>> male announcer: Funding for Chef Paul Prudhomme's Always Cooking was provided by: >> Prudhomme: All right, let's get the fire going.

We're going to do the best darn grilled chicken you've ever tasted, grilled pork tenderloin with mashed potatoes, and then I'll tell you what.

I'm going to show you how to do blackening the real way.

Created blackening in the 1980s, in the early '80s, still doing it today.

It's good stuff.

Come on by.

[lively Cajun music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ We got a great show for you.

We got lots of good stuff, and I'm going to just tease you with it right at the beginning, which I don't normally do, but this--this stuff is exceptional.

We got the best darn grilled chicken I've ever ate.

And I'll tell ya, that is wonderful.

And I'm going to make the glaze that goes over it, or the seasoning blend that it lays in at least eight hours, preferably overnight.

Then we're going to do blackened fish fillets with a brown garlic butter, and that's great.

Ooh, I love to taste that.

And then a grilled pork tenderloin with orange-mustard glaze and then mashed potatoes.

And Chef Paul Miller and I are going to share this, and so we're both cooking today.

We're cooking at the grill, but the first thing I got to do, because the chicken is supposed to be set overnight with the seasoning on it, and so I'm going to make the seasoning.

And we're going to put butter.

Surprised, weren't you, that I used butter?

Yeah, I know, you're surprised I used butter.

Got butter, and then we've got the fire going.

We're going to turn it up.

We don't have to brown the butter because the next thing I'm going to put into it is-- is seasoning blend, herbs and spices.

And it's a good seasoning blend, got a lot of stuff in it.

I'm not going to start with it all because I want to see how-- because this becomes a paste, and as a paste--and I'm going to move it away from the fire.

Matter of fact, I'm going to turn the fire off, because the seasonings are really-- really trucking.

And this is tamari sauce we're putting in.

And then I'm going to add a little bit of water.

Now, I don't want to add too much water.

Now, the idea is, as this is here and it's liquid, it's sort of a liquid paste.

But as soon as I put it on the chicken, it's no longer going to be very liquid.

It's going to be more of a paste.

The idea is to coat this as much as you possibly can with the seasoning, and then let it set for a while.

And we're going to let it set overnight.

You can do it--eight hours is enough.

But I got to taste this.

And I'm smelling it, so I'm really anxious.

Ah, I mean, that's really great.

It really is.

Now, there's lots of ways you can do this, and the simplest way probably is just because right now it's liquid.

And believe me, when it hits the chicken, once it stays for a while, it's going to--it's going to be a sticky, sticky paste.

And so I'm going to put one side on, and I'm going to let it cool a little bit, so--because if I turned it over right now, what woulhappen, it would all slide off.

And I want it to stick on there.

And I'm going to pitch it to Chef Paul Miller.

He's over at the grill.

And you'll see it's stuck.

I mean, he's got to scrape it off, and then he's going to-- he's going to grill it.

So we got some of the best darn grilled chicken you have ever tasted or ate or just had.

Take it away, Chef Paul Miller.

>> Thanks, chef, great job on the chicken.

It looks great.

It's been marinating about six to eight hours.

The next thing we're going to do is, we're going to make a paste to marinate the chicken with or to baste the chicken with.

It's been marinating overnight or most of the night.

What I'm going to do is scrape the chicken, get all this good seasoning off of here, this-- it's got a little Asian accent.

It's got a little bit of tamari in there, which is a soy sauce, and a mixture of seasonings, which has--if you can see by the color of the chicken there, it's already gone through the meat by sitting there, really penetrated it well.

What I'm going to do is put it in here with some melted butter.

I'm going to take that to baste the chicken with, and a little bit later, after it's cooked some on the grill, and then we'll talk about the grilling methods in a minute.

First I want to get all this in there, mix it really good.

The butter is hot.

Little over about 160 degrees, just before it starts to brown.

We want to make sure that it's hot and that it's food safe.

Stir it up really well.

Ah, and it's--the warm butter is really bringing the smells out of it, looks great, smells great.

Now, this I'll use in a little bit.

What I'm going to do now is step over to the grill.

And we'll talk about grilling a little bit.

What I want to do is put it over on an area that's been preheated.

The whole thing is.

I've got different temperatures here because I'm grilling different things.

I'm going to grill some vegetables in a minute.

