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  • - Whole chickens. - Whole chickens.

  • The chicken is one of the most common whole served animals.

  • And so that's why I thought it would be worthy

  • of doing a whole episode about.

  • - Why didn't you say "Worth It"?

  • - What?

  • Is it Worth It? ♪

  • Make it Worth It

  • Make it Worth It

  • Worth It, Worth It

  • - Today on "Worth It",

  • we're gonna be trying three whole chickens

  • at three drastically different price points

  • to find out which one is the most worth it at it's price.

  • - We've had whole chickens before.

  • - In the fried chicken episode,

  • the last chicken was a whole chicken.

  • In the Korean soups episode,

  • the last soup was a whole chicken.

  • - [Steven] I am salivating as you say that.

  • - You get the fat, the skin,

  • the cartilage, the whole thing.

  • - It's true.

  • You wouldn't watch a movie an act at a time,

  • you'd watch the whole thing.

  • - And when you describe a very attractive individual,

  • they're often described as the whole package.

  • - Andrew, where are we goin' first?

  • - So our first whole chicken is going to come from

  • DOMESTIC BBQ in Covina,

  • where we're gonna be speaking with Milton and Erika

  • about their whole chicken.

  • It is prepared in halves,

  • but the menu item is a whole chicken.

  • This chicken is both smoked, fried, and grilled.

  • - You say both if it's three things?

  • - What? - Both, yes.

  • - Smoked, fried, grilled? - Yes.

  • - Is that the whole-ly trinity or what?

  • (Andrew laughing)

  • - Yes.

  • (upbeat music)

  • How would you describe DOMESTIC?

  • - California style barbecue.

  • - It's not Texas style, it's not Mississippi style,

  • it's our stamp on barbecue.

  • - We take a lot of the regional classic barbecue technique

  • and some of the flavors, and then we blend it into our own.

  • We use different wood blends, different dry rubs,

  • it's the flavor and balance between the wood

  • and the seasonings that we use that make it unique.

  • - Where does your background in barbecue come from?

  • - Passion. - Backyard.

  • (Erika laughing)

  • - Backyard passion.

  • I went to culinary school to become a chef,

  • and barbecue has always been in my background,

  • doing it on the weekends with family, with friends.

  • It's one of those processes that takes so much time

  • that you really gotta love it to do it on a regular basis.

  • - We are interested in the whole chicken that you guys have.

  • Can you talk a little bit more

  • about how it found it's way on the menu?

  • - We used to go to a ton of barbecue spots.

  • One of the things that was always missing

  • on the menu was chicken.

  • So when we opened up DOMESTIC, he's like,

  • "Let's do something completely different and do chicken."

  • It's really hard to execute,

  • just because any misstep can over dry the bird.

  • We split through the spine,

  • and then we do something called a dry brine.

  • A wet brine you usually dip it into,

  • you leave it, you soak it.

  • The dry brining draws out the moisture

  • from the chicken itself.

  • - [Milton] It's osmosis, so it's pulling out the moisture

  • from the chicken and replacing it

  • with the salt that we're have in our dry rub.

  • - [Erika] We put it into a smoker.

  • - [Milton] Anywhere from two hours

  • to two hours and 45 minutes.

  • - [Erika] We actually deep fry our chicken real quickly

  • just to crisp up the skin.

  • - [Milton] Throw it on the grill, get some nice cross marks

  • on the breast side of it.

  • We glaze it with our house-made barbecue sauce

  • so you're getting a sweet tackiness

  • that comes with a crispy skin and moist chicken.

  • You're hitting all the senses texturally.

  • - [Steven] The chicken's getting the full spa treatment.

  • - [Erika] It really is.

  • - [Milton] We're giving it the respect it deserves.

  • - [Erika] It's a very simple item,

  • but we wanna transform it and make it something spectacular.

  • (cash register dinging)

  • - My favorite part of the chicken is always the drum stick.

  • - [Andrew] I'm down to start there.

  • - [Steven] Wow.

  • - I swear I'm usually better at this.

  • - Remember when you said 20 minutes would be enough time?

  • - I am skilled at the anatomy of a chicken.

  • Boom, there we go.

  • - [Steven] Ready?

  • - That's what you want.

  • Cheers Steven.

  • - Look at the juice drip, cheers.

  • - It's straight up drippin'.

  • (upbeat music)

  • Mm.

  • Wow.

  • Mm, that meat is so tender.

