[john] are we too grey? [lauren] yea it's okay. it doesn't matter,
[john] i need to change a shirt really quick. [lauren] nope! i like it.
[lauren] it's kinda funny. it's like drab and then we make the fast food. [john] i feel grey.
[lauren] hi everyone, it's lauren! [john] and john.
[lauren] we're hot for food! vegan food!
[john] we're black and white. [lauren] we're in black and white today!
[lauren] i don't know why we're wearing grey but anyways, it's grey outside, it's winter here
[lauren] so we thought we'd have a little fun today, get some lively entertainment happening in this kitchen!
[lauren] with a brand new challenge video! [john] it's been a long time!
[lauren] yea, sorry. we skipped february, we just couldn't get our ish together.
[lauren] before we tell you what we're doing, last time we did the cooking with booze challenge right before new year's.
[john] i thought i would've had that one. [lauren] it seems like john might've had that.
[lauren] but i came out on top with my spiced jerk sunchokes with Jamaican rice and beans.
[john] oh yea! the beer and cheddar dip! what the heck guys? it was so good!
[lauren] it was delicious but i think people thought you just went like,
[lauren] routine. we already made a cheese sauce.
[john] yea, but the preparation was very different.
[john] i'm still up though.
[lauren] it's not about that anymore. [john] it's not.
[lauren] this is really about entertaining you with double the fun and double the food.
[john] are you not {idk}?
[john] anyway, what the hell are we doing today? [lauren] we are doing THE FAST FOOD CHALLENGE!
[john] i need to win this one. [lauren] okay, the point of this challenge is to make vegan versions of a fast food dish.
[lauren] granted it will not be fast because i mean, let's get real. not all vegan cooking is fast!
[john] it'll be food though. [lauren] it will be food and it will be better and tastier than the gross, soggy way that real fast food looks.
[lauren] we don't recommend eating fast food even if there are vegan versions you can get.
[lauren] at traditional chains like- we try to avoid fast food chains at all costs.
[lauren] you know, in some places, the fries are vegan, etc etc.
[john] but this is about "dream it, you can make it." whatever we've ever wanted to try fast food,
[lauren] whatever we wished was vegan, whatever we're curious about, we're gonna make that today.
[lauren] time is ticking and we need to be fast--ish.
[lauren] we've gotten out some of our ingredients. i have decided to make animal style fries!
[lauren] that is from in-n-out burger which we don't even have in Canada!
[lauren] and to be quite honest with you, i have never gone in an in-n-out ever!
[lauren] but i have had animal style vegan fries at Doomie's in Toronto,
[lauren] so shoutout to them cos they actually made the original vegan version, i think of animal style fries?
[lauren] but i'm just gonna show you how to make them at home.
[lauren] it's actually not very complicated. we're gonna make our own french fries this time as well.
[john] the nice thing about your thing, and i will say is that by creating the animal style sauce,
[john] and the grilled onions if i'm not mistaken, you're now creating all the elements to make anything animal style.
[lauren] it's cheese sauce, grilled or caramelised onions and thousand island dressing.
[john] animal style everyday. [lauren] just animal style your life.
[lauren] now john has an interesting little thing happening here! [john] i did a test.
[lauren] what in the sam hell is that? [john] this used to be a chik'un breast.
[john] "chicken" breast.
[lauren] chik'un [john] un.
[john] unchicken.
[john] there's something that's brand new, just came out, just hit the market in january.
[john] it is called the "naked chicken chalupa". it is from a chain taco restaurant.
[john] and i think it is their answer to kentucky fried chicken's "double down" [lauren] double down, yea.
[john] it is a taco in which there is not actual meat inside the taco but
[lauren] the shell itself is a piece of fried chicken.
[john] fried chicken taco shell. [lauren] fried chicken taco shell.
[lauren] i like that idea!
[lauren] i wish we had come up with it before that restaurant did!
[john] let's see how it goes so i pounded it flat
[lauren] so you took a chicken breast, vegan chicken breast, thawed it and pounded it like the way you would a schnitzel.
[lauren] this is a challenge, that's for sure.
[john] let's get started. [lauren] and go!
[john] so i'm gonna start with the chicken fried taco shell, which sounds absolutely ridiculous to say.
[john] i'm gonna try to do it KFC style, and we're gonna start by putting flour in a deep bowl and i'm adding lots of different spices like
[john] sea salt, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, ground black pepper, ground sage,
[john] ground coriander, smoked paprika, celery salt, nutmeg, cumin, allspice and cinnamon.
[john] so now we're gonna make our wet dredge.
