Tonight on Guy's Grocery Games,
we're doing something we've never done before.
10 pounds, exactly. Not very much, though, huh?
Sure isn't.
But you know what? These chefs will have to turn this 10 pounds
of groceries into a satisfying lunch.
Plus, Hunter, an impressive dinner.
-You got to recheck this. -Yeah, yeah.
No way.
Yeah, actually, yes way.
This really is a game of ounces.
All of this. So exciting.
It's 10 pounds, two rounds,
right now on Guy's Grocery Games.
-You got this. -I got most of it.
I got most of it.
So let's meet tonight's chefs.
First up, we have Drew Keane,
the Chicago chef de cuisine who left behind a career in music
to work for one of the biggest culinary rock stars
there is, Chef Stephanie Izard.
[Drew] I was in a pretty popular punk rock band
on the East Coast for a very long time,
then realized sometimes music doesn't pay all the bills.
Cooking is always something I did.
So when presented with the opportunity, I jumped on it.
-You work for the GOAT. -You know it, baby.
We call Stephanie mom in the GOAT world,
and I was told that I cannot be on the show and embarrass mom.
So we have to take it home.
Next, Sherry Grimes, the executive chef who has been
highlighted in Thrillist, Time Out, and Eater NYC.
I own a place called Pig & Butter on the Lower East Side of New York City.
It's a mixture of Asian, Southern,
and also Mexican flavors.
I basically follow the beat of my own drum, and I like that.
Go get them, Chef. Go get them.
Then there's Hisham Abdelfattah, the executive chef
from San Jose who created a halal Mexican restaurant
that honors his beliefs and his favorite cuisine.
[Hisham] At El Halal Amigos, we serve authentic halal Mexican food.
That means all the meats we use is within
the dietary restrictions of Islam.
There was a gap that needed to be bridged
between Islam and Mexican cooking.
And what better than tacos?
And finally, Milena Pagan, the James Beard Award nominee
from Rhode Island who uses her MIT degree
in chemical engineering to perfect the recipes
at her Puerto Rican restaurant.
[Milena] I never expected to get into MIT.
I never expected to get the James Beard nomination.
I just, like, work really hard all the time.
At Little Sister, I would say we are known
for our home-style Puerto Rican cooking.
My approach is more is more, but done with taste and class.
You know what I mean?
-There you go, Chef. Go get them. -What's up?
All right, chefs. We are so fortunate that you're here,
because tonight we have two rounds of challenging games
that require chefs of your level to pull it off
with everything they got.
The chef with the lowest scoring dish at the end of
round one, unfortunately, will be checking out early.
But the chef with the highest combined score
at the end of two rounds, well, you get to shop
Flavortown market for up to $20,000.
-Yeah, let's go. Let's go. -Whoo!
All right.
Tonight, you will be shopping and cooking in total darkness.
-What? -[laughs]
Total darkness.
-[Hunter] What's going on? -Hey.
What are you doing?
-New challenges. -Hi, chefs.
You're cooking in total darkness.
-No. -Yeah.
Total darkness. Shopping, cooking.
This is not what we talked about.
You said you want to do something like with 10.
-Oh, I did say 10. -Like 10 out of 10, it was hard.
-10 out of 10, hard. -I know what it was.
It was 10 pounds.
We're going to let them shop for 10 pounds.
-10 pounds. -There you go.
I see.
And I know what you're thinking, 10 pounds is a lot.
No. The total ingredients you get for both meals
combined, 10 pounds.
Here's what's going to happen.
For your first meal, I want you to make
a hearty, hot lunch.
Ooh, hearty, hot lunch.
A warm and satisfying midday meal.
You know what we're talking about, okay?
Now, you can shop for anything you want.
But if you grab seven pounds of groceries,
you could only shop in the next round
for three pounds of groceries.
10 pounds total.
Now, I'm not going to tell you what the second round is, okay?
So the stuff in the first round, does it carry over?
Yeah, it carries over.
-It carries over, Hunter. -Okay.
You have 30 minutes to shop, weigh,
and prepare your plate of your hearty, hot lunch.
Here's the one thing I want you to remember.
There are three rules to Flavortown.
Well, two of the rules you have to pay attention to.
But there is one rule you will go home if you don't.
And that...
Oh, okay. Okay.
Three rules of Flavortown.
That was a good one.
Oh, 10 pounds for two rounds
doesn't really leave you a lot of room.
'Cause when you're thinking hearty,
you're thinking something heavy.
Oh, my God. Where's the peeled garlic?
Going back to my roots in Puerto Rico,
I'm going to make shrimp in salsa criolla with some rice.
Okay.
Salsa criolla is garlic, onions, different kinds
of peppers, some cilantro, some tomato paste.
That's going to be simple and hearty.
Really running.
I'm looking to split about half of the weight for
the first round, half of the weight for the second round.
Bouillon cubes.
The Sazon packets are super light in weight,
but they pack a punch in flavor.
Okay.
So we're dropping them in, and let's see what we got.