I'm going to grill some corn.

Those I'm going to grill real fast, because they cook fast.

Chicken is going to take a little bit longer, but I do want it hot enough to where it won't stick.

There we go.

You can hear it sizzling.

It's just the right temperature.

We'll move that like that.

Now, what we want to do is to-- is to get a good color all the way around it, so I'm going-- you're going to see me turn it several times.

It's very important, when cooking chicken or any meat, that you get it up to about 165 internal.

That's to make sure that it's safe, and that, you know, if there's anything in there, any bacteria, that it's all gone.

And of course, everything has a little bit of bacteria.

So we want to make sure it's cooked all the way through.

I think what I'm going to do is take a little bit of oil and put on it, because it's starting to look like it's a little dry.

So while this is working, I'm going to go ahead and start some of the thicker vegetables.

Of course, the corn, we're going to leave it in the shuck because we want to make sure-- we want to get the flavor.

A couple of things we want to do is to make sure that it's cooked all the way through.

But if you leave the shucks on it, it's going to steam it.

It's going to get the flavor from the shucks, wonderful corn flavor.

It'll stay moist.

It won't dry out, and it'll give you a great corn flavor.

You can season it after it comes out, after you clean it.

Once we've got the color on it, then we're going to start to baste it a little bit.

We got a brush here.

Now, you want to--when you get close to the time of it being done, you'll put a little bit more of it.

We want to make sure that this stays up to temperature, so we're going to keep it close to the grill here.

We don't want this to get cold.

Let that cook on that side, turn it over again.

There, all getting good grill marks there.

All right, the chicken looks like it's pretty close to being done.

We've probably got a few minutes left on it, just enough time to do the vegetables.

So I'm going to come over here.

Now, it's very important to season the vegetables, you know, as soon as you can so that the vegetables can start to soak them up.

Here I'm going to pat it on a little bit, a little bit more.

Now, you've got to have a little bit of oil, and I prefer, if I'm going to do grilled vegetables, I like to use a little bit of olive oil.

So I'm going to season the mushrooms, portobello mushrooms, pat it down a little bit.

Now, if you do this about an hour earlier before you put it on, it's going to work a lot better, have a little more flavor.

The seasonings will absorb-- or the vegetables will absorb the seasonings and really make them nice and moist and seasoned.

These I have on a skewer, make it a little easier to turn it around.

The first thing I'm going to put on is the eggplant, because this is gonna take a little bit longer than any other vegetable.

I'm going to try to stage them, and I'm going to put them on the grill where it's very, very hot, so they'll cook fast, because they really don't take a long time to cook.

I'm going to just pat this on a little bit, make sure the seasoning stays on.

This portobello's going to be great on there.

All right, a little more vegetables here, seasoning.

I think, also, what I'm going to do is--and I have oil on here, but I'm going to go ahead and brush a little bit of oil on the grill, too, just to make sure it doesn't stick, also will help give it a little more flavor.

That corn looks like it's about ready too.

That's looking wonderful.

Okay, the first thing is, I'm going to let the zucchini go right here where it's not quite as hot.

Eggplant, portobello mushroom.

Now, while that's working, I'm going to go ahead and put a little bit more basting sauce on the chicken.

There we go.

I think I'm going to put a little more oil on there.

Of course, mushrooms are going to soak up the oil really, really fast, and so you can keep it nice and moist with the olive oil.

Boy, the smell is incredible coming off of here.

First thing we want to do is to check and see what-- if the temperature's up where it should be.

Everything else looks like it's ready.

We're getting there; we're getting there; we're getting there.

160, 165--exactly where I want it.

So it looks like we're done here.

So here we've got the chicken that's done.

Wow, this stuff is gorgeous, and you can really tell that it marinated for a while before we put it on the grill here.

Portobello mushroom, wonderful eggplant, and then we have the zucchini and squash-- come here, dude-- roasted corn.

Man, oh, man, all I need now is a nice, cold beer, and I'm ready.

Best darn chicken I ever ate.

>> Prudhomme: Coming up next, a blackened fish with a brown garlic butter and lots of seasoning on it and great flavors, and we're going to teach you exactly how to do the blackening.

Blackened redfish, oh, it's so good.

It's so wonderful.

But there's some really important things to understand about it.

One is, you should have a great sauce, and you can do almost any sauce you want, but I'll show you one that we do with blackened redfish.

