(egg cracks) (oil sizzles) (upbeat music) - Hello and welcome back to "Sorted Food". Now, for today's fried chicken battle, we welcome expert judge James Cochran. So James, as winner of
both Great British Menu and Eaters London Chef of the Year, what tips would you give our normals when it comes to cooking under pressure? - I expect to see perfection, but shout out, you're using thigh, gutted you're using a breast. - This is gonna be brutal. - I was gonna say my
recipe was heavily inspired by your chicken burger. I think was one of the best
chicken burgers I've ever had. So, I'm gonna try and do it justice here. - Don't try and suck up to him now. - Yeah, well we'll wait
and see I guess won't we? - Right, okay, right. - Now, we've given you
guys plenty of prep time with the food team to come up
with a fried chicken recipe that showcases James's chili jam straight from the restaurant, 1251. We're gonna give you one hour and we want you to create
something that is worthy of a twist badge. - This is the fried chicken battle. Three, two, one, fried chicken. (upbeat music) So can I ask you what
you're actually doing? - I'm making deviled scotch bonnet eggs. - I don't like eggs. (laughs) - But you love chicken. - [James] Yeah. - And what came first,
the chicken or the egg? We don't know, so I'm going to put them together. So imagine a chicken scotch egg. - Okay, I'm down with that. - [Jamie] Okay. So fried chicken around the outside. We'll make like a sausage with that, wrapped in cornflakes
because what do chickens eat? - [James] Corn, corn. - There we go. In the inside you've got the boiled egg, but we're going to remove the yolk and we're gonna make a
deviled mayonnaise with. - [James] Hello. - The scotch bonnet chili jam. - Nice. - And we're going to pipe that back in served with a little bit of garnish and a really lovely prune brown sauce. - I'm actually quite
excited to try this now. And over here, what's going down? - So. - Do you want to read from my menu? - Huh? Sorry, yeah, the ingredients look like I might be cooking your chicken burger, but I am making a beer battered
chicken stuffed chicken on a watermelon tomato salad, mixed with your chili jam, and that incredible blue cheese mousse. - Thank you very much. - You serve your burgers. - Nice. - I'm using the chicken thigh, but not as you'd necessarily
hope it to be used. I'm blending it up with a load of herbs and shallots and garlic. Basically making a pate to
go into my chicken breasts and I'm gonna be beer battering
that and deep frying it. - I'm gassed, I'm looking forward to it. - This is kind of a chicken sausage that I'm gonna be squeezing into the middle of my chicken breast. So therefore you haven't
got to worry about the ooze that you would
have in the chicken Kiev. It all should cook at the same time. - Well, I'm interested to see like how you're going to
taste it for seasoning. - What, with raw chicken? - Yeah are you going
to like wrap it double on in clingfilm and steam it and then? - Plan of action was to just go by eye. - [James] Just wing it, yeah. - Just wing it, and basically be generous
with the seasoning. - We'll see what happens, won't we? - So across the whole of this year, our normal home cooks
are competing for badges and they're trying to prove
that they are improving and therefore we have a leaderboard. This is how it looks as it stands. I'm going to award the
twist badge at the end. You're here to judge the winner of the ultimate fried chicken battle. So James, years and years of training in multiple restaurants
in and out of London, Michelin star and beyond, what have you taken from that to create your own sort
of vibe of food at 1251? - It's the roots behind 1251 is it stems from my backgrounds. I'm half Scottish, half Ascension. I guess it's learning the techniques that I've learned throughout
my kind of whole career, and just bringing that
into my style of food. We kind of work really
well as a team together and touch wood, we're
fully booked every day. So I've got no complaint. - I know. I know. I tried to book and, unless you want to eat
at 5pm, it's impossible. - Yeah, so I'm looking to
open up Around the Cluck probably around October time. And I say this, whoever the winner is, we should put your dish on. - Wow, that's a bombshell
we did not expect. That's awesome. - Yeah. Why not? Come on, yeah. - So this is the sausage part. It's also the fried chicken
part of my scotch eggs. This is going to wrap around my egg and is then going to be paneed later on in the flour, eggs, and cornflakes. - And do you plan to taste it at all? Like we're just risking it? - Oh no. I said it. I didn't do it. Chef, I'm so sorry. This is how you do it in the
show at a restaurant yeah? Season the bag. - Woo. - I forgot to season the blender. I'm sorry. - [Ben] Of course, what now, you're going to massage that in? - Yeah, it's a new technique. I tenderize the meat. You got to mix it in there and set. - So before I process my sausage, I'm just gonna season it. - [Ben] How could you taste it if you wanted to double check? - [Jamie] I could fry a little bit off. - [James] Yep. - [Jamie] And then taste that