You're at four pounds already.
-Really? -Yeah.
Okay. Hang on. I'll let it.
So I got to think a little bit about going a little bit lighter,
but heavy on the flavor.
I don't need this.
All right. Okay.
So that'll be at five and three-quarters.
-Is that what you want? -I'll take it.
Yeah. All right.
Can I just dump it?
Good. Yeah, dump it.
-Sorry. -Not the entire thing.
I got you. Hold on. I got you.
You almost knocked it all over.
Sorry. I'm in a rush.
Woo!
Swerving. Hearty lunch.
I absolutely love fried chicken.
I didn't want to add all that bone weight,
so I went with the boneless, skinless chicken thighs,
which you get more than enough for this round
and next round.
I'm thinking fried chicken biscuit
and black pepper gravy.
Let's go with this one.
I'm known for aggressively seasoned food, high acid.
So I grabbed that seasoned rice wine vinegar.
Boy, buying something in a glass bottle,
that is a lot of weight.
Let's get some cubes.
Kewpie mayo for that umami.
Let's get a little something to spice this up.
Peppers aren't very heavy.
Some Fresnos.
Scale-wise, let's go see where we're at.
What's up, man?
-All right, so you're way over your eight pounds. -That's eight pounds.
-So you're 8-3, okay, yeah. -No way.
Let's get rid of this.
So I take out rice wine vinegar, and that Kewpie mayo.
I'm just going to make sure that my gravy is super, super rich.
-5 and quarter? -Yeah.
-All right, you're good to go. -All right.
Sesame seed oil. Where are you?
10 pounds of ingredients for two rounds,
which is pretty scary.
When I think of hearty, I think of fried chicken with cornbread.
Okay.
My game plan is to get protein that
I could use for the entire day.
Bacon, because I love to cook with bacon.
I'm grabbing eggs, and I'm grabbing milk.
I'm grabbing Sazon to season the chicken with.
It's really bright and light.
And syrup.
Some sweetness to top my dish with.
-Chef, how are we doing? -Good. How are you?
Did you need all that milk, too?
Uh, no.
That's too heavy.
There you got seven and a quarter getting rid of the milk.
I want to use that for my cornbread,
so I just said forget about it.
No milk at all.
I'll just go with this.
I'm going into round two with only 2.75 pounds left.
[whistles]
[Hisham] A hearty hot lunch to me has to be tacos.
Chicken, chicken.
Pastora is generally made with pork.
But being a halal restaurant and a halal chef,
the halal dietary restrictions restricts us from eating pork.
So I'm going to use halal chicken thigh.
I have no idea how much this weighs.
Mexican food uses so many ingredients.
Cilantro.
So it's really, really hard.
And you've got to think about your next dish.
And I don't know what that's going to be.
Some Monterey cheese.
[mimics brakes squealing]
You know what I mean?
I'm going to grab dried chilies for the marinade.
[Guy] Here's a great idea.
The chilies got a ton of flavor to them,
and they're dry, meaning they're really lightweight.
[Hisham] Pineapples are necessary for a pastor taco.
Pineapples? Pineapple? Pineapples are freaking heavy.
And here I see oranges.
Oranges are lighter.
I know you can make pastor marinade with orange juice.
I've never done this before, but let's try it.
All right, baby. I think we got it.
All right, Chef.
-All right. -Here we go.
Okay. Okay, three pounds.
-[grunts] -You got five there.
-I can reuse some of these. -Seven?
-Screw it. Let's go. -All right.
[Hisham] Right now, all I have is three pounds
to cook for the second round.
Eesh.
-Oh, thank you. Let's go. -All right.
So here to taste dishes and discuss weighty issues
is our distinguished panel of judges.
First, we have executive chef, Chopped champ,
and premier pasta pro, the one and only Chef Joe Sasto.
Yeah.
Baller, Boston restaurateur, and the champ of Tournament of Champions 3,
-the one and only Sweet T. -Hey, hey.
Chef Tiffani Faison. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo.
Acclaimed chef, culinary world record holder, and cookbook author,
also super dad, the one and only Chef Jet Tila.
All right, 10 pounds.
I think the key here is to look at anything
that you have in your station.
Sugar, flour, acid, butter, seasonings.
I would build my menu from that.
-[Jet] You're absolutely right. -Yeah.
[Guy] 25 minutes.
[Tiffani] Hisham spent seven pounds. He only has three left.
[Joe] That's a huge risk, without knowing what
he has to make in the second round.
The positive about Hisham is he's in his wheelhouse.
-Yeah. -His restaurant is halal Mexican.
All right, we're making the pastor sauce here,
-the marinade for the chicken. -So you got the chiles.
-What's going on? -I got them boiling over here.
-Okay. -And I'm going to throw them inside
of the blender to start my marinade.
-Got it. -[Hisham] I have to put in some achiote,
vinegar, garlic, oregano, cumin.
Oh, and you also need pineapples.
I only got one orange to work with.
I really, that pineapple was just way too heavy.