Now, this is not redfish.

It's a brother to redfish, and it's called a drum.

The redfish is also a drum.

There's a black drum and a red drum, and this is the black drum.

But it's good.

It is.

There's no doubt about it.

And redfish, because of the blackening, now is a sport fish.

I've got this incredibly hot grill here in front of me.

And so I want--the reason you see me picking up the pan, I don't want it to get too hot.

I'm going to do the sauce first, and then we're going to talk about blackening.

And blackening is a absolutely wonderful way to cook.

I mean, it's just--if you don't overdo it, it's just spectacular.

I'm going to do a butter sauce.

I'm going to do a butter sce.

Now, doing a butter sauce in a very, very hot skillet, you got to not fool around, and you got to be ready to do it.

And so the first thing I want to do is brown some butter, and then I'm going to start adding ingredients to it.

The next thing I'm going to add is the seasoning, and so let's see how hot the pan is.

It felt like it was hot, and it is hot.

I mean, this is a really hot grill.

I'm going to put the seasoning right in.

That's going to--if you've been watching the show, you know that that's going to accelerate the heat and it's going to brown the butter quicker.

Look at that.

Oh, that's gorgeous.

That's absolutely gorgeous.

I'm going to brown it a little bit more, and then I'm going to start building flavors within that brown butter and the seasoning.

So I'm going to put the stock in and the rest of the liquids.

This is Worcestershire sauce, and I don't say that well, but it's what it is.

That was pepper sauce.

This is garlic.

And put that in, and I'm going to--I'm going to-- I need to--I need to taste it to make sure that I'm getting this.

I'm going to spread the garlic out because it didn't spread.

But let's taste it.

Ah, I mean, it's just-- it's tart.

It's wonderful.

It's got a little zingo it, and it's almost, almost-- almost done.

I mean, this is a great burner here.

It really is.

I mean, it's trucking.

All right, so we're going to take and put the butter in, and the last thing--the last thing I'm going to put in is some chopped parsley.

And you can--I mean, chopped parsley's really a good decoration to put in.

But look at that.

Look at that color to this.

I mean, you'd know this is going to go with the fish.

Now, the next challenge I have is to explain to you about blackening and to show you how it's done.

And our challenge is being-- our ability is being challenged, but I don't mind that.

I'm ready for it.

So I got the--isn't that sauce beautiful?

And I mean it's just--I mean, just putting that extra butter in.

Now I need to get it off the heat.

So I'm going to put it way over there, because if I leave it on too long, that second butter's going to break.

I'm getting this pan ready so we can do the blackeng.

Ooh, it's hot.

It's hot.

Important, very important that it's hot.

So what were going to do is, we're going to put some oil on the piece of fish, and this is drum fish.

When we created the method of cooking, we used the redfish, and the redfish is no longer available for commercial use, and so we're using its brother, the drum, and putting the seasoning on it.

Now, this pan--this pan has got to be at least 500 degrees or more to do this properly.

Ooh, that looks good.

That looks good.

The heat, the temperature, has got be--it's got to be right to really make this work, because the idea is to cook it as quick as you can and to put flavor on the outside and leave the juices on the inside.

Now, the way you do that is by turning it frequently, and so I'm going to start the turning process right now.

And see, we're starting to get color on it, but it's a long ways from being cooked.

When we first started this cooking method in 1980, it was-- it was just amazing.

It really was.

And so we came up with the redfish, and everybody wanted to have the redfish.

You want a fairly thin fish.

You don't want it really thick.

And the thicker it is, the more you want to let it g room temperature, because it's going to burn before it cooks.

And what we're cooking at, and the reason for that, is that we're cooking at 550 degrees.

And that's what the cast-iron pan should be at.

Now, this is--this is almost done.

And let me--let me check it.

And the way to check it is to see if the fish will flake, and it should flake real easy.

And see, look at it.

It's just coming off.

Now, that means that--that means that that fish is done, and so it also means the person that can cooking, if you're good and quick at it, you can take a bite of , and I did it.

Ho-ho, is that good.

I mean, the seasoning, it's got this incredible, wonderful taste to it.

And the fish itself is just loaded, I mean, absolutely loaded with moisture.

And so we're going to put some of the sauce on it, and we've got the sauce here.

We're going to stir it up a little bit.

