SETH: Chef.

PETER: Welcome to Open Crumb.

SETH: Hey, thanks so much for having me.

And what are we making today?

PETER: Well, we're making our signature dish, our homemade fried chicken sandwich, obviously.

SETH: Obviously.

Well I love a good fried chicken sandwich.

How do you even begin to put that together?

PETER: Well we first have to start off with our bread, which we make in-house every day.

So, let's make some bread first.

SETH: I love baking some bread.

PETER: Fair.

So, this bread is actually, has been finish proofing.

We're just gonna have to start brushing it with an egg heavy cream mixture.

It gives it a nice, shiny look once they come out of the oven.

This is my own rendition of an East Asian milk bun.

They're not too sweet, but slightly sweet and has a really good structure, which gives it a really nice bite and holds up with that fried chicken.

Now that this has a nice egg wash on top, we're just gonna throw it in the oven.

We're gonna let those get nice and golden brown for a few minutes.

SETH: All right.

PETER: And as were letting those cook I'm actually gonna show you how I make my homemade comeback sauce, which is a traditional southern style sauce, but we put our little twist on it.

SETH: Of course.

PETER: So it's starts off with a little bit of mayo, salt, and a little bit of sugar and then your traditional ketchup and mustard.

We're just gonna put that in and let that combine.

Traditionally, it would be made with Worcestershire sauce, but we like to use soy sauce, obviously vinegar, and our homemade hot sauce.

It's actually a traditional Ghanaian hot sauce.

It's called shito.

So we're gonna get that nice and mixed up in there.

SETH: So you're bringing in ingredients from all over the place?

PETER: Yeah, just a little bit of everything.

It can't be bad that way.

SETH: As long as it tastes good.

PETER: Yeah, that's, that's the goal.

Hey Seth, looks like our buns are actually done.

So I'm just gonna pull them out and let them cool.

I'm gonna put those aside.

SETH: Oh my God, Peter.

That smells so good.

PETER: They taste even better.

Ooh, but they're nice and hot.

SETH: Wow.

PETER: So while these are cooling, I'm gonna show you the star of the show, which for any good chicken sandwich is, the chicken.

SETH: You need the good chicken.

PETER: I actually have some chicken thigh.

It's been marinating in Greek yogurt, um, my house Cajun blend and salt.

SETH: All right, so Greek yogurt.

You know, I'm thinking a traditional fried chicken's gonna be marinating in buttermilk.

PETER: Well the Greek yogurt offers the same acidity which makes the chicken nice and tender and gives it a nice little tang to the bite.

But Greek yogurt is also important to me because my mom grew up in a Lebanese community in Ghana.

So I actually grew up eating a lot of Middle Eastern food.

So this is a little bit more of my past put into this dish.

SETH: And you know, um, a good marinade's important, but what's the secret to a good frying for you?

PETER: There're two really important components.

We start off with the coating.

That includes three types of flour, but when we fry it, we actually fry it twice.

The first fry cooks it.

The second fry actually ensures all that outside moisture is off so when you bite into it you get the nice little crunchy bite.

SETH: That sounds so good.

Uh, well, I'm gonna let you get to frying, but uh, before I do that, I just have to taste one of these milk buns.

PETER: Go right ahead.

SETH: They smell so good.

Ooh, nice and hot.

Oh my God, Chef.

(laughing).

That bun is delicious.

There's just nothing better than fresh baked bread.

PETER: That's where my name comes from, Open Crumb.

It's a bread baking term which I chose to have because it's a term which means that you took your time out to create a product which really elevates the dish, which you're gonna present.

SETH: Well I love all the care in every step of the process.

So, I'll let you get to frying and I cannot wait to try the finished sandwich.

PETER: Sounds good.

SETH: Thanks, Chef.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Chef, thanks for uh, showing me the kitchen and this thing is a monster.

PETER: You ready to try it?

SETH: I'm ready to try it.

(crunch) PETER: I heard you feeling that crunch from the double fry action that we had.

But at the same time I realize that it's super moist and flavorful on the inside from that Greek yogurt marinade and from just like, the time and care that we put into it.

SETH: You nailed it.

You're right.

The crust of that chicken almost just shatters in your mouth, but it's still so juicy and flavorful on the inside.

That's really great, Chef.

PETER: Aw, thank you.

SETH: I like that you don't, um, you don't skimp on that flavors either, plenty of sauce on the sandwich.

PETER: Oh we gotta have that little bit of drip in it to bring it all together.

SETH: And so juicy as well.

Does that come from...

I'm assuming this is dark meat here.

PETER: Yeah, dark meat is great 'cause there's a good amount of fat to it.

And coming from a West African tradition, I never really ate white meat growing up.

So I think I had to bring dark meat into like, my sandwich 'cause just, it was more true to me.

SETH: I would say also with West African cooking, I mean, this is kind of a southern sandwich, you know, you got the comeback sauce, you got the fried chicken.

But there's such a similarity between West African and southern.

PETER: Pretty much all ties in.

West African food is the basis for pretty much all southern food.

Ingredients are the building blocks for the food that we have today.

Um, fried chicken, you have okra, you have a way lot of different rice dishes.

It's pretty much all carryover.

SETH: And I just like the way everything plays together too.

You got a little sweetness on the bun, but also just that little tiny kick.

PETER: That's uh, another important thing for West African food.

You always have to have a good amount of hot sauce, a good amount of spiciness into it.

It really ties everything together.

SETH: So what did you guys think when Popeye's came out with their chicken sandwich and suddenly everybody was going nuts for fried chicken sandwiches?

PETER: Eh, we kind of just were like, "That's cool."

We're happy that the fried chicken, uh sandwich craze is coming back, helping us out a little bit.

But honestly we just kept on doing what we always do well, assuring that everything is fried properly and everything is tasty.

SETH: Well it's definitely a significant cut above fast food.

Definitely worth the trip down to Anacostia to try this.

PETER: Well, I hope I'll be seeing you again then.

SETH: You sure will.

Thanks, Chef.

PETER: Yeah, thank you for coming by.