America's Test Kitchen

-Today on "America's Test Kitchen," Erica makes Bridget Chicken Yassa.

Jack challenges Bridget and Julia to a head to head tasting of chicken broth, and Becky makes Julia Peruvian arroz con pollo.

It's all coming up right here on "America's Test Kitchen."

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-Today we're making Chicken Yassa, a beautiful chicken and rice dish that comes from Senegal.

Now, Yassa means, literally, cooked in onions and I love anything cooked in onions, so I can't wait.

And Erica is here.

She's going to show us how to make this.

-It's such a flavorful chicken dish that's super delicious and also super simple and straightforward and hard to mess up, quite frankly.

-Oh, right up my alley.

-It starts with our marinade.

I have 1/3 of a cup of lemon juice, 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil, 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard.

-Okay, a lot of tangy flavors here.

-Mm-hm.

-So bright.

And a teaspoon of table salt.

And I'll just whisk that together.

-Okay.

-So four ingredients for our marinade.

And to that I have two pounds of bone-in skin-on chicken thighs that I've trimmed to remove the excess fat.

So I have my chicken, it's nicely coated in the marinade.

So we are ready to cover it.

And I'm going to refrigerate it for 30 to 60 minutes.

-Okay.

-It's been an hour, so let's start cooking our chicken.

-Great.

-I have two tablespoons of oil that's been heating over medium heat in the Dutch oven.

And now that it's shimmering I'm just going to add the chicken thighs in.

And the chicken is going to cook for 6 to 8 minutes until it's nicely browned.

It's been eight minutes.

So let's flip the chicken on the other side.

[ Sizzling ] And now let the chicken cook for another 6 to 8 minutes on the other side.

-Okay, great.

-While the chicken cooks, let's talk about the onions.

-Yes.

-Yassa means cooked in onions.

We want to make sure that we have equal part chicken to onions.

So we have two pounds of chicken, two pounds of onions.

-That's a lot of onion.

-It's been eight minutes, and our chicken looks beautiful.

-The fat is rendered.

-Mm-hm.

-And that's what the onions are going to cook in.

So I'm going to take the chicken out -and I'll add in the onions.

-Okay.

-Two pounds of our thinly sliced onions and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt.

I'm just going to stir it together.

And as I do I'm just going to scrape up all those brown bits.

'Cause they're packed full of flavor, and we want to get all that flavor in the onions.

All right I'm going to reduce the heat to medium low.

And I'll let the onions cook for about 25 to 30 minutes until they fully caramelize.

And every now and then I'll just come back and give them a quick stir.

So our onions are almost done.

So I'm going to let them finish cooking.

And in fact, Bridget, do you mind just checking in on the onions for me?

-I'll keep spoon duty.

-All right, I appreciate that.

And meanwhile, I'm just going to finish and do a little bit more prep.

So I have eight garlic cloves.

So I'm just going to smash these.

-I also have one whole habanero.

-Ooh!

-To make sure that it dispels slowly in the braise, what I like to do is just pierce it a few times with a paring knife.

And then that's it.

So now it's time to add the braising liquid.

-Okay, great.

-I have 1 1/3 cup of chicken broth, eight peeled and smashed garlic cloves.

-There they go.

-One habanero.

-[ Both laugh ] -And a quarter teaspoon of black pepper.

And our reserved marinade.

-Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that.

-Yep.

Now I'm just going to stir it all together.

Bring it up to a simmer and then add the chicken back in.

-Okay.

-Now I'm adding back the accumulated chicken juices.

And I'll just gently stir it and then I'll cover it and let the chicken cook until it's fall-off-the-bone tender.

-Okay.

-And so flavorful.

It's going to take about 45 to 55 minutes.

-This smells heavenly.

-Doesn't it?

-It's been 55 minutes, so let's check on our Yassa.

-Okay.

-That looks so good.

-Oh my gosh.

-Oh my goodness.

So what I'm going to do is we want fall-off-the-bone, -fork tender chicken.

-Right.

So I'm going to go in and test one of my chicken thighs.

-Ooh.

Yes.

-Yeah!

-It's nice and tender.

In Senegal, a lot of dishes are served family style and served with rice and over rice.

So I'm going to take the chicken out and place it right over the bed of rice.

So I'm just going to check the consistency of the sauce because we're looking for the consistency of heavy cream.

-Okay.

-I'm just going to dive in here.

That is exactly what we want.

It nicely coats the spoon there.

