-Fry it up. -[Blake Cressey] Step to the side
and watch me sizzle.
-America loves fried food. -It's tasty.
[Ashley Turner] I'm here to win or fry trying.
Whoo!
[Alejandro] Everything has to come out GBD,
golden brown and delicious.
Ooh, look at those.
Behind you. Behind...
-Oh, Lordy. -Absolute chaos.
I have a whole lot going on.
Whoo-whoo. Let's go, let's go.
This tastes like a winner.
That's the food we wanna eat.
[teeth crunching]
That's what I wanna hear right there.
[chuckles] That's what I wanna hear.
Ugh! Argh!
Can you hear that? The fryer's saying, "Thank you.
Fryer queen, thank you."
The frying queen is here.
Step to the side and watch me sizzle.
Look at that.
I'm from New Orleans, Louisiana,
and I am the chef and owner of Tasty Treat Food Truck.
The more we fry, the more they buy.
I came from a family that every Friday we would fry food.
So, that's kind of how my passion grew about.
I wanna win Chopped because I want people to know that New Orleans chef
doesn't only cook beignets or gumbo.
We can cook everything,
and when I come in the kitchen,
get out of my or get run over.
[laughing]
[Ashley Turner] I'm the executive chef with Hacienda Beer Co.
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
I'm coming for you.
Well, when people think of fried food,
I think they're most often thinking of these big, overwhelming meals.
Lay that bad boy on thick...
...that are not good for you.
It's good-looking veggies.
I like to mix it all up and keep a well-rounded bite every time.
My great grandmother had a little cafe in a tiny town in West Texas.
My family went on to do restaurants and barbecue and catering.
So, I'm a third-generation cook,
but I'm hoping to be a first-generation Chopped champion.
[Steven Moore] My style definitely matches my food,
bold, colorful and fly like me. [laughs]
I am the chef and owner of Trendy Chef Catering,
and I make gourmet high-end fried food.
Egg-celent idea.
People know me as this deep-fried king.
Everything on my menu has gone viral.
[inaudible] deep-fried pancakes. Right in the batter.
I have almost 200,000 followers on TikTok
and close to 60,000 on Instagram.
Deep-fried deviled eggs with bang bang shrimp.
My name, "Fried Food King" is at stake.
I can't lose. I won't lose.
-Bang-banging. [laughing] -[woman] Whoo.
[Alejandro Barrientos] Everything you throw in the fryer
has to come out GBD, golden brown and delicious.
I'm co-owner and executive chef
from Curb Side Bistro in Odessa, Texas.
Everything has to be spicy.
My style of cooking is gourmet comfort food.
All right. We put fresh cilantro into it.
Almost all my menu's fried.
Beautiful.
I love the versatility of it and the comfort of it.
This Texan boy's come all the way to New York City
to whip some chefs butt.
Order up. Wah-wah-wah-wah!
-Hello, chefs. -[all] Hello.
Special rule for your competition.
You must fry something in every round.
You excited for the challenge?
-I'm the air fryer queen. -Frytastic.
[Ted Allen] All right. First baskets are ready.
Let's do this.
This is gonna be different.
[Ted] Deep-fried barbecue.
What in the world?
I don't know what the fried thing is.
-You haven't got any idea? [chuckles] -[Steven laughs]
I have no idea what this is.
-[Ted] Zucchini. -Zucchini happening up in here.
-[Ted] Oysters. -These are actually from my hometown.
They're not. I live in a desert.
We love oysters.
[Ted] And onion rings.
And fried onion rings.
Classic. Classic.
[Ted] Twenty-minute appetizer round starts now.
-Let's go. -Let's go, chefs.
-Whoops. -[Ted] Amanda, Scott,
we're joined by a friend and special guest,
acclaimed chef and cookbook author Eric Adjepong.
-Hey, hey. Thank you so much. -[Ted] Welcome back, Eric.
-So, Eric, how often do you eat fried food? -[Eric Adjepong] Yes.
I do love a good, like, fried fish, some French fries.
I love to hear that sound of a good crunch when I fry something.
That's the best eating experience.
Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. It's also very addictive.
But there is technique.
There has to be a beautiful breading.
The oil has to be the right temperature.
I mean, there is an art to this.
[Ted] Judges, looking at this basket,
what would you predict they're going to fry?
-I predict fried oyster. -I'm going there as well.
I think fried oysters is the move.
They're blue point oysters, so they're from the East Coast.
In New Orleans, we shuck oysters all day.
I love a blue point oyster because it has a great salinity to it.
-It's nice and clean. -Come on now.
Shuck this.
[laughs] Oh.
[Scott Conant] I like that technique
-that Chef Steven has done. -[Eric] Yeah.
He laid them out on a sheet tray, on a rack,
and he put them right in the oven
which I think is a great way to get those oysters to open.
-Beautiful. -Chef Steven, what are you doing
on your own island over there?
I'm gonna do some, uh, pulled pork sliders
with, uh, the fried oysters.
-[Amanda Freitag] Oh. -Kind of like, a take on, like, a surf and turf.