-But you need that pineapple. -I do need the pineapple.
I do. I'm just going to take as much juice as I can.
I mean, that's tough to get that marinade.
Al Pastor without pineapple is a little tough to claim.
Pure panic.
You need pineapples, man.
[whistles] Two and a half pounds for a pineapple.
Yikes.
[Guy] 23 minutes, 23 left.
Hisham was looking for a pineapple for his al pastor,
which al pastor and pineapple are like hand in hand.
But the pineapple weighs two and a half pounds.
I mean, that's one quarter of the 10 pounds that he's got.
The oranges are kind of a twist on the traditional
pineapples that you put on top.
I mean, half a pound. Hey, Chef.
-Yes, sir. -Can of pineapples, a half a pound.
I'll take it. Half pound.
Hunter, put him down for, Hisham for a half a pound.
-Thank you so much, Chef. -You bet, brother.
Frickin' amazing.
Take chicken, marinate it, then I throw it on the grill.
Come on, baby. Come on, baby.
Hearty hot lunch. So things have to weigh nothing
and impactfully be very hearty.
First thing I'm going to get started on is my rice.
I don't want to do just plain white rice.
I'm adding some cilantro, some garlic,
and some chicken bouillon cube.
Let's see what happens there.
While my rice is cooking,
I'm going to start building my sauce.
-I got to go, go, go, go, go. -All right, Melina, after you wrecked
-my scale, what are you-- -[laughing] I'm sorry.
What are you making?
I'm going to make for you camarones con salsa criolla.
So that's shrimp in a tomato, pepper, onion, garlic sauce.
I have some minute rice going.
And I'm going to fry some plantains for you as well.
That's fantastic.
-Yep. -Okay, good luck.
Thank you.
I got to calm down a little bit.
The sauce is where I'm going to lean into
my pantry items, cumin, paprika.
[Joe] I love what she's doing.
Tons of different aromatics, all really light things.
Garlic, herbs, tomato paste.
-Not taking up any of the weight, but bring tons... -Yeah.
-...of flavor into a small little pot. -Mm-hmm.
The time is really flying.
I'm going to make a little savory chicken biscuit
with a little country gravy, I think.
Maybe like a light pickled Fresno here.
So the first thing I do is get on this fried chicken.
Season this flour up.
Garlic in there.
I really wanted to utilize the pantry items,
paprika, the cayenne.
Growing up, family dinner was always a thing.
It's something I never saw myself doing professionally
'cause I was so interested in playing music.
But then I was offered the opportunity to do it
professionally and work my way up.
And it was just really great to embrace something
that was originally a hobby into a passion.
I'm just going to try to pound the chicken thigh
into the flour so it gets really nice and crispy.
[Guy] All right, Chef, what's on the menu?
Fried chicken on cornbread with bacon and a runny fried egg.
[Guy] What are we making up here?
-My batter. -For the fried chicken?
Yes. It has garlic, cornstarch, and flour.
I add Sazon, give it some kick.
Okay.
I use this type of batter because it has
a certain crisp to the chicken.
It's amazing.
I'd like to win very badly.
And also, I was told, don't come home if I don't win.
I would take the money and actually take
a well-deserved vacation with my partner.
She's the one that inspired me 12 years ago
to open my first restaurant.
She's like my main total support.
16 minutes. Sixteen.
I'm going to cut it up, and I'm going to put it on the griddle. [whistles]
So you took all the chicken into al pastor?
-Yes. -Okay.
[Hisham] I used all of it.
Just get past the first round.
We'll figure it out the next one.
Next, I'm working on my Mexican salad.
Okay. We're there.
I'm planning to make a salad to put on top.
Cilantro, the onions, some jalapenos,
put some of the orange slices in there.
That tastes good. The team that works
with me has worked with me for a long time.
Without their help, there wouldn't be an El Halal Amigos.
That's the whole reason why I want to win.
It's for all of us.
I think everybody's going to be super proud.
-How we looking, Chef? -You know, I'm feeling good.
Okay. How'd your rice turn out?
You know what? It looks respectable.
-Okay. -[Milena] While my sauce is coming together,
I'm going to add the shrimp.
The Sazon packets are super light in weight,
but they pack a punch in flavor.
Maybe a little bit of this.
I'm cooking them in the sauce instead of cooking them
separately so that they'll retain their moistness.
Next, I want to work on my plantains.
Okay, plantains in.
Preparing them in this way, I can put something crunchy
on the plate.
I got to smash these.
Oh.
[Drew] Golden brown is usually what you like to go for here.
Chicken's out of the fryer.
It's fried chicken. It looks pretty good.
[Drew] I have the pickles pickling.
[Guy] How are we looking, Chef?
[Drew] We got chicken on biscuits.
-They look like they're ready. -[whistles]
That's hot.
Next thing, I need to get focused on this country gravy.
A little country gravy here.
Primarily using all the stuff that's already
on the station and did not add
any weight in the basket, all I really had to buy
was the heavy cream.
What's in the gravy?