  • - I never thought chicken that's cooked

  • for that long could still retain so much moisture.

  • - I roast a chicken for like five minutes too long,

  • it's dry as (beep).

  • I don't know what sorcery they're doing to this thing.

  • - Oh my God.

  • You wanna take a little side break?

  • - I do, yeah.

  • - [Milton] Our bacon mac and cheese starts with a base

  • of bechamel with, we use real cheddar,

  • real mozzarella, real jack cheese.

  • - [Steven] Oh my goodness.

  • (Steven exhaling)

  • - God damn that's good.

  • - This is my fantasy.

  • I love melty cheese.

  • - All right, I'm gonna get a breast chunk.

  • The often maligned portion of the chicken.

  • People think it's too dry, it's boring.

  • - It's because it's easy to cook wrong.

  • - The breast is good.

  • Look at the juices running down my hand, from the breast.

  • - [Milton] And our cornbread is a little bit sweeter.

  • Whereas if you go to the deep South, it's more savory,

  • it's a salt profile with a little bit of sweetness

  • added on top, we're vice versa.

  • - Whole chicken, whole cornbread.

  • Whole corn in the whole cornbread.

  • - Whoa, it's actually corn.

  • You don't see that a lot.

  • Whoa, that cornbread is so good.

  • I'm not gonna lie, I was like,

  • oh, this looks like it's gonna suck.

  • - You were ready for it to be bad.

  • (Steven speaking gibberish)

  • - I was like it's gonna be bad.

  • The texture of it looks like it's a typical cornbread,

  • like, oh, it's like dry and crusty,

  • but it's fluffy and sweet.

  • - Oh my God.

  • - Before our next whole chicken--

  • - [Both] A whole chicken fact.

  • - Adam Driver who attended Juilliard

  • has said that in college he regularly ate

  • an entire rotisserie chicken himself.

  • - [Both] Adam Driver.

  • - Went to Julliard?

  • - I mean, depending on what else I ate

  • over the course of a day, a whole chicken is not that crazy.

  • Like I crushed half a chicken yesterday

  • and I didn't even break a sweat.

  • - You were a little sweaty.

  • - So our next whole chicken, we're going to Saucy Chick.

  • We're gonna be speaking with Rhea and Marcel.

  • We're gonna be trying their rotisserie dinner to share.

  • And they actually do two styles of rotisserie chicken,

  • we're gonna be trying both.

  • - Sweet, I always love family style meals.

  • - For sure.

  • - And a whole chicken,

  • unless you're Adam Driver, great to share.

  • (upbeat music)

  • How did you guys get started?

  • - Both Marcel and I worked corporate jobs.

  • And in 2020 we worked for the same company,

  • and we were both furloughed.

  • And we now found ourselves with lots of time on our hands,

  • and a family to support.

  • So we asked friends and family

  • if we could feed them for donations.

  • So what ended up happening

  • was that they would tell other people,

  • and all of a sudden we were feeding

  • friends of friends of friends.

  • So here we are.

  • - [Marcel] The whole chicken meal

  • consists of one whole chicken, two sides,

  • a packet of eight Mejorado tortillas,

  • one sauce, and pickled onions.

  • You have the option to add a sauce sampler.

  • - [Rhea] We have about five different

  • scratch crafted sauces, five different sides.

  • - One of our sides that I kinda stole from my mom

  • was the Mom's beans.

  • She would only make it during Thanksgiving and Christmas,

  • and everyone asks, "Did your mom make the beans?"

  • And so it's a pinto bean with chorizo, jalapeno,

  • some olives, with some cheese.

  • - [Rhea] And mom's love.

  • - I'm Mexican.

  • We've always had the traditional enchiladas,

  • the albondigas.

  • - Conversely, I'm Indian, South Asian descent.

  • Growing up, we never bought ghee,

  • ghee is just something that you made at home,

  • same thing with yogurt.

  • Both our cultures use coconut, peanuts, cumin,

  • chilies, lime, really finding the through line

  • between our cultures and then bringing them together

  • for like this epic explosion or collision of flavors, yeah.

  • - Sometimes it's a collaboration,

  • other times it's a collision, right?

  • - Yes.

  • - [Rhea] We're gonna do two different rotisserie chicken.

  • One is pibil, which is inspired by Yucatan.

  • - [Marcel] So it's achiote seeds, citrus,

  • apple cider vinegar, garlic.

  • - It's traditionally pork, we just chickenfied it.