There it is. Ooh. Beautiful.
The batter's key to a good fry.
Just baking powder, flour, a little bit of seasoning.
I am known as the king of fried food,
so I'm not just throwing anything in the batter.
I'm presenting it as a five-star meal.
Whoo. Look at that beautiful pulled pork, baby.
[Ashley] Deep-fried barbecue is a staple at the Texas State Fair.
Oh, girl.
[laughs] Getting messy with it.
Pulled pork. It's mixed with a little bit of goat cheese.
All right, we got some good stuff in here.
So I'm gonna take all of this out.
And then it's breaded and fried.
I like the idea of an Oysters Rockefeller,
-maybe substituting that spinach with zucchini. -[Eric] Yeah.
And utilizing some of that pulled pork...
-Mmm-hmm. -...and goat cheese mixture into that as well...
-[Amanda] Right. -...which you can top the oyster with.
Chef Alejandro, what are you gonna fry?
I'm doing a West Texas Oyster Rockefeller.
Hey, what? Same.
[Alejandro Barrientos] Oyster Rockefeller is an oyster in a half shell
with a nice creamy spinach sauce
and Parmesan cheese on top.
I can use the zucchini instead of a spinach.
I can use the pulled pork.
I can use some of the coleslaw
to make that nice rich decadent filling for the top of the oyster.
Who deep-fries pulled pork? But this is awesome.
That's the most Texan thing I've seen.
Right behind you. Coming down. Air-frying.
I think fried foods can be elevated
by not being those big, heavy, fatty things.
But instead being something with brighter textures and different layers.
Whoo. Whoo. Let's go. Let's go.
I feel like doing an air-fried Rockefeller-style oyster
is gonna be the quickest, most efficient use of my time.
[Ted] The air fryer has really swept the nation, uh, for home cooks.
What does an air fryer do?
It's... It's a lot of hot air that moves around very quickly.
So it removes the liquid and it gets crispy without the fat.
You just taking everything, huh?
-[laughing] -You're just... You're just gonna just take everything.
You know where it's at if you need it, okay?
-Okay, you got it, you got it. -I got to get going.
I'm thinking a deep-fried pulled pork with the onion rings
would work really well in a croquette.
I seasoned it up with a little cayenne, a little garlic powder.
Got this.
Fried foods can be elevated by people realizing
that fried food is just not fried chicken.
Hot. Hot.
And I'm not a borish chef.
I hate to serve things that just seem, uh, boring.
I wanna make things trendy, crispy,
and tasty.
Chefs, you are down to 10 minutes here.
[Steven] My oysters are golden brown and crispy.
Make sure we have enough of these.
My plan with these onion rings is to top it
on top of my sliders at the very end.
[Alejandro] I take the onions ring and I think,
"This will be the perfect breadcrumb for my Oyster Rockefeller."
They're already fried.
It won't hurt to fry them again
to give them that proper, nice crispy consistency.
Ooh.
Can I ask you a question about a fried competition?
Do you need something on that plate that is not fried...
-Yes. -...to give you some relief?
Absolutely, yes.
It can be a form of acid, lemon juice...
-[Ted] Mmm-hmm. -...some sort of vinegar.
[Scott] I would do a zucchini salad actually.
-Something very, very different. -Put is beside the fried...
I would really use that as a bright element on the plate.
[Ashley] The fried barbecue already came with coleslaw
which I think would make a nice, light, crisp salad.
I'm gonna add some radicchio.
It's gonna bring a little bitterness and also crunch
back to that coleslaw to reinvigorate it.
[Blake] As I'm cutting my zucchini,
I realized I nicked my finger.
-Oh, I have a cut. -Oh, no, no, no.
All right, chefs, five minutes to go.
Whoa, that time's gone fast.
For Blake, at this point, unfortunately, she may not get anything on her plate.
[Blake] At this point, I still have not used my zucchini or my oysters.
I'm starting to panic.
-Chef Blake, you got this. Finish strong. -[Scott] Let's go.
Chef Blake, get back in there.
You gotta get back in there, chef.
[Eric] It's super intense right now.
It's flying by, and I'm worried about Chef Blake right now
-because, obviously, she cut herself. -I'm... I'm here.
-[Alejandro] You okay, chef? -Yes. Yep.
Come on.
-I wanna beat you to dessert round, come on. -[laughs]
But she's now just starting to work on her zucchini with four minutes left.
I still have not used my zucchini or my oysters.
I decide to use the oysters in a dressing for my croquettes.
Whoa, whoa.
To make my dressing, I put my zucchini in a blender
with olive oil, oysters,
rosemary, thyme.
I'm hoping the oysters add some earthiness and salinity.
And I'm adding some mayo to thicken my dressing.
Chef Blake, you doing okay? You gonna make it?
Yep, I'm gonna make it.
-I got this. -You got it, girl, keep moving.
I have a whole lot going on.
For my salad, I'm gonna have an arugula and raspberries from the pantry.
I've sauteed my zucchini
just to give a fresh component to the salad.
I'd say they're done.