There's the whisk.

We're going to stir up the sauce.

Ah, that butter sauce, it's garlic butter sauce we're going to put on top.

Now, isn't that beautiful?

Now, you can put anything with this, but I'll tell you, one of the best things you can put with it is a great mashed potato.

And I'm going to show you how to make a great mashed potato.

Grilled pork tenderloin with a fabulous glaze.

>> And next, we're doing pork tenderloin.

That's grilled pork tenderloins.

The first thing we're going to do now, we've got the grill really hot one on side, turned it down a little bit on the other side because once I get that color that I want-- because we know color gives you flavor.

The darker the color, the more flavor you get.

So we want to season it first real even.

Now, you know, it's a little thin down on this end, so I'm going to put a little less there.

We want to make sure that every part of it is covered, because-- I don't know about you, but I eat the whole thing, and I don't want to bite into one spot's got too much seasoning or another spot not enough.

Let me get this other dude here, too, pack it in.

Wow, there we go, wonderful, wonderful.

I'm going to put a little bit of oil on it too.

Without oil--see, there's not much fat on it.

It's pretty lean, so it's not going to give off a whole lot of oil.

So I want a little bit of oil to keep it from sticking.

It'll also help hold the seasoning onto it so it doesn't come off.

Just take the brush and just kind of pat it.

I'm also going to put a little bit of oil on the grill just to help make sure that it doesn't-- doesn't stick.

Okay, so now I'm going to put it on.

This is the hot area here.

You can see the steam coming up.

So that's where I'm going to start it.

I want to get some really good color on it, turn it over.

When you know it's ready to turn over, it's not sticking, because it's got a cook on it.

It'll cook the seasoning into the meat.

It'll get a nice brown color.

But you can feel it kind of tacky.

When it's not sticking anymore, that means it's already been browned off and coated, and you can turn it over to the next side.

We're actually going to do it on about four sides.

The smells are coming off already, nice color, nice grill marks.

There we go.

Now, to finish this, we're going to make a glaze in a minute.

I want to get some good color on here.

Once I've got my color, move it over a little bit.

Let it slow cook.

Of course, we want to bring it to about 155 degrees internal to make sure that it is cooked all the way through.

I'd say that this temperature right here was just perfect, because it's got great color on it and it's just doing exactly what I want it to do.

It's not sticking.

So I'm going to let that cook like that for a second.

Come on over here, and I'm going to start the glaze.

We'll have to finish cooking it before we put the glaze.

So we want it just about cooked, then we'll put the glaze, cook it two or three minutes until the glaze really sizzles on the outside and makes a great coating.

We're going to start with a little bit of horseradish sauce, scrape that in there, a little creole mustard, or a dark mustard.

There we go, mix that up in there.

And marmalade, that's the sweet stuff.

That's where the barbecue sauce type stuff comes in.

Stir that around.

Actually, I'm going to put a little bit of seasoning on there as well, stir that up.

Now, this is going to be-- this is going to be a little bit later, so we're going to get this really mixed, let those flavors marry together and kind of marinate together and get sort of work with each other so that it's ready when I'm ready with the pork.

Now, let's check on the pork.

Beautiful, and done too.

You can feel by the texture that they're done, so it's time to glaze them for the last few minutes.

I'm going to stir this.

One of the things I want to do is to go ahead and taste it, because I put a little seasoning in it, but I didn't really check it.

I think it's perfect.

Actually, I'm going to go ahead and start brushing it on, put a really nice coat on it.

It'll probably just take about three or four minutes to really make that glaze cook on there and really seal it off.

I'm going to go ahead and turn that over.

God, these are gorgeous.

These are--I'll tell you what.

This--the fire's just right.

It's perfect.

I'm getting the color I want.

All right, they're beautiful, just about done.

We got about five minutes left, so let's go in the kitchen with Chef Paul and see how those mashed potatoes are going.

>> Prudhomme: Thanks, Chef Paul.

That's the other Chef Paul.

All right, I'm going to make some mashed potatoes.

Mashed potatoes can be made right and wrong, and that's the truth.

First thing you want is nice, fresh as possible potatoes that's got some considerable amount of starch in it.

And then you want to make-- you want to make the essence of mashed potatoes.

You put butter in a hot pan, and then with the butter, you put herbs and spices.

And you want this to sort of caress each other.