  • And then the Indian inspired chicken is jeera chicken.

  • It's marinated in caramelized onions, garlic, ginger.

  • That recipe was really inspired by my dad.

  • - [Marcel] We get the chicken in, getting it brined,

  • we let it rest for about six to eight hours,

  • and then we marinate the chickens.

  • We do marinate inside under the skin.

  • At minimum it's a 24 hour window

  • where they'll sit marinated.

  • The oven itself holds up to 21 chickens, seven spits.

  • It cooks anywhere between 45 to 50 minutes.

  • We'll wrap it in foil, get it packaged, ready for delivery.

  • - I had another question.

  • - Yeah.

  • - Which chicken is better?

  • - Jeera. - Ha, pibil.

  • (everyone laughing)

  • (cash register dinging)

  • - Looks like we have rented out quite the house.

  • - 'Cause Saucy Chick is only to go right now.

  • We have one of each chicken, the pibil and the jeera.

  • All of the sauces, the kachumber salad, the Mom's beans,

  • the mayocoba beans, charred haldi cauliflower,

  • jeera rice, and of course the tortillas as well.

  • - I know what I want first, mommy beans.

  • - Beans, yeah.

  • It's not just for Thanksgiving anymore.

  • Mm, I've never had beans that tasted like that.

  • - It's got kicks to it.

  • Like fresh kicks, like this guy just bought sneakers

  • from nike.com, I don't know where you buy sneakers.

  • (Andrew laughing)

  • - It almost tastes like a cheese dip,

  • but it's not a cheese dip, it's a beans.

  • So we have two chickens, pibil, jeera.

  • So I'm gonna grab one of these.

  • - [Steven] You gotta twist.

  • - I'm trying, I don't want the meat to all fall off.

  • - I see, I see, I see.

  • - The meat is so tender, I'm gonna lose it.

  • Adam, shut up, I know how to cut a chicken.

  • Do you just want?

  • - I'll take that one, yeah, thank you,

  • thank you very much.

  • You did a good job cutting that one up.

  • This is chicken man, this is chicken.

  • - Cheers. - Cheers Steven.

  • Pibil.

  • (upbeat music)

  • - Mm, oh man.

  • - Mm, my hand's been pibil'd.

  • - Instant reaction, so much flavor.

  • I mean, it's not particularly juicy,

  • but it feels like there's flavor just gushing out though.

  • And now onto the jeera.

  • (chicken squishing)

  • Mm, whoa.

  • - Oh yeah.

  • - Whoa.

  • This is all the benefits of a spice without being spicy.

  • It's spice dash Y.

  • - Yeah. - Not spicy.

  • - I think we should be calling things spicy

  • when they are of spices, not hot.

  • That's a good point, why do we say spicy?

  • We should just be calling spicy food pain.

  • - Man, I can say it confident

  • I've never had a rotisserie chicken like this

  • before in my life.

  • - For each of you, what is your favorite combination

  • in single bite?

  • - Tear off a piece of tortilla,

  • I want all sauces and I just create little bites,

  • and I include everything on it.

  • - And I'm a burrito guy.

  • - Rhea's favorite bite.

  • - There's something very bold,

  • which is that you could mix all the sauces together

  • and it could still be delicious.

  • How can this be good?

  • (upbeat music)

  • - I wanna say which part tasted really good,

  • but it's so many parts and it all tasted so good.

  • - This is a Heisman collision.

  • But then instead of a train wreck,

  • they emerge and become one super train.

  • Okay, burrito time.

  • This is the way that Marcel likes it.

  • Mom's beans, rice, cauliflower, pickled onions.

  • (upbeat music)

  • - Yes, that is good.

  • (Steven laughing)

  • Mm.

  • - This reminds me a lot of something

  • called (speaking in foreign language) cooking.

  • - I haven't heard of that.

  • - (speaking in foreign language) is a term

  • that describes this generation of Malaysian women

  • who married Chinese men.

  • Their cross-cultural marriage

  • created this beautiful new cuisine.

  • And now through the beauty of marriage,

  • we were able to reach the depths of flavor layerage

  • in this meal.

  • - That's beautiful, Steven.

  • - Should we turn the lights on?

  • - You know how you know a meal is great?

  • When you start eating it when it's daylight,

  • and you don't even realize it turned nighttime

  • 'cause you were just in a time warp of flavor.

  • - That was so good, man.

  • (foil crunching)

  • - Before we move on to our final whole chicken,

  • we're actually gonna make a special trip

  • to the Natural History Museum of LA County.

  • - [Both] Chicken fact.

  • - I'm Luis Chiappe,

  • I'm the director of the Dinosaur Institute

  • here at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

  • - A common dinosaur trivia factoid

  • is that chickens are the closest related

  • living species to dinosaurs.

  • Is that true?

  • - Not entirely, because all birds

  • are more closely related to dinosaurs,

  • so I wouldn't just single out the chicken.

  • Not only are they closely related to dinosaurs,

  • they are dinosaurs.

  • - So a chicken is a dinosaur?

  • - Yes.

  • - How are you allowed to say that?

  • - They are the descendants of dinosaurs,

  • just like we are mammals because we descended from a mammal.

  • We're also primates, because we descended from a primate.

  • - So when looking at a modern chicken

  • in relation to something like a T-Rex,

  • are there certain things that we can point out

  • as being very similar?

  • - Absolutely, like for example,

  • you could point out that boomerang shaped bone,

  • that is called the furcula technically,

  • but that is essentially the ancestor of the wishbone.

  • If you look at a chicken they have three main toes,

  • like a T-Rex,

  • and of course they leave a tridactyl footprint.

  • Some of the relatives of the T-Rex were also feathered,

  • and we have exceptional fossils

  • that have been found around the world

  • with their feathers in place.

  • - So the T-Rex might've been feathered?

  • - Yes.

  • - Like a giant chicken. - Yes, exactly.

  • - Do you have a favorite way of preparing chicken?

  • - I do, I kinda butterfly the chicken on the grill,

  • and I do it all the time.

  • - [Andrew] You do this in the field, like in your research?

  • - [Luis] I do it in the field.

  • - So you're researching dinosaurs,

  • consuming dinosaurs--

  • - [Luis] Exactly.

  • - All in one day. - Yes.

  • - That's amazing.

  • Now that we've fed our brains.

  • - Where are we gonna feed our tummies?

  • - Our last whole chicken is gonna be at Citrin.

  • We're gonna be speaking with chef de cuisine,

  • Hilary Henderson about their dirty bird for two.

  • Citrin is actually the evolved form of a restaurant

  • we've previously visited on the show,

  • a restaurant called Melisse, it was in our egg video.

  • And Hilary, we actually interviewed

  • when she worked at CUT Beverly Hills

  • for our first steak video.

  • - Wow, so much is happening here.

  • (classical music)

  • I just had a flashback to CUT,

  • just seeing that wagyu certificate for the first time.

  • That was a real entrance into fine dining

  • I had never experienced before.

  • - Yeah, new thing.

  • - That was like five years ago.

  • - [Hilary] Was it?

  • - [Steven] 2016, right?

  • - Yeah, 'cause I had just taken over the role of CDC at CUT.

  • - Oh really?

  • - Oh, like first week.

  • - And you just took over this role, right?

  • - Yeah.

  • - Okay, so let us know when you change jobs again.

  • (everyone laughing)

  • - Okay.

  • So Citrin is, I don't wanna say it's more casual

  • because it is still totally fine dining.

  • But you can come in and get the dirty chicken,

  • you don't have to order a tasting menu,

  • but you still have the option.

  • First of all, is that the official name?

  • Dirty chicken?

  • - The official name on the menu

  • is the dirty chicken for two.

  • The chickens go into a super heavy salt brine for two hours.

  • We glaze them with tamarind, and kiwi, and miso.

  • Then the dirty crust, panko breadcrumbs, confit meyer lemon,

  • garlic, herbs, super aromatic.

  • And then that goes in the oven,

  • and then this is the most specific part of that procedure,

  • the temperature at which the chicken is cooked.

  • So the goal here is to have that crispy texture outside,

  • the skin gets super thin.

  • And then the inside is really juicy,

  • it's almost more condensed.

  • Your final product when it hits the table

  • is like the best chicken you'll ever eat.

  • We'll present the whole chicken to the guests,

  • and then we bring it back into the kitchen and we carve.

  • Chicken may not seem creative,

  • but I think the creativity and the artistry in being a chef

  • lies really in the discipline and the fundamentals.

  • So figuring out how to cook this whole

  • four and a half pound chicken to perfection is really,

  • I think the art of it, so that it is perfect.

  • Comes out in a beautiful copper cassoulet.

  • Dirty chicken for two.

  • - Can I ask you about this serving spoon?