and then adjust the seasoning. - [James] Exactly. - Well, I now need to make a
hole to stick my filling into. I'm gonna get a paring knife, cut a hole into the breast. Try and get as far down
the breast as possible 'cause I want this really deeply filled. Don't get a close up of this, please. I don't want this on the internet. - [James] They look really good, man. Can I give you a tip? - [Barry] Yeah, man, please. - I'd say maybe just cut
that a little bit off there because. - [Barry] Cook it more evenly. - [James] Yeah, exactly. - [Barry] Okay. - [James] Yeah, so it
won't go dry at the end. - [Barry] Snacking chicken. - Can you make a chicken nugget as well? There we go. - Look at that. Decent. - Whilst I make my snacking chicken patty to test for seasoning,
not just for snacking, I can make my brown sauce,
which is gonna include prunes. - What's a prune? - A prune. - Is a. - Plum. Fig, no plum. - This is good, I like
it, good game, good game. - It's a plum. It's like a dried plum. It's like the raisin
equivalent of a grape. - Yes, exactly. - [Ben] Yes. - [James] Yes, exactly. - I just like to test them occasionally. They know it. They just never think they know it. - So how are you making this sauce then? - [Jamie] Onion, prunes,
garlic, brown sugar, some cider vinegar, tomato paste. This interesting. - [James] Marvelous sauce, yeah. - [Jamie] Interesting delicious sauce. We're going to go. - [James] Portion. - [Jamie] Into this machine. It's gonna cook it for us. - [James] Nice. - Oh, I imagine that water
probably needs to go in, doesn't it? - Tell us about the sauce
'cause it's not just available at the restaurant now. Like you jar this stuff. It's that good. - Yeah, yeah. Teamed up with Sauce Shop. We've just launched
this scotch bonnet jam. So we've been developing for
the last couple of years or so. - Couple of years. - Yeah with Sauce Shop. Yeah. - Nice. - It's probably one of
the proudest moments. I'm super proud of like. Again, it's something that's
super close to my heart and my signature dish at my menu. We've done it with some scotch bonnet jam and the people come to the
restaurant and you know what? They talk about more about the
jam than they do the chicken. - So when I had your chicken burger. - Yeah. - [Barry] The two obvious things that jumped out to me were that chili jam and that incredible blue cheese mousse, and the reason it's so incredible to me is I don't like blue cheese. - [James] Oh fair enough, okay. - [Barry] The flavor
combination was incredible. So I'm sticking to that, but
I'm not putting it in a burger. I'm putting it in a salad. - [James] Yeah, yeah. - So I've got watermelon,
tomato, chili jam, and then I'm going to smoke it. And I'm going to be basically dolloping your blue cheese mousse around it. - Yeah, okay. - [Ben] I'd say depending
on how you interpret, another flavor combination
I've been inspired by or stolen from your menu. - [Barry] All inspired, mate. (upbeat music) - Snacking chicken. Needs a tiny bit more salt. Right, time for the
worst job in the kitchen, time to peel hard boiled eggs. - [James] You want a tip? Just crack it like on that, and put it back in the water
and peel it in the water. - [Jamie] In the water. - [James] And it should
just come straight off. - So salad wise, I've got,
I've cubed my watermelon. Chop up some shallots, and some tarragon. Mix that in with some cherry tomatoes. Then in with our olive
oil and the chili jam. It's flipping spicy this. And you've got to be generous because we need to spice the dish. Mix it up and then smoke
it with a smoking gun. 'Cause every normal has that nowadays. - So on top of the challenges
of running a restaurant and setting up the sauce stuff, you also somehow find time to
do some really good things. Like you did school dinners, you were working on last year. - [James] Yeah. - And there's a charity
that you know I know you're very heavily involved with. - Yeah. So Hospitality Action,
I've been working with them for the last kind of couple years. I've really kind of got
more into it in lockdown when we knew our industry was in an absolute crisis, obviously. We decided to do a nice thing
where we got t-shirts designed and we kind of raised a
lot of money through that. So if any kind of support that myself and the team could do at 1251,
we'll carry on doing that. And we still have more projects
planned for the future. - You're supposed to be getting
that smoke in the bowl, Baz. - I'm trying, I don't. - Barry. - What? - What are you doing? - I'm smoking my watermelon. - [Ben] We do have a fire alarm. - Get it, get it, get it. Stop, stop, stop. Well sealed, happy with that. So good you can't even see my salad. And I'm gonna leave that for
as long as I possibly can. About 30 minutes I think. - [Jamie] It's now the
