Michael Shannon Tries to Keep Up With a Professional Chef

I love cutting off wings.

[Carla] You do?

Yeah.

Wings are my favorite part.

Destroying hope.

[upbeat music]

Hey guys, it's Carla, I'm here

in the Bon Appetit test kitchen today with Michael Shannon

from Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune on Broadway.

Thanks for coming.

Oh, my pleasure.

Yeah, so today, we have 20 minutes, a mere 20 minutes

to make Nashville-style hot chicken and slaw.

It's ironic we're making Nashville chicken,

'cause I'm from Kentucky.

I know, I heard.

So, but...

I think I'd prefer the Nashville chicken,

'cause I like spicy stuff.

Okay, so when you say it's ironic, it's not a problem.

It's not a problem.

Cool.

It's just ironic.

[laughs] Great.

On a count of three,

we're just gonna turn around and start cooking.

All right, cool.

Ready, one, two, three.

All right, this is your raw chicken, obviously.

Yep.

And have you butchered a chicken before?

No.

Great, perfect, okay, so you've got this flexible

boning knife up at the top of the cutting board.

Yes.

And the first thing we're gonna do

is we're gonna take off the legs and the thighs,

kind of in one piece.

What I want you to do is just kinda feel for

the place in between where the drumstick

looks like it's meeting up with the carcass.

[Michael] Yeah.

That's where you want to put the knife.

So then picking up the knife again--

It's like where this little stretchy

kind of armpit area is?

Yeah exactly, exactly, it's like the armpit of the leg,

that's a very good way of describing it.

And then you're gonna cut in that place,

just make a little slash to start,

just kind of breaking through the skin.

And you'll see how it opens up,

now you can see the side of the breast

and the leg and the thigh piece.

Uh-huh.

And then putting your knife, drawing it from

that kinda crease up by the side of the breast

down towards the opening, the front side of the chicken,

closest to you.

[Michael] Uh-huh.

[Carla] And you can make like, shallow cuts

if you aren't feeling 100% to start,

but you just wanna keep the knife

as close to the body as possible, if that makes sense.

[Michael] Yeah.

[Carla] And then do you feel like you could...

It's kind of opening up like a book in a way,

and at that point you can cut it freely away from the body.

I have...

The legs are off.

Oh, what, on both sides?

Yeah.

Oh, my, really?

[Michael] Yeah.

Okay, I'm gonna do my second side then.

That was fast.

I'm sorry.

But you got the leg and the thigh,

of both sides, off of that body?

I wouldn't say that with absolute certainty,

but I'm holding a piece of chicken in my hand.

Okay, so just set those aside,

and we're gonna take off the wings.

All right, so with the wing, it helps me a lot

if I kind of like, pull the whole arm,

or the whole wing part of the chicken,

kind of straight up, and then I can really see

the end of the joint where it's connecting to the body.

Oh, yeah.

[Carla] And just like, kind of running the knife

all the way around the joint.

[Michael] Mm-hmm.

[Carla] The thing with butchering is like,

if you feel like you have to force it,

you're in the wrong spot.

That's the thing with everything.

Right?

[Michael] Yeah.

I agree.

What is your...

Are you a light meat person, or a dark meat person?

I would eat this whole chicken in one sitting.

Fabulous, perfect.

Okay, so once you have your two wings off,

you can go ahead and put the carcass,

get it all the way off on that parchment-lined

rimmed sheet tray the furthest away from you.

The one furthest away from me?

[Carla] And then we need to separate

the leg and the thigh into two pieces.

Oh, boy.

So I want you to try to find the place

where the drumstick joint connects to the thigh bone,

and then just cut right in between.

It should, if you're in the right spot,

it should go through without too much trouble.

I think this is really where I'm showing

that I don't know what I'm doing.

But I did it.

You did it, you got it separated?

And I can kinda pull the skin back over

so you can't see really that I kinda messed it up.

Okay, cool.

Two drumsticks, two thighs?

Oh, man.

I'm completed.

Yeah, complete.

Complete, okay, great.

You can bring the empty bowl in front of you.

We're gonna get into dredging.

So actually before we do that,

I just want you to pepper all these chicken pieces.

There's a small bowl of salt,

and there's a big bowl of salt.

Using the big bowl of salt, really generously season.

If we had had time, I would have done this the day before.

[Michael] This is kinda stressing me out,

because my mom's in the other room watching at the monitor.

