Harold Makes Chicken Adobo Grilled Cheese

What you really need is chicken legs and chicken quarters.

And the whole...

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[Man In Traffic] You gotta move up.

You're gonna start a traffic jam.

Shut your ass.

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[Harold laughs]

[soft music]

[Crew Member] Mic check, mic check.

[slate claps]

I want to do that. That's my, I want that job.

What's good? What's good?

It's your boy chef Harold.

Can I get a yeah? What's up?

We are in the Bronx. Kingsbridge Social Club.

Today, we are making a grilled cheese with chicken adobo,

and a little bit of butternut squash pickles.

The reason why I started into cooking is because

when I asked my mom for a pair of sneakers,

she laughed at my face and said, Go work at McDonald's.

So that's what I did.

And you know, the industry has been really good to me.

It's been 18 years that I've been in it.

I've worked in Perse, Batard, Noma, Copenhagen,

to Fedora in the West Village.

But the one thing that I really appreciate is

being able to do stuff like this in my neighborhood.

You know, never forget where you come from.

Otherwise you become a [bleep] asshole.

You know what I'm saying?

That's the bottom line.

All right, so let's get to it.

So chicken adobo is a very traditional Filipino dish.

It's different for every family.

Everybody says their adobo is better than yours.

So mine is better than yours.

So what you want to do first

is break down the chicken quarters.

You got to cut it right in the bone right here.

I like to keep the chicken fat, because it's tasty.

You season with a little bit of salt and pepper.

We're using maldon, because we're fancy. [dings]

And this is out there for all my fancy chefs.

Black pepper, and we're using a pancake griddle because,

you know, this is the cooler way.

The pancake griddle has been at 400. Skin down.

Want to get that color going, that's the best part.

You wanna get a light sear.

While that's happening,

I have another griddle pan working over here,

a heavy bottom pan,

and what want to do is I wanna start putting oil in there.

I'm going to go into onions next

What you want to do is you want to take half an onion.

I use a Spanish, yellow onion.

It's a lot cheaper than the white onion,

and what you want to do is

you want to just give it a nice slice.

Super rough, nothing too crazy. Put that to the side.

You got three cloves of garlic.

What you want to do is

you want to just break them and peel it. [knife slams]

The other thing about adobo is

every country has their own kind of dish

that represents that country,

but also represents what, you know,

that country as a whole eats.

So if you're from the Caribbean, you know,

pollo guisado would be, like, your chicken adobo.

And for this recipe, I add a little bit of ginger,

because I liked that spiciness and that flavor profile.

So a rough chop, right?

What I want to do is add the onions first.

Next, I'm adding the garlic, and then I'm adding the ginger.

What you want to do is you want to

sweat that out a little bit, add a little bit of salt

and black pepper to season along the way.

All right?

Once you're checking on that, letting that go,

de-glaze the pan with a little bit of vinegar.

In Filipino food, vinegar is very prominent,

because all of our food has a lot of fats in it,

and we use a lot of pork in our dishes.

In my family, we like to eat it super acidic.

Next, I'm going to add soy sauce,

which is kind of the base of the dish,

and it also kind of showcases the fusion in Filipino food,

where the Chinese community was brought into our mix.

So it's been part of our kind of tradition

in the native land in the Philippines for over 400 years.

Next, I'm going to add a little bit of

the black peppercorns, a little bit of the bay leaf,

and then next, I'm going to add the sugar.

The sugar's there to counterbalance the whole thing.

Adobo traditionally, it will be equal parts soy and vinegar,

and you could control the salinity by adding

a little bit more sugar to your taste taste profile.

This comes up to a boil here.

I use pancake griddles,

because there's so much wide surfaces on here.

That's controlled heat all across

that I can use it as a flattop, so I can sear meat.

I can boil a sauce.

All you really need is just an outlet and a plugin.

So now I'm going to add the chicken into our broth,

since it came up.

The chicken has this great golden color here

from the pancake griddle.

So it creates this caramelization evenly across the skin.

And we'll let this braise out for about 30 to 40 minutes,

until it's cooked.

And adobo, it's always good the day after.

One thing about pancake griddles too is the easy cleanup,

and you have these little holes right here.

You can push your excess oil,

and then now, give it another two minutes,

and then you have another hot surface

ready to cook on the griddle.