[Ted] Three minutes, chefs.
Coming in.
Three minutes?
Uh-oh.
I have to incorporate the onion rings
and go ahead and refry them, get them crispy,
and chop them up for garnish.
[Eric] I mean, we're in the Chopped competition.
I wanna see different elements of fried.
You got the deep-fry, obviously.
-You have your air fryers. How are you using... -Right.
...these different techniques to really elevate your dish?
I gotta check. Ooh, look at those. Oh, my God.
I decide to air-fry my Oyster Rockefellers
to give them that nice golden brown color that I want.
Scott, if you do not appreciate the amount of pecorino
I've put on these oysters...
It's a tremendous amount of cheese that he's [chuckles] grating on it.
30 seconds, chefs.
You can do it!
Chef Steven assembling his pulled pork sammies.
[Steven] Everything's coming together,
but I look up at that clock and I realize
I don't have time to get this salad dressed.
-[Scott] Let's go, chefs. Let's go. -[Amanda] Let's go.
Don't forget onion rings, oysters, zucchini,
and that deep-fried barbecue.
All right, don't hold back now, chefs.
Ten. Nine.
[Eric] Chefs, come on.
[Ted] Seven.
-[Scott] On the plate, guys, come on. -[Ted] Six. Let's go.
-Get it done. Get it done. Get it done. -[Ted] Four.
-[Ted] Three. -Ugh.
-[Ted] Two. -Argh.
-[Ted] One. -[Eric] Let's go, guys.
[Ted] Time's up.
-Whoo. -[judges clapping]
[Steven] So, I look down and I realize...
Yeah, my onion rings are... oh, they right here. [laughs]
...at the zucchini and the onion rings,
and they are sitting next to me and not on the dish.
And I'm just like, "Dang." Like, "What... What happens now?"
[sighs]
I look down at my dish,
and as I'm looking, the onion rings are still on my board.
Is it possible they won't notice?
Is that possible?
Chefs, you have arrived at the chopping block.
We gave you an appetizer basket filled with deep-fried barbecue,
zucchini, oysters,
and onion rings,
and we asked you to fry something.
So, what have you made for us?
Chef Alejandro.
Today, I've prepared for you guys
a West Texas Oyster Rockefeller.
[Amanda] Well, chef, you have a very petite presentation.
I really like it though.
The flavor's good. It's very creative.
I like your use of the air fryer.
I actually think it crisped the cheese really well.
Oyster Rockefeller, and it's inherently a nice, creamy dish, right?
But you kind of, like, doubled-down on the richness
with the fried onion rings, the creaminess from the goat cheese.
It's very, very rich.
Eric is right. This is really rich.
Right, you need that, that little balance of acidity.
It just makes it all more palatable.
[Ted] What would it mean to you to win Chopped?
Oh, it'd be everything for my family,
for my community, for all of West Texas.
We come from a really, really small town,
and it's me and my wife, we started this business.
We started from, like, a little 6-foot folding table, and a food truck,
and two food trucks and a brick and mortar.
So, this is gonna show everybody else in my area,
you can follow your passion and do what you love.
-Chef Alejandro, thank you. -Thank you.
[Ted] We go to Chef Ashley.
So, I did a pulled pork Rockefeller-inspired dish as well,
and then also did a chipotle vinegar dressing over the top.
I used the air fryer for this.
[Eric] The onion rings were used how?
The onion rings were supposed to top it.
The onion rings were left on my board.
-[Amanda] Oh. -So they not make it?
They did not.
-[Eric] I gotta say, chef... -I know.
...I just wish there were more fried element in there.
With that said though, I love the use of the zucchini.
I love the back and forth that I'm getting
between the bitterness from the radicchio
and this really delicious vinegarette that you're working with.
And I thought it was a really smart plate.
Yes, chef, I really love the salad.
And I like the heat from the sauce
that you've put on here, for sure.
It's all not coming together as a cohesive dish though.
It's a collection of ingredients from the basket
that you've assembled on top of an oyster,
put it in an air fryer, and then handed it to us.
There's not a lot of nuance or development.
Fair enough.
Next, we go to Chef Steven.
It was my take on kind of like a surf and turf.
Pulled pork slider, but open-face.
So, tell me in this, where is the zucchini?
Yep, I looked over and forgot my zucchini.
Yeah. What about the onion rings?
Forgot that was sitting right next to the zucchini as well.
-Oh, my goodness! -[Eric] They did no make it.
What is happening in this round?
[Scott] I... I think the pork is delicious.
You have a really nice toast on the crostini.
I think the fry on the oyster was perfect.
It was really delicious.
Unfortunately, that salad is dry.
But I like the coleslaw.
-So, I love me some coleslaw. -[Amanda] Yeah.
Yeah, I like the fry on the oyster,
and I think, you know, you have this sort of po' boy thing going on.
[Eric] The oyster, I'd have to agree,
it's fried really well.
Um, but it's just unfortunate that you couldn't get everything on the plate.
-Yeah. -[Ted] Chef Steven, thank you.
