America's Test Kitchen

-Today on "America's Test Kitchen"... Becky shows Julia the secrets to making pulled chicken indoors... Jack challenges Bridget to a tasting of basmati rice... Lisa shares three of her favorite kitchen gadgets... and Erin makes Bridget the ultimate flaky buttermilk biscuits. It's all coming up right here on "America's Test Kitchen." -There are thousands of recipes out there for indoor barbecued pulled chicken, and most of them involve dousing a boneless, skinless breast with a jar of barbecue sauce and throwing it in the oven. Now, these easy recipes are very serviceable, especially if you're a busy home cook, but you can do a lot better without having to do a lot more work. Isn't that right, Becky? -Totally right. So, for those nights when you need a quick weeknight meal or the grill's covered in snow... -Yes, which happens here in Boston. -Yes, a lot, right? We wanted to make some really good pulled chicken just by braising chicken with those nice, smoky flavors of barbecue. -Mmm. -We're gonna start by creating a super-flavorful braising liquid, and we're gonna braise the chicken in that, and then we'll add a real barbecue sauce later. -Okay, so you're sort of making the base of a barbecue sauce. -Right, just with those nice barbecue flavors. So, we're gonna start with a cup of chicken broth. And if you'll give me some high heat there, that would be good. -Sure. -The next thing we're adding is 2 tablespoons of molasses. And that's a really common ingredient in barbecue sauce. -Mm-hmm. -Some nice bittersweet notes. -Yeah, you can smell it. And this was a mild molasses, not a blackstrap? -No, you don't want to use blackstrap. It's too strong. And then a tablespoon of sugar. We just want to stir. We have it on high heat 'cause we want to dissolve that sugar. Now I'm adding 2 teaspoons of liquid smoke, and that's gonna give us that nice, smoky flavor that you get when you're cooking outdoors. -That's the indoor grill part. -That's it. And then I have a teaspoon of unflavored gelatin. And that's gonna mimic the collagen that's produced when you cook chicken on the bone. The skin, the bones, and the tendons release all that collagen, and it turns to gelatin. It gives you that nice, luxurious mouthfeel. -Mm-hmm. -So that's what we're doing with the gelatin. And then a teaspoon of salt, and that'll season the chicken. That's coming up right to a boil, so let's get our chicken going. We have 2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs. The chicken thighs have more fat than white meat does, and they have more collagen, so they're gonna give us that nice, luxurious texture. I'm just gonna cut each thigh in half here. And you'll see I'm leaving the fat on the chicken. All that fat is going to melt into the braising liquid. It's gonna make the dish taste really rich. So, let's put the chicken in the pot. I want to give that a quick stir. Now, if you could turn the heat down to medium-low and put the cover on, we're gonna let that simmer. We'll stir it occasionally. It's gonna go 25 minutes until the chicken is nice and tender. -That's it? Just 25 minutes? -That's it! I'm gonna wash my hands. -Alright. So, let's take a minute and talk about liquid smoke, because although it sounds scary, it's actually an all-natural product. It's made by funneling the smoke from smoldering wood chips through a condenser, which turns the smoke into liquid. And it traps the smoke flavor because smoke is a water-soluble compound. Now, that liquid is then put through a series of filters to remove any tar and resins, so you're left with a very clean smoke flavor. But there is a trick to buying liquid smoke, because some manufacturers do add other ingredients. So when you're shopping, turn the bottle around and look at the ingredient list. You want to find a bottle that only has two ingredients -- water and smoke. -The chicken is just about done. -Alright. -So we'll work on that barbecue sauce. We're starting with 1 1/2 cups of ketchup, and we're putting in 1/4 cup of molasses. 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce. Salty, savory. It's gonna add some nice depth. A tablespoon of hot sauce, just for a little bit of kick. And 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. -Very easy. -10 times better than the bottled stuff. -Right? It doesn't take much. -Give that a quick little whisk here. So, let's measure out a cup of that to add to our chicken, and then we'll save the rest for later. Alright, there we go. Okay, so, we'll just leave that be. We've got our barbecue sauce. Now let's go over and work on the chicken. -Okeydoke. -Take a peek here. So, it's been 25 minutes. -Ooh! -Mmm! -That smells good. It smells smoky, thanks to the liquid smoke. -Totally smells smoky. Let's just check the chicken. I want to make sure it's nice and tender. We can check it by pulling it apart with a fork. You can see how it's just falling right apart. -Mm-hmm. -Let's turn off the