Okay, so let's finish off the sauce with two tablespoons of lemon juice.

And I'm going to season it with some salt and pepper.

-Okay.

-So I'm just going to take the onions in the sauce and spoon them right over our chicken and rice.

-Fabulous.

The whole Test Kitchen here is just filled with the aromas of caramelized onions and garlic.

Gorgeous.

-Now I'm just going to finish it off with about 1 1/2 teaspoons of chopped parsley.

-Okay.

-Sprinkle that right over.

And I'm going to also garnish it with some fresh lemons.

Now we're ready to serve.

-All right.

-Mmm!

-Mm-hm.

-Mmm!

-Let's get some of those caramelized onions.

-and of course, a lemon wedge.

-Yes.

-I like to take a lemon and squeeze it over.

We have that concentrated lemon flavor from the slow braise.

But this just wakens everything up a bit.

-All right.

Cut into some of that beautiful chicken here.

-Mm-hm.

-A lot of onions.

-It is Yassa, after all.

-Yes.

-[ Erica laughs ] -Mmm!

-What do you think?

-I expected one thing, but this is a deep, deep flavor, with lemon.

-This dish just feels like coming home to me.

It's so packed full of the concentrated lemony depth.

Tender chicken, rice.

It really doesn't get much better than this for me.

-Mmm.

I think I'm noticing a little bit of heat... -Mm-hm.

-...from that habanero.

Not too much, not too much at all.

-And you also get some of that fruity complexity, -too, from the habanero.

-Yes.

-So it's not just knock your socks off heat.

It's also that complexity that really balances the lemon flavor quite nicely.

-Oh my gosh, those onions are something really special.

-Right?

-Just fall apart.

Mmm!

-[ Erica laughs ] -It's a centerpiece.

It's a masterpiece.

It's everything you want out of chicken and rice.

Thank you so, so much for bringing this to us.

-Happy to be here.

Thank you.

-You definitely want to make this one.

It is fantastic.

And it all starts by marinating chicken thighs with tangy lemon juice and mustard.

Brown the chicken, and then caramelize two pounds of sliced onions in the rendered fat.

Finally, add the reserved marinade back to the onions and braise the chicken until fall-apart-tender.

So from "America's Test Kitchen," the incredible, the incomparable Chicken Yassa.

-So I have a confession to make.

-Uh-oh.

-Uh-oh.

-Uh-oh.

-That's never good.

-No.

-When it comes to chicken broth, I buy by format.

So you can prioritize format, ingredient list, or flavor.

And so by format, I mean I buy the paste because I want to buy a little teeny jar that will make 38 cups of broth.

It also can make a quarter cup or a half cup of broth, and you're not left with an empty container that you've got.

-What am I going to do with 3 1/2 cups of more broth?

-True.

-But this is "America's Test Kitchen."

We care about flavor.

So you are going to be tasting and telling me of these samples, which is the best tasting?

I should give you a warning.

Of the samples that we tasted, many of them were not recommended.

-Oh.

-Okay.

-Landmines.

-Landmines ahead.

So we did risotto, we made gravy.

But I thought this was the easiest way to taste them.

So the format, there are three choices, you can get a box, it's 4 cups.

It is going to be a little bit more expensive.

It's heavier if you're carrying your groceries.

And most importantly, once you open the container, you really need to finish it in the next couple of days.

You can get a concentrated paste.

It's, um, you know, as it says, it's got a little bit of liquid in it.

Or you can get a powdered bouillon cube basically, but in powdered form that you can scrape out what you want.

The other thing is, do you want something that's got chicken, carrots, onions, and celery, and that's kind of it for the ingredient list along with some salt?

Or what about hydrolyzed soy protein?

-That sounds delicious.

-Mmm!

-When it came to the ingredient list, we felt like the ingredient list was actually the least useful thing here.

Some of the brands that read like homemade kind of tasted like homemade.

And some of the brands that read like homemade tasted sour.

They had weird flavors.

A lot of the vegetables overtook the chicken and you're like, okay, this is like some weird vegetable broth -and it's not good.

-Right.

-And that some of the more, um, less natural, however we put it that way, brands were actually closer to chicken flavor.

-Well, immediate impressions, this one is super salty.

In fact, so much so, it almost killed my palate to taste anything else.

I don't think I like it.

There's a really odd celery flavor in there that, I mean, celery belongs in stock, but we've gone overboard.

This took me back to 1973 at my grandma's house and I'm sick.

