(In Cookie Monster voice) - Just cutting up a chicken.
- Dude, knock it off. - Nah, keep it up.
It's great.
- We are here at one of our favorite restaurants,
Win Son, on a Monday, and you can't go in,
'cause they're (beep) closed.
They're doing R and D, and we are here
to cook a whole chicken with them.
- This might end up on the menu, it might not.
We don't know, they don't know. Let's do it.
It's locked.
Thank you for inviting us in on your day off.
- We're just gonna (beep) around
and try to create something fun
for a large group to eat and share.
- And you're thinking this is something
that might end up on the menu?
- Yeah, I think it'd be a really fun thing to do
for the next month or two.
I will not take ownership over this idea.
This cool restaurant in San Francisco
they do a stuffed spring bird with sticky rice,
and I've always wanted to try it since I saw that.
We like cooking large format stuff,
so this is like, right up our alley.
- Boning our chicken is right up our alley.
So, happy to help out.
- See if we're any good at it.
Am I doing this, or you're doing this?
- Paper, rock, scissors,
one, two, three, shoot.
So, am I doing it, or you-- - You're doing it.
- Okay. (everyone laughs)
I guess probably should've made that more clear.
- [Trigg] Just start, really just using
like the tip of your knife
to kind of release the meat from the bone.
We're not really doing much cutting to the meat.
- [Ben] And you've what,
have you already separated the wing?
- No, I'm about to do that.
I'll start working the breast off a little bit.
- I've been doing this for 10 years
and I've never done it like this.
- This is crazy.
It's like manual sci-fi stuff.
- I don't know.
- You were so close to making a movie reference.
I'm just freeing all this carcass up
so I can just pull this.
- Yeah. You'll eventually, yeah.
- I'm a pull. - You're gonna (beep)
straight Predator that (beep). - No! You beat me to it!
Damn! - Yeah!
- You beat me to the Predator reference.
- So now just work on rele-- - Just tell me
to Predator that (beep).
- Just Predator that (beep), dude.
Just take off the rib cage.
- I didn't think that it was gonna take this long.
Seriously, in order to get this on the menu.
Do you do one of these a day?
Like, it has to be faster.
- I would probably do two or three a day.
If people aren't gonna wanna spend,
you know, $20, $30 on one dish.
People like to come here and share a plate, so.
- Does it matter how beautiful the butchering is?
- It doesn't matter how beautiful it is,
but the less holes, the better.
We wanna take all the bones out but keep it intact,
so the filling doesn't fall out while it fries.
- Come on!
- You know, I don't want to spin this
as like a super Taiwanese dish.
As a white dude, it is something
I really try to humbly and respectfully approach.
My mentor, he's from LA,
and his folks identify politically as Chinese,
but they're from Taiwan,
and him just explaining to me that cultural nuance,
and understanding that complicated response,
was sort of captivating,
and when Josh told me that
his folks are from Taiwan,
you know, we ended up eating Taiwanese food
and then trying to contextualize it historically.
And I think that's where we started
kind of getting serious about it.
Shall we make the rice?
- Let's cook some rice.
- I'll add these ingredients.
A little scallions, some spring garlic,
some regular garlic, some Chinese sausage, oyster mushrooms.
We're gonna add the sticky rice.
- Is this Taiwanese rice versus Chinese rice?
Like how did you change it?
- Where Josh's mom's family from,
in Tainan, in the south of Taiwan,
it's a little bit sweeter and very porky.
Instead of cooking the rice with water,
I'm gonna use a superior broth.
So, roasted chicken bones and pork necks,
with some unsmoked ham, and ginger,
and garlic, scallions,
cooked at low. - Sounds great.
- Yeah, it's so good.
We start stuffing the bird.
(oil sizzles)
- We're trying to figure out whether or not
this is actually gonna be a menu item.
Like, what are you thinking,
what are you considering?
- So it took 10 minutes in the fryer, right?
For a boneless piece of chicken,
I feel like that should be enough.
We took all the bones out.
If it takes more than 10 minutes in the fryer,
it's not gonna be super practical.
All my instincts say that this bird is ready,
but we'll see.
This is cayenne pepper and Chinese five spice.
Hit it again on the back with salt.
Not afraid of really over-seasoning this,
'cause I just dried it out, I didn't brine it.
Ugh. So we're a little bit, on the right side, raw.
It doesn't look as raw,
but it's just 'cause it's white meat,
and here it's dark meat,
so you can see it more clearly,
but you know, towards the inside, it's raw.
It doesn't seem like it needs
that much more cook time.
Maybe even more, just a little bit more resting.
As long as we know all these factors ahead of time,
it's not really necessarily a setback.
If you put this on the menu,
you're like, "Hey, it takes 45 minutes to make."
We're not so far beyond cooked
that I think it's a feasibility concern.
I'm just gonna try it again.
- All right. Let's try it again.
- I put my timer on for 12 minutes.
I think we let it hit like 13.
- It looks like the extra time made a difference,
so it's really crispy skin.
All right, here we go.
- Looks like it's pretty good.
I literally got some ramps in on Friday,
some spring garlic, chopped real finely.
We're gonna hit this with some vinegar
and make a little vinaigrette.
What I intend to season this with
is a centennial kumquat.
It's (beep) good.
- Holy (beep). That's not what I was expecting.
Most sweet and sour things,
are used to being like super sweet and super sour.
It's really balanced.
- And then just some crunchy stuff, some nuts,
peanuts and cashews, and fried shallots, and shrimp powder.
Gotta be a little bit cleaner of a cut.
I think also after I butcher the chickens
and stuff them with quarter sticky rice,
I can like, press them down with a sheet tray,
make them a little flatter,
like it'll increase the fry time,
and it'll cook a little more evenly as well.
And then we'll also be able to slice them.
- I'm ready to eat it.
- Yeah, let's take it out to the bar and eat it.
- Cheers.
- How are you guys feeling?
- I like the dark meat a lot better than the white meat,
maybe brine 'em, press 'em, so they roll flatter.
- Mm-hmm. - Like even more of the,
the kumquat pickles would be great.
- Otherwise, you're feeling pretty good about this.
This is probably gonna make it,
after like, one or two, like,
let's brine it and let's press it,
so you can get really nice slices and--
- For sure.
- Feel like I'm just using the fried chicken
as a lettuce leaf, a vehicle to eat the rice.
- It's like a koozie bar.
Rice is...
How many bites of chicken does it take to get to the?
- A lot.
- I like the brining idea on the chicken,
just 'cause it's a little bit lighter,
the salt on the outside.
So that's seasoned all the way through,
like bring, like push that flavor up a little bit more.
They can stand up to the sticky rice a little bit better.
- I totally agree. I would,
I think that's the only thing that's really missing from it,
is the little, little bit of salt in the chicken.
Otherwise, I think the sticky rice
and the salad garnish are unreal.
I think as a first attempt,
this is pretty spot-on.
- Thanks for coming through, boys.
- You can find it here at Win Son.
(laughs)
- For more episodes like this, click here.
- He licked my fingers.
- 'Sup Ben. - 'Sup.
'Sup, Trigg.
(Ben roars)
Predator, (beep).
- Jason, we brought you a lamb.
- [Jason] We're so excited to smoke this thing,
because not a lot of people actually
have had smoked lamb before, but it's--