And finally, we go to Chef Blake.
I prepared a pulled pork and onion ring croquette
with a oyster and zucchini dressing.
[Ted] Where do you work?
[Blake] So, I own my own food truck.
It's called Tasty Treat Food Truck, in New Orleans.
I also focus on my cookware.
I have my own air fryers, pot sets,
uh, recipe books.
So, you can catch me on social media going viral.
And that's how I earned the title of "Air Fryer Queen."
Oh.
Um, the croquet is good. It's a little bit dense.
Uh, I definitely think it needed something in the mix that would soften it.
-Yeah. -Um, because the, the pork meat
is really just tight in there.
I'm not a big fan of the sauce. I'm not gonna lie.
I think when you beat up the oysters in a blender like that,
you have a very metallic flavor.
-Chef, did you taste that sauce? -No.
A raw oyster sauce is a real challenge to pull off.
Raw oysters with the zucchini.
It's... It's underdeveloped.
This sauce is really, really hard to get over, unfortunately for me.
Chef Blake, thank you.
One chef will have to leave us very soon. Thank you.
I'm feeling, I don't know, kind of anxious and nervous
'cause I know what I do, what I'm known for,
and I did the total opposite.
Like, at the house, we were watching you,
you're like, "20 minutes, all right, that's not bad."
-That time is flying. -The time is...
So, you're making decisions. You're making decisions quickly.
You're hoping they're the right ones.
-It's the first guess. -And that's why when he asked me,
he said, "Are you okay with the sauce?"
Known that it could have been way better.
I feel that I may be on the chopping block with my dressing.
But I want to stay so badly, not just to win,
but to show the judges that this New Orleans girl
can take the Chopped Champion home,
and that's what I'm gonna do.
[Steven] I definitely think it's between me and Ashley.
She forgot her onion rings. I forgot two ingredients.
Um, but I feel like the judges
loved my idea more and loved my flavors more.
So, who's dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Steven, you've been Chopped.
-Judges. -Thank you.
Chef Steven, as you know,
Chopped is about getting four basket ingredients on the plate,
and you were missing two, the zucchini and the onion rings.
So, unfortunately, we had to chop you.
Thank you, guys. I appreciate you, guys.
[Steven] Wish I would have been able to showcase The Trendy Chef
that's on the internet, that's frying all this crazy stuff.
A lesson learned, so I'm excited to go back
and, uh, and be stronger, be better.
All right. Let's see what you're up against in this basket.
Show us your entree ingredients.
[Alejandro] What is this?
[Ted] Fried pickle corn dogs.
All right, some corn dog type of thing going on.
-[Ted] Nopales. -Oh!
-Nopales. Shout out to my mom. -This is the scary.
Shout out to my mom.
[Ted] Pork secreto.
Pork Secreto, a pork secret.
-[Ted] And almond milk. -All right. Yes.
Almond, extra creamy almond milk.
[Ashley] That'll be fun.
Thirty minutes. And frying something is still a must.
-Clock starts now. -[Eric] Go, chefs.
-Fry it up. -Go, chefs. Fry it up.
[Amanda] I have very high expectations for this entree round
because we had a lot of troubles in the appetizer round.
This basket's a little bit more of a gift, I would say.
[Scott] Listen, Alejandro clearly knows his way around a nopale.
He shouted out his mom
-as soon as he opened up that basket which I love. -[Amanda] Oh, I know.
[Alejandro] If I go home because of nopales,
my mom will not let me go back home.
[Scott] Nopales are from the prickly pear cactus.
-I live in Arizona, so I have an espresso and a nopale... -[Eric and Amanda laugh]
-...for breakfast, actually. -[Amanda laughs]
My mom cooked with nopales.
My grandma cooked with nopales.
My tias cook with nopales.
I definitely know I can make an amazing taco,
especially highlighting the cactus.
I'm making a nopale salsa with a pork discada taco
and having it fried, crunchy tortilla
and an almond milk crema.
A discada is basically a dish cooked in a big old wok.
Any type of protein you have, you throw it in the pot.
Throw some beer, Throw some orange juice.
Let that cook down.
Drink some more beers. And put in the taco.
With this pork, all we need is a backyard, a beer and some...
a barbecue pit ready to go.
Has somebody got onion powder, garlic powder
-on their side? -Yeah.
Onion powder there.
Sorry, hold on, give me one sec.
[Alejandro laughs] You're good.
All four ingredients have to be on that plate.
It's 100% the goal.
I'm making chicken-fried pork secreto
with fried-pickled nopale
and a tomato sauce.
Everything's better with beer, I hear.
For my tomato sauce I'm going to dice up onions,
a little bit of orange, brown sugar.
Behind. Behind.
And I add some beer into that sauce.
For my pickling liquid, I'm using apple cider vinegar,
brown sugar,
some peppercorn.
I also slice up the dill pickle from the corn dog.
Not going home this round. Tell you that right now.
I need to redeem myself in this entree round.
Okay.
I'm gonna make sure to taste all my food,
and I want to make a dish
that's inspired by a classic New Orleans shrimp and grits.