In other words, you want the butter to melt.

You don't want it to brown too much because you don't want that in the mashed potatoes.

You don't want it to be dominated.

But you need to heat, to cook the herbs and spices, because they're not cooked.

So what I'm going to do is just get the butter melted, and as soon as the butter's melted--and I'm going to just reach in here and just get a little taste out.

Ooh, I love butter and seasoning.

It's just so wonderful.

Now, I'm going to put the cream in.

And this--this is whipping cream we're using, and the mashed potatoes we're making, we ain't fooling around.

I mean, it's really dynamite mashed potatoes.

So we cut the potatoes evenly, or roughly evenly.

Don't have to be fanatically evenly, but I don't want a, ke, huge potato or a half a potato and then another piece.

And so these are basically about the same thickness, and so we've been boiling them, and they're ready to go.

You see they haven't crushed yet.

They haven't broke to pieces yet.

Oh, this is almost ready.

Now, when you're getting ready to make these kind of mashed potatoes, this needs to be ready, because it can't cool down, and this needs to be ready, because you got to pour it in here.

And so I'm going to take and put the potatoes in, and what's neat about it is, I've got the herbs and spices in here, so as soon this boil, it's ready.

And it's almost to a boil.

I see it's starting to go.

And so it's one of the things that is hard to probably understand or try to--try to make you understand is that the starch in potatoes is very vulnerable.

It's not--it's not like cornstarch, or it's not like the other kind of starches.

It's very vulnerable, and so what we want to do is just-- we need to crank it up, get this high, and then we start slowly, slowly mashing them.

That's too fast, okay.

Now, this is boiling, and the potatoes are hot, and those are two essential things.

I mean, they got to both be hot, the butter and the cream and the seasoning and the potatoes.

And then you just put them in, and you don't have to be slow or fast.

You can just put them in, and I'm letting it--letting it go quite rapidly.

And what I'm going to do is, I'm going to stop, even though this is a recipe and I don't know the starch that's in the potatoes.

I don't know how much starch there is in these potatoes, so I want to leave a little bit out.

I'm going to leave a little bit out and make sure that--that I've got the texture that I want.

What's happening--what's happening, it's getting creamy, and it still has lumps in it.

I don't like lumps in it.

I want it to be creamy.

I mean, it can have a little bit of lumps in it because it's potatoes, but you want it to be creamy.

[mixer whirring] Oh, I love mashed potatoes, fresh mashed potatoes that's done correctly with a reasonable amount of butter in it and an absolute amount of cream.

And just look at this.

Oh, I'm going to put this here.

I wish I could give you a taste.

I mean, just look at that-- best mashed potatoes in the world.

Now it's time to eat.

Now, Paul Miller's right over there, and he's got all the things that he cooked and the things that I cooked, and on the grill.

And so we're ready to have mashed potatoes and grill.

We just cooked each two dishes, and so what was yours?

>> I've got the grilled pork tenderloin.

I got the best darn chicken you ever ate.

>> Prudhomme: This looks gorgeous.

I mean, look at that.

It's just absolutely beautiful, and so is the chicken, and I know what the best darn chicken is.

And so I had blackened redfish and mashed potatoes, or as we say in Louisiana, "smashed potatoes."

And that's... >> both: Good cooking, good eating, good loving.

We love you guys.

>> announcer: A cookbook featuring all the recipes from Chef Paul Prudhomme's Always Cooking is available for $15.95 plus $7.95 shipping and handling.

The cookbook features 97 recipes, color photos, and cooking tips from Chef Paul.

To order a copy of the companion cookbook, call: And pay by credit card.

Or send a check or money order to: Captioning by CaptionMax www.captionmax.com >> Okay.

>> Prudhomme: I knew that would get him started.

They don't want to hear any more of that.

And I'm going to wrap it up with the foil and-- >> Cut, cut.

Let's wrap and then show, okay?

>> Prudhomme: It's not fun.

It looks better I have tongs.

Eat the cheese?

Okay, I'll do that too.

[laughter] Really?

>> News to me.

>> Prudhomme: That'll shake me up.

[nasal exhalations] This is what I--you know what I think about it.

>> Say, "Yum," like that.

>> Prudhomme: [groans] Yum.

Ah, ah.

>> male announcer: Funding for Chef Paul Prudhomme's Always Cooking was provided by: