- 16 hours ago
America's Test Kitchen - Season 26 Episode 13 - Weeknight Chicken And Mashed Potatoes
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
00:30Today on America's Test Kitchen, Alex makes Bridget cold-start pan-seared chicken breast
00:43with cherry and rosemary pan sauce, Adam reviews paper towels, and Sam makes Julia the fastest,
00:51easiest mashed potatoes. It's all coming up right here on America's Test Kitchen.
01:00Pan-seared chicken breasts are not just a recipe, they're an opportunity. An opportunity for home
01:09cooks to learn how to cook chicken so that the meat is nice and juicy, and you get to work on a
01:15beautiful pan sauce as well. Well, who better to teach us all of this than our Season 2 America's
01:21Test Kitchen Next Generation winner, Alex. Welcome to the Test Kitchen. Thank you, Bridget. I'm so
01:26excited to be here. In cooking, it's pretty customary to start searing chicken breasts in
01:31an extremely hot pan. Yes. So we're basically going to throw all that out the window and start with a
01:36cold pan, and this is going to give us a really nice sear and a perfectly cooked inside. Alex is
01:41breaking all the rules from the moment he walked in here. I love it, but I know we're in great hands.
01:46Here we have four boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and you want to make sure that your
01:50chicken breasts weigh 10 ounces or less. If they're more than 10 ounces, they're not going to all fit in
01:55our pan at the same time. I find going to the butcher's counter and getting them individually
02:00is a great practice. Also, they can weigh them for you there if you don't have a scale. So we want to
02:05make these a little bit more even. We have this thicker end and this thinner end, and we want a nice
02:10even surface across the board. We have plastic wrap on the counter underneath the chicken breasts
02:15and some more plastic wrap over the chicken breasts. Okay. We could go ahead and just take the
02:20meat hammer straight to these, but then we'd just be making a huge mess. So this is a great way to
02:25contain everything. So we just want to even these out so they're about a half an inch all across the
02:30board. Okay. So as I pound it out, I like to do more of a swiping motion rather than go straight down.
02:35Kind of helps spread out the chicken a little bit more evenly.
02:41All right. I'm going to remove this so we can go ahead and get a measurement on these. Okay.
02:46So we're looking for about a half an inch here. Okay.
02:51Looks about a half an inch to me. Nailed it. Moisture is the enemy of getting a really,
02:57really nice sear. Yes. We can't get that nice browning if there's a lot of moisture present.
03:01I'm going to take some paper towel and pat off any excess moisture on both sides. Perfect.
03:10Our chicken has almost no fat in there. Right. So we need a little bit of fat for that heat transfer.
03:15Here I have two tablespoons of vegetable oil. Any high smoke point neutral cooking oil will do here.
03:21Okay. Great. I'm going to brush these evenly both sides so we have it all coated. This layer of fat
03:28will allow for really, really nice heat transfer to the chicken and will give us a perfect sear.
03:33All right. I have two teaspoons of kosher salt and we're going to season these evenly on all sides.
03:39So each one's going to get around a half a teaspoon. Okay.
03:42I'm always seasoning from a height here so we get an even distribution of the salt.
03:49We're going to go ahead and place these in our pan. So we have a nonstick pan, 12 inches,
03:54that should fit our chicken breasts great. Okay.
03:57A lot of people like searing in stainless steel. That works great from a preheated state.
04:02So since we're starting from cold, this is going to help us out a lot more and avoid any sticking.
04:06Nonstick works great here. If you're a fan of carbon steel, that works really well too.
04:11That has a nice natural nonstick layer.
04:13Right.
04:13We like nonstick or carbon steel for this.
04:16I've washed my hands so now we can get cooking.
04:20We need to make sure we're starting out on high heat so we can drive off the moisture
04:24and really start that searing process.
04:26Okay. Great. And as quick as possible.
04:28Exactly. If we start on low to medium, we're just going to build up steam and we're not going
04:32to get that browning. So we're going to go on high for two minutes.
04:35Okay. So the cold pan though, cold pan theory, where are we going with that?