Heavy cream, flour, a little crushed red,
a little vin, and a bunch of black pepper.
I like black pepper gravy.
That's way too salty.
So with this round's only one shot, I can't go back
and get more heavy cream.
That umami mayo really would have helped out.
Had to break a cardinal rule.
I had to add water to my black pepper gravy
to try and cut through some of this salt.
Just trying to battle back the salt.
That might be a little salty. I hope it's not, though.
Black pepper gravy?
You want to talk about a cheap turn and burn?
Hey, I'm going to give you points.
Woo! I should have played the lottery today,
'cause it worked.
[Sherry] I take my chicken out. It's great.
It's beautiful, brightly colored.
She put the Sazon seasoning packet in there,
which has tons of spices, annatto.
Gives it that beautiful, bright color.
That's what makes cheddar orange.
[Guy] Got a couple eggs going. What are those for?
Fried chicken and cornbread?
-Yes. -Okay.
[Sherry] While my eggs are cooking, I get started on my cornbread.
I can't use the milk because it's too heavy,
so I decide to use water.
[Guy] Five minutes! Five minutes left.
This rice is making me nervous.
Definitely salted, that's for sure.
I know that I can stretch it for the two rounds.
Then I'm going to do a saucy shrimp.
Shrimp are looking tight.
And then finally, tostones.
We got to get this going.
Biscuit, pickled Fresno, chicken, biscuit,
gravy right on top.
You got a cream gravy going on top of Drew's biscuits.
I'm feeling pretty good.
You might be seeing me in round two.
Chefs, you got two minutes. Got to be plated in two.
That's good-looking chicken, Chef.
Thank you.
My cornbread is looking good.
Put my chicken on my cornbread.
My bacon is looking good.
So I chop it up and distribute it amongst the plates.
The eggs are really nice.
I add a little bit of syrup on top of that.
I hit the hearty. I hit the hot. I hit the lunch.
-What more do you want? -[Guy] One minute.
I cut up the chicken before I put the pollo pastor on top.
A Mexican salad to put on top.
I feel like everybody at home is going to be super proud of this dish.
Five, four, three, two, one.
-That's it. That is it. -All right, guys.
-Nice work. -Woo!
Whoo.
[Guy] All right, chefs, time to find out
how your hearty lunches fared.
But on a scale of, let's say, one to 10 pounds,
let's take it to the judges right this way.
All right, judges, this is game one
of 10 pounds in... [clicks tongue] ...two rounds.
Chefs are making you both a lunch and dinner tonight
with no more than 10 pounds of ingredients total.
Now, first up, they had to make a hearty hot lunch for you.
And up first, Chef Sherry.
So this is fried chicken on cornbread with
a runny fried egg and a sweet, smoky bacon.
-Chef, how many pounds? -Seven and a quarter.
-[all] Ooh! -But I have a protein for later.
-A lot of protein. -You've got a lot of chicken left.
Yes.
Hello, hearty on a plate.
That fried chicken that I just want to dive right into,
it's crispy on the outside.
That cornbread that you put underneath,
I was really worried looking at it.
But then I dig in there, it provides this
really nice starchiness.
I can't believe I'm going to say this, but it's not
as salty as I want it, because you have so much sweet.
So it needs more salt, especially on that egg,
because you have some creaminess there.
The gameplay is really great here.
Using the cornstarch and the Sazon in the chicken,
like, first of all, visually, it calls attention to this chicken.
It says, listen to me, look at me, eat me, right?
-Thank you. -[Guy] Up next, Chef Drew.
What do we got, bud?
All right, for my hearty, hot lunch, we have, like,
a take on a chicken biscuit.
Hang on, why is this your take on it?
It looks like a chicken biscuit.
-Yeah. -Why is it your take?
Because I made it, dude.
-Okay. -So we got it--
Dude, I'm sorry.
-Let me just get that on film that you called me dude. -Whoo!
I need to send this over to Chef Izard real quick.
It's going down in Flavortown.
Biscuit, chicken thigh that's been fried.
And then you got a country black pepper gravy
and a pickled Fresno in there to try to cut through some of that fat.
Your enthusiasm shows on this plate.
Fry on this chicken is great.
As you can see, it's cooked through.
I applaud you for the idea of making gravy
and utilizing the pantry.
But you had extra weight.
So you could have grabbed something like herbs
to really freshen this dish up.
Because I don't think those Fresnos are enough to really
cut through all those layers of richness.
-Got it. Thank you. -[Tiffani] Really good idea.
But it suffers from just a little bit texturally.
It's very bready.
-Got it. Thank you. -All right.
Up next, Chef Melina, what do you have for us?
Hi. My hot, hearty meal for you today is
shrimp in criolla sauce
with some garlic-scented rice and fried plantain tostones.
[Jet] It's a very soulful dish.
And you're really smart about how you played the game.
You understood the assignment. Like, so, so smart.
When we were watching you shop and you were, like,
the first to weigh everything and get back, I thought she,
like, Miss MIT knows what's up.
-Yes. -Using the minute rice, super, super smart.
This tastes like it's been stewing
-for a really long time, and it hasn't. -Thank you.
The shrimp itself is moist. It's succulent.
It's not overcooked.
I will say it's a big portion.
I would love some more acid or freshness,
something to really cut through all that salt
and seasoning you put in the dish.
All right, Chef Hisham, what do you have for us, Chef?
Today, for the hearty, hot lunch, I made you guys
pollo al pastor tacos.
Generally, pastor is made with pork.
So I used chicken thigh for a little bit of fatness in there.
And then made you guys a cilantro, lime,
and orange salsa to go on top.
Your treatment of the chicken,
seasoned very well, marinated nicely.
What I don't love about the chicken, though,
is you hit it really hard on that grill.
It has a really hard char that becomes almost bitter,
and it is hard to get out of your palate.
I love your concept, bro. I've never seen halal and tacos.
I think it's so genius.
However, your plating, it needs more something.
Yes, Chef.
Anytime we have the finite amount of ingredients,
that calls a lot of attention to each of the ingredients.
And when I see red onions that are kind of cut
really inconsistent, you know, I just think for the ingredients
that you didn't have, the ingredients, what you want to do is
focus on the ones you do and make sure they really shine.
Thank you.
Well, wasn't that fun? No.
Chefs, we're going to ask you to return to the kitchens.
Let the judges deliberate. Unfortunately, we have to send
somebody home after this round.
-Thank you very much. -Thank you.
Thank you.
All right, judges, 20 points available in game play,
20 points available in taste, and 10 points in plating.
10 pounds for two rounds.
But unfortunately, one chef has to check out.
Let's check the results.
Drew, 14 out of 20 in gameplay,
15 out of 20 in taste, 7 out of 10 for plating
for a 36.
Okay.
Sherry, 15 out of 20 in gameplay,
16 out of 20 in taste,
7 out of plating for a 38.
We know you're not going home.
Hisham.
13 out of 20 for gameplay, 14 for taste,
5 for plating, for a 32.
Milena, you got to do better than a 32.
17 out of 20 gameplay. 17, 20 out of taste.
-Seven for a 41. Wow. -[all clapping]
-Whoo-hoo! -Congratulations.
Hisham, sorry to lose you, buddy.
I was excited for what you were going to do.
-But live to cook another day, okay? -Thank you.
Thank you.
Oh, I'm feeling disappointed.
Thank you so much. I appreciate you.
But also, meeting Guy was a reward on itself.
In this final round of 10 pounds in two rounds,
it's time to go big without going heavy.
I want you to make the judges a weeknight dinner,
but a special weeknight dinner.
I want you to have a meal that makes you think
that the judge will say, TGI Monday.
You have your remaining pounds that you get to shop for,
your remaining ingredients that you have in your station,
and 30 minutes on the clock.
That's why they call me the giver.
The three of you. It's going to be two of you.
Give it up for the one that's going to...
Ugh...
-Oh. -Oh, no.
-[Guy] Excuse me. -[Hunter] Yeah.
I'm getting ready to launch them.
You're going to go start pushing stuff around?
Yeah, I got to bring this back.
This is all a bunch of leftover clearance items.
It's got to go back in the shelves.
-Wow, that's a lot of clearance stuff. -Yeah.
-Oh, no, and it's packed in there. -The clearance is packed?
-It's packed. -I got an idea.
You go by the clearance station, you get
two free items out of clearance.
Will that help you?
That's totally a ton.
[Guy] And of course, they're mandatory items.
-Yeah. Go ahead. -Okay.
-Thanks. -All right. They do not
participate in the weight items that you have.
-Again, what do they say? -The giver.
-Here comes the giver. -The giver.
You know what I'm going to give you right now?
I'm going to give you three, two, one.
Hang on. I didn't give the go.
Hold on.
[Drew] Weeknight dinner.
I only have four and three quarters to work with here.
I had to shop as smart and as efficiently as possible.
I already have the chicken thighs.
I lean right towards arroz con pollo.
Now I have to figure out how to work in some of
these ingredients that I would never use.
This ain't easy. I got cans everywhere.
Okay, you guys, take a look at all this stuff over here.
-Oh, Hunter, what happened? -You know what?
I want a raise. I'm quitting.
There's ramen, there's cake, there's spinach.
Ooh, how about some unicorn pudding?
-Love that one. -[Drew] Olives would go great in that rice.
And I don't have to worry about the jar weight.
Garlic breadcrumbs, this is free.
I can bread the chicken in that.
Welcome to the land of giving.
[Drew] This weighs nothing.
Let's get the seasoned rice wine vinegar I didn't get.
That'll change up the acid. How heavy is it?
Take some of that chili crunch.
6.9 ounces.
Let's see if I got some room to play.
So I want to take the judges' advice
and grab some herbs. Mint.
I want to make a pickle salad and really cut through
all the fat of all the butter that I'm going to add to this rice.
All right, Drew, you ready?