Oh, really?

And she's a really good cook.

[Carla] She's a really good cook?

Oh, man.

[Carla] I think she'll be pleased.

Yeah.

So bring the empty bowl onto your cutting board.

Empty bowl on my cutting board, yep.

Yep, and then crack those four eggs right in.

See, this is something I had to learn to do for my play

on Broadway, 'cause I'm a...

I'm a short-order cook, so I do the one-handed crack.

[Carla] I can crack, but I can't open, I can try.

I wish you could watch this.

See, look at that, bam.

[Carla] I cracked and broke the yolk

by trying to open it at the same time.

[Michael] That one, yeah, that broke.

[Carla] Yeah, one day.

Oh well.

Let me know when your four eggs are in--

[Michael] Done.

Then we're gonna add this buttermilk.

[Michael] So do I pour this whole thing in?

The whole thing in, and then we need

to measure out two tablespoons of Tabasco.

I'm finding that a vigorous shaking is actually...

Got my two tablespoons.

Have you ever gotten Tabasco sauce in your eye?

I have, actually.

When you have like, a pepper seed on your finger,

and then you rub your eye?

Yeah, and even hours later,

if you touch your face, you're doomed.

So I just dump this right in?

Yep, two tablespoons, and then whisk that.

You should have a whisk somewhere.

[Michael] I do.

And then as soon as that looks like all the egg

is fully broken up in there, we're gonna do dry-wet-dry

with the chicken pieces.

I think I'm whipped, or whisked.

You're whipped, okay, let's do it.

Bring that flour close to you,

and now this is when we can put our small bowl of salt.

[Michael] Small bowl of salt, yeah.

[Carla] Yep, and then maybe with the dry whisk

whisk in the salt into the flour.

[Michael] Salt into the flour, got it.

Yep, all right, so now...

Go a couple chicken pieces at a time, and use...

You can use your fingers or tongs

to toss it in the flour, and then a lot of recipes

would tell you to pat all this flour off,

but I'm actually kinda after that kinda floury crust.

So give it...

You could give it a couple light shakes

coming out of the flour, and then right into the buttermilk.

[Michael] Gotcha.

[Carla] And then go with a couple more pieces of chicken.

[Michael] Right into the buttermilk.

What do I do...

Do I put it on the wax paper when I'm done?

No let 'em hang in the...

You should just have floured and gone into the buttermilk...

For now.

[Michael] Oh, okay.

[Carla] And then just let me know when all six...

[Michael] And where do I...

Just put 'em back, okay, got it.

So growing up, did you cook with your mom?

Sometimes, it was...

You know, ma would get home from work,

and she'd be tired or whatever, so I'd try and...

[Carla] Jump in?

[Michael] Help out, yeah, a little bit.

Was she like, leave that to me?

Well, it was always better when she did it, you know.

I didn't really know what I was doing.

Same for me growing up.

All right, so, are all your chickens

floured and buttermilk-ed?

Yeah.

[Carla] And then go back from out of the buttermilk

back into the flour.

[Michael] Okay, back in the flour.

[Carla] Yeah, and it's okay if like,

some of the buttermilk is still dripping off.

[Michael] Oh, yeah, it's real messy.

[Carla] Is it? All right--

[Michael] I like it.

So it's gonna look like they don't all fit,

and they kinda don't, but just using the tongs

and your hands, just toss all those chicken pieces

[Michael] until they're coated. Into the grease?

No, no, no, coated with the flour.

Oh, yeah.

[Carla] So once they're all been dredged.

[Michael] This chicken is covered with stuff.

[Carla] [laughs] Okay, great.

[Michael] Three different layers of stuff,

so are my fingers.

You should be at 325 on the...

Fry-temperature-taker-thinger.

It says 330-somethin'.

Perfect, okay, so one at a time,

don't drop 'em in, because the oil's hot.

[Michael] Okay.

Just put em in there, and just shaking

the flour off as I go, but again,

some of that cragginess is good.

It's like cement.

[Carla] Oh, yeah.

I mean my fingers.

Oh, yeah, me too, I breaded my fingers.

[Michael] Yeah.

If I fried them, they'd be delicious.

And then it also is gonna look like it's pretty crowded

in there, but we're gonna move everybody around in a sec.

[Michael] All right.

[Carla] Use your tongs to make sure they're submerged,

and then we're gonna turn the heat up

just 'cause my temperature dropped all the way down

to like, less than 300.