-Mm-hm.

-That's what it tastes like.

I think I know exactly what this is.

Also used a lot in industrial kitchens.

-Okay.

-If it's what I'm thinking.

This one, um, color not too appealing.

Very bland.

And there's a -- what is that?

It's something in there that makes me very sad.

[ Laughter ] -That's sorrow.

You're tasting sorrow.

-I think this one, it's not seasoned enough for me, but it's this.

And if I could put, like, a spoonful of that in there, -I'd be really happy.

-Okay.

-I'm actually not happy too much with any of them.

-Okay, well, I'm glad I've made you miserable then.

-Yeah.

-And sad.

-Yeah, yeah.

I'll perk up in a minute.

-Um, are you miserable and sad, Julia?

-No, no, but it was really interesting.

I mean, this D, which you said tasted like sorrow.

It looks bruised.

It tastes awful.

It's watery.

Metallic.

Didn't like it at all.

This, like Bridget, very nostalgic.

I think I can picture this in a little cube.

-Yes.

-And it was been in the cupboard since the '70s.

-Yes.

-This, I mean, it looks milky.

-It tastes really strong.

-Yeah.

I feel like it could be diluted down a bit more -and it would be great.

-That's it.

-But it's just too strong.

I loved this the first time I tasted it, but then when I went down and back the second time, I thought it was bland.

But the first time it tasted clean, it had a clean chicken flavor, just really mild.

-So you're picking as your favorites?

-I liked A.

-Okay.

-The first time, and I think it would be a good base level if you're making -- -Okay.

-I did like this if it was watered down.

The color is unnerving.

If you could see the color, like if you were making a risotto, the risotto would be this color.

You'd think it was saffron risotto.

So I think that might turn me off for some recipes.

-All right.

And where are you landing?

-Uh, I'm really reluctant to pick anything.

I think, you know, if I was making a soup, I would go with something like this.

Although, as I mentioned, and Julia said, too, once I got past here, I had a hard time tasting it again.

-Yeah.

-But if this is reconstituted and it was reconstituted at a much weaker level, I think it would be fine in a soup.

-So why don't we sort of go down the line?

-All right.

-So A is our winner.

This is Swanson.

-Okay.

-It has a very simple ingredient list.

It's chicken, salt, onions, carrots, celery, and cabbage.

You know, we like it.

It is the closest to homemade, I think, of anything that we tasted and certainly anything here on the table.

-B, so this is what I'm using at home.

-Yeah.

-This is the paste, the Better Than Bouillon.

It's awfully salty.

And you will want to dilute it a little bit, especially if you're going to be cooking it down.

It's got all kinds of ingredients that are difficult to pronounce, but it kind of gets you there on a flavor basis.

-You both recognized the Knorr.

-Yeah.

So, you know, this is basically the bouillon cube that's in a powdered form so that you can scoop out whether you want a half teaspoon, a teaspoon and then reconstitute it.

It's got the little bits of dried herbs in it and it wasn't bad.

It ended up recommended with reservations.

It's got a sort of nostalgic taste.

-It's hospital broth.

-And then D is the Kettle & Fire.

And I put it here.

So this is organic.

And if you read the ingredient list everything is natural sounding.

But a couple of things stood out.

One, it's got a long list of vegetables.

So there's mushrooms in here.

There's tamarind in here.

There's tomato.

And so there's like things that like is that beyond the carrots -and the celery and the onions.

-Tamarind?

-Yeah.

And it's a little sour, I felt.

And the vegetables are kind of overshadowing the chicken.

And so this was a good example, and we found several other brands where even though the labels sell "Well, that seems like homemade," it didn't really taste like homemade, didn't taste very good.

So we've got some consensus that probably the Swanson has the most sort of classic chicken broth flavor, but you guys kind of sound like you agree with me that if you want to be super lazy and have 38 cups of broth at your disposal when you want it, that the Better Than Bouillon is a good choice.

-Buy the flavor, not the water.

-Chicken and rice is a dish cooked all over the world, with each region adding its own spin either in terms of cooking method or flavor.

But today, Becky is going to show us a version inspired by the cuisine of Peru.

-Yes, this is a one pot meal.

It's got juicy chicken, fluffy rice, lots of colorful vegetables, spices, aromatics.

-So we're going to start with the chicken.

-Mm-hm.

-I have six 5 to 7 ounce bone-in chicken thighs here.

-Mm-hm.

-And we're going to season them up.

I have 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt.

-Okay.