fire, and we'll get the chicken into a bowl. So you can see all that fat that was on there rendered away, and it's now gone into those braising juices. Let's strain this braising liquid. We're not gonna get rid of it. We're gonna use it. It has tons of flavor. -Oh, good! -Remember all the good stuff we put in there. So, I'm gonna take it over here and strain it. So, we're gonna let that sit for about five minutes. That'll give it time for the fat to rise to the surface so we can scrape it off. -Okay. -Alright, so, let's work on our chicken a little bit. So, this is pulled chicken. -Yeah. -That means it needs to have a nice, shredded texture. -Mm-hmm. -And a lot of times, in our recipes, we take two forks to pull the meat apart. You've done that many times. -It works, but it takes forever. -It takes a while. It's a little bit tedious. -Yeah. -But when we were developing this recipe, we found that we could just go at it with tongs here, like I'm doing now. And the meat's just... -Falling apart into perfect shreds. -You said it. -I like it. -Just nice shredded texture, some little chunks in there. However you like it. So, that's starting to look pretty good there. Let's go back to that braising liquid. -Okay. -Been about five minutes. Take off some of the fat that's risen to the surface here. Just want to use a shallow spoon and just skim off the top. Alright, so, we have our fat. We have our braising liquid and our chicken. Let's get everything back in the pot, just warm it through with some of that yummy barbecue sauce. -Okay. -So, I have medium heat. If you put that in, then I'll add the chicken. That's a cup of that sauce that we made, and then we have some left over, too, that we'll serve with the sandwiches. And here's our shredded chicken. Get that in the pot. And then I'm gonna measure out 1/2 cup of that braising liquid 'cause it was so full of flavor. put that in. And we want 3 tablespoons of that fat. So in that goes. And if you find that you don't have enough fat, you can add a little bit of melted butter. -Mmm! -That would be good, too. -That wouldn't hurt. -Nothing wrong with that. And then finally, I'm going to add one more teaspoon of that liquid smoke. The smokiness dissipates a little bit during cooking, so we'll just kind of freshen it up. We're going to cook this over medium heat for five minutes. The chicken's gonna soak up some of that yummy barbecue sauce. So, it's been about five minutes. -That looks amazing! -Ohh, my stomach's growling! It actually is! -Mine is, too! -So, you can see most of that barbecue sauce has been absorbed by the chicken. -Mm-hmm! -It looks nice and glazy. -Oh, it smells good. -Yeah, really good. -So, you can serve this on white bread. -Mm-hmm. -Or you can use buns. -Oh, I like these potato rolls. -Me too. I want to get a good amount on it. I mean, this is gonna be messy. That's just how it is. Pile that on, and then I have some more barbecue sauce. -Oh, yeah! -I like a tiny bit more. -Oh, yeah! -And some pickles. -I think I'm gonna do three pickles. -Okay. Yeah, three sounds good. -Yeah? -Load me up. -I've seen people do this with a fork and a knife. -Oh, no. -No, no. It's all about getting in there. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm! That's good! -Finger-lickin' good. -Oh, you can taste the smoke. You can taste the barbecue sauce. The texture of the thigh meat is so much better than breast meat, 'cause it's still juicy. It actually has flavor. It's not dried out. -No, not at all. Got a little tang from the hot sauce. -Mm-hmm. -You can taste the molasses in there. It's quite complex. We only used a handful of ingredients. -Mm-hmm. -It really has a lot of richness from the fat that we added back in. -Becky, this is awesome. Thank you! -My pleasure. -So, if you want to make some of Becky's kickin' barbecue chicken, start with boneless chicken thighs and cook them in a mixture of broth, liquid smoke, and gelatin until they're very tender. While the chicken cooks, whisk together a no-cook barbecue sauce with some ketchup and molasses. Setting the cooked chicken aside to cool, strain and defat the braising liquid. Shred the chicken with tongs, then toss it with some of the barbecue sauce, braising liquid, and rendered fat, along with a little more liquid smoke. Reheat before serving, and there you have it. From "America's Test Kitchen" to your kitchen, the ultimate recipe for indoor pulled chicken. Well-done! -Thank you! So good, right? -Mm-hmm. -It's said that there are over 40,000 different types of rice in existence right now. That's a lot of rice. But today, we're gonna taste one of my favorites -- basmati. And Jack is here. He's gonna tell us which brand to buy. -Yeah, this is my favorite rice. -So good. -The two things that make basmati unique are, one, the fragrance. -Mm-hmm. -I mean, it smells really great in here right now. And it's not you, and it's not me. It's the rice. -And it's just rice. -It's just rice. -