[Michael] Oh, wow.

I'm gonna turn the big dial on the front of this burner

'til the readout says 375.

Okay, next thing, you've got a little timer on your station,

I want you to hit that minute button up to 15.

[Michael] Okay.

And then we're gonna use the fry time to make our slaw.

15.

[Carla] 15.

Boom.

Awesome, grab this big, gigantic glass bowl.

[Michael] Yeah.

And we're gonna make the dressing.

Okay.

So you have a squeeze bottle of mayonnaise.

Real mayonnaise.

Real mayonnaise, we don't mess around

with the fake mayonnaise.

You should have a one-cup measuring cup.

[Michael] I do.

And then we gotta measure out a cup of mayo.

Cup of mayo.

All right, into the bowl.

Okay, and then...

You've got a honey bear.

[Michael] A cup of honey?

No, in the little measuring cup,

measure out a tablespoon of honey.

Tablespoon, got it.

Yep, we need a tablespoon and a half of cider vinegar,

let's just pour it right over the honey.

Oh, right over the honey?

[Carla] Yeah, why not.

Just go up to what looks like three and a half.

Up to three and a half.

Yeah, and then just add the vinegar and the honey.

Will the honey pour out?

[Carla] Not really.

Yeah, I gotta scrape it out I guess.

[Carla] Yeah, it's a pain in my butt actually.

All right, so then...

I want you to season this with salt and pepper.

Big, big pinches, 'cause it's a lot of cabbage.

[Michael] How much?

Uh, whatever...

Generous amount of salt and pepper, like, big pinches.

Keep it down over there.

[Carla] Yeah.

Not you, the chicken, it's so noisy.

Oh, the chicken is noisy,

mine looks extremely golden brown,

so I wanna make sure we get this done before it's done.

[Michael] Right.

And then you have a 3/4 teaspoon measure

and a bowl of celery salt.

Oh, is that...

Oh, boy, I think I just put that in.

Celery seed, sorry.

So if you already added a bunch of celery seed,

you might be good.

Yeah, I think I'm...

[Carla] Okay, cool, I'm gonna add a little extra.

I'll give it a little more, 'cause I really like it.

Cool, and then just set this bowl aside

and we'll do our cabbage.

So we're gonna do half of each head of cabbage.

So cut, you can start with the green one,

cut that guy in half, set the other half aside,

and then...

Oh, he's already slicing.

You've used a mandolin before.

No, I...

Just slicing the cabbage in half.

And then when you're done with that,

using the mandolin blade, you can use the safety glove

should you choose, and then just want you to...

Run the cabbage back and forth across the blade,

thinly slicing.

So you shouldn't have to press down too hard,

but you wanna keep it flush against the kinda beige part,

you know, the grooved part.

All right, let me know when you're done with your green guy.

I feel like we need to check our chicken,

even though there's three minutes,

I've got three minutes on the timer,

but the color is looking amazing, and I just wanna make--

[Michael] Yeah it's looking like, perfect, you know.

So see if you can pull out a thigh piece.

[Michael] Thigh piece.

[Carla] Move it onto this cooling rack

right here by the fryer.

[Michael] Right.

And then there's a digital thermometer,

you just need to unfold it so the probe comes out.

Yeah.

And then try to get it in the thickest part

of the chicken without hitting the bone,

'cause that'll give us a false high reading.

Oh, yeah, this guy's done.

I got 194.

[Carla] Pull it out, chicken's comin' out, that's great.

[Michael] All of it.

[Carla] All the chicken's out.

[Michael] Man, it looks delightful.

[Carla] I have like, a shell on this,

it looks like corn flakes.

[Michael] Yeah, yeah, that's the...

Exactly, corn flakes, that's what you want.

Is your green half of cabbage...

It's totally, yes, it's great.

Totally shredded, okay, so then let's do the red one.

Cut your red cabbage in half, set one half aside.

That whole half?

[Carla] That whole half through the shredder.

[Michael] Through the thing.

[Carla] Yep.

My grandma made really good cole slaw, she had a diner.

Really?

Yeah, like a truck stop, road stop diner, in Kentucky.

[Carla] Really?

She was German, 100% German,

but she made the best cole slaw in...

And also potato salad.

[Carla] Oh, man.

[Michael] Like German-style, you know,

with the bacon and all that.

[Carla] All right, half of a red.

