay!
Next, I'm gonna cut these once more in half.
I'm gonna make little incisions
in the grapefruit peel on the sides,
just like an inch or so.
And this is so the cutlets can lie flat
instead of curving up.
Now I'm gonna dip these in some apple cider vinegar.
And what this is supposed to do
is to help neutralize the bitterness.
And then I'm supposed to let it sit for a minute.
I've got some vegetable broth here.
And I'm gonna put these in here,
and I'm gonna let it sit for an hour.
Ooh, wow, that is slimy on the inside.
Oh, I don't know how I feel about these.
Here we are.
Get you in there.
And now I'm gonna dry you off.
Wow.
Now the next step is to rub these down
with some minced garlic.
(humming)
And then cover them with salt and pepper.
I'm gonna say this much.
It no longer resembles fruit.
I don't know.
It looks like some kind of dead thing,
so I think I'm on the right track.
Since I'm making this vegan, I can't use eggs to read these.
So instead what I did is I have a vegan mayonnaise
to help kind of bind the breadcrumbs to the grapefruit
so that we get a nice, even fry.
So I'm gonna mix my vegan mayonnaise,
some water, and some canola oil.
If you're not vegan and you don't care,
you can bread this any old way that you want.
So now for the breading mixture,
I'm going to add a little bit of parsley.
You can do fresh, you can do dried,
whatever you feel like on that day.
And I'm gonna add a little bit of garlic powder
because although I rubbed these down with some minced garlic
I think it kind of flew all over the place.
And who doesn't love garlic?
So like, the more the merrier.
And then I'm gonna add some salt, 'cause it's salt.
All right.
Wow, look at these creepy alien chicken cutlet things.
These look like something!
I'm feeling curious and hopeful and a little worried.
All right, I'm gonna bread these thoroughly.
Oh yeah, we're getting somewhere.
This is headed in a direction I like.
It really feels like a chicken breast.
I'm gonna bread all of these.
And that's all of them.
It's time to deep-fry these, and then we can try it.
So I want this to be at 365.
Be very careful when you're working with hot oil.
And I'm gonna do these for about a minute on each side.
It's such a satisfying sound.
Look at that.
Ooh, that's an interesting color.
I don't know, man.
This looks a little weird.
All of the breading is falling off.
This does not look like a chicken breast.
What the hell is that?
This is unacceptable.
I'm gonna do a little bit of problem solving here,
and I'm gonna double-bread it.
Okay, this is looking better already.
Take two.
Oh my god.
I think it might have worked.
It looks like a chicken!
Okay, so I'm gonna finish frying these,
now that I think I've got a little bit of a handle on things
and then I'm gonna try it.
It's gonna be great.
I just slaved away trying to make this look like chicken.
Now it's time to see if it tastes like chicken.
I don't really know if I want to finish eating this.
Oh god.
Guys...
I kind of want to spit it out.
- [Producer] I did.
I had to spit it out.
- That is so gross.
Like, that is so bad.
That is so bad!
Why are they putting this online for people to try
and trying to tell this tastes good
'cause this doesn't taste good.
It tastes very much like grapefruit
covered in vegan mayonnaise and breadcrumbs.
This isn't good.
I'm still gonna feed it to my coworkers.
I'm gonna see what they think.
And let's just enjoy their pain, right?
Let's just watch them react to this, because this is bad.
- This is a fun game.
- Are you okay? - Yeah.
- Three. - Oh, you're moving over here.
- No, I'm over here. - Oh, okay.
- Three, two, one, go.
- Oh, okay.
- Oh my god.
What is that?
- This looks like chicken katsu.
- This is really chicken Parmesan.
- Yeah.
- You're lying. - No.
- It looks like salmon to me.
- This is chicken Parmesan?
- Yes, why not?
(laughs)
- Whoo!
- Salmon?
(coughs)
- I don't think I ever want that again.
(laughs)
- I'm so sorry.
- Me too.
- Why is it so sour?
- I can't believe you made me eat that.
(laughs)
- It's bitter.
- Yeah, it sure is.
- Merle, what is it?
(laughs)
Oh no.
- I'm so sorry.
- I think I just heard your throat close.
- It's so overwhelmingly strong.
- Did I swallow this?
- The thing is, I want to guess what it is,
but in order to do so, I have to take another bite.
- Well, I mean, that's just something
you might have to commit to.
- Orange? Is it orange peels?
- Okay, I'm gonna look at it.
Maybe that'll help.
- Is that helping?
- Nope.
- This is definitely sweet potato.
- I recognize that fruit, the hints of that fruit somewhere.
Why are you so happy about this?
- Oh my god, I know what that is.
- It must be like peppermint.
- Peppermint?
- Is it lemon?
It's not carrot, is it?
Pomegranate.
Mm, tangerine?
Hibiscus?
- No, no.
- Pamplemousse?
- What the hell's that?
- It's grapefruit. - Yeah, it is grapefruit.
- You don't know what pamplemousse is?
- No.
- There we go, okay.
I knew I tasted like some type of, yes, yes, grapefuit.
- I am not gonna say it's bad.
- Oh no, no.
I'm gonna say it's bad.
- I didn't say I didn't like it.
I was about to eat it.
Y'all made me nervous.
- I'm sorry.
- It's kind of bad.
I'm not gonna lie. - It's pretty bad.
- I can't lie. - It's pretty bitter.
- It's bad.
- It kind of tastes like,
that citrusy taste stays on your tongue,
like that relative that doesn't want to leave the house
and just stays, even though its presence is unwanted.
- I agree.
- I liked the grapefruit qualities of it.
Like, I just wasn't-- - You did?
- Yeah, I did.
I liked the texture it had.
It's such a fresh quality,
and then you've got a lot of the heavy fried elements
with it.
- So it's like a chip?
It's just like a crunchy chip?
- Just charbroil it, let's be honest.
- There we go.
- You kind of ruined chicken katsu for me.
- [Merle] Oh!
- That was great.
I can't wait for whatever else she makes.
- It's not bad.
Okay, now I know it is.
Y'all scared me.
- A for effort.
- Okay, so--
- B for bitter.
- This is done.
- Yeah, let's just, let's burn that.
- This was a real treat.
As always, I mean, life is about.
(laughs)
Uh, yeah, you know.
Death comes to us all.
(laughs)
- Bye, bye.
You can cut. You can cut.
(upbeat music)