Laughs

-And the whole test kitchen just smells amazing. The other thing is the texture. Very long grains. It's fluffy. It's not supposed to be sticky. -Right. -Length of the grains is actually probably the most important thing. -Okay. -These all tasted pretty good, but the textures are pretty different. You know, I like my gadgets and my tools, so, of course, we measured the grains of rice when they were cooked. -Of course we did. -We took calipers, and we measured the length of each grain when they were cooked and then the width. And we found the top brands -- The ratio of lengths to widths was eight to one. So they're eight times longer than the width. -Okay. -The bottom ones were just four to one. So, I just gave you, like, a huge, huge hint in all of this, but basmati is supposed to elongate when it cooks, and that is the sign of a true basmati, either from Northern India or from Pakistan. -Okay. -We have some domestic samples in here. Frankly, the American versions could not compete. It's partly about the variety. It's also about aging. A really good basmati is aged for 18 to 24 months. It's almost like wine or cheese. The grains are -- They keep them in the husk, and they're in temperature-controlled areas. And they are developing more flavor, and the texture is changing. Actually, the exterior is becoming firmer, so they don't absorb as much water, which helps make them really fluffy. If they skip the aging, they skimp on flavor, and you've got a mushier grain, because the exterior hasn't hardened. But it's expensive, because it's in the husk. It has to be temperature-controlled. Rice grows in hot places, and lots of pests and bad things can happen to the rice if it's not protected. So some companies just skip that step -- remove the husk, mill the rice, package it, and send it off. And that is not going to create amazing basmati rice. It'll be fine white rice, but it is not basmati rice. So, as I've been talking about aging and calipers and popcorn aromas, what are you tasting? -Two of these are standouts to me. Two of these, I wouldn't call them basmati. The two of them in the middle -- this one in particular -- is very sticky. It would be great in something like a stir-fry, where you want clumps of rice. These two on the ends, the bookend ones -- They're lovely. They're really fragrant. One of them has a corn flavor to them that I really, really like. A little bit sweet. Yeah, they're both beautiful. And I love the distinct grains of both of them. They're really, really close. I'd be so happy with either one of these two. -Okay, do you want to start with the good news or the bad news? -Oh, let's start with the -- eh, "they're okay" news. Let's start with the sticky one. -So, this is one of the domestic options. It's from California at the bottom of the rankings. We just felt like the domestic basmati rices -- They're not aged, and they weren't competing. And as you might guess, its partner here from Texas. -Ah. -Ah. Same thing. The domestic rices -- there were two in the sample -- they were at the bottom of the rankings. They're just not as good as the imported rices from India. -Yeah, they're starchier and stickier. -Yeah. They're fine rice. They're not basmati rice. -Right, right. Alright, this one. -So, that is Pride of India. It's the most expensive. We liked all of the imported basmatis, that they were all really great choices. I just always like to put something expensive in.