04:39When you start in a hot pan, especially with such a lean protein, that dry layer always appears
04:45just under the surface of your sear because you get that sear, but in the process, that really,
04:50really intense heat, it's going to give you that tough, dry layer.
04:53Okay.
04:54So by starting in the cold pan, we are building up our sear, slowly, gently approaching our
04:59internal temperature. Spend two minutes. I'm going to go ahead and flip these.
05:09It's been another two minutes.
05:10All right.
05:11I'm going to go ahead and flip again.
05:13A little more browning on that second side.
05:15A little bit more exciting there. Now that each side has had two minutes on high heat,
05:19we're going to go ahead and drop to medium.
05:21Now we're just going to keep flipping every two minutes for six to eight minutes until
05:26we reach 155 degrees.
05:27Okay.
05:28There's a lot of concern with cooking on high heat with nonstick.
05:31Right.
05:32For this, it's really only a few minutes of that high heat and we're starting from cold,
05:36so it's never really getting that hot to cause too much concern.
05:40Okay. Good point.
05:41It's been another two minutes. Let's go ahead and check our other side.
05:45Oh, all right.
05:46Wow.
05:47Getting some color.
05:47There's a huge benefit to flipping them so often. Flipping it allows it to cool down on
05:53each side just under the surface of the sear before the next flip. So that's going to avoid
05:59that really dry, tough layer just under the surface of your sear.
06:02And allow it to heat through more gently.
06:05Exactly.
06:05Okay.
06:05So you get a nice, perfectly cooked interior.
06:07Yeah, because thin cut chicken breasts, you want them to spend as much time in the pan
06:11so they can get some good color, but you don't want to overcook them.
06:15Right. And it's a very fine line.
06:17These are looking great. I think we're just about there. I'm going to go ahead and take
06:21the temperature. Perfect. 156. One degree over.
06:25I mean, I guess 156 is fine for the next generation.
06:28My generation is happy with 156.
06:33We're going to let these rest for 10 minutes and we're going to tent them with some tinfoil
06:39here. Anytime you cook any meat, you really want to let it rest at least half the time
06:46it took to cook. That's going to allow the juices inside to redistribute themselves.
06:50If we were to cut into this now, all those juices would bleed everywhere and we'd end up
06:54with dry chicken, which is what we were trying to avoid in the first place.
06:57We're going to go ahead and make our pan sauce while we wait for our chicken to rest.
07:00Gorgeous. All right.
07:02We're going to start out by prepping some shallot and some rosemary here.
07:07Peeled off all of our skin and now we want to go ahead and mince this up nice and fine.
07:12We're going to be looking for two tablespoons, which is about one small shallot.
07:15Okay.
07:17We're also going to add some minced rosemary to this as well.
07:20You can also use an equal amount of time.
07:23Okay.
07:23They both work really, really well here and pair great with this fruity flavor.
07:26All right.
07:29We only used just enough fat just to coat the chicken.
07:32So we need to add a little bit of extra fat to our pan to start sweating our aromatics.
07:37Okay.
07:37Here I have two teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil.
07:40I'm going to get this back on the heat.
07:43I'm going to add two tablespoons of our shallot here.
07:47And one half teaspoon of our rosemary.
07:54We're going to cook these over medium heat for around two minutes.
08:01It's been about two minutes.
08:02They're very fragrant and we have some light caramelization around the edges of our shallot here.
08:07We're going to go ahead and deglaze so we can scrape up all of this fond, which is all that buildup from searing off the bottom of our pan.
08:15I have one cup of dry red wine.
08:17Mmm.
08:18It's really important when you do this to really scrape up off the bottom and incorporate all of that fond into our sauce.
08:25I'm also going to add two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and two teaspoons of sugar.
08:33All right.
08:33So that fruity, sweet, tangy flavor, they all work really well together.
08:37We're going to cook this for five minutes on a medium heat to reduce it down by half its volume.
08:43This is going to concentrate the flavor and cook off the alcohol as well.
08:47Sounds great.
08:48It's been around five minutes.
08:49We've reduced down.