Yeah, I'm ready. Let's go.
I really think I'm going to fill that five-point deficit with this round.
4.75. Yeah, I said you had it.
There you go. Good luck.
I'm going to give it a go here.
Whoo.
I have 4 and quarter pounds
left to build my weeknight dinner.
Oh, my God. This is heavy.
A weeknight dinner definitely involves some sort of rice and beans.
I'm thinking I'm going to make rice and beans
mamposteao with some skirt steak chimichurri.
I already know that I don't have enough rice
from the first round, so I need the beans to bulk up the rice.
Uh...
So then I head to the clearance aisle,
hoping for some beans.
Beans?
Hunter and the clearance items.
Don't even get me started.
But I don't see any, so I'm grabbing a can
of French cut green beans.
Maybe I could turn the green beans into a side.
And some breadcrumbs.
Maybe I'll try breading the steak.
-What are you thinking, Chef? -I want beans.
Well, you're in the right aisle.
Finally, I find a little jar of cannellini beans.
Oh, uh.
Listen, I can make any beans work.
Okay.
I don't know.
-Yeah. -4.25.
-There you go. Good luck, Chef. -Thank you.
Okay, I'm going.
I worry for Sherry because I don't think
the ingredients she has left over are incredibly versatile
outside of the chicken.
She's got like two and three quarters of a pound.
It's not a lot of product.
[Sherry] I was happy with the clearance items
because that gave me a glimmer of hope.
So for my weekday dinner, I'm making the chicken
that I have.
I actually saw the polenta. I picked garlic breadcrumbs
because I can dredge polenta in the garlic breadcrumbs.
I was trying to think of something creative
to do with the chicken.
I'm going to use a chipotle in adobo
to marinate my chicken breast.
Give it some kick.
My strategy was to get lightweight produce.
I like mushrooms because they're hearty,
especially if they're cooked in bacon from the first round.
So I want to make a tomatillo salsa.
I thought it would be a nice combo together.
Every little thing adds up.
I wanted to grab more, but I thought that I was going
to go over my weight limit.
All right, Sherry, this is looking to be very difficult.
[Sherry] I was trying to take the minimalist approach.
It's 2 and a 2.75. Okay, Chef, you're good.
[Guy] 25 minutes.
My goal was to make it as simple as possible.
This really is a game of ounces.
-Mm-hmm. -It is.
[Jet] They had a weight restriction.
Two mandatory clearance ingredients.
Drew, what are you making, brother?
Today we're going to make a little arroz corn pollo.
-Okay. -That would be chicken and rice.
[Drew] I have a chicken from the first round.
A little something something I might cook up on a Monday.
First thing, I get the rice in the boiling water.
I add fat, so I got a bunch of butter.
Olives would go great in that rice.
Not half bad, honestly.
Next, we're just going to get some veg cooked off for y'all.
I really want to add some vegetables to this dish,
because it was lacking in the first round.
All right, Chef, what's on the menu?
I'm making steak with chimichurri.
-Okay. -And a rice and beans mamposteao,
which is like Puerto Rican risotto.
Trying to be savvy with my ingredients.
I'm recycling the leftover sauce from the last round.
I don't have a lot of ingredients to work with
because I used my weight for the steak.
These are chicken bouillon cubes.
Do you have the beans? I found some beans.
I'm going to try to do some magic with this.
They're going to help me stretch out the rice
because I don't think I have a lot.
This is soaking up all the flavors really nice.
Next, I want to work on my steak.
I added cumin powder, some Sazon, some vinegar.
I'm going to try to coat it in the breadcrumbs.
I didn't have eggs to bind the breading to the steak,
so I just have a slurry of water.
It's just water.
I'm in first place right now, but it's not a very wide lead,
so I definitely got to make sure I keep it.
[Joe] What Melina's doing that kind of concerns me
is she marinated the skirt steak,
then she almost dipped it in water
and rinsed it off before breading it.
-But the marinade is wet, so the... -Yeah.
The marinade does the sticking.
Okay.
These breadcrumbs are definitely making it difficult
for me to cook the steak evenly.
All right, Chef, where we at?
I'm making a grilled chicken with a chipotle and adobo,
a crispy polenta, then a tomatillo salsa.
So you're grilling the chicken this time.
-Yes. -I like this.
[Sherry] Chipotles in adobo are very spicy.
I also have Sazon from the first round,
and I'm going to use that to season the chicken as well.
The goal is to get some grill marks while
also not burning the chicken.
So my tomatillo, it's nice and charred.
Next, I start making that salsa.
Add my jalapenos.
I needed to add some acid to it.
A good thing I have this red wine vinegar in my pantry.
15 minutes, chefs, 15 to go.
All right, Chef, what's on the menu, bud?
We're going to do a little roast corn pollo.
Rice is working. A little pickle salad on top.
Do we have any vegetable going into this?
Yeah, I got some red onion. I got some poblano.
All right, so we've got the chicken thigh.
[Drew] Paprika, a little cayenne.