But instead of shrimp and grits,
I'm using this pork secreto and polenta.
Okay, I'm gonna get this chopped up,
and then I'm gonna throw some corn starch on it.
So we gotta have a nice fry to it.
[Ted] Judges, of course, a secreto is Spanish for secret.
This cut of pork from the outer pork shoulder.
Very tender. Very flavorful.
[Amanda] This kind of pork is beautiful.
You treat it like a flank steak or a skirt steak.
You should really get a hot, hot pan,
sear it on both sides.
It is absolutely delicious.
Less than 20 minutes to go, chefs.
[Alejandro] If you don't know what you're doing with nopales it can be tricky
'cause if you overcook them, they get slimy.
But they have kind of this earthy flavor to it.
And I know with the bright and freshness of the tomato, it'll balance each other out.
I wanna make a sauce. I taste the almond milk,
and it has a nice, deep, creamy almond flavor.
So, I blend up my almond milk with cilantro,
the fried pickle from the corn dog and Mexican crema.
[Eric] Almond milk is creamy.
It's... It's really decadent.
But I think it's a perfect vessel for them to use for dredging.
I wanna make a salsa to tie my dish together.
I heat up almond milk, corn starch and chicken stock.
Dried time.
And a little pickle.
The pressure in this kitchen is no joke,
but I'm feeling more confident.
Bop.
Ready to bring home that trophy,
well, the crown.
Five minutes to get it done, chefs.
-[Scott] Let's go, chefs. -[Eric] Finish strong, chefs, finish strong.
[Alejandro] The community in West Texas,
they will give you the shirt off their back if you need it.
Come on. Come on. Come on.
They have blessed us with being able to have a restaurant,
have a food truck.
And my wife and I have a non-for-profit organization
that's able to provide meals for those in need.
Oh, spent a lot of time on the fryer.
But perfect taco, got to be crispy.
If I win the $10,000,
that money will go towards food, supplies,
anything I would need to be able to provide my community with free meals.
Now that my taco's taking shape,
I wanna add a deep-fried nopale to add that nice crunch
and that beautiful color.
[Blake] I've never worked with nopales before.
In New Orleans, we don't have many cactuses.
We don't know, you deep-fry.
Growing up with food has always been a big part of my life,
and now with cooking,
I feel that I'm able to create those same things with my family in New Orleans.
-Two minutes on the clock. -Two minutes left, chefs, come on now.
[Scott] All four ingredients, chefs.
Doing an inventory as you're plating.
[Ashley] So, I'm scrambling pretty hard to plate
and get everything done in time.
But knowing that I've got a lot of tart and citrus going on in this dish already,
I feel like I need some balancing fat.
So, I'm going to make a fried-garlic mascarpone cream sauce
with the almond milk.
I'm feeling the chaos in this kitchen.
It's feeling very chaotic.
Come on, chefs, come on.
Thirty seconds.
[Blake] Time's running out, but I wanna finish with some extra crunch
so I grab a corn dog and sprinkle a little on top.
[Ted] Ten.
-Nine. Eight. -[Eric] Chefs, come on now.
[Ted] Seven. Six.
-[Eric] Get it on the plate. -[Ted] Five.
-[Amanda] Come on, chefs, show us what you got... -[Ted] Four.
-...this round. -[Ted] Three. Two.
One. Time's up.
[judges clapping]
[Alejandro] That went amazingly well.
Nothing says fried like Tex-Mex and crispy tacos.
[Blake] I'm feeling confident.
I feel like I absolutely redeemed myself with this dish.
Every component is flavorful, it's tasty.
So, I feel that will take me to the next round.
Chefs, you returned to the stoves for round two
and got fried pickle corn dogs,
nopales, pork secreto, and almond milk.
One again, frying was in play.
Chef Ashley, what did you make?
I did a chicken-fried pork secreto
topped with fried pickles and nopales,
and a Milwaukee-inspired beer-based tomato sauce.
[Scott] Chef Ashley, I really love the way
you developed the flavor of this almond milk
with the roasted garlic inside of it.
I like the nopale that you have.
I like the fry on it.
But I think the way you fried this pork secreto,
it rendered it very tough.
I agree. The secreto's hammered.
But with that said,
that's probably my favorite thing.
The season on the dredge,
like, you can taste that.
I also thought frying the nopales was really really smart as well.
It gave a really nice texture to the entire dish.
Chef, how did you make the tomato sauce?
Tomato sauce is onions and canned tomato and beer.
And brown sugar, little orange juice and lime.
It's really sweet.
Uh-huh.
Obviously there is an inherent sweetness.
-Wow. -But really love the way you fried the pickle
and the nopales.
You really embraced the fry challenge.
-Okay, Chef Ashley, thank you. -Yeah, thanks.
Next up, Chef Blake.
I made a fried pork secreto with creamy polenta.
I think the creaminess of this dish is absolutely, like, spot on.
The polenta, it's done really well
and it creates a nice vessel for everything.
I do like the nopales I think it's delicious, adds a little bit of texture.