08:51It's getting really, really nice and a little bit syrupy, which is great for our end sauce consistency.
08:56I'm going to go ahead and add some frozen sweet cherries, thawed and halved.
09:01We have five ounces here, which is around a half a cup.
09:04I'm also going to add the juices from our chicken and try not to spill any of our actual chicken in there.
09:10It's flavor right there.
09:11We're going to continue cooking this on medium heat for around two minutes, breaking them down just a little bit.
09:17As good as this may taste, it means nothing if we don't have a good sauce consistency.
09:23Right.
09:23We're going to add a cornstarch slurry so we can get a really nice consistency.
09:28Here I have two teaspoons of water.
09:31I'm going to add this to a half teaspoon of cornstarch and whisk these together.
09:36You always want to make sure you add the water to your cornstarch.
09:40If you just put the cornstarch right in there, it's going to clump up.
09:42I'm going to add this to our sauce here.
09:44Now we want to cook this on high for one minute.
09:49The cornstarch needs to boil to activate those starches.
09:53Do you do cooking by sound?
09:55I do, yes.
09:56Yeah.
09:56You know when the bubbles get tighter, you're getting less and less liquid as those sugars are concentrating
10:01and there's more fat than there is water in there.
10:04And it goes from like a boiling sound to it's almost a frying sound.
10:08Right.
10:08You're frying liquid like a sizzle, yeah.
10:10Our sauce looks like it has a really great consistency here.
10:14Mmm.
10:15We just have one final step.
10:17What would a pan sauce be without finishing it with butter?
10:20It would be illegal.
10:22I would be arrested and I don't want to go to jail.
10:24So here I have two tablespoons of unsalted butter that's chilled and cut into four pieces.
10:31And I've turned the heat off.
10:33Really important that you incorporate this in off heat and that the butter is cold.
10:37We want to gently melt this butter.
10:39If we heat it excessively, that butter is going to separate.
10:43It has fat and water and that fat's going to end up on top, giving us a greasy feel as that water just dissolves right into the sauce.
10:50It looks amazing.
10:51We just need to make sure it tastes great.
10:53Okay.
10:53I'm going to go ahead and check for seasoning here.
10:58We're really close.
11:00Needs a pinch of salt and a touch of pepper.
11:02Okay.
11:03All right.
11:03Are you ready to eat?
11:04I sure am.
11:05Yes.
11:05Me too.
11:06We'll go ahead and go one chicken breast per person here.
11:11It smells amazing.
11:13Mmm.
11:13I'm going to follow you wherever that sauce goes.
11:16Beautiful.
11:16And whenever I'm saucing anything that's been seared, I find it important to give your sear a little bit of space to peek through.
11:23You don't want to cover the entire thing.
11:25Yeah.
11:26You want to show your work.
11:27Exactly.
11:29All right.
11:30This looks absolutely beautiful.
11:33First test really is getting a piece of chicken without the sauce.
11:36By the way, I got the most challenging part of the chicken, the tiny little end, really well seasoned, great flavor.
11:47That's gorgeous.
11:49I mean, it almost tastes like you salted the chicken and let it sit for a while.
11:52But I love, it's beautifully juicy inside still.
11:56I love this recipe.
11:57It all came together in under 20 minutes or so.
12:00And it can be easily done on any weeknight.
12:03Well, you really are a teacher because you took us through the basics of pan sauce making.
12:08You had the fond already established in the pan.
12:11You heated the aromatics along with the herbs first, deglazed the pan, reduced the liquid in there to concentrate flavor, and then finished it.
12:19A little cornstarch, a little butter.
12:21Absolutely.
12:21And that's what I love about it.
12:22It's such a great format.
12:25Learning something new.
12:26Never tasted so good.
12:27So thank you, Alex.
12:28You're welcome.
12:29And if you want to try this fantastic recipe at home, it starts by pounding boneless chicken breasts so that they're of even thickness.
12:36Then cook them in a cold skillet and flip every two minutes to brown and cook evenly.
12:41Finally, follow up with a beautiful pan sauce.