Yo, we should get a sponsorship,

'cause this is nice right here.

Whatever this company is.

This is, like, the BMW of [bleep] pancake griddles.

So anyways, [laughs]

while we wait for the chicken to cook,

we'll get right into making the butternut squash pickle.

I like to use butternut squash,

because it keeps the texture when it gets pickled.

You still have a little bit of bite, which is kind of crazy.

So cut the top neck part off.

You know, some people,

they like to take their time to peel this thing,

but I'm a lazy ass cook, so I like to just use my knife.

You know what I mean?

So just like an apple,

and you just peel it back all the way.

Cut it in half, and do a half moons, you know?

So use the bear claw method,

and you use your knuckles to guide the knife,

and I usually cut about 10 centimeters long.

You want to still give it a little body,

because if you cut it too thin,

it'll just dissipate in the pickle, right?

So while I'm cutting the butternut squash,

I have a hot pan here going.

I'm going to start adding the pickling liquid.

The pickling liquid I like to use is

the three, two, one method,

which is the Nordic pickle.

It's three parts water, two parts vinegar,

and one part white sugar.

The pH level of white distilled vinegar,

it's a little bit high, so I would use champagne,

if you like to be a little bit more suave with the pickle,

or a bit more softer on the pickle side.

But for me, I like to use white vinegar,

because I live in the hood, and that's all I got.

You know what I'm saying?

And what I like to also do is add some aromatics to it.

So black peppercorns, some bay leaf,

and then a little bit of garlic,

and since we're trying to be fancy,

I got a shallot from my little garden

that we have here at the Kingsbridge Social.

Keep the skin on.

I'll stir this a little bit,

just to have the sugar dissipate from the liquid,

so it can start folding in,

and when it comes to a boil, it's ready to go.

So when the pickle comes up to a boil,

let's give this another extra flavor

by searing the butternut squash,

giving it a little bit of color, okay?

And behind me is an art piece done

by an artist called Tracy 168.

It really showcases the character of the Bronx,

and it really gives the Kingsbridge Social space

a mind of its own, and kind of a story of its own.

For us, it's really about showcasing this kind of talent,

and a sense of what the culture of hip hop,

and the culture of the South Bronx

and the Bronx itself can give you.

Let me check on the butternut squash.

This hue right here is kind of where you want it to be at.

You know, not too dark, but still roasted, you know?

And we call this in the industry a kiss.

You're just kissing it on the other side real quick,

and then you gonna to pick it up

and put it inside the pickle,

and then we're just going to put it to the side.

Then once again, the griddle is such a great tool,

because of the easy cleanup.

So for the pickle, pickle for 30 minutes,

and you can use it right after.

But if you already want to infuse it,

you can have it in the pickle for about two hours,

and you can have a long lasting flavor profile.

Oh, we are right on schedule, baby. We're on schedule.

So now I want to tell you a little story about a sandwich

that's very famous here in New York City.

So I grew up in the early nineties,

and so I've seen a lot New York City,

and one of the things that I've seen

was the creation of the chopped cheese.

It was created in East Harlem on 110th and Second Avenue.

A kid was rushing the deli man

to make sure that his burger would cook on time.

So what he decided to do was started chopping up the meats

so it could cook a little bit faster.

Added some onions, cheese on top, American cheese,

chopped that up, put it into a deli roll, toasted it.

Put ketchup and mayo,

added some lettuce, tomato, and onions,

and then made the kid the sandwich,

and then when the kid was walking by,

all of us was like, What the [bleep] did you just get?

And then that's how it started.

For us, we're creating something

that's a little bit more fancy,

because we got fancy stuff here at Bon Appetit.

We're going to create our own style of sandwich

that you can do for the next day,

especially if you're tired of just making yourself

a boring turkey sandwich, all right?

So we got this really nice,

expensive sourdough Batard bread, rolled by hand, baked,

the whole nine with the starter.

Just know this cost me seven dollars, all right?

I like to slice it long,

because it kind of creates a better surface area for it

and this side, I usually just save for, like, munching.

You cut it maybe an inch deep,

because you want to have that cheese to melt,

and also have a nice crust.

Should've brought my bread knife.

All right, so we'll put this to the side.

Add a little bit of butter.