I like your use of the almond milk
with the fried, pickle corn dog.
It was really nice, it added some acidity here.
But I think for me what I'm missing in here
is that yummy, crispy, crunchy, fried element.
-Yeah. -Right, that we're looking for in this fry competition.
Chef, why did you put the corn starch when you sauteed the pork?
'Cause I wanted it to have a texture.
-So you sauteed it and then you fried it afterwards? -[Blake] Yes.
I didn't want it to have that pan-sear
because it wouldn't have cooked well
so that's why I threw it in the fryer.
[Scott] The pork itself is really overcooked.
There's good flavor on the exterior of it.
-Chef Blake, thank you. -Thank you.
Finally, Chef Alejandro.
[Alejandro] I wanna do a little Tex-Mex two step on your taste buds.
-Oh. -Made a pork discada taco.
I added chorizo, I added actual hot dog from the corn dog
into the discada 'cause discada means all different types of meat
cooked in a disc outside in, like, a tractor plow.
-[crunching] -And that's what I wanna hear right there.
-[Amanda] Mmm-hmm. -[Alejandro] That's what I wanna hear.
Yes, yes sir.
-[Amanda] Mmm-hmm. -Okay.
Yeah, welcome to my backyard.
This is the fun we're looking to have, like, as we eat.
The crunch, the interactive, the flavors.
Everything is very nuanced.
This is really good, I like the dimensions of the pork.
I like the fact that you used the hot dog, you didn't shy away from that.
This crema is delicious, man.
You used the almond milk in the crema?
Yes, sir.
That's delicious.
The spices and the heat are in perfect balance.
The texture of the nopale,
the beautiful crunch on the taco.
That's all we're looking for.
You cook the stuff that makes you happy...
...everybody's happy.
When you said you were making something, you know, west Texas backyard barbecue,
like, I pictured my big plate full of food.
-Once again you have this little petit portion. -[Eric] Yeah.
Uh, little bigger for an entree.
I don't know anybody who can only eat one taco.
-[Eric laughing] -I don't know anybody.
I gotta want you wanting more for dessert.
You gotta see what I got us for dessert. You know what I mean?
-Ohh, and you're a salesman too. -[Alejandro] Yeah.
-[Eric] He is a salesman. -[Amanda] Who knew?
-[Alejandro] Gotta be. -[Eric] And a good one.
-[Ted] Chef Alejandro, thank you. -Thank you, chef.
Okay, which two chefs will fry fry again?
Standby. Thank you, chefs.
I feel like it's between me and Ashley.
My pork was a little overcooked
but they loved my polenta.
Alejandro's for sure the biggest competition.
He's playing to his strengths and that's exactly the right move.
I'm fairly confident this is the end for me.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
[dramatic music playing]
What?
[Ted] Chef Blake, you've been chopped.
Judges?
Chef Blake, you made us a really delicious, creamy bowl of polenta.
Unfortunately we're looking for crunch,
we're looking for crisp, we're looking for fried
and none of that, unfortunately, showed up in your dish.
Also, the pork secreto was overcooked and so we had to chop.
[whispering] Thank you.
-Girl. -[Ted] Thank you for being with us, chef.
[Blake] This didn't go the way that I wanted it to go
but I'm walking out of here with my head held high
and I'm gonna go continue frying
and I'm gonna go fry me some chicken right now.
Still a champion.
[dramatic music playing]
[Ted] Chef Ashley, Chef Alejandro.
Please turn your attention to the final basket.
Check it out.
-Ooh, all right. -[Alejandro laughing]
-This is pretty. -[Alejandro] That's what's up.
[Ted] You'll be inventing desserts using a snack cake tower.
Whose birthday is it?
[Ashley] This snack cake tower looks delightful
if I were 12.
-[Ted] Bananas. -And bananas.
Banana time.
-[Ted] Chicken skin. -Chicken skin?
Chicken skin for dessert?
What are y'all thinking?
-[Ted] And halo-halo fruit mix. -Halo-halo.
Halo-halo.
Half an hour to do it,
don't forget the frying requirement.
Clock starts now.
[judges shouting encouragement]
[Scott] Keep on frying!
Well judges, we all know that chicken skin
is the best part of fried chicken.
I'm sure there's some people who are gonna see that ingredient
in dessert and say, "what the heck is that doing there?"
-But I think it's brilliant. -[Amanda] I meant there's...
I think it needs to be salty and sweet.
[Eric] I say more salty than sweet.
You have that really sweet snack cake tower
that's gonna be ultra high in sugar, right?
[Amanda] I wouldn't fry anything else but the chicken skin...
-[Eric] Totally. -[Amanda] ...in this basket.
[Alejandro] I'm not really well versed in dessert
but I definitely know how to make a fritter.
So I'm making banana fritters with snack cake milk,
a strawberry mint gastrique and crispy chicken skin.
Yeah!
The beans, son. The beans.
Halo-halo.
It's fun to say, I have no clue what it is.
Ugh.