12:44So from America's Test Kitchen, cold start pan-seared chicken breasts, a la Alex.
12:51Mmm.
12:52Fantastic.
12:53All right.
12:54What do you got next?
12:55Most supermarkets dedicate at least half an aisle to paper towels.
13:07And today, Adam's here to tell us what the difference between all our options are.
13:10There are so many, and they're so confusing and overwhelming.
13:13We are going to try and slog our way through and come up with the differences.
13:17To do that, we assembled this lineup of 10 different paper towels.
13:20Wow.
13:21We had popular name brands.
13:23We had options that are budget-friendly, eco-friendly, and some of the private label ones.
13:29Some of them were full sheet style.
13:31Some of them were select-a-size style.
13:33They ranged in cost from about $5 a roll to $1.19 a roll.
13:38And that worked out to $0.07 per sheet to $0.01 per sheet.
13:42Okay.
13:42That's a difference.
13:43That's a difference.
13:44That's a real difference.
13:45Now, for the testing, we did a bunch of different stuff.
13:47We analyzed their strength.
13:51We evaluated their absorption capability.
13:54We used them to wipe different surfaces, including wood and stainless steel and granite and glass.
14:02We dried freshly washed dishes, including delicate glassware with them.
14:06We used them just in daily life for whatever came up for more than a week.
14:11And the testers also unrolled them, counted the number of sheets, which ranged from 75 to 180 per roll.
14:18And that spoke to the cost per sheet.
14:21The thicknesses varied a little bit.
14:24We measured some of them, the thinner ones, for instance, at 0.3 millimeters.
14:29The thicker ones, like this, were 0.5 millimeters.
14:35Oh, yeah.
14:36And it wasn't a huge surprise.
14:37The thinner sheets were a little less absorbent.
14:40They picked up about a quarter cup or less of water, as opposed to the thicker sheets, which picked up a third of a cup or more.
14:47And then this one was the champ.
14:50This picked up more than half a cup of water in just seconds.
14:54Oh, wow.
14:54Now, in terms of the strength and how that relates to the thickness and the thinness, I want you to tear off a sheet of this guy there, pour out some of this soy sauce, and do a little wiping up for me, please, Julia.
15:07You're good at making a mess.
15:08I am very good at making a mess.
15:11Uh-oh.
15:13Uh-oh.
15:13Uh-oh.
15:13I'm just making a bigger mess.
15:15Uh-oh.
15:17I'm going to need a few more for my hands.
15:19I'm going to tear off some extra paper towels.
15:21So you can see that not only do your hands get messy, but you need to use extra sheets because it's not that absorbent.
15:28And related to that, testers really found that the packaging terms, like double or triple, didn't really connote any extra value or cost savings.
15:36What did make a difference is that feature of select-a-size sheets.
15:41Love that feature.
15:41Where you can tear off half a sheet of paper towel.
15:44You're using less paper.
15:46And you can use that to clean up the rest of that mess.
15:48Oh, thank you.
15:49That was bothering me.
15:50Oh, wow.
15:51This is a dream.
15:52It's a lot thicker.
15:53It's a lot skirtier, isn't it?
15:55Yes.
15:56I have towel to spare.
15:58Excellent.
15:59In the end, we had co-winners.
16:00One of them was this.
16:01This is the Bounty Select-a-Size.
16:03They both actually had that select-a-size feature.
16:06This one is $3 a roll for 135 sheets.
16:10This is the Viva Signature Cloth Towel.
16:13Also has select-a-size.
16:14This is $4.15 a roll for 141 sheets.
16:18They were strong, they were thirsty, they have the select-a-size, and these are definitely
16:22the paper towels to go for.
16:24Okay, there you have it.
16:25If you find yourself in that aisle wondering which paper towel to buy, there are two you
16:29could look for.
16:30The first is the Bounty Select-a-Size paper towel.
16:33That's about $3 a roll.
16:35And the other is the Viva Signature Cloth Towels at about $4.15 a roll.
16:40When making mashed potatoes, I never use a recipe because it's just so simple.
