- Wow!
- That looks like chicken.
- I'm just not a fan of this.
- Sure, it looks really good, but then when you bit into it,
it's not the same.
- This is incredible, this is the best one you've done.
(bouncy upbeat music)
- Hello, everybody, my name is Merle
and today we are going
to be making popcorn chicken out of...
That was a terrible drum roll.
Jackfruit!
Jackfruit got super, super, super popular,
like, I dunno, few years ago because
this whole jackfruit pulled pork sandwich situation happened
but today we're gonna be using it
to make a really convincing chicken.
Jackfruit is like a magical vegan substitute.
It is the largest tree borne fruit.
It can grow up to 80 pounds.
It's a giant, like, spiky,
kinda looks like a dragon egg type thing
and you can buy them whole.
Probably not very accessible for most of you
or you can get them canned which still might not be
that accessible for a lot of you.
For the sake of this video
I'm gonna be using the canned jackfruit,
mostly because I want it to be more relatable for you,
but also because I don't feel like dismantling
a giant jackfruit, it's a pain.
It's just such a pain in the (beep).
So if you don't see it at your local grocery store,
check the interwebs.
Well let's not waste any time,
let's go ahead and start cooking.
So the first thing we're gonna do is we're going
to take our little bouillon cube
and add it to some warm water.
Jackfruit, especially canned jackfruit has
a really briny flavor so we wanna try pull that out,
that way we can neutralize the flavor
and then add whatever flavoring that we want.
Here we are, this is all perfectly dissolved.
So now I'm gonna open my jackfruit,
gonna strain this puppy out.
(liquid dribbling)
While you have this strained, you wanna go through
and pick out any seeds that are in there.
We don't wanna be dealing with that.
I don't see any in here.
We're gonna put these straight into our bouillon
then we're gonna let these sit for like 30 minutes,
they're just gonna marinate in there.
I'm gonna set this aside and I will be back in 30 minutes.
Okay so this has been sitting for 30 minutes,
now we're gonna just drain you out.
Beautiful.
All right, now it's time to mix together our spices.
So we've got garlic powder.
That's been sitting there for a minute.
(laughing)
Garlic powder, like I was saying.
Some onion powder.
Oh my God, I swear to God.
Let's do this to all of them first.
A lot of people don't tell you this,
but when it comes to onion powder,
you're supposed to massage it first
and we've got some smoked paprika.
Some cayenne.
Some regular paprika.
Make this saucy.
And then some salt and pepper.
Mix all your spices together.
This is all mixed.
We're gonna take our jackfruit.
Mix it with about a tablespoon of our spices.
Don't get rid of these spices
you're gonna use them again later.
Set those aside.
Mix these up.
My God, it smells so good
and now we're just gonna transfer these to our baking sheet.
These really look like meat,
I mean, chicken, pork, you name it.
Yeah!
Look at that.
Very fleshy over here.
So these are all ready to go.
I've got the oven preheated to 375 degrees Fahrenheit,
that's 190 degrees Celsius
and we're gonna pop them in there for about 15, 18 minutes,
let them dry out and then we're gonna get
to frying these bad boys.
So I will be back.
Okay so while we're waiting for the jackfruit
to bake I'm going to mix together our batter
and then the flour mixture that we're gonna use
to coat these before we fry them.
I'm gonna mix some non-dairy milk, I'm using almond milk,
it's unsweetened.
And then we got about a half cup of flour.
Some salt
and apple cider vinegar.
All right, so this is gonna be our batter.
I like working with a batter, personally,
when I'm frying things.
It makes everything stick to it,
the coating is much more even.
So be very careful
and very safe when you're working with hot oil.
Oh, that sound.
I'm sorry if that sound makes someone wanna, like,
crawl out of their skin
and now that I've pointed it out, I probably will
and now we're gonna take our remaining spices,
'cause you didn't throw those away, right?
And then we're gonna add a cup of flour, cornstarch.
This is all set, I'm gonna go get our jackfruit
and then we can fry.
Okay, we've got our jackfruit.
So what's important with a fryer is,
you wanna make sure your oil
is at about 370 degrees Fahrenheit.
Don't forget, that's 190 degrees Celsius.
Let's coat this in the batter first.
This is slightly more fun than I expected.
Okay, make sure we get all the excess off.
When you get the excess off it ensures
that you get a nice even coat when you're frying.
