(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Sara's Weeknight Meals is made possible by Sunsweet and... - Cooking is the first kind of love you know.

It was starting when I was child with my grandmother, doing fresh pasta, and now I transmit it to all the guests.

It's something made specially for them.

- [Narrator] Oceania Cruises, proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

(upbeat music) - America loves chicken, and today, we've got some of the best chicken recipes in America, starting in Charleston, South Carolina.

Why do people flock to this pink shack?

- That's where the magic comes from.

- It's because the secret's out.

Martha Lou's Kitchen makes some of the tastiest fried chicken in the country.

Mm-mm.

We'll fry her unbelievably crispy chicken and make a soul food side dish that her customers love, steamy cabbage and ham.

One-chicken chili is such a different take on chili, which I think of as red, and beef, and tomato-y.

This is a whole different thing, but boy is it good.

It's just so quick and easy.

Saltimbocca literally means jump in the mouth, it's a dish that's made in my favorite Italian restaurants, which consists of veal, fresh sage, and prosciutto, and usually in a Marsala sauce.

And I thought, "Well, for a weeknight meal, "why not do it with chicken?"

Why not?

(upbeat music) It doesn't look like much, but inside this little pink building is fried chicken nirvana.

Martha Lou Gatson has been serving up roll-your-eyes it's-so-good soul food to the people of Charleston for 30 years.

It's a family affair, her daughter Deborah serves.

- How y'all doing today?

- Good.

- And her granddaughter Melanie Austin handles the catering.

The big draw here is the fried chicken.

It's getting a national reputation, so I stopped in to find out what the buzz is all about.

(upbeat music) (oil sizzling) I wanna know where the chicken recipe comes from.

- The chicken recipe actually comes from Martha Lou's mother.

- Oh, so your great-grandmother.

- My great-grandmother.

- Okay.

- Yes.

- [Sara] And what do you think makes it so special?

- The spices.

- So you use a famous spice, it's available nationally.

- It is.

- But we have to also give a homemade recipe.

So you've got sugar.

- Uh-huh.

- Salt, paprika, turmeric, I thought that was an interesting one.

- Yeah.

- Probably gives it color.

- Mm-hm.

- Onion powder, garlic powder, of course.

- Correct.

- And corn starch.

- Right.

- Fascinating.

All right, so you're gonna tell me how much of each one of these we want.

- Okay.

- And you don't measure this, you eyeball this.

- We just eyeball it.

- Oh boy, I hope you're paying attention, though.

(Melanie laughing) This is the sort of thing when people are trying to make recipes from their grandmother, and she's like, "Yeah, just that much," and you're like, "How much?"

You're like, "No, that much."

- Yeah.

- Okay, so we're ready?

- Right.

- Okay, say when.

- [Melanie] When.

- We're now adding garlic salt.

- Garlic salt, right.

- Okay.

You say when again.

- Okay.

Looks good, when.

- Oh, when, okay.

- All right.

Oh, I'm a natural.

Woo!

- Yeah.

You're pretty good at this stuff, are you a chef?

- I am.

(Melanie laughing) I'm a chef, yes.

Okay, and then, pepper.

- Pepper.

- There's some heat in this.

- Yeah.

Just a little bit of pepper.

All right, that's enough.

- Okay, good.

- It looks good.

- So now I can stir that up.

Okay, so we've got our spice mix.

Now, you marinade the chicken overnight, right?

- Overnight, correct.

- So should we get our chicken marinading?

I know you've already got a start, but we'll get the...

So we're gonna do both white meat and dark meat, and what I can't believe is you cook this stuff to order.

- To order, every day.

- So somebody orders fried chicken, and then they start-- - Cook it to order, and it's fresh out of the fryer.

- Yeah, fresh out of the fryer.

- Fresh out of the fryer.

Okay, so what you're gonna do is take...

Okay.

Mix it around, like that.

- [Sara] Mm, but you wanna coat all sides of it.

- You do.

- [Sara] I notice you're getting under the bones a little bit.

- Yes.

You wanna kind of rub it in there.

- This is like brining.

- Yeah, it is.

- Yeah.

Because it's like a dry brine, we call it.

- Yes.

- 'Cause you've got salt in there.

- Yes.

- So the salt is not only gonna season it, but it's gonna pull in all the other seasonings, and it's gonna also make it much juicier.

- [Melanie] Correct.

- Wow.

But you've been doing this for generations.

- Forever.

- Yeah.

- She's been open for like 32 years now.

So now we take some wrap, and you're just gonna wrap this up, like so.

And then, you're gonna put it in the refrigerator overnight.

- So 24 hours?

- 24 hours.

- And that's where all the brining magic happens.

- Oh yeah, that's where the magic comes from.

And we have some already marinaded, that's been in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

- Okay.

- We're gonna take a bowl of water, and then you're gonna add just maybe a tablespoon of milk.

Once again, I do free pour, so we're gonna do like... And you don't wanna add too much milk, because it'll make your oil smoky.

- Oh, okay.

- So you just wanna add just like, maybe a little dash of it.

- [Sara] Okay.

- It gives it that extra crunch, that crispiness, and it keeps it nice and moist.

So we have some self-rising flour.

- Self-rising flour?

Now tell me why that.

- Because it gives it that nice crunchy... - So it's got baking powder in it.

- Right.

- So the idea is that it leavens when it hits the hot oil.

- Right.

- Brilliant, and you don't have to mix it yourself, it's already mixed.

- You don't have to mix, it's already done.

- Okay.

- So what we do is we dip the chicken, we put it in the flour.

- Mm-hm.

- Get a nice... And then we dip it in the milk.

- [Sara] Oh, flour first?

- [Melanie] Flour first, and then, flour, milk, and then back to the flour.

- [Sara] So that sort of double-coats it.

- [Melanie] Right.

(upbeat music) - Okay, so now it's time to fry, so we'll take this over, and you've got the Fryalator-- - The fryer's on, we have it at 350.

- Okay, good.

- And we're frying it in some peanut oil.

- Okay, peanut oil-- - Peanut oil, it's a very-- - High smoke point.

- Right.

- So it doesn't catch fire.

- Right.

- Okay, good.

All right, so let's go on over there.

- Okay.

The dark meat, we're gonna cook that for 20 minutes, and then the white meat is 15 minutes.

- Okay.

(oil sizzling) - All right, here we go.

- I just wanna say one thing really important, you notice how she put that in there?

She didn't hold it up here and drop it in.

- Oh no.

- Just put it right next to the oil.

- Right.

- Yeah.

'Cause you don't wanna be wearing it.

- Yeah, you wanna keep it as close to the grease as possible.

- Okay.

Not everybody has one of these at home.

- Right.

- How would you do this at home?

- Well, I love a turkey fryer.

- A turkey fryer, of course.

- I love it.

- She has a turkey-- - Yeah.

- Do I have a turkey fryer?

- It's the best.

- No, I don't have a turkey-- - Yeah.

- So a stock pot?

- Yes.

- So maybe with about like that much oil.

- Yeah, you want a, yeah.

- And use a deep fat thermometer.

With a turkey fryer, you have that built in.

- Right, correct.

- But I would use a deep, and 350.

- 350.

- So while that's cooking, maybe we can make the cabbage.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- Sounds great to me.

- All right.

So what do you want me to do?

- I want you to cut the onion, let's start off with cutting the onion.

- Slice it or chop it?

- Slice it.

- Okay.

Okay, about a half an onion.

- [Melanie] Yes, half an onion.

- Okay, and you're gonna do-- - And I'ma do peppers.

- [Sara] What's the name of this cabbage dish?

- Southern Pride Cabbage.

- Okay, so now we're gonna get these in the pan.

- Correct.

- Okay, so olive oil?

Is that what you usually use?

- Right.

- Okay.

And we're just gonna soften these, how much?

- That's good, that's enough.

- Okay.

That's exactly what it needed to be, whatever the heck that is.

- Yeah.

(chuckles) - And so all of this goes in, right?

- All of it goes in, right.

- Okay.

(upbeat music) So we're gonna cover this?

- We're gonna cover it.

- Okay, you know, it's funny.

What we used to call that in cooking school is sweating it.

- All right.

- We're gonna sweat them.

All right.

- How appropriate.

- Okay, now.

- All right.

- What are we gonna do with the cabbage?

You're gonna show me.

- [Melanie] We're gonna shred the cabbage.

- [Sara] A whole head, huh?

- [Melanie] A whole head.

- [Sara] So it's sort of like, I think that's about a half an inch.

- Right.

- I'm trying again to get this out of you.

(Melanie laughing) 'Cause you're an intuitive cook.