Both laugh

-And this one. -This is our winner -- Daawat. It's also aged 18 to 24 months. It's from India. It's really not even all that expensive, and it is just delicious rice. -It is beautiful. It really has a perfumed and corn and toasted, almost sesame flavor to it, and I absolutely love it. -Well, I'm glad you're happy! -I'm taking this with me.

Laughs

Well, there you go. If you want to buy some basmati rice, it's great for so many things, but why not buy the winner? It's Daawat basmati rice, and it retails for $17.98 for 10 pounds. -Today, I've got gadgets you didn't know you needed. The first is called the cheese plane. It's designed to give you thin, uniform slices of semihard cheeses like cheddar or Manchego. We tested nine different ones. And why do you need this? It actually makes the cheese taste better. Thin slices release the full flavor and texture of the cheese. Now, our winner got the thickness just right, and it was easy to use, with a long, sharp blade and a thin, flexible head. It also looks great for company. It's called the Wusthof Gourmet 4-3/4-inch Cheese Plane for $19.95. Next, I've got flexible cutting mats. Do you need them? Yeah, you do. 'Cause they're really perfect for working with messy foods like raw meat, or for picking up chopped food to transfer to a bowl. They're light. They're dishwasher-safe. We tested eight sets, and after tons of chopping and cleaning up, our pick was the Dexas Heavy Duty Grip Mats. It's not too big or small. It's bendable, but tough. And it's really perfectly grippy on the counter. They're $19.99 for a set of four. And finally, this compact spatula. It looks really dinky, but it's great. It's just right for getting into, like, tight spaces like crowded baking pans or small skillets and cookie sheets. It's skinny enough to just slip under delicate cookies and wide enough to flip eggs. And this soft edge -- It's great for swiping around pans, like when you're making scrambled eggs. We tested six, and the winner is this one. It's the OXO Good Grips Silicone Cookie Spatula for $14. So, three gadgets that are surprisingly useful. -Although biscuits can range in shape and sizes, they're basically made from the same four ingredients. You've got flour, fat, leavener, and dairy. But the hardest to make of all is the flaky biscuit. You have to get those layers of flakiness just right. Here to show us the right way to the flaky biscuit world is Erin. -Yes. I'm gonna show you how to make the best, flakiest biscuit you've ever had. -That's a tall order. -I think I can meet it. We're gonna start with our flour. I have 3 cups of King Arthur all-purpose flour, and we're using specifically King Arthur flour because it has a higher protein content than most other all-purpose flours. -Mm-hmm. -It's close to 13%. The higher protein content is gonna give us more gluten, which is gonna create more structure in our biscuits. -Okay. -To this, we're gonna add 2 tablespoons of sugar, 4 teaspoons of baking powder. We need our biscuits to have some lift. 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 1 1/2 teaspoons of table salt. So, I'm just gonna whisk it up together, combine it right up. So, now we're gonna move on to our fat. We are using two sticks of butter. It's unsalted butter. So there's gonna be 16 tablespoons of butter in our biscuits all day. -That's fine by me. -Fabulous, right? And this is frozen butter. I put this in the freezer for 30 minutes. I'm just gonna coat this stick of butter in our flour mixture, and that's just gonna make it very easy for us to handle as we prep it. Now I'm gonna score 1 tablespoon's worth. I'm gonna grate the butter. So, by grating the butter, this is gonna give