But it's super sweet. It's, like, in simple syrup,
it's gelatinous. I think it will add a nice sweetness to my fritter.
But when in doubt, fry it out.
You got the flour and the baking powder, chef?
I do, do you need it?
Come grab, my dude.
There you go, brother.
-Thank you, thank you, thank you. -Yes, sir.
This halo-halo fruit mix is a mixture of...
Come on, come on baby.
[Ashley] ...red beans and white beans in a syrup
and typically topped onto, like, an ube
which is, like, a purple sweet potato in Filipino desserts.
[Alejandro] Yep.
[Ashley] Very sweet, very starchy.
[Amanda] Chef Ashley, what are you doing with that dough.
Uh, I'm doing a sweet frybread.
So we're gonna stuff it and try to get a...
Kind of an empanada style frybread done.
I was super surprised to get all the way to the dessert round.
I really thought I was chopped when my sauce in the second round
got a little off-kilter.
So time to dial it in.
For the frybread filling I'm going to cook raspberries
in with a little bit of sugar and lemon
and then the halo-halo fruit mix as well.
Tres leches is one of my favorite cakes, I make them a lot.
So I'm gonna use the bananas as part of a tres leches style sauce.
I blend the bananas and heavy cream,
coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk and orange liqueur.
Right behind you.
Twenty minutes left on the clock, chefs.
[Amanda] You have this snack cake tower
-and we used to eat these as kids, you know. -[Eric] Mmm-hmm.
-The snack cake with the cream filling. -[Eric] Yeah, yes.
-[Amanda] The chocolate ones with the outside waxy... -[Eric] Yes.
I mean, you can get, like, the cream filled
maybe add that to a Chantilly or whipped cream
or you can separate the chocolate
and then work on a chocolate based banana dessert.
Mmm-mmm, mmm-mmm.
So I'm grabbing some snack cake tower
and I'm infusing it with heavy cream
and I think this is gonna be the perfect sauce for my fritters.
And then I'm working on a strawberry mint gastrique
because I know this dish needs something vinegary
to kind of cut through all that sweetness.
Uh, time?
Just five minutes to go here.
[Ashley] So I find my filling's a little warmer
as well as a little looser than I'd like it to be.
Argh!
Okay, so, Chef Ashley is filling her dough
with a very juicy fruit filling.
But also, the filling looks hot
which could be a big problem.
Ew!
[Amanda] Because it can break through the edges 'cause it's so wet.
-Mmm-hmm. -And the heat of it can separate the dough.
Damn it.
[Eric] Even if there was any sort of, like, saving grace
that this could work, I'm worried that it won't
-because there's so much liquid... -Yeah.
-...that she added to that dough. -Yeah, a lot of liquid.
[Ashley] Will you hold?
I'm running low on time
and I need to get these guys in the fryer.
Whoop.
My filling is a little warmer as well as a little looser than I'd like it to be.
But I don't have time to make any adjustments at this point.
Just time to do what I can do to get 'em in the fryer.
Oh, I'm going down, dude.
-Huh? -Ha, my bread.
-You're good, you're good, you're good. -My dough's crazy.
[Alejandro] You're good, you're good, you're good, focus, focus, focus.
[Ted] You got this, chefs, but you don't have a lot of time.
Two and a half minutes.
Right behind, chef, right behind.
[grunting]
-Oh, Lordy. -[Amanda] Alarming.
-[Eric] Alejandro? -[Alejandro] Yes sir?
What's up with all the grunting?
-I gotta hype myself, man. -I hear you.
[Amanda] He's hyping, he's his own hype man.
I'm making sure to keep these chicken skins nice and savory
to give it a nice balance to my sweet dessert.
Can't have fried crispy chicken skin without hot sauce.
I put in heavy cream with a little bit of hot sauce, some seasoning
and I throw it in the deep fryer and let it get GBD, golden, brown and delicious.
Timer is running out
and all I can think about is my community, my wife, my little girl.
Time, time, time, time.
Everybody cheering me on.
Oh.
This dish is gonna need a textural component
so I decide to build a crumble out of the snack cake tower
with the chicken skin and also fried pecans.
I am actually frying pecans to candy them.
-Make it a $10,000 dessert, chefs. -[Amanda] Whoo.
[Ted] All right, chefs, final seconds of the final round here.
[judges shouting encouragement]
-[Ted] Seven... -Don't stop trying.
[Ted] ...six, five, four, three, two, one.
Your time's up!
-[judges cheering] -Okay, all right.
[judges applauding]
There's a damn deal.
-I mean, one way or another. -Yeah.
I've never seen halo-halo before.
We've never used fried chicken skin in dessert.
But I'm very confident, I can already feel it.
I'm going home with that golden brown delicious win.
[Ashley] That last round was chaotic
but I got everything on a plate.
I'm tenacious and I'll stay after it.
Chef Alejandro and Chef Ashley.
The judges watched closely as you made them desserts
using a snack cake tower, bananas, chicken skin
and halo-halo fruit mix.
Chef Ashley, please tell us what you've made?
So I made for you a hand pie.