-And these have been trimmed and patted dry.

These are going to be braised.

So they're going to cook all the way to 195.

You can't overdo it.

All right.

There we go.

-Our chicken is seasoned.

-Mm-hm.

I have 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil heating up over medium heat here.

I'm just going to go ahead and put the chicken in the pot, skin side down.

Because we want that skin to get nice and crispy.

All right, so we're going to leave these in the pot for 8 to 12 minutes.

Not going to move them at all.

-Then the skin will be browned and we'll flip them over.

-Okay.

All right.

It's been about ten minutes.

-What?

-[ Both laugh ] -All that crackling, right?

-Yeah.

-That's a good sound.

Good things are happening.

-It is a good sound.

-All right, let's take a peek.

-Oh!

Look at that!

-Hello!

-That looks delicious.

-That looks amazing.

That's that crispy skin that's gonna taste so good.

So I'm just gonna flip all these over, and we'll let them go for two more minutes until they brown on the second side.

-Okay.

-[ Becky laughs ] -All right.

It's been about two minutes.

The chicken's brown on the other side.

So I'm gonna take it out and put it on a plate here.

-Look at all that beautiful fond left in the pot.

-Oh, I know that's good stuff.

-That's what we call the liquid gold, right?

-Yep.

-So now we're going to make what's called an Aderezo.

It's the flavor base for this dish and actually for lots of Peruvian dishes.

We're starting with one red onion chopped up fine.

Put it right in there.

Tablespoon of garlic.

Now I have aji amarillo.

This is a paste of yellow Peruvian chilies.

It's kind of fruity, hot.

It varies in spice level from brand to brand.

So you want to taste it before you cook with it.

This is pretty spicy, but we're gonna use all of it -'cause we like it spicy, right?

-Yeah, I do.

-1/2 teaspoon of cumin and then 3/4 teaspoon of salt.

So we're gonna let this cook for about five minutes.

We want the onion to get nice and soft and we'll continue.

All right.

It's been about five minutes.

And the onions are nice and soft now.

Now I have a Peruvian beer here.

-Is that Cusquea Negra?

-Oh, my gosh, you're good!

-Yeah.

I love that beer.

-That's what it is.

-Okay.

-You can use any smooth, malty beer for this.

So we're going to add this to the pot.

-We want this to cook down until the beer is almost dry.

-Oh, okay.

-That's going to take 7 to 10 minutes.

-Okay.

-So we'll let that bubble away.

And while that cooks, let's go over and do the cilantro.

I have 2 cups of cilantro.

-And you'll see I left all the stems on.

-Yeah.

-And that's actually the most flavorful part of the herb.

-And it also makes it super easy, too.

-Yeah.

-Throw it all in the blender.

So 2 cups, in that goes.

And I'm going to add 1/2 a cup of water.

And we're just going to let that puree.

[ Whirring ] All right, so it's been about seven minutes.

You can see that beer has almost completely evaporated, but all that flavor is concentrated in the bottom of the pot.

So now let's add our cilantro pure.

All right so there's our braising liquid.

And I'm going to add the chicken back to the pot.

Of course I want to put it skin side up.

I want to preserve that chicken skin.

You can see that most of the chicken is actually above the braising liquid.

-That's what we want.

-Yeah.

-Put those juices in.

All that flavor, right?

Now I'm just going to lower the heat a little.

We just want to maintain a simmer.

I'm going to put the lid on.

We'll let this cook until the chicken registers -at least 195 degrees.

That'll take 18 to 20 minutes.

-Okay.

-Okay.

It's been 20 minutes.

-Mm-hm.

-Let's take a peek.

See what's going on in here.

-Ooh!

-Oh!

Mmm!

-Smell that here.

-This smells -- There's a lot going on with the aromas.

-Oh, I know.

-I can't wait to taste this.

-So good.

Let's check the chicken.

It needs to be at least 195 degrees.

-196.

-Nailed it.

-All right, so now we're going to take this chicken out.

And now I have this beautiful cooking liquid.

And we're going to use this to cook the rice.

But I want to make sure I have the perfect amount of liquid so that our rice is just right.

We don't want it to be dry, undercooked.

And we also don't want it to be mushy and soft.

-Makes sense.

-So I'm going to pour it into my measuring cup here, I have a four cup liquid measuring cup.

And I'm just going to put all the liquid and the solids right into that cup.

And then I have 2 cups of chicken broth.