16:50You cut up some potatoes, you boil them, and mash them with butter and cream until they
16:54taste just right.
16:55But today, Sam is going to try to convince me that I should follow a recipe because not
16:59only is it quicker, my version takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour, but she claims
17:03they'll taste better, which is a high bar.
17:05I'm willing to take on that challenge, Julia, because this recipe is really reliant on using
17:11a perfect formula, and it's going to flip everything that you've ever learned about
17:14mashed potatoes on its head.
17:16Yeah, already I see water boiling, so we're already on different pages.
17:19These mashed potatoes are going to be on our plates in 30 minutes, and they're also very
17:24adaptable, depending on your mashed potato preferences.
17:27Interesting.
17:27Okay, you have my attention.
17:29Let's start with our potatoes, of course.
17:31We are using two pounds of potatoes total, and we're using Yukon Golds.
17:36Okay.
17:36They're creamy, they're buttery, they're delicious.
17:39The first thing we want to do, of course, per any mashed potato recipe, is peel our potatoes.
17:44We have all of our peeled potatoes.
17:46Again, we're using two pounds, and rather than cutting them into chunks, we're going to slice
17:51them into quarter-inch slices.
17:53Okay.
17:54Now, you can certainly use a chef's knife for this and certainly take your time, but I'm
17:58going to trust my mighty fine mandolin.
18:01You just want to be super safe about it.
18:03You want to have your finger guard.
18:05I also have my very stylish cut-resistant glove on.
18:08This is great to use if you're using mandolins often, or cutting.
18:12Or doing a Michael Jackson impersonation.
18:14Exactly.
18:15Now we're going to take our potatoes, and I'm going to use the handguard here, and just
18:19one, two, three, keep running it through until you get that last little end.
18:25And so oftentimes when you're cutting potatoes into chunks, it's kind of hard to cook them
18:29evenly, because you have thin ends, thicker ends.
18:31It's kind of dicey when you're cooking them.
18:33By having these potatoes sliced perfectly thin from edge to edge, they're going to cook
18:37perfectly evenly every single time.
18:39Okay.
18:39And now we can get to cooking our potatoes.
18:42And you'll see that we are using a medium saucepan that has one quart of water that's
18:48already come to a boil.
18:49That is not a lot of water.
18:50It certainly is not, but because we sliced our potatoes so thin, they're very compact
18:55and can fit in a tinier saucepan, which means less water, which means less time waiting for
19:01it to come to a boil.
19:01That is true.
19:03A big pot of water takes 20 to 25 minutes to come to a boil on my stove over high heat.
19:08Too long for me.
19:09I want mashed potatoes right now.
19:11Now the thing here is that you want to make sure that your potatoes are fully submerged
19:14in your water.
19:15So if you want to add a little bit more, that's okay.
19:19And now we want to bring this up to a boil again on high heat.
19:23And once our potatoes come back up to a boil, we're going to reduce the heat to medium, put
19:27the cover on top, and let them simmer until a paring knife inserts right into a potato without
19:32any resistance, which should take about 12 minutes.
19:35Okay.
19:3612 minutes?
19:36Mm-hmm.
19:37You say so.
19:39Julia, it's been 12 minutes.
19:41Okay.
19:41And I promised you cooked potatoes.
19:42So let's check them out.
19:46So again, I'm just going to take a paring knife and press it right into the center, just 12
19:51minutes.
19:52That was fast.
19:52Isn't that so exciting?
19:55It is kind of exciting.
19:57All right.
19:57So we're going to take our potatoes and now we're going to, of course, drain them.
20:01I have a colander in my sink.
20:04Little potato facial for you.
20:06Mm-hmm.
20:07Nice and starchy.
20:07So let's give this a little shake and dump our potatoes right back into our saucepan.
20:14All right.
20:14So we have our cooked potatoes and now we need to mash our potatoes.
20:18Now this is sort of a choose-your-own-adventure situation.
20:21So we have a couple of options here.
20:23If you wanted a super smooth mashed potato, you could use either this food mill or a ricer.