[john] it's just almond milk, hot sauce and apple cider vinegar.
[john] to help bind the liquid to the chicken cutlets, we're gonna add some corn starch into it
[john] but little trick is you don't add corn starch in cos it's a thickener so it starts getting lumpy.
[john] so what we're gonna do is add the corn starch to a separate little dish,
[john] then take some of the liquid that we've got in the bowl, stir it up to make sure all the lumps are gone and then we'll add it.
[john] pro tip.
[john] we're gonna start by putting the chicken between two pieces of plastic wrap or parchment paper
[john] and this is just gonna help it not stick.
[john] so the downside of being a vegan is you don't have a meat mallet, meat hammer, meat tenderiser, you don't have a meat anything.
[john] so we're gonna use a panini press to beat the crap out of the chicken.
[john] so it's not so much a pounding as it is a press and spread.
[john] so you can start to get an idea of what it's going to look like here.
[john] now we're gonna be able to fold it and all of our insides are gonna go there.
[john] this is a chicken tortilla on a rolling pin, frozen.
[john] because we did a test batch and they just fell apart so this is our solution.
[john] we had to freeze them. i'm really hoping that now that they're frozen into a taco form that they will maintian their taco form.
[john] so you're gonna add about 5 cups of oil for frying to a deep pot.
[john] so i'm gonna do a double breading on this, which is a pretty standard KFC practice.
[john] this is the process of going from wet to dry, back to wet, dry again and then into the frying oil.
[john] the oil's gonna be about 325F to 350F.
[john] we're gonna fry these guys for about 4 to 4 and a half minutes till they're nice and golden brown.
[john] okay so the naked chicken chalupa calls for an avocado ranch so um,
[john] i'm just gonna make our ranch dip and throw avocado in it.
[john] we're gonna start with vegan mayonnaise, chives, dill, parsley, apple cider vinegar,
[john] onion powder, salt, pepper, little bit of almond milk to thin it out,
[john] the avocado's gonna make this a little bit thicker than our original recipe.
[john] and we're just gonna blend this until it's nice and smooth.
[lauren] alright, so i'm gonna start by shoe-stringing my potatoes.
[lauren] and i have a mandolin but you could do it by hand. i think these are gonna be nice-cut, like a thin-cut fry.
[lauren] you can do this ahead of time and let them soak in a bowl of cold water in the fridge.
[lauren] so just pat these dry before you add them to a baking sheet, we're just gonna lightly season them.
[lauren] you're just putting them in water to prevent them from browning while you're preparing stuff.
[lauren] if you're gonna do it right away, you don't need to bother.
[lauren] i'm sure you could deep fry these by doing a double fry but i'm gonna do them baked this time.
[lauren] i think they'll be just as crispy.
[lauren] so we're gonna do some oil, salt, pepper and chili powder.
[lauren] a good generous amount.
[lauren] i'm also gonna add garlic powder. these should be really flavourful since it's a fast food copycat.
[lauren] so now you just wanna toss these on the sheet to get them well coated.
[lauren] in order for these to get really crisp, you're gonna need to give them a little bit of space on the baking sheet
[lauren] so i'm just gonna transfer some to another baking sheet.
[lauren] space them out evenly and we're gonna bake at 475F, very hot!
[lauren] from what i can tell, the in-n-out grilled onions are diced.
[lauren] we're gonna add a couple tablespoons of butter into a pan,
[lauren] so once these are getting a bit of colour, we're gonna need to add sugar to get them really deep, dark, caramelised.
[lauren] the way they are at the restaurant.
[lauren] i'm adding agave.
[lauren] and we're gonna add some salt.
[lauren] so the caramelised onions take quite a long time. you want them to get nice and dark and even
[lauren] so it's low and slow, upwards of 35 to 40 minutes.
[lauren] now you could use our nacho cheese sauce for these animal style fries but
[lauren] i'm gonna keep it fast and use one of these cheddar bricks.
[lauren] i don't think they melt so i've been spreading rumours around that it doesn't melt.
[lauren] but john says it does so i'm gonna cube it up and put it in a little saucepan and heat it up and see what happens.
[lauren] we're gonna add a bit of almond milk in here to smooth it out.
[lauren] just like real cheese!
[lauren] well this cheese block does melt! i added quite a bit of almond milk
[lauren] while i was stirring it around and letting it melt smoothly just to get it smoother
[lauren] and i also added a little bit of the brine from pickled jalapeños, which is what we add to our nacho cheese sauce.
[lauren] alright, thousand island is very easy.