- Yeah, I'm just-- - Okay, let me just grab this over here.

- Nothing by the book, I'm a cook and not a chef.

(Melanie laughs) - Well, you know, Julia Child said she was a cook and not a chef.

- Yeah.

Trained all by my grandma.

- Yeah, but that's the best way.

All right, so does this have to cook for a while before we add that, or that can go in now?

- That can go in now.

- Okay, so... All right.

So this all really melts down, doesn't it?

- [Melanie] It does.

- What else do we need to add, the ham?

- [Melanie] We need to add the ham.

So now we're gonna add some red wine vinegar.

- Okay, you're gonna say when.

- Okay.

- The famous when.

- All right.

- The very precise when.

- Keep my eye on you.

All right, when.

- Okay.

- Then we're gonna add some sugar, like two teaspoons, please.

- Two teaspoons.

- Yes, yes, yeah.

And then we're gonna do salt and pepper.

When.

- Okay, good.

- All right, and then we're gonna cover it.

- So I'm gonna put the lid on, and then this is gonna cook down, you promise me?

- I promise.

- Okay.

(Melanie laughing) And how long is that gonna take?

- [Melanie] About ten minutes.

- All right, all right, so we can go check the chicken.

(oil sizzling) (jazzy music) Wow, I'm so excited.

This has crust for days.

- Oh, yes.

- I'm just gonna have to pick it up, that's all there is to it, you know.

Mm-mm.

- I bet it's good, okay.

I'ma just dig on into this cabbage.

- Is that the self-rising flour that gives it that crunch?

- It's the self-rising flour and the milk.

- Oh, Deborah!

- Hello, ladies.

How y'all doing?

- Thank you so much.

- Oh, you're welcome.

I've come to join y'all too.

- Right, so while we've been cooking, you've been busy cooking.

- Yes.

- You do all the cooking for this place, don't you?

- Oh, yes ma'am, I sure do.

- Oh God, well I'm glad you're sitting down with us for a minute.

Ladies, I just wanna say thank you so much, and for you all out there, you've gotta come here to Charleston, South Carolina and go to Martha Lou's, because this is the best fried chicken on the planet.

- All right.

- Yeah.

- Really, whoa.

(Deborah laughing) - [Melanie] Thank you.

(upbeat music) - You know, the thing I like most about the white chicken chili at my local burrito place is the sour cream.

'Cause white chicken chili is such a different take on chili, which I think of as red, and beef, and tomato-y.

This is a whole different thing, but boy is it good.

So that's what I'm making right now.

I've got some butter in here, about four tablespoons, and I'm gonna add about a cup of chopped onion, and we're just gonna start softening this.

So we're gonna start with the onion, and then I'm gonna get my garlic.

And, I don't know, this is the largest garlic I've ever seen.

Now what's cool about this, you probably associate chili with long cooking, and depth of flavor, and millions of ingredients.

Well, this particular one is really rather quick.

This is about, this is more than a tablespoon.

Yeah, it's a little more, I don't care.

I really like garlic.

And when you cook it like we're gonna cook it here, it's not that intense.

So now we're just gonna get that softened in about a minute.

So I'm gonna go over there and get a quarter-cup of flour, 'cause we have to thicken this, 'cause I'm adding the sour cream, and sour cream is not high enough in fat that you can boil it.

There's only a few dairy products that you can boil that won't curdle.

One of them is heavy cream, and the other one is creme fraiche.

Anything else doesn't have a high enough butter-fat content to boil.

It'll just split.

So we have to stabilize our sour cream with some flour.

And I'm just gonna take this right over, like this.

So about, what I do is, for every tablespoon of flour, I cook it at least a minute when I first put it in, and then at least a minute later on when I simmer it.

If we cook it enough, it won't taste flour-y.

The general ratio is for every tablespoon of fat, a tablespoon of flour.

And actually, it was the reverse here.

I knew I wanted to add four tablespoons of flour, so I made sure I started with four tablespoons of butter.

Here go the spices.

I'm gonna add a tablespoon of cumin, which is classic for chili, and then we're gonna add a tablespoon of chili powder, and finally I'm gonna add a little cayenne, about a quarter of a teaspoon.

And let the flour cook, and let the spices bloom.

Now while that's happening, I'm gonna get my liquids together.

So let's start with a cup of white wine, dry white wine, and you want a wine that you would drink also.

I mean, what's the point of putting something in there that doesn't taste good.

Okay, you wanna whisk it to keep out the lumps.

Two cups of chicken broth.

Bring the whole thing up to a boil, and then we'll turn it down to a simmer.

And then we're gonna add my ground chicken.

Okay, here we go.

So this is gonna go in, and I'm gonna break it up in there.

(upbeat music) okay, turn it down.

And break it up.

Now, after I get it all broken up, it's gonna simmer in here 'til it's cooked through, and that's gonna be about eight minutes.

Gonna go hose down.

Okay.

All right, so two cans of white beans.

These are 15 and a half ounce, and I'm gonna drain'em and rinse'em very quickly.

Okay.

And we wanna rinse off the liquid it comes in.

So I'm gonna add our beans, and then let me get my sour cream.

You could add yogurt if you want, I would add the Greek yogurt.

And we wanna add about two-thirds of a cup.

As I mentioned, this really puts it over the top.

So we're gonna let this simmer away, and let me salt, there is salt in the chicken broth, even so, it's gonna need some salt as well, 'cause we added all that chicken that has no salt in it.

It's just about done.

I mean, do you believe that?

All right, down to the accoutrement.

Avocado, you've gotta have avocado.

We're gonna cut it in quarters instead of in halves, and this is how you should open your avocados, much safer.

So you take your knife all the way around the circumference, back to where you started.

Then, you do the same, all the way around.

Okay, now.

There we go.

And out comes the pit.

Isn't that cool?

(upbeat music) Now for a little cheese.

Either we're gonna use sharp cheddar or Montery Jack.

And finally, some lime wedges.

Let me set one up for me and a buddy.

Boy, doesn't that look just fantastic.

Oh, maybe I'll let them, I'll let them garnish their own, but I'm gonna garnish mine.

I like everything, I like the works.

So let me see, some cheese... Of course salsa.

And avocado.

All right, there you go.

You know, what's so great about this chili is it's perfect for a weeknight, but it's equally good for a crowd, you know?

You're watching the game, make a big pot of white chicken chili.

Oh, how did I forget this?

Of course, what would chili be without the chips?

So I hope you try this, it's just so quick and easy, and so tasty.

(upbeat blues music) Saltimbocca literally means jump in the mouth.

It's a dish that's made in my favorite Italian Restaurants, which consists of veal, fresh sage, and prosciutto, and usually in a Marsala sauce.

And I thought, "Well, for a weeknight meal, "most people are probably not gonna reach for veal," it's just expensive, and there's other issues with it, but everybody loves chicken, so why not do it with chicken?

Why not?

And it's much more affordable than veal.

So let me get my chicken out, and my prosciutto, and this is a great dish, because it's perfect for the romantic meal for two, but it's also great if you multiply it for company, 'cause it's very elegant.

Okay, so here's our prosciutto di Parma.

Prosciutto is really cured, salted, aged ham.

So I've got two single chicken breasts, which is enough for two people.

It's really great if you can get something called cutlets, which are even thinner to begin with but cost a little more.

These are the regular chicken breasts.

I'm gonna pound them.

That's the only problem here, although it's not a problem, again, at the end of a bad day at the office, it's sort of fun to come home and pound away at something.

So I'm gonna pound it in a resealable bag, and I do this with pork and all sorts of meat.

And I'm just gonna add a little bit of water to the bag, which is a great trick, because when you pound the chicken, if there's water in there, it doesn't shred as much.

See how enormous they get, isn't that incredible?

It's like, whoa, suddenly I have enough to feed a whole army.

I'm gonna put this over here.

This is in that category of psychology of serving.

I know this is only probably about six ounces, not that much at all, probably less, but because it's been pounded out like this, it seems like so much more.

Okay, now we've got our fresh sage.

If you don't like sage...

I just love it, and it's so perfectly Italian.

You can use three leaves, four leaves per chicken breast, whatever you want.

It is fairly strong, so keep that in mind.

Just make sure you sort of spread it around.

If you hate sage, and some people do, I love it, it's one of the two fresh herbs that always goes with chicken and turkey, and also in turkey stuffing, if you're trying to wrap your mind about what it might taste like, but if you hate it, and some people do, use basil.

Basil would be great in this too, and my daughter Ruthy would probably prefer we use basil anyway.

She's not a big sage lover, she just loves basil.

You can leave the fat on, you really should.

The Italians would leave the fat on.

At this point, chill this, 'cause when you go to cook it, it will stay together even better if you chill it.

I gotta go wash my chicken fingers, I've set up a soapy bowl of water in here.

I don't like to heat up a non-stick pan without oiling it, it's just a dangerous thing to do.

Always make sure you have some oil in it when you heat it up, and don't heat it up too high.

It's going in the fridge.

And here we have some that we've already done.

This is something you could prepare a day ahead of time.

Let's say you decided you wanted to have a dinner party or it's a romantic evening, so you wanna have it all made ahead of time, you can take it up to this point a whole day ahead, and you know what, it might even taste better, because it's gonna pick up even more flavor from the sage.

There we go.

So we have this ready.

I'm gonna get a little bit of flour, because we need to flour this before it goes into the pan.

And I've set up my favorite situation when I'm flouring something, which is to put the flour in parchment, in a pie plate, and I'm using a little more than I need.

You only need about a third of a cup.

Let me season this first.

I'm just gonna season this side, 'cause the other side already has the prosciutto on it, which is really quite salty.

Okay, here we go.

We're gonna flour this on both sides at the last minute.

You do not ever want to pre-flour a piece of meat or fish or anything, because it will get gummy.

I'm gonna saute these just two minutes a side, and after that they'll be golden brown, and you're gonna be able to see the sage right through the prosciutto.

(oil sizzling) (upbeat music) Now these are probably almost ready to turn.

That's what's so great about this for a weeknight meal, no time at all, just a minute or two per side.

And I wanna just turn them over.

See, isn't that a miracle?

Don't you love it, the way the whole thing sticks together?

And what's so great is the way the sage comes through, at least here it does.

You can see this beautiful, vibrant sage.

And as soon as that comes out, we're gonna deglaze with a little Marsala.

Now Marsala is a fortified wine.

It's Italian.

I like the dry version, you can get it quite sweet, but then it's too sweet.

If you can't find Marsala, you can use Sherry.

If you don't wanna use any alcohol, just leave it out.

Just use chicken broth, which is happening after the Marsala.

Okay so that's cooked enough.

It's going back in the pan, so even if it isn't quite cooked through, which probably it's almost cooked through, I'm not gonna worry about it.

Anytime you add alcohol to a pan, you wanna take the pan off the flame.

I'm gonna add about a third of a cup, and add the alcohol off-flame, because if I added it on-flame, there's a chance that a little bit might drip or come over the side, and it'd ignite, and then here you've got a bottle in the pan, pan ignites, bottle ignites, it's not a pretty scene.

I know it sounds like, oh my God, it's so dangerous!

It's not at all, as long as you follow the right rules.

And I've got some gorgeous homemade chicken stock.

You only need about a half a cup, but whenever I'm making a sauce, this a cup I've got here, I always start with a little more, 'cause sometimes it reduces too much and you need to add a little more.

So I'm gonna go with about a half a cup.

We're gonna need about half of this, a little more than half of the 14-ounce jar of artichoke hearts.

This has been packed in oil.

You can get it packed in water, you can get them frozen.

The frozen have the least flavor, I don't really recommend that.

You can cut these up or not cut these up depending on how much you wanna get into each bite.

These are really quite pretty, these artichoke hearts.

I'm not gonna chop it, I like the way it looks.

That's the mood I'm in today.

That's the fun thing about cooking.

So I'm gonna put the chicken right back in.

(upbeat music) And now you're gonna see, it's gonna thicken a little bit, just from the flour that was still left on the chicken.

And we're just about there.

I'm gonna finish this with a little bit of butter.

So first I'm gonna get the chicken on the plate, and I'm gonna finish it with just one tablespoon of butter.

And then what happens is it's just gonna thicken the sauce, and we're gonna turn it off and swirl it, and then we've got our sauce.

My family loves this dish.

And it does seem more special on a weeknight.

I have some spinach with garlic and some couscous I'm gonna add to this plate.

Chicken saltimbocca with artichoke sauce, an easy entree for two for any night of the week.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] For recipes and videos, go to our website, saramoulton.com.

Sara's Weeknight Meals is made possible by Sunsweet and... - Cooking is the first kind of love you know.

It was starting when I was child with my grandmother, doing fresh pasta, and now I transmit it to all the guests.

It's something made specially for them.

- [Narrator] Oceania Cruises, proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

(gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music)