us very uniform pieces of butter that we're gonna add. That's gonna help to create flaky biscuits. I'm gonna stop grating at that line, which is gonna save my fingers, and we're gonna use that for later. -Okay, good. -As you can see, this butter is cold, so it's not melting in my hands. And, also, the flour is allowing me to really grate it. Okay, so, now I'm just gonna take this butter and add it to my flour mixture. Now I'm gonna coat this butter, and I'm just making sure that each piece of butter gets coated with flour so that it stays separate. -'Cause at this point, you're not really working it in, right? -I'm not working it in. Nope. -Okay. -I should also mention that we're using all butter here and no shortening. Shortening is very soft, and it does not contain water. And we want as much water in our fat as we can, because that's gonna help to create steam as the biscuits rise. Now I'm gonna add 1 1/4 cup of buttermilk. -Okay. -Buttermilk is great to use because it adds tang. So, I'm just gonna stir this until it just comes together. It's not gonna come together as much as you think it's gonna come together, Bridget. You're gonna want to add more buttermilk to it. That's about as far as we're gonna go. -Really?! -Yep. -That's not cohesive at all. -It's not cohesive. -I mean, just starting to come together. -So, we're gonna move over here. -Okay. -I'm just gonna flour our board. And as I mentioned, the butter's gonna help us to get flakes on our biscuits, but we needed something else to get them that ultra-flaky. And what we're gonna do is we're gonna go through a series of creating a lot of layers to help. First, I'm gonna pat this into a 7-inch square. Our butter is really chilled. Our buttermilk is really chilled. I want to keep this as cold as possible, and I want to touch it as little as possible, 'cause my hands are gonna warm it up. The bench scraper is the best tool to use when making biscuits 'cause it just kind of gives you a flat edge to help shape it, and then, also, it allows you to not touch it. I'm gonna now roll this into a 9'x12' rectangle. And I'm gonna do that five times, Bridget. And I don't know about you, but I lose track of where I'm at 'cause I get into it and I just am like, "Was that three, or was that four, or was that five?" So I kind of created a little foolproof technique for myself. It's my scoreboard. I'm gonna give it a notch each time I roll it out. Very, very smart. -I need it. You might not need it. -Oh, no. I need it. -So, now I'm gonna roll this into a 9'x12' rectangle. The short end is gonna be closest to me. -Okay. -And, again, I don't want to touch it with my hands that much. So, we are at 9 inches by 12 inches. You can actually see our little sheets of butter are getting flatter, and they're getting longer. -Flatter and longer. -And I'm gonna fold this like a business letter, and I really need the bench scraper for this stage. I'm just gonna kind of lift this up and flip it over. I promise it's gonna come together, Bridget. Gonna pat it together into a log. Really press down so that those layers stick. And then I rotate it so that the short end is closest to me. -So, that was your first? -That was my first set of folds. Now I'm gonna roll it out again. So, now we're at 9'x12'. Flip up. -Alright. -And flip up. One more notch, so we're at two. -Oh! -Three more times. -Alright. -Okay. Okay, so, now this is the fifth and final roll, and you can see I'm having to work it a little bit harder. That's because gluten is building up. -Yeah, the butter pieces that you can see are even longer and flatter than they were at turn number two. -Yeah. Starting to fight you back just a little bit. -I'm gonna win. -

