Well folks, I auditioned for Masterchef Canada! It came as a bit of a surprise when I woke up to a call from a casting agency, telling me they were impressed with my audition video, and wanted me to come to Calgary to audition for the show! I had actually applied last year, and didn’t hear anything back at that point, so it was quite unexpected when I received a call from the show. Of course, not wanting to pass up a good opportunity, I made plans to road trip it to Calgary for the audition! Now all I had to do, was figure out something delicious to prepare for my audition…
The dish had to be served cold, or at room temperature, since we couldn’t actually cook anything at the audition. Rather than just doing a typical cold dish, or serving something that should be served hot, but ends up getting cold and not being quite as good, I came up with the idea of “leftovers that are better the next day”. With that concept in mind, I knew some fried chicken was about to go down!
Continuing on with the fried chicken theme, I wanted to take a classic meal, but give it a slight twist, and some beautiful presentation. The results were the lovely dish above: fried chicken & biscuits, on a bed of coleslaw. I started with a homemade mayonnaise for the base of the coleslaw dressing, then toasted, buttered, and sliced the biscuits, sliced the chicken, plated everything, garnished with nasturtium leaves, and chive flowers, then finished it all off with a drizzle of honey, and some chili oil for a little sweet heat!
Since this recipe is a number of components, which I previously posted, start with each of these recipes:
Leftover Fried Chicken & Biscuits over Coleslaw
Ingredients
- 1 piece of leftover fried chicken
- A handful of coleslaw
- 1 buttermilk biscuit
- Chives
- Carrot
- Honey
- Chili Oil
- Nasturtium leaves
- Chive Flowers
Instructions
- On a round plate, place a handful of coleslaw in a curved line.
- Slice biscuit in half, toast it, butter it, and cut it into sticks.
- Cut fried chicken into sticks.
- Place sticks of fried chicken and biscuits around the coleslaw.
- Garnish with tin strips of chives, and carrots, then top with nasturtium leaves, and chive flowers (optional).
- Finally, drizzle honey over the chicken and biscuits, then drizzle with chili oil.
- To make chili oil, heat a pan to about medium, add 250 ml of vegetable oil. Once oil has heated, add 25 grams of red chili (finely chopped). Additionally, add 1 small full clove of garlic, a small sprig of thyme, and 1 bay leaf.
- Once you have added ingredients remove the pan from heat, and allow the oil to cool. Once cooled, strain the oil into a bottle.
I was really happy with how everything turned out. I fried A LOT of chicken to test out different ideas, but in the end I settled on keeping the basis of each component classic, and adding a few extra flares! Now the true test will come when the judges make their decision for the show! I felt like everything went really well, but since the judges don’t give any feedback, I will just have to wait and find out who makes the show. I will cross my fingers and hopefully you guys will be watching me on TV in the near future. Until then, I better start practising and honing my cooking skills!
Cheers,
Bob
Gorgeous presentation!