[Michael] Yeah.

And then that's gonna go

right into the bowl with the green.

All right, so cabbage bowl, I just think the best way

to do this 'cause it's so much, is just using your hands.

[Michael] Right.

Just toss it, get all the way down to the bottom

where all that dressing is.

So when you left the house...

[Michael] Yeah.

Was that the time that you were like,

had to figure out how to feed yourself?

No, no I ate at restaurants for about 10 years,

but I guess I have developed over the years...

A certain fearlessness in situations like this.

[Carla] Nice.

'Cause you're always, as an actor,

you're always showing up somewhere

where you have to learn how to do something

you don't know to do.

Uh-huh, if your cabbage is coated,

take a pinch out and just give it a taste.

[Michael] Give it a taste?

Mm-hmm, mm!

Mm, yummy.

Pretty good, okay, so now,

we're actually gonna take the fry oil and season it.

So the first thing is, using your ladle,

carefully, because this fry oil is still really hot,

ladle one cup of fry oil into the measuring cup.

So we're just gonna use the oil that we fried the chicken in

to make like a hot fat basting oil.

I'm glad we're not just throwin' it out, you know,

we're puttin' it to use. Exactly.

And then all of these seasonings,

so it's like, a large amount of cayenne, that's the...

[Michael] That's the big bowl?

[Carla] That's the big bowl.

Do I dump it all in?

[Carla] Dump it all...

But just be careful, I don't want you to splash up hot oil

onto your wrist or anything.

[Michael] Okay, I'm doin' the whole bowl?

All of everything, yeah.

And then use a whisk to just make sure

all of those spices are incorporated.

[Michael] Uh-huh.

And it's great when dry spices like that hit hot oil,

it like, blooms all of their compounds.

[Michael] Mm-hmm.

So this oil, like, even though it's just sitting

for a minute, is gonna infuse...

Oh, you can smell it.

[Carla] Rapidly, yeah.

You can smell it.

It smells spicy.

That was a large amount of cayenne, paprika,

chili powder, granulated garlic, and brown sugar.

So this should be sweet, and smokey, and spicy.

And so bring your chicken close to you.

♪ Bring your chicken close to you ♪

[laughs] And then using the basting brush,

just dip the brush into the oil,

and then brush that all over the chicken pieces.

And so this is like, you're still gonna have

all the crunchies.

Mm-hmm.

[Carla] And we haven't burned off all these seasonings,

and then this whole outer crust.

[Michael] Yep, hot stuff. Woo, look at that.

Oh, boy.

All right, so now we're gonna build our plates.

[Michael] All right.

And instead of making a sandwich,

just wanna put like, a slice of white bread,

this is like the landing pad, it's not really gonna help you

when things get hot, but...

And then just choose your two favorite pieces,

and just putting 'em right on top--

Oh, it's hard to pick amongst my children.

[Carla] [laughs] I know, and then grab a few pickles.

[Michael] Oh, yeah.

Put those on top, or around,

make a little pickle presentation.

And then I gotta get this chicken out of the way,

and we'll serve up some slaw.

You should have a side bowl.

There you go.

Awesome, ready?

Yeah.

Ready.

Extremely beautiful.

Thank you.

Craggy.

Yeah, yeah. And shaggy.

Yeah, you can...

Yeah. Yeah.

They look related.

Yeah, amazing.

Thank you.

Nice slaw too.

Gorgeous crust.

Thank you.

Lovely mahogany.

Thank you, yeah.

Fantastic slaw.

Shall we?

I would love that, yeah.

I would love to offer you my Nashville-style hot chicken.

Yes.

Bread's not gonna help you, really.

No?

No, but it's there.

All right.

Mm!

Did I do all right?

Mm-hmm.

Oh, man.

So juicy!

Perfectly cooked.

Hey, mom!

Do you wanna come in here?

This is your chance to be on TV.

Or the internet.

[Man] She's thinkin' it's a no.

Yeah, she's... Aw, it's a no?

Yeah, yeah.

Will you come back sometime?

Maybe do an omelet?

Yeah, that'd be great.

Awesome.

Maybe we should go to like, the real spicy zone.

Yeah.

Maybe we should get into some ghost peppers.

Yes, okay.

It's a deal, it's a date.

I've never seen a ghost pepper, have you?

No, it's, you know, that's their thing.

You can't see them.

[laughing]

They're invisible.