>> Pati Narrates: Today it's all about the classics.

American classics.

But I'm gonna "Mex" them up, I'm taking 3 beloved American dishes and giving them a new twist.

First, Maryland Lump Crab Meat Dip with Roasted Chiles.

Ooh, you can see how cheesy it is!

Then Alan is helping me with an outrageous crunchy sweet and spicy Southern Fried Chicken.

Oh my gosh, look at this!

For dessert, chocolate pecan pie with a Mexican favorite - dulce de leche caramel.

And nothing makes me happier than sharing new recipes with my three boys.

>> I'll wait, I'll wait.

>> You'll wait?

Since when do we wait?

>> Yeah, we don't wait.

♪ >> Pati's Mexican Table is made possible by: ♪ >> La Costeña.

Taste that transcends.

More information at mexicorico.com Over 40 years, bringing authentic Latin American flavors to your table.

Tropical Cheese.

>> Coronado Dulce de Leche Caramel, proud to support Pati's Mexican Table.

♪ Avocados from Mexico >> The Ministry Of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries And Mexbest.

>> Today is all about American original classics, but I'm gonna "Mex" them up, and I'm gonna start with a crab dip.

I'm gonna use crab from Maryland and give this crab dip a new name, it's gonna be called "Mary-Mex".

1/4 cup of mayo.

We're making a crab dip using crab from Maryland because I live in Maryland and I just wanted to do an homage to an ingredient that is known and loved in this place which has been my home for the past 20 years.

1/4 cup of Mexican crema.

Crema adds a tangy and salty layer to that creamy, sweet taste from the mayo.

So I'll mix this up.

1/4 cup of cotija cheese which is salty and dry and has that aged flavor sort of like parmesan so you can think of cotija cheese as the Mexican version of parmesan cheese.

1/2 a cup of muenster cheese.

1 teaspoon of worcestershire sauce.

1 tablespoon of fresh squeezed lime juice.

1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper.

3 tablespoons of these chiles, but I'm gonna chop them and this is a really, really fun Mexican ingredient.

These chiles are serrano or jalapeño chiles that have been roasted or charred, and then the chiles, after they have been roasted, are marinated in a mix of soy and lime juice, and then onion gets added, so you get this salty citrusy vinegar taste that permeates the chiles and makes them a little bit briny and pickled but in a very delicious way.

Then I'll add 4 scallions and I'll thinly slice the white parts and the light green parts.

I love giving a Mexican twist to American classic recipes, and it took me a while to get here because right after I moved to the U.S.

I wasn't mixing things up that much until I realized there were things already in the Mexican repertoire and the American repertoire that were already bi-cultural, and I realized "hey, there's an open door here for me to play", and since then I've been playing, and my boys love it when I create these dishes.

So I have this mix here and I'll add 1 pound of Maryland lump crab.

This is so easy!

So I'll scrape it onto this baking dish.

You could eat it just like this, but by baking it in the oven it will all come together and that muenster cheese in there will melt and create a nice crust on the top.

I left another 1/4 cup of the crumbled cotija cheese to sprinkle on top, and that browns beautifully when baked in the oven.

So I have the oven at 350 degrees and I'll bake this for 30 minutes.

Who doesn't love Southern fried chicken?

I love it spicy so what I'll do is start with a marinade, and it's going to be buttermilk based, but I'll add a lot of flavor to that buttermilk.

So I'll start by toasting some chiles!

I'll add 4 guajillo chiles, and by now you should know it's subtle, bright, and just not spicy at all, but the chiles de arbol are super spicy, but they have the spicy element with a lot of flavor.

It's smoky, rustic, charred, it's deep so I'll mix this too.

So I have my comale and I'm toasting the 4 guajillos and the 4 chiles de arbol, and this is a basic Mexican technique when you want to bring back to life those dried chiles.

So now we're waking them up, and you can see the fumes that are starting to rise.

So even though the chile is dried, they're not toasted and dry and brittle, and we need to get them to the toasted stage so we can grind them.

You see the color will change from the bright red in the guajillo to a darker brown, and in the chile de arbol, it's just gonna toast.

That's good, we want that toasted.

When you just toast your chiles and you want to grind them like I want to right now, don't do it immediately because when you toast your chiles, the oils release so the chiles won't actually be that dry.

You have to let them dry for a second after you toast them.

I'm gonna start flavoring my buttermilk.

I have 3 cups of buttermilk, and it's not only going to give my chicken a tangy taste, but because it is acidic it's also going to tenderize the meat.

I'm adding 1 teaspoon of salt, some freshly ground black pepper and it goes with the chiles.

Mexican chiles love the company of black pepper.

1/2 a cup of chipotle chiles in adobo and their sauce.

The chipotle chile in adobo is one of the ingredients we use the most at home because it's an ingredient that's so complex in its flavors.

You're adding sweet, spicy, rustic, smoky, tangy.

And the last thing I'll add is this ground mixture of my dried chiles, and now that I toasted them they'll crumble, and now I can break them into my spice grinder.

You can do this with a food processor, you can do this with your blender, you can also put these chiles in a little plastic bag and just roll your rolling pin right on top of them or hit them with a skillet and they will also grind.

And these are ready.

I'll add 1 tablespoon, and you can see how pretty it is, the colors.

So the mixture looks beautiful.

So I have a whole cut up chicken.

I'll add some of the buttermilk mixture so it's in the bottom and I'll start adding my chicken.

I think the first time I tried the American in U.S. fried chicken was when we moved to Dallas, they had really good fried chicken.

And just think of what this will do to this chicken 'cause it has the tangy and salty buttermilk taste, it has the 3 different kinds of chiles.

You can marinate this for just a couple of hours, but if you can marinate it for 48 hours it's gonna be even better.

Mmm!

I'm gonna finely chop the green parts of the scallions that I had reserved.

Ooh, you can see how cheesy it is!

Come see, come see!

Mmm.

Mmm.

It's cheesy, it's creamy, mmm!

It has that pickled rustic taste, my boys are gonna so love this, I'm gonna save the rest for them.

>> I had never tried pecan pie until I moved to the U.S. My boys love it with chocolate, but today I'm making it very Mexican by making it a Dulce de Leche Caramel Chocolate Pecan Pie.

I'm gonna make the crust in the food processor which I find to be the easiest thing.

1 and 1/4 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of sugar, a pinch of salt, and then I'll add 1 stick of butter, but it is really chilled and hard.

You don't want it at room temperature because having those cold pieces of butter is what's going to make my dough very flaky when it cooks.

So I'll start processing the dough, and you're not gonna process over low or high, you're just gonna pulse a few times.

(food processor whirs) See, it looks very crumbly, and now I'll start adding cold water, and you also want to add cold water for the same reason you're adding the cold butter.

2 tablespoons of cold water, and I'll pulse just until I'm able to cobble it up together, I'll show you.

Okay, so I'll do a couple more tablespoons, see I want to keep on adding water and pulsing until I can grab the mixture here, and when I put it together with my hands, it should come together and stay together, so it needs a little bit more, so I'll add 2 more tablespoons.

I'm gonna pulse again.

(food processor whirs) Yes okay!

We're there, let me show you why.

When I grab the crumbled dough and I hold it together, it stays together.

That's how you know you need to stop, and I don't want to play with this too much, I just want to make it come together because the whole point of this crust is to be really flaky, so I'm just cobbling it together and putting it here, right in the middle of my plastic wrap.

We love pie at home.

I don't make as much pie as my boys would love because I'm much better at making pound cake and cookies, and it is our American friends who have brought the American pies into our homes and it has been the demand of my boys that led me to make more pie, so I'm getting better at it.

I'm gonna make a flat ball, and this is a traditional dough for making pecan pie crust, but you can also use it to make other pies.

I'll put it in the fridge to chill for an hour.

While my dough is chilling I'm gonna make the filling!

So I'll begin with 3 eggs, and I'll just crack them in this large bowl 'cause I'll mix everything in here.

I tasted pecan pie just when I moved to the U.S., I hadn't even heard about it before, and then I ate it for many years, just traditional pecan pie, and then my friend Deborah started making chocolate pecan pie and I loved that even more, and then my boys started requesting specifically that chocolate pecan pie from my friend, so I thought if I'm going to make it at home, I need to make it my own, so I'll make it more my own with a Mexican ingredient that I love which is cajeta.

A very generous cup of cinnamon dulce de leche caramel because the cinnamon goes really well with all the ingredients that we're adding in here.

4 tablespoons of melted butter, 1/4 cup of light corn syrup, 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar, and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt, and this makes the pecan pie so gooey and delicious, just look how gooey and delicious the mixture looks!

So the dulce de leche caramel will make it even more caramel-y, sticky and gooey, and now I'll add 1/3 cup of chocolate chunks and these are bittersweet chocolate chunks, and then I'll add 2 cups of pecans and I'll just coarsely chop them.

So in this pie, I feel like 2 cups of pecans are more than the usual, but not too much that they'll take over and mess up the idea of a delicious pecan pie, and I love playing with those borders, like when is too much too much?

'Cause I always like too much of the things I like.

I mean if it's a pecan pie, it should have a lot of pecans, right?

It is gooey already, looks irresistible already.

Okay, so now I'll roll out my dough.

I like to roll my dough right here on the countertop.

So I'll sprinkle some flour.

I have about a 9-inch pie plate, so I want to get closer to 11-inches because you want enough dough to cover the bottom, but you also want to go up the sides.

That looks bigger than big enough, but it's better to have it bigger than smaller.

I love playing with dough.

Love playing with dough!

There are many techniques for crimping the pie edges.

My friend showed me hers.

You so put your knuckle on the edge, and then you try to make a little triangle shape like that.

And then I'll just pour my super sticky gooey chocolatey caramel pecan filling in here.

Okay, now I'm really proud.

It looks delicious and beautiful and I can't wait to eat it.

Loosely cover it with aluminum foil, and I have my oven set at 375 degrees and I'll bake it for 50 - 55 minutes.

>> Classic regional recipes can be found all over Mexico.

One of the most famous dishes from the Baja peninsula is a gift from the bountiful seas that surround it.

Just South of Tijuana nestled along the Pacific Ocean is Puerto Nuevo, a tiny lobster village where fresh fish are pulled right from the sea and onto your plate.

All roads here either lead you to the ocean, or even better, to some delicious lobster.

One of the very first restaurants to open here, Puerto Nuevo II still serves the lobster the same way they did 40 years ago when the fishermen first began to settle here.

The traditional lobster recipe is called "puerto nuevo style".

Live lobster is split down the middle, then seasoned with salt and pepper and deep fried in lard giving it the most tender, luscious texture.

It's served with hot melted butter and freshly made rice and beans, and of course, handmade flour tortillas.

When it arrives at your table, it's only natural to make yourself a nice little taco.

So simple, so fresh, but packed with so much flavor, it's no wonder that people travel from all over just to try this dish.

A perfect bite in Mexico's perfect little lobster town.

Que rico!

>> My chicken has been marinating about 4 hours, and now I'm gonna make the breading, and I want the breading to have as much flavor and as much of a punch as the marinade.

So I'm adding 3 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of paprika which will give it that smoky taste without being hot.

I'm adding something that will definitely add a lot of heat, which is my remaining ground guajillo and chiles de arbol, so I have about 2 tablespoons here, 2 teaspoons salt, about 1/ 2 a teaspoon of freshly ground pepper.

I'll check my oil and it should be around 365 degrees, so anywhere between 360 and 370 degrees.

>> Hi ma.

>> Alan!

Hi mi amor.

We're making Southern Style Fried Chicken.

>> Very nice.

>> I think my favorite chicken part is the chicken wing.

>> The chicken wing?

>> Yeah.

>> I agree - yeah, it has the most flavor.

>> And the chicken wing is fun to eat.

>> Yeah.

You get to lick the bones.

>> Exactly!

>> You don't normally make fried chicken, or fried foods, what's the deal?

What changed?

>> (laughs) We're doing a first!

We're doing more Mex-American things as our home gets more Mex-Americana style.

Go slow and don't make any clash, please.

Slow.

Don't drop it, slow, slow, slow.

Yay!

Alan can you pass me that drying rack, 'cause what we'll do now, which is also very different from what we do, is we'll fry the chicken until it's brown and crispy, and then we'll take it out, put it on here, and put it in the oven which is at 350 degrees while we continue frying so the chicken really fully cooks.

>> Okay.

I've never heard of this.

>> I know!

There's things to learn in the U.S. >> (Alan laughs) >> I know you love American style fried chicken, you love those sandwiches.

>> Oh, I love fried chicken sandwiches.

>> Yeah.

>> Wow, that looks so crispy, that looks - >> Oh my gosh, look at this!

Did you see how hard it is?

>> It's perfect, you could hear the clink.

>> I know!

You can hear the crack.

Ooh, mmm.

Okay, let's put that on the side and add the rest of this chicken.

>> Oh you can still hear it sizzling.

>> I know!

Let's hear.

(chicken sizzles) (Pati and Alen laugh) >> Music.

>> Okay, as it continues to sizzle we'll make a habanero honey.

>> Okay.

>> Okay, so we need 1/2 a cup of honey, 1/4 cup chiles habaneros and we'll add some of the juice too.

>> Yeah.

Less?

>> I think that's good.

This we just want to cook here over medium-low heat just until it mixes.

The honey's gonna start getting all that habanero juice.

>> It'll get really thick, no?

>> It's gonna get - so if we cooked it a long time, it would get thicker and condense, but we just want the habanero to be forced to infuse the honey.

>> This looks insane.

>> I know!

You want it with the honey?

>> Of course.

>> Mmm!

This is so good.

>> Mmm!

It's so intensely sweet and so intensely spicy at the same time.

My brain is going "ah I don't know what's going on but give me more!"

>> Yeah.

>> Don't tell your brothers that we ate the wings.

>> I won't.

>> (Pati laughs) You wanna go get them?

>> I'm busy.

>> (Pati laughs) >> Hola!

>> Mi amor.

You know, I didn't know there was so much history and depth in the theme of fried chicken in the U.S., turns out like all these regions, states and even cities have their way of making Southern chicken, and the way they eat it, with bread, no bread, roll, no roll, sandwich, no sandwich.

>> The crab dip is amazing.

>> It's really good.

I like it 'cause it's not too cheesy, you know?

Like sometimes you get the crab dip that's all cheese and just little bits of crab, and this is almost all crab, I love that.

>> And the itself has tons of flavor, and it's really crispy and you can taste the spices.

>> Mhmm!

Can you taste the heat?

>> Mhmm.

>> I think these are all very American at the core, the ingredients, the crab here is mostly crab, and the fried chicken, but what makes it Mexican is the extra touch, the spice.

>> Woah!

>> You know pecan pie?

>> I love pecan pie.

>> This is Dulce de Leche Caramel Chocolate Pecan Pie.

>> Wow!

>> Mmm.

>> Wow.

>> (Pati laughs) >> Aww.

>> So kind.

>> I'll wait, I'll wait.

>> You'll wait?

>> No, I won't wait.

>> Since when do we wait?

>> Yeah, we don't wait.

>> (Pati laughs) >> Mmm.

It's so good.

So soft and chocolatey.

I love it.

>> It's crazy, it still has the chocolate chunks intact, I like that.

>> You can definitely taste the Mexican dulce de leche caramel in there, no?

>> Yeah, absolutely.

>> I love all these Mex-American foods, and I love our Mex-American home, and I love even more my Mex-American boys.

I'm gonna keep making more Mex-American things to keep you guys sitting here and eating food with me, so send me your requests.

>> Cheeseburger, but the cheese is chicharron.

>> (Pati gasps) Oh my gosh, chicharron de queso!

>> Pati: For recipes and information from this episode and more, visit patijinich.com, and connect!

Find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest @PatiJinich.

>> Pati's Mexican Table is made possible by: ♪ >> La Costeña.

Taste that transcends.

More information at: mexicorico.com A tradition of authentic Latin flavors and family recipes.

Tropical Cheese.

>> Coronado Dulce de Leche Caramel, proud to support Pati's Mexican Table.

♪ Avocados from Mexico >> The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Mexbest.

Proud to support Pati's Mexican Table on public television.