It's made out of a frybread dough,
stuffed with halo-halo, with a banana tres leches sauce
and a chicken skin snack cake crumble.
[Eric] I gotta say, Chef Ashley, this, like, crackling with the pecans
and the chicken skin and the snack cake tower,
it's so good. It's really addictive.
Thought the halo-halo fruit mix was paired really really well with the berries.
It's acidic, um, it's tart. It's a little sweet.
I think it pairs well with the other flavors in this dish.
[Amanda] And you've really embraced the fry challenge here.
Because the center of the plate is fried, the chicken is fried.
The problem is this is complete raw.
And then you put a hot filling in it.
It's almost like you didn't give it a chance, you know.
Because of the hot filling.
I agree, but I think that sauce you created, it was really delicious.
Thank you Chef Ashley. Finally, Chef Alejandro.
So I made my halo-halo nana-nana fritters.
With snack cake milk, a strawberry mint gastrique and crispy chicken skin.
Chef, how did you make the cereal milk sauce?
I cooked heavy cream and I just grabbed a handful of that snack tower
and let it reduce down, then I strained it.
And then whipped it up just a little bit with confectionary sugar.
I think what is when you use a processed food like the snack cakes
you never know what's gonna happen, right?
'Cause it's separated.
[Amanda] There's wax.
There's all sorts of things that hold it together
and gums and stuff like that, so...
-It's not... -That's a good point.
-...natural, yeah. -It may not be that it's broken.
-Right. -It may be the wax that's melted
-in that separation, so... -Yeah.
But still tastes good.
Yeah, chef, I think you really embraced the fry challenge here.
Between both the fritters as well as the, uh, chicken skin.
The fritter itself, I think the flavor is wonderful,
I think the cook on 'em is really nice.
[Amanda] I love the strawberry gastrique.
It was so light and fresh.
But it, like... The middle of the chicken skin is a little bit chewy.
I'm actually most impressed with the idea of making the fritter,
blending up the banana, adding the halo-halo in there.
I thought that was, uh, conceptually,
probably the smartest thing about this dish.
But the execution lacked a little bit.
Chef Alejandro, thank you.
All right, we will call you back when there is a decision.
Thank you, chefs, nicely done.
Judges, of course this was a frying competition,
what went right and what went wrong?
I think in the first round, Chef Alejandro's flavor was good on that oyster.
Very petit, one oyster stuffed with deep fried barbecue.
He made a sauce that was, you know, rich and creamy.
But we were looking for fried, not rich. Not decadent.
You need something to counter balance that.
[Scott] Chef Ashley, the oyster that she had stuffed,
it was a tremendous amount of spice.
Good amount of acidity.
I thought she paired well the, uh, bitterness from the radicchio
and the sweetness from that coleslaw.
But she forgot her onion ring.
-Chef Ashley's entree was really creative. -[Eric] Yeah.
[Amanda] She did a chicken fried pork.
Re-pickled the pickle and then fried it again.
She fried the nopales so she really embraced the fry challenge.
[Eric] But unfortunately, the secreto was really overcooked.
I feel like Chef Alejandro really developed the flavor
of that pork secreto, right?
And it all fit inside this delicious, crispy taco.
-[Eric] Yeah. -That we all crushed. Like, you know...
My only gripe with it was I wanted more.
I think the question here is could those fried items make a cohesive dish?
I agree.
I think I should win because I brought a lot of different techniques.
Being a Chopped champion would be really incredible.
I wanna win for my family and my husband.
The best part of today was hearing the crunch when they're biting into the taco.
[crunching]
I came here to win, that's my whole goal.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
[drumroll]
[dramatic music plays]
Chef Ashley, you've been chopped.
-[Ashley] Thank you. -[Ted] Judges?
[Scott] Chef Ashley, in your appetizer round,
unfortunately, you left off the onion rings
which were a basket ingredient.
In your main course round, you overcooked your chicken fried pork secreto.
And finally, in your dessert round,
unfortunately the hand pies were undercooked.
And so, we had to chop you.
Thank you, though, I appreciate it very much.
-Truly. -[Ted] Good luck to you, chef, take care.
[Ashley] Obviously I wish I could have shown off what I really do
a little bit stronger.
But I'm super glad for Alejandro.
I think he did a kickass job, he really nailed it
and did a lot of good work today.
And that means Chef Alejandro Barrientos,
you are the Chopped champion.
You fried your way to a $10,000 victory.
Congratulations, sir.
[all cheering and applauding]
-Yeah! -Congratulations.
[Alejandro] This is, like, a dream come true.
Those $10,000 are gonna go straight to our new not for profit
and they're gonna feed so many people.
I just can't believe it, it's amazing, it's amazing.
That smile has not left your face
and it's been, honestly, a joy to watch you cook.
All I'm saying is, we are coming to the watch party.
-That's it. -Yeah!
As long as you're cooking, we're there.
Tacos and tequila, that'll be the party.
It's just a huge honor to take this win back to west Texas
because it proves that if you put your heart into something,
there's nothing you can't accomplish.
[cheering]