Get them pushed into those garlic breadcrumbs.
We got this garlic bread crumb.
We're going to do a light pan fry,
get a little more flavor, a little more texture.
Exactly.
[Drew] This is the dish that can help you win that $20,000.
My girlfriend Rachel and I have been together for six years.
And we were really looking to buy a house.
If I win the money today, that would really help us
put a down payment down.
These are looking fire. Skirt steak is working.
I've got my rice and beans going.
Coming along.
Next, I want to work on a chimichurri sauce.
If I had had a little bit more for my ingredients,
I would have grabbed a lemon.
I would have grabbed scallions.
Some crushed red. Acid, like they requested in the last round.
We'll see.
Mmm, It's good.
Do we have a vegetable going in this?
I have some canned green beans that
-I haven't eaten since I was a little girl. -Yeah.
-Yeah.
Oh, my God. I actually really don't like these.
But it was the best I could find.
I think I would be fine without those canned green beans.
Yeah.
[Milena] I'm going to use the remainder of the red onion.
I'm going to punch it up with some herbs.
And I'm just going to try to bring in some
acidity and sweetness into it.
I'm going to make them work.
I want to win this really badly.
If I win the money today, I would love to fly to Paris
and get a set of custom-made bistro chairs
and tables for Little Sister,
so we can have the best outdoor season ever.
You know what?
Decent. Respectable.
[Sherry] My chicken is done.
My sauce is ready to go.
So I have this bacon in the first round.
What's going on with the bacon? Where's that going to make it?
-Probably going to add it to the mushrooms. -Got it.
[Sherry] Adding the mushrooms to that bacon fat
and then adding the bacon to it
would give it, like, kind of that smoky, meaty flavor.
The last thing I do, I get started on my clearance item,
the polenta. I sauteed it in some butter.
I'm going to dredge the polenta in
the garlic breadcrumbs.
I am just going by the seat of my pants, actually.
All of this. So exciting.
[Guy] Four minutes!
[Drew] So I pull the chicken from the oven.
Perfect. Add the chili crisps.
-This stuff is liquid gold. -It's so good.
I know that I need to make up some points
where I can, so I think presentation.
I get equal amount of rice down on the plate.
A little fresh veg.
Mm, delicious.
-Delicious. -[Drew] I slice the chicken.
I throw that shingle on top.
And I just cover it completely
with my herbs, salad, and pickles.
I'm adding the herbs that was mentioned from my first dish.
Pickled Fresnos from the first round.
I really feel like I made up those five points and then some.
[Milena] First with the rice and beans, then the sliced steak.
The breading is really falling off.
This was really a gamble to try breading it
without the proper ingredients.
I'm just going to cover it up with sauce.
You want to taste my chimis?
I was going to go with the steak. The green beans.
That's delicious.
[Milena] Finally, the salad on the side.
[Guy] One minute.
[Sherry] So I have the nice grill marks on the chicken.
Oh, the chicken's spicy.
Very spicy.
I put down my polenta.
My bacon and mushrooms are good.
My sauce is ready to go.
Five, four, three, two, one.
That's it.
-Good job, everybody. -Very nice.
All right.
[Guy] All right, chefs, time to take this weeknight dinner
over to judges and let them weigh in.
Right this way, follow me.
Judges, once again, this is the 10 pounds in two rounds.
And because Hunter's a giver, they got to get two items out
of the clearance aisle for free, no weight included.
Up first, Chef Drew, what do you got for us?
All right, for my weekday dinner,
I made you guys arroz con pollo.
I used my leftover chicken thighs from round one,
pickled fresnos leftover from round one,
some olives that I got for free. Shout out Hunter.
I breaded the chicken in a garlic bread crumb
that I also got from Hunter.
Chef Drew, arroz con pollo was a really smart move.
It feels totally different than the first round's chicken,
although it's the same chicken.
But you left me wanting more acid again.
I commend you for listening to all of
our feedback from the first round.
You gave us freshness.
Then grabbing the olives from the clearance aisle
was really smart gameplay.
It transforms this chicken-flavored rice.
Thank you.
But don't love the poblanos in here.
They're, like, a little undercooked.
All right, up next, Chef Melina, what do you have for us?
For my weeknight meal dinner, I did mamposteao,
which is rice and beans all together
with some skirt steak,
and I did some chimichurri on top.
From the clearance aisle, the green beans are
in the little salad on the side,
and the breadcrumbs went into the steak.
Chef Milena, I feel your soul on a plate, and it's delicious.
-Thank you. -I'm stuck on the steak, though.
I think the garlic breadcrumbs was a right move,
but it can't decide whether it wants to be crunchy
or it wants to be just grilled.
Beans and rice, just so, so good.
The green beans are very muted.
I think I would like it if it had more of an identity
and were used more sparsely as a salad.
Great job working your leftover sauce
into plain rice and elevating into something like this.
I want it every night of the week.
But the way that you put this together, I'm not a fan of it
just kind of being three separate components.
To me, that's kind of how it fits.