Laughs

But, still, it's so antithetical to biscuit dough, any kind that I've ever made. You take flour, and you have butter and usually shortening. You get one roll, and that's it. -And that's it. We are there. Okay, so, this is the last fold. -A lot easier to fold at the end. -So much easier. -Wow. -It's beautiful. It's like a book.

Whistles

Five. -Number five! -Okay, now I know it. From here, we're gonna roll this into an 8 1/2-inch square. It's really important that you roll evenly so that the layers that you are creating as you are building this, they stay in line. If I really pressed hard, the center might pop out, and it just wouldn't yield the perfect biscuits. Okay. We have an 8 1/2-inch square. So, I'm gonna transfer this to this rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper underneath it. I'm gonna cover this with plastic wrap. And we're gonna refrigerate this for 30 minutes. We want all that butter to firm back up before we bake them. Okay, Bridget, this has chilled for 30 minutes. -Very firm. -Nice and firm. Now I'm gonna transfer it to a lightly floured cutting board. The next step is I'm gonna trim 1/4 inch off all the edges. But first, I'm gonna flour my knife. It's really important that you have a sharp knife and it's floured so that it cuts right through, 'cause I don't want to squish the dough as I'm pressing. I want the knife to just go right through it. -So, no round biscuit cutters at this point. -We are actually going to be making square biscuits. I did not want to have any leftover trim, and I didn't want to re-roll the trim. -It's very modern, too. Actually, all the cool kids are making square biscuits. -So, I'm just gonna keep my knife nice and floured, and now I'm gonna cut this into nine squares. So, just gonna go quick, sharp cuts. -That cuts beautifully. -Yeah, yeah. -Almost like fudge. -Yeah, yeah. Super-firm. As you can see, those are all the layers that we worked so hard for. -How many layers is that? -A lot. -A lot!

Both laugh

-So, now we're gonna transfer them to a rimmed baking sheet that's lined with parchment paper, set them up so that they're at least 1 inch apart from each other. -Okay. -Now, those 2 tablespoons of butter that we had left over from earlier -- I melted it, and I'm just gonna brush them all with a little bit more butter. Now we're gonna bake them. We're gonna put them into a 400-degree oven on the upper-middle rack for 20 to 25 minutes. And we're gonna rotate it halfway through. -Okay. There's some scraps here. Now, I know Erin said that we don't like to press it together, roll it out, and stamp it into biscuits, but this is how you can use this leftover dough. Make a couple little rosettes as a treat. So, you just take two strips of dough, start rolling it up just like that. Pinch that on there so it sticks. These can be brushed with butter. You can top them with cinnamon sugar. Bake them at the same time as your biscuits. -Okay, Bridget. What do you think? -These are gorgeous! -Aren't they beautiful? -You can actually see the striations, all those layers in there. -And I have here a biscuit that would show you what would happen if I actually did not trim off 1/4 inch. They don't rise evenly. -Mm-hmm. -So by cutting off that 1/4 inch, it releases all the layers to rise freely. -This was the edge that you cut off. -That was the edge. We're just gonna let these cool for about 15 minutes, and they're gonna rest. If we dove into them right now, all the steam would escape, and they would just eat a little drier than they should. So we really want them to just rest and settle down. Alright, Bridget? -Cool enough? -It's been 15 minutes. Yes. Cool enough, but still warm. Here you are. -Thank you! -You're welcome. My favorite part about eating these is when you open them up and there's those different layers that you can actually choose from as you open it. -Look at that. Sheets of layers. -Isn't that beautiful? Would you like some jam? We have some orange marmalade, and we have some raspberry preserves. -What I don't see on here is butter. -I love butter, Bridget, but these really you don't need it. -I'm gonna taste this first side without marmalade. That's way past flaky. -Mm-hmm. -That's way past ultra-flaky. -Mm-hmm. -That's impossibly flaky. -And tender. -So tender. -Crispy on the outside and, like, so soft and velvety on the inside. That tang of the buttermilk. -Mmm! Buttery. -Mm-hmm. -Not fatty. Definitely buttery. -And all that butter stayed in the biscuits as they baked, as opposed to coming out, because of that extra gluten that we had in structure. -These are flaky and tender. That's impossible. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed you could do this. -It's a snap. -It's a snap. Erin's a miracle worker. Now, for the flakiest biscuits you've ever seen, grate butter into flour and leaveners, mix in buttermilk, and roll out the dough. Fold like a business letter five times, trim the chilled dough, and cut into squares. Bake until brown, cool -- not too long -- and eat with jam or preserves. So, from our test kitchen to your kitchen, the tallest, most tender, buttery, flaky buttermilk biscuits. You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with tastings, testings, and selected episodes on our website -- americastestkitchen.com. Mmm! Alright, back to the marmalade. -Mm-hmm. -Mmm! -Let us help you with dinner tonight. Visit our website any time for free access to the newest season's recipes, taste tests, and equipment ratings. Or to watch current episodes, log on to americastestkitchen.com.