[lauren] we're doing mayonnaise, sweet green relish, fresh chives, ketchup,
[lauren] we're gonna use chili paste or you can use hot sauce.
[lauren] a little bit of apple cider vinegar and onion powder.
[lauren] you could eat it just french fries and thousand island,
[lauren] but we're disgusting and we're gonna add cheese and grilled onions!
[john] i don't know how taco bell did it. this is hard!
[lauren] yea i bet you- well their chicken's probably already pre-formed the way you did it, like the way you froze it.
[lauren] it must be. [john] no, it's fresh chicken!
[john] taco bell, come on!
[lauren] well, those are pretty neat!
[john] a little deformed, [lauren] they're certainly not easy to make.
[john] it's gonna be so good!
[lauren] that's for like a deep frying expert.
[john] yea, there was a lot of finessing and i was like,
[john] they were on the border of falling apart the entire time so
[john] this is, i think, expert level 3.
[lauren] so i guess we're ready to go, got all our components,
[lauren] i'm pretty much over this so let's get to the assembly!
[lauren] alright, go! i'm going in on mine.
[lauren] woah! [john] oh my god!
[lauren] we should show the inside, no?
[john] you get the idea.
[lauren] actually, these animal style fries should be eaten with a fork because
[lauren] you need to mix everything around so it's all coated and nice.
[john] oh my god! [lauren] best thing ever? where are you going? bye!
[lauren] as gross as this seems, it's a very good combination of flavours.
[lauren] i did think it seemed gross.
[john] In-N-Out reminds me of California.
[lauren] mm! [john] alright, you need to try this for a second.
[lauren] my thousand islands though, this emoji 👌🏻
[john] we could make the naked chipotle- naked chicken chalupa, animal style.
[lauren] oh my god.
[lauren] would we put that in here? we make animal sauce instead of avocado ranch! oh yes!
[lauren] try that on for size.
[john] mm! this is totally In-N-Out. the caramelised onions are super sweet, this is like spot on!
[john] why'd you knock it over? [lauren] i didn't mean to.
[john] i saw you knock it over!
[john] mm! [lauren] jeez, this is crazy!
[john] this is like, copycat!
[lauren] mm! [john] so good!
[john] perfect!
[lauren] like seriously, now what do we do?
[john] good work! [lauren] i know we say that everytime, but like
[john] you spilled cheese on it [lauren] oops!
[lauren] we just wanna prove that anything you can do, we can do better vegan.
[lauren] and by you, i mean you who's probably not even watching cos we're a vegan channel. [john] humans,
[john] yea, that's true. we have a lot of non-vegans checking us out! [lauren] that's true.
[john] they know, they know that we can do it.
[lauren] it's a good idea!
[john] do you think they were high in the meeting(?)
[lauren] definitely. we are not high, by the way. we're like dead sober.
[john] yea, we're tired.
[john] first challenge of 2017! i think it's a hit! [lauren] oh yea, definite hit~
[lauren] okay, so you decide who wins the fast food challenge!
[lauren] is it gonna be my animal style fries?
[john] or my naked chicken chalupa?
[john] i don't even know what a chalupa is! but, it's naked.
[lauren] so there's a poll in the corner, click the i icon, it brings down a little poll and you click who you want to win!
[john] it's gonna be me. [lauren] whoever gets the most votes within a week before we post next wednesday, is the victor!
[lauren] um, that's all! we wanna see if you create these at home yourselves,
[john] you guys gotta do it, if i discouraged you because it is a bit difficult,
[lauren] well, i'm just kinda gonna discourage you cos it is difficult but
[john] it can be done, don't pound it too flat!
[lauren] well, hopefully you know how to deep fry cos you really should know how to deep fry
[lauren] in order to like, make sure everything is cool.
[john] or just trust me that it's awesome!
[lauren] i'm not saying that they're not trusting you, it's just hard!
[lauren] okay so we've got a blizzard on our hands here, we better go and get in a panic room.
[lauren] and leave you to your cooking!
[lauren] thanks for watching! subscribe! click the bell! ring my bell, ring my bell, get notified!
[lauren] give us a thumbs up, share this! definitely share this video!
[lauren] we need this to go viral, we need this to spread around the internet!
[john] go virus! [lauren] go virus!
[lauren] whatever, i'm just kinda saying that cos that's something that people say but whatever.
[lauren] we know you're watching, we know you love it, i'm gonna keep eating this last little bite of the chalupa
[lauren] and we're gonna bounce on out of here.
[lauren] and we'll see ya next wednesday!
[john] i don't have anything to say. [lauren] i know, that's just the end now.