  • - [Hilary] Yes.

  • - It's like a non spoon.

  • - They are elusive, they're really expensive too.

  • - That makes me want it even more.

  • - Yeah, like a $65 spoon.

  • - What?

  • - [Andrew] It's like a deconstructed spatula, right?

  • - [Hilary] And you just used it perfectly, that's--

  • - [Andrew] Like that?

  • - [Hilary] Yep.

  • - Okay, thank you. - Thank you so much.

  • - [Hilary] My pleasure.

  • - My instinct is to grab a leg.

  • - Let's do it.

  • How is this not fried?

  • Look at the skin.

  • - It doesn't resemble a fried chicken.

  • - Cheers Steven. - Cheers.

  • (chicken crunching)

  • - That's an incredible chicken.

  • - There's nothing I like more

  • than being in a fine dining restaurant like this,

  • and just getting it in with my hands.

  • - Mhm, there is luxury,

  • and then the level above luxury is approaching casualness.

  • - It's so tender.

  • - So it's just kind of like covered in tiny crunchy.

  • - Yeah, let's talk about the crunchies.

  • - It's not like a single crust, like with fried chicken.

  • It's like a fruit crumble that has the craggly top.

  • Fried chicken is to pie, as this chicken is to crumble.

  • - Whoa. - Here we go.

  • Touch your tongue to the bone itself.

  • It's seasoned.

  • - This is a chicken that I want to clean.

  • Yes, yes, yes.

  • Sorry to the sound people.

  • - Shall we take a side break?

  • - Which one you wanna do?

  • - We have perfectly buttery whipped potatoes,

  • creamed morels cooked in white wine,

  • and then a ragu of seasonal vegetables,

  • so corn, chanterelles, roasted garlic, and spinach.

  • - Ooh, look at that whole piece of garlic,

  • do you see that?

  • - [Steven] Oh my gosh.

  • - [Andrew] A whole clove of roasted garlic.

  • - Mm, mm, mm, whoa.

  • That's a lot of different sensations.

  • - Ooh, creamy mushrooms.

  • - Mm.

  • - I want that with the mashed potato,

  • can I have this together?

  • - Yeah, I think we're missing out

  • by not experiencing this all together.

  • - Mm, oh yeah. - Oh.

  • - Oh yeah. - Oh my God.

  • It's like a potato milkshake.

  • - Oh my God.

  • - Breast time?

  • I get to use these spoons now.

  • (spoons tapping together)

  • - Spoons like that make me say why,

  • but then you think, why not?

  • - Woo.

  • Yeah, you gotta get all the different stuff on the plate.

  • (upbeat music)

  • Thank you.

  • Thank you, gravy, for all that you do.

  • (both laughing)

  • - Man, that lemon though,

  • it's like a triangle in an orchestra, it's like da ding.

  • - It's interesting to go to a restaurant of this level.

  • A lot of the time,

  • what you've come for is a dish that you cannot anticipate,

  • but this is kind of the opposite end of the spectrum.

  • It's the perfect roast chicken dinner

  • executed perfectly in a way I could not do.

  • - That's kind of the secret to the whole chicken,

  • the familiarity.

  • - Right.

  • - Oh, that's really good.

  • - I think we need to give a special shout out

  • in this episode to all of the different sides.

  • The mac and cheese, that corn bread,

  • the cauliflower, Mom's beans.

  • - [Steven] Mom's beans.

  • - Whole chicken, Steven,

  • it's time to pick our "Worth It" winners.

  • - They were all great.

  • I gotta say man, Saucy Chick takes the cake,

  • and by cake, I mean the whole chicken.

  • It was the moment when I mixed all the sauces together

  • and had that bite, it's game over.

  • - That is unique and special.

  • But I think I'm gonna give my "Worth It" winner

  • to DOMESTIC.

  • - No way.

  • - Yes.

  • I feel like chicken is often an afterthought

  • on barbecue menus, but at DOMESTIC,

  • there is so much thought into each cooking method,

  • and proportion, and sauce, and seasoning

  • that's going into that chicken.

  • That's my "Worth It" winner.

  • - [Steven] Unbelievable value.

  • - Adam, who is your "Worth It" winner?

  • - Citrin.

  • - Citrin.

  • - [Adam] Dirty chicken for two.

  • - That does it for our whole dinosaur episode.

  • Next time on "Worth It", we're doing desserts.

  • (upbeat music)

- Whole chickens. - Whole chickens.

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