(lighthearted music)
All right, look at you, what a super star.
It looks perfect.
I'm gonna plop you right back on there.
All right, she's ready.
Here we go!
Oh, my.
(oil sizzling)
Yay!
We're gonna let these fry for about two to three minutes.
All things considered, this is a pretty easy recipe.
Oh, these are frying up like chicken!
These look cool.
This is bringing me back to my KFC days in high school.
All a girl can dream for is a nice crispy outside
and then, like, a succulent, juicy inside.
I'm, like, more proud that I successfully fried these than
I am of how they come out.
Couple of them are fighting over there.
Oh, my God!
Calm down.
Break it up.
I would recommend not crowding the frying pan when
you're doing this 'cause every time you add more in
it's gonna bring the temperature down.
So you have a little bit more control
and you can probably work more efficiently
if you just do a few at a time.
They are looking lovely.
(oil sizzling loudly)
Oh!
(laughing)
I'm scared!
I don't like oil.
This is why I don't like oil, it's unpredictable.
Pull you puppies out.
Yay!
They look great!
Very proud of myself right now.
All right, let's fry the rest of these up
and then I'm gonna give them a try.
All right, look at these nugs!
They are so cute!
And they're crispy, honestly, they look the part.
Now, I'm just gonna add a little bit of lemon
and then, of course, salt, 'cause it's salt.
It's that special time of the episode where we see if
I have a wild success on my hands or a horrible failure.
(intense dramatic music)
Smells great.
Looks great.
(chewing loudly)
Oh, my God!
(angelic music)
Oh!
My God!
This is my favorite thing I've ever made on this show.
Hands down.
Hands
down!
Oh, my God, this is so fricking good.
I just bit into this
and it literally exploded in my mouth.
This is like jewels of flavor.
I am so happy right now!
Oh, my God, this is, honestly, exceeded expectations.
Wow, jackfruit.
(applauding)
Give it up for jackfruit, come on.
Oh man!
This is so exciting!
Oh, my God, okay, I wanna keep eating these
but I can't.
This is a good day, this is a very, very, very good day.
I'm gonna go get some people up here, have them try this.
I'm so happy, I'm so happy, I'm so happy.
Yay!
(upbeat music)
All right, here we are.
(giggling)
Silence.
- Oh!
Little nugget.
- Really, I have no idea what this is gonna be.
- It looks and smells a little bit like popcorn chicken.
- They look like chicken nuggets.
- It looks like jackfruit.
- Looks like popcorn chicken
or it looks like fried calamari.
I love both things.
- Okay.
- Almost as much as she loves me.
- No.
- It's too soon for you to say that.
Can't say those words, you're gonna scare me away.
You know, she's gonna scare me away.
(sighing)
Dip, dip.
- That looks like chicken.
The frick?
- It is chicken.
- No.
- I'm just not a fan of this.
- I like it.
- Wow, that's really good.
- Look at that.
That's fricking chicken.
- But I have no idea what this is supposed to be.
- My first thought is it looks like cauliflower,
a clove of garlic and maybe a carrot.
(laughing)
- Is that a garlic clove?
Is it a mushroom again?
- No.
- (beep) Is that?
- You really don't know?
It's jackfruit.
- Jackfruit? - Yeah.
- We love jackfruit.
- We really do.
- I think it's jackfruit. - It is definitely.
It's jackfruit.
- It's jackfruit.
- Yeah.
- Wow, I would not have guessed that.
This is incredible, this is the best one you've done.
- Really?
- Hands down, the best thing you've given me in this show.
- The more I eat it, the more fried chicken it tastes like.
- Yay!
That makes me happy.
- It looks like it enough and it has a good enough flavor
that it would work.
- If you were to put this in front of me
I would 100% eat it.
- Flavor, it's a 10.
- Woo!
- Likeness to fried chicken, it's a six.
- I'm gonna give it a five.
- What?
I give it a 10.
- 10!
- I love it.
- Five.
Likeness overall, seven.
- 9.5.
- Oh, my God!
- 9.5.
It's the holidays
so you might just get an extra .5, this is a 10/10!
- What?
- A 10/10 for that, that's a holiday bonus.
- Okay, so 10/10 or a 9.5, what are you gonna say?
Stop it.
- Got me excited.
(laughing)
Go on.
(upbeat lighthearted music)