Butter's always great to give nice caramelization.

I'm going to turn this down a little bit to 250.

So while that's happening, I'm gonna add kewpie mayo.

It's Japanese mail.

I coat it on one side of the bread,

and you place it down right on the griddle,

and what you're going to make here is a great crust, right?

So while that's down, you add the American cheese,

and then I like to add smoked gouda.

It's very funky,

and it gives it another depth of flavor profile.

And then what we're going to do next is

we're going to take our chicken, which has been braising.

Ooh, this thing. Oof.

And what we're gonna do is we're gonna

pick a little bit of it,

and use every single bit of this chicken in this sandwich.

Okay? It's just falling apart.

It's been braising in this vinegar and soy and sugar,

and the best part about this is, you don't tell nobody.

You just take a little piece.

I mean, that's the best part of it, right?

You get to be the first one to taste it.

I like to add a little bit of the onions in the mix.

Take the chicken, lay it down right here,

right on the top.

Edge to edge. Make sure every little bite has chicken in it.

After that, you want to give this a little spin,

and then, glaze this thing with this sharp cheddar.

Let the cheese fall on the griddle.

Let everybody know you here, and it's real.

You know what I'm saying?

We made it. You know what I mean?

With a little bit of that right there. Boom.

I checked the bread a little bit,

needs a little bit more time,

and what we're going to do is

just add the butternut squash right over the top.

As you can tell,

we can make this gourmet meal just with two pancake griddles

and a mother [bleep] cutting board.

You know what I'm saying?

So you flip this bread over here. Oof, look at that thing.

And what I like to do too,

is add a little bit more cheese right on that.

What it creates is a little cheesy crunch situation.

What you wanna do is you just want to keep spinning it,

you know, act like you know what you're doing.

Flip it. Oof.

Now, you want to give that side a little bit of cheese.

Press down on it a little bit,

and you want to keep flipping it nice and...

Oof. Keep a nice and brown, you know what I'm saying?

Let's turn it up a little bit more.

Let's turn it up a notch.

You know what I'm saying? Turn it up a notch.

And then, then we're going to get [laughs]

a nice, little more sear on that.

Ooh. Make this for your moms.

For your wife, or your boyfriend.

They'll live with you forever, ever

It's been on the griddle now for about five minutes,

and it's a nice and melt-y and crusty.

I'm going to flip it one more time on the other side,

just to check on how it looks, and it looks amazing.

And the best part too, is these,

like, little burnt pieces here from the cheese.

From the cheese, you know what I mean?

Sandwiches like these, you always cut in a bias,

not straight down or, you know what I'm saying?

Hold it down. Oh, wait before I do that.

Finish it off with a little bit of Maldon salt over the top.

I like to use Maldon salt because A, it's fancy,

and B, Maldon salt is huge crystals, crystallized salt.

They drop right into the holes of the sourdough bread.

So when you bite into the sourdough bread,

you have these, like, pockets of, like, salinity

that will give the dish

a little bit more heightened flavor profile.

Cut it on a bias, and then that's it.

That's your next day chicken adobo,

grilled cheese sandwich with pickled butternut squash.

[bread crunches]

Literally one of the best sandwiches I had today,

and I had a few already.

The texture of the sourdough holds up

to the multiple mounts of fat that this thing has

from the Mayo to the butter, the salt.

You just taste it right up front,

because it's on the outside tip of the bread.

The chicken with the vinegar braise and soy sauce

gives it another layer.

The pickled butternut squash.

Since we cut it a little bit thicker,

it's there also super prominent, and then the three cheeses.

It just melts together like the great family.

I mean, this is a great sandwich,

and it could be a base for

any other meats that you want to use.

Turkey from Thanksgiving to pernil in Christmas,

to even day old pollo guisado from takeaway,

or even General Tso's chicken,

if you really about that life.

So enjoy. Bon Appetit.

Thank you for tuning in. Peace.

BX all day. You already know.

[soft music]

One train. My favorite train.

It's the Bronx baby. It's, like, lunchtime too, you know?

So everybody's out.

You want some? You hungry?

[Pedestrian] I don't know.

You want some?

[Pedestrian] Maybe later.

[Harold laughs]

This thing is expensive stuff, man.

The first one is free, though. I got you.