So I'm going to add enough chicken broth so that it measures 3 1/2 cups.

All right, so exactly 3 1/2 cups.

-Nailed it.

-So we're going to put that back into the pot.

So I have 1 1/2 cups of long grain white rice here.

And I rinsed it really well.

I want to get rid of any starch because I want, I'm looking for that really nice fluffy rice.

-Mm-hm.

-In fact, there's even a term for the perfect arroz con pollo rice.

-And it's called graneado.

-Graneado.

-And it's talking about that nice loose, -light, fluffy texture, that we're after.

-Mm-hm.

-So you get that by rinsing the rice -and measuring your cooking liquid.

-I like it.

-So let's put that rice into the pot.

And then here comes the colorful veggies I was talking about.

So these are the traditional vegetables that are added to this dish.

We have two carrots.

Put those in.

And then one red bell pepper.

Stir that in.

Now we're going to bring this to a boil.

Then I'll turn down the heat to a simmer, put the lid on and we'll let that cook for 20 to 25 minutes.

-And that rice is going to be just right.

-Okay.

All right.

It's been about 20 minutes.

Let's take a look at our rice.

-Oh.

-Oh-ho-ho!

-That looks so good.

-It really does.

-So we're going to add 1/2 a cup of frozen green peas.

Just mix that in.

All right, now I'm going to add our chicken back into the pot.

Skin side up.

-Okay.

-And let's get all these juices in there, too.

-I was just thinking that.

-All right.

Now let's put the lid on.

Let this sit for 5 or 10 minutes.

Just let the peas thaw out, and the chicken will stay nice and warm.

And so while that sits, let's make a salsa criolla.

So I have one red onion and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt.

And I just set it over a strainer here.

We're just going to get out some excess liquid out of this onion.

We'll let this sit for ten minutes, and then we'll come back and I'll show you how to finish the salsa criolla.

Okay.

It's been ten minutes, and you can see the onions are glistening a little bit here.

They've started to shed a little of their water, and so they're going to be nice and crisp.

So I just want to rinse them off, rinse off that salt.

All right.

So those are rinsed.

Now I'm just going to pat them dry on paper towels and put them in a bowl here.

And now I'm just going to add a few simple ingredients.

So I have 2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice, 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro, and then 1/8 a teaspoon each of salt and pepper.

And I know it seems so simple, Julia.

-It really does.

-And it is.

But it really adds a ton of flavor, just exactly what you want when you're eating this chicken and rice.

-Ooh!

-So this has been sitting now for about five minutes.

Everything's nice and warm.

So let's get some nice chicken here.

And now I'm going to scoop some of this rice.

We're just going to make a little mold.

-This is what moms in Peru often do for their kids.

-Really?

-It's a fun way to serve the rice.

-Mm-hm.

-We'll just put it on the plate here.

One, two, three.

-Aw!

-Doesn't that look good?

-I love that.

Dying to try this.

-Yeah, let me give you some of the salsa criolla.

-I'm going for the rice first.

-Me, too.

-Get a little of that onion on there.

-All right.

-Mmm.

Mmm!

That's delicious.

-So many flavors going on here.

-There's the kick.

-Yeah, from that yellow chili paste.

-Yep.

The malty beer.

-Mm-hm, mm-hm!

-Of course, the cilantro coming through.

-Really herbal, fresh.

-Yeah.

-I just want to point out how fluffy this rice is, too.

Remember how we talked about the graneado?

This is exactly what you want.

Loose and fluffy.

-These onions.

Alright, next I'm going big on the onions this bite.

-Oh yeah.

-So crunchy 'cause we salted them, right?

-Mmm!

-They're just the perfect thing to go with this, with this rice.

-That's incredible.

-Very good.

Yeah.

-Chicken now.

-I eat an onion with every bite.

[ Laughs ] -Ma'am!

Chicken's perfectly cooked.

-Yeah.

-This is delicious.

Thank you for showing me how to make this.

-This is really fun.

-This was fun.

If you want to make this classic Peruvian chicken and rice dish, braise the chicken in an aromatic broth flavored with aji amarillo, dark lager, and a fresh cilantro pure.

Carefully measure out the cooking liquid for the rice and make the salsa criolla while the rice cooks.

From "America's Test Kitchen," a fragrant and flavorful recipe for Peruvian arroz con pollo.

You can find this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with our product reviews and select episodes at our website.

americastestkitchen.com/tv I can't wait to make this for Ian.

He is going to love it as much as I do.

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