Thank you.
Okay, last but not least, Chef Sherry.
So for my weeknight dinner,
I did a chipotle grilled chicken with polenta,
a charred tomatillo salsa, and I sauteed
some mushrooms with butter and bacon.
I got the polenta, and then I seasoned that with
the Italian breadcrumbs I got from the discount aisle.
Chef Sherry, weeknight dinner, check.
You're on a roll here with something very, very smart.
Lot of hearty flavors here.
My biggest issue, really, is you made tomatillo salsa.
I don't see a lot of it on my plate.
And this needs it. So I'm like, oh, come on, man.
The polenta cake with the garlic breadcrumb
is really addictive. I keep going back for it.
But the plate, I think, suffers from
a little bit of composition.
[Joe] The mushrooms, beautiful treatment,
roasted really hard.
Now, my issue, unfortunately, my chicken's medium rare.
All through the center is just very, very underdone.
[Guy] Thank you, judges. Thank you, chefs.
We're going to send you back to the kitchens.
We're going to have the judges deliberate.
Still anybody's game. Thank you very much.
See you in a bit.
Judges, did anyone's weeknight dinner
make you say TGI Monday?
All right, judges, Drew, 36 points in the first round.
20 for gameplay, 20 for taste, 10 for plating.
Let's take a look. 16 out of 20.
-17 out of 20, great. -All right, welcome back.
-Seven out of plating for a 40 for a 76. -Whoo-hoo!
-Nice recovery. -That's good.
Sherry, 38 in the first round.
13 out of 20 in gameplay.
14 out of 20 in the taste.
Five for the plating for a 32, dropping down to a 70.
And Milena, you had the big, strong lead.
Going to need to have a 35 or better.
15 out of 20 in gameplay.
16 out of 20 in taste. Did you pull off the plating?
For a 6, for a 37, and a two-point win.
-Congratulations. -[exclaims]
Yes, you did.
Oh, my God.
Chef Drew, Chef Sherry, what you faced
and how you did it, I think you did great.
Chef Drew, Chef Sherry, thank you.
[Drew] Second place would be the first loser,
but I'll take second.
[Sherry] I had fun.
I would definitely come back to Guy's Grocery Games.
And I would play things very differently.
Meet the champ of our 10 pounds in two rounds,
Chef Melina. What are you going to do with the money?
I want to put it back into Little Sister.
I want to really swag out our outdoor seating situation.
-Swag out? -So we can have a really-- Yes.
I want to go to Paris and get really beautiful
-outdoor bistro sets. -Wow.
Chef, congratulations.
You're the champ of 10 pounds in two rounds.
-Thank you. -Come on over and say hi to the judges.
All right, Chef, there's a couple ways
that we can win some cash tonight.
One, we can go on a shopping spree.
-Okay. -Where we put two minutes on the clock.
There are 10 items on this list.
For every item that you find in those two minutes
and you put in the basket, you'll get $2,000.
-You get all 10, you win 20 grand. -Okay.
Now, the other side of it is, if you're not into
the running around and searching out the ingredients
in the store, you could go to
the pre-signed check that is right behind that door.
-And has your name on it. -Okay.
And it has an amount on it that's, say, anywhere
-between $14,000 and $20,000. -[all exclaiming]
Oh.
-I'm gonna gamble. -You want to go shopping?
All right.
Okay. Let's go ahead and see how much that check was for.
-$15,555. -That's a nice number.
I'm going to leave a list in here for you.
-Okay. -I'll read you off the list.
As soon as you're ready to go, you go find the item.
Two minutes to do this.
-Go get them. -Thank you.
-Okay. -First item is an ingredient in guacamole.
-Go! -[Guy over PA] An ingredient in guacamole.
[Melina] I haul it to produce to grab an avocado.
-Liquid smoke. -Liquid smoke.
Liquid smoke.
Uh, hi.
[Guy] Goat milk cheese.
-Yes! -Yes, here we go.
Mug with a mushroom top.
Jar of marinara sauce.
$10,000.
Six-ounce box of macaroni and cheese.
Let's go, box mac and cheese.
No, six pounds. Six pounds?
Cutting board with a pig on it.
-Cutting board with a pig on it. -Come on, let's go.
Oh, no.
Cutting board with a pig on it.
-Swedish pancake mix. -Swedish pancake.
-Oh, my God. -20 seconds.
Oh, God. Swedish pancake.
Swedish pancake mix means I'm one step closer
to those Parisian bistro sets.
[Guy] Instant espresso coffee.
Ingredient in a sundae.
Two, one, stop.
-Woo! -Yeah.
-She beat the check. -I won $18,000.
I am going to fly to Paris and order some really cool
custom bistro sets for Little Sister.
-$18,000! -[all cheering]
Yes! Yes!
Next time you're in Providence, Rhode Island,
swing by and check out Little Sister.
She's going to have great seats all the way from Paris.
-Congratulations, Chef. -There you go.
See you next week. Guy's Grocery Games.
-Adios. -Nicely done.