20:29Or if you wanted it to be a little bit more rustic, you could opt for the potato masher,
20:33which is what I'm going to use for us because I promised speed.
20:36Okay.
20:37All right.
20:38So it's pretty self-explanatory.
20:40Sure is.
20:40It's in the title of the tool.
20:43And we're pressing down.
20:47Fast and furious.
20:48That's how we roll.
20:49Okay.
20:49So now we are ready to season our potatoes.
20:52We're going to use a combination of butter and half and half as our fats.
20:56Okay.
20:57So we're going to just stir in a half a cup of half and half.
21:00Now if you wanted a bit leaner of a mashed potato, you could certainly use milk.
21:03I'm also going to add four tablespoons of butter that I've cut into smaller pieces
21:07just to help it melt more evenly into the potatoes.
21:10That's unsalted butter because we're going to manage the salt ourselves with one teaspoon of table salt.
21:16Okay.
21:16And there was no salt in the cooking water.
21:18That's right.
21:19Okay.
21:20This is where all the seasoning happens.
21:22Now in some of our other mashed potato recipes, we add the butter in first
21:25because that helps prevent the starches from gelatinizing and giving you gummy potatoes.
21:30That's what I do.
21:30But since we use the mandolin, we slice the potatoes super thin,
21:34they were even from edge to edge and cooked evenly, we can avoid that altogether.
21:38Crazy.
21:39All right.
21:39So all goes in.
21:40All goes in.
21:41Two pounds of potatoes, four tablespoons of butter, eight tablespoons of half and half,
21:46and one teaspoon of salt.
21:47Okay.
21:48Watch the magic happen.
21:50All right.
21:51These are looking pretty good to me.
21:53Now, if you wanted, you could add up to two more tablespoons of your half and half or your milk.
21:58Gotcha.
21:58To adjust the consistency.
21:59That's right.
22:00But I think these look pretty good.
22:01But before we eat, I do want to taste this for seasoning.
22:04So.
22:06Honestly, the salt is perfect.
22:08I will give us a little sprinkling of pepper.
22:11Give that a stir.
22:13And just like that, we're ready to eat.
22:15That was quick, and I'm ready to eat.
22:17Incredible, right?
22:18Hey.
22:18That's my kind of portion, Sam.
22:21All right.
22:22Notice a little extra butter.
22:23I figured why not.
22:24You know, a little celebratory super fast potatoes deserve a little spoon of butter on top.
22:29Now let's dig in.
22:30All right.
22:31I have to see if it would hold a little pond of gravy.
22:34That's the test.
22:35Yeah.
22:35Those look like sturdy pond walls to hold in the gravy.
22:38I'm going to be a harsh critic, just so you know.
22:40I haven't taken a bite yet.
22:40I'm here for it.
22:41I can take it.
22:41I'm not going to pussyfoot around what I really think.
22:44It's pretty good.
22:54Actually, that's really good.
22:56The potatoes are perfectly cooked.
22:57And it's the balance of the potato with the half and half in the butter.
23:02Yep.
23:02Because I just do it to taste, and I overdo it.
23:05And you don't taste the potato.
23:06But in this, you taste the potato, but it still is creamy.
23:10Absolutely.
23:11There's just four ingredients and a little bit of consideration of measurements and cutting
23:16the potatoes right.
23:17Mm-hmm.
23:18Sam, these are really good.
23:19So glad you like them.
23:20Thank you for showing me a new method for mashed potatoes.
23:23Anytime.
23:23If you want a recipe for fast and fabulous mashed potatoes, peel and slice two pounds of potatoes,
23:30quarter inch thick.
23:31Cook the potatoes in a medium pot of boiling water.
23:34Then mash and add eight tablespoons of half and half and four tablespoons of butter.
23:38From America's Test Kitchen, a great recipe for the fastest, easiest mashed potatoes.
23:43You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with our product reviews
23:48and select episodes at our website, americastestkitchen.com slash TV.
23:53This really is a game changer.
23:55I will never do mashed potatoes differently.
23:57Mm-hmm.
23:58Mm-hmm.
Comments