construction of my scotch eggs. So I've got my sausage meat. That's been chilling down. I'm gonna roll it out in
between two pieces of clingfilm. I can then pop my egg into the middle and then fold up the clingfilm, so it goes around the egg, squeeze it round. I have this beautiful ball, which I'll then pan in the
flour, egg, cornflakes. - You're going to keep it
as egg shaped as possible, or you rounding it off? - [Jamie] Ebbers, it
will be what it will be. - And will there be, will the meat be evenly around the egg? - [Jamie] Sometimes. - Just because we don't want like sashimi. - No, no, no, no. - Took some self raising
flour and some rice flour in with some vodka and some
beer to make our beer batter. Quite a thick batter 'cause you want this to kind of go really crispy and light and the vodka should do that because it cooks quicker. Lucky there's some spare, just the right amount as well for me. - [James] Are you double
panning or single? - [Jamie] Double. Flour, egg, cornflakes, egg, cornflakes. - [Barry] Are you still confident, J? - [Jamie] Still got the confidence. - [Barry] So now I'm
going to make my, sorry, your blue cheese mousse. (laughs) Out of interest. - [James] Yeah. - [Barry] How, how do you
make your blue cheese mousse? - [James] So one kilo of blue cheese, one kilo buttermilk. - [Barry] Well that's
where I'm going wrong. - [James] 10 grams of agar. Take it to 100 degrees on the firmer. Set it, blend it, pass it. - [Barry] Well why is
the agar so important to have in there then? - Oh, to make it set. Set it basically, because
I take it to 100 degrees. - [Barry] So it's actually a mousse whereas this is just a blue cheese cream. - [James] Yeah, yeah. - Okay. - Let's get these eggs into the fryer. 170 degrees. About six minutes until deep golden brown. - [Ben] 15 Minutes. - Amazingly there's a piping bag in here that's already ready to go. - [Jamie] That's my piping bag. - [Barry] I just figured
they were already prepped for us to use. - [Ben] James, as we
approach the final deadline, where do you see the pressure points? - [James] A good balance of flavor. Making sure that the chili
doesn't overpower the whole dish. Presentation, I guess, is key as well. - Well Jamie's just filled
a bucket with his sauce. (both laugh) - [James] Wow. - [Jamie] Portion size is. - [Ben] Not something you've
ever scrimped on, Jamie? - No, top priority. - [Ben] What are you thinking, J? - They're looking quite
golden brown already and they're only about halfway cooked. - I mean, don't forget
what color they started. - Dark. - [Ben] They started golden brown. So you're not aiming for golden brown. You are aiming for quite
dark and not a burn. - [James] Yeah, you're
not aiming for a burn. - [Ben] Nine minutes. - Really? Okay. - [Ben] Once you're sure it's not stuck, you can get everything
else plated up first. - [James] Yeah exactly, yeah. - Yeah, that's stuck. - Is it really? Though you might rip the basket away from the actual things that the
chicken might be exposed and the fats won't come out of it. - Have to do the other one. Still worked. - So when you put it in the
fryer, just hold it in there. - [Barry] Hold it first? - Hold it in there for like
10 seconds, 15 seconds, and then just push it away from you so none of the fat's going
to come back onto you. - They are absorbing all of your tips because Jamie has seen
the size of his bucket, taken your advice, and
found a smaller one. - What Ben meant to say was I heard the (beep) and I adjusted my basket size. And so I'll, I'll, I'll,
I'll get a little dipping rather than a, you know, a bucket of. - So quantity over quality. - Scotch eggs done. Brown sauce done. Now I need to make the deviled mayo for which I need to
cut into my scotch eggs and spoon out the yolk. - So basically you're
just making mayonnaise with scotch bonnet jam in it. - Yes. - And you're not concerned
with that sauce overpowering the scotch bonnet jam? - No, because that's like a dipping sauce. I don't know which way round my egg is. - In the middle. - I'm guessing it's in the middle. - And they're egg-shaped. - Yeah. - You're hoping to cut down so it's the right way round of an egg. - Well, yeah, but which
way round is that, Barry? - [Barry] Oh, I get you,
no, I see the point. - The chicken's not cooked
all the way through. We have a really fancy,
like, microwave type thing in this new kitchen. So I'm just gonna pop it in
there for a couple of minutes. And that will. - You're just gonna
microwave your scotch egg? - The egg might explode, no? - [Barry] Oh, well, that would be amazing. - There's only one way to find out. Sorry, Barry. I'm just gonna use this microwave. - Five minutes. - It's fine. - Barry, you got to finish
cooking your chicken and fast, all the way through. Use the probe. J, we need a mayo. (screams) (tense music) - Jamie, did you ever think you'd be microwaving scotch eggs for James Cochran? (all laugh) - [Ben] Last couple of minutes. - [James] Quite hungry, lads. Looking forward to this. - [Ben] Do you want some herb-y flowers? - Yes, Ebbers. That would be really useful. - If you can identify what they are, you can use them. - [Barry] Do I get a badge if I can. Oh, these are pretty. Are these from your garden? - Allotment, yes. Freshly foraged for you. Two minutes. (tense music) (beep) - How you going over there, chef? You've got, let me guess. Let me guess. You've got massive lump of egg in there. - [Ben] He's lost the star nozzle. Now's all gone for more mister whippy. 45 seconds. Baz is looking dainty. Jamie's filling a basket with corn flakes. - Three, two, one. (bell rings) Stop cooking. - You've (beep) it. - Anything you could have done with that and you did nothing. - Is that just a basket
full of cornflakes? - Yeah. - Boys, no pressure, but
James has spent a lifetime in Michelin star restaurants, and now he's judging your dishes. - I've served him up a
basket of cornflakes. - Well, if it all goes wrong, I'll just eat the cornflakes then won't I. - Right, let's start with this one. James, help yourself. - [James] Thank you very much. - [Jamie] Please enjoy my
deviled scotch bonnet eggs served with the scotch bonnet chili jam within the mayo, and the scotch bonnet chili jam is in the dipping sauce as well, which is like a brown plum sauce. - All right. Cheers. - Cheers. - That scotch bonnet jam
makes it, doesn't it? - Yeah, you would say that. - That's really nice. - Yeah? - Yeah. Really, really nice. - Yeah. - Yeah. I like the twist that
you've done on a scotch egg by taking out the middle
and then incorporating the scotch bonnet, and I think you've got
a nice heat in there. It's not over the top. - [Ben] The twist up on the
breadcrumbs, the cornflakes. - [Jamie] Yeah. - They've got a good
texture to them as well. - The chicken is still nice and moist. - Just cooked. (snickers) - All right, Baz, should we dig in here? - Yeah, please. Enjoy beer battered double chicken. - [James] And where's the
chili jam incorporated in this? - [Barry] So chili jam is, is been tossed throughout the salad. - [James] Okay. - [Barry] The salad should
have a nice warmth to it and hopefully you get the touch
of smoke in there as well. - Cheers. - Cheers. - The crunch is phenomenal. It really is good. I'll say it's lacking a bit of seasoning. Not to be harsh either, but it's a little bit dry as well. - Yeah. - [James] A little bit dry, yeah. - I think I was aiming for 70, but I should have taken it out the fryer and let it come to 70. - Yeah. Let it finish cooking through. - My recommendation, Baz, would be to take the chicken out of the
fryer a couple minutes early and then into the microwave. - Into the microwave. - Just give it a little boost. - As a plate, a lot more
inviting with the colors, and the like the tomatoes, the
watermelon, the blue cheese. That's an epic combo with
that sweet chili jam. - I like the smokiness
and the blue cheese, not too strong for me either. - On its own it's got a kick, but with everything it's lovely. - You both should be proud of that. Those are nice dishes. - Which, as always, makes
the judging really difficult. I get to dish out one twist badge. For me, the dish that
had the cleverest twist, is the scotch egg with
the corn and the chicken. Chicken instead of pork,
J, you get the badge. - Smashed it. - Get it. - I also annoyingly would agree. That was really smart. - But that's not what
we're here for, the badge. We're actually here for the
ultimate fried chicken battle, and James has that honor. - For me, both were lovely dishes. I think we can all agree
that you smashed it with the scotch egg and I'll
see that dish at Christmastime at Around the Cluck. - Yes. (clapping) - J, that's epic. - [Jamie] I'm gonna be on a real menu. - [James] Yeah, you are. Yeah, you are as well. - [Jamie] Yeah. I think that would work. - Yeah. I might not put the cornflakes on there. - Wow. - So as always, over to you guys, who do you think was most
worthy of the twist badge today and comment down below. Did James make the right final choice? - A massive thank you,
James, for coming down. Where can people find out more about you? - So I'm on Upper Street Angel, 1251. We plan to drop Around the
Cluck mid roundabout mid-October and my scotch bonnet jam
by now on the platforms of Sauce Shop, myself,
and it'll be popping up left, right, and center all over the UK. - We'll stick all the links down below. Go check them out and thanks again. - Thank you very much guys. - Awesome, awesome fun. - I'm gonna be in a restaurant. - With a microwaved scotch egg. - I know. - Mental. - Yeah, but he'll do a proper job of it. (beep) Whilst Baz has been inspired by your menu, I'm kind of inspired by your tattoo. Quite like the 1251,
I might get S O R T E, but if only I had six
digits, I would commit. I would commit. - I know where you could put the D. - That's quite a joke you made. (all laugh) - That was, you walked into into that one. It was really easy.
