USA Rice, Sunsweet, Ninja, Chef's Choice and thanks to the generous support of... - [Female Voice] The 2016 Subaru Legacy.

With Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive plus 36 mpg, it pairs well with every kind of road.

Subaru, proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

(upbeat music) - [Sara] Charleston, known for the reinvention of traditional southern cuisine, has one of the hottest food scenes in America.

- Why do people flock to this pink shack?

- That's where the magic comes from.

- [Narrator] It's because the secret's out.

Martha's Lou's Kitchen makes some of the tastiest fried chicken in the country.

Mmm-mmm.

- [Narrator] We'll fry her unbelievably crispy chicken and make a soul food side dish that her customers love: steamy cabbage and ham.

- Madam would catch the chicken and wring 'em by the neck because we had what you'd call a yard chicken.

- [Narrator] This is Gullah country, home to a rich African-American culture that flourished on the coastal islands.

- [Jenkins] They would go out fishing, and crabbing, and oyster... - [Sara] So you would just come out and forage?

- I mean that's how the culture was.

Live off the land and off the sea.

- [Narrator] Discover the African roots of well-loved Southern foods.

Back in my kitchen, I'll make my version of a southern favorite, red beans and rice soup.

And on Ask Sarah... - I'm trying to make Chicken Milanese.

And you start to pound the chicken, it starts to come apart.

- [Sara] Yeah, it shreds.

Okay, I have an answer for you.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] It doesn't look like much but inside this little pink building is fried chicken nirvana.

Martha Lou Gadsden has been serving up roll-your-eyes-it's-so-good soul food to the people of Charleston for 30 years.

It's a family affair, her daughter Deborah serves.

- How y'all doing today?

- [Narrator] And her granddaughter, Melanie Alston, handles the catering.

The big draw here is the fried chicken.

It's getting a national reputation.

So I stopped in to find out what the buzz is all about.

(bluesy guitar music) - I want to know where the chicken recipe comes from.

- The chicken recipe actually comes from Martha Lou's mother.

- Ah, so your great-grandmother?

- My great-grandmother, yes.

- Okay, and what do you think makes it so special?

- Uh, the spices.

- So you use a famous spice, it's available nationally.

- It is.

- But we have to also give a homemade recipe.

So we've got sugar, salt, paprika, turmeric, I thought that was an interesting one.

- Yeah, mm-hmm.

- Probably because of the color.

Onion powder, garlic powder.

- Correct.

- And cornstarch!

- Right.

- Fascinating!

All right, so you're gonna tell me how much of each one of these we want.

- Okay.

- And you don't measure this, you eyeball it?

- We just eyeball it.

- Oh boy, I hope you're paying attention, then.

(laughs) This is the sort of thing when people are trying to make recipes from their grandmother - And she's like "Yeah, just that much."

- Yeah, you just want a shake.

- And you're like, "How much?"

You're like, "No, that much."

- Okay, so ready?

- Right.

- Okay, say when.

- [Melanie] When.

- We are now adding garlic salt.

- Garlic salt, right.

- Okay.

Just say when again.

- Okay.

Looks good, when.

- Oh when, okay.

- All right.

- Oh, I'm a natural.

- Yeah, you're pretty good at this stuff aren't you?

(laughs) - I'm a chef, yeah.

Okay and then, pepper?

- Pepper.

- There's some heat in this.

- Yeah.

Just a little bit of pepper.

All right, that's enough.

- Oh okay, good.

- Looks good.

- And now I can stir that up.

Okay, so we've got our spice mix now you marinate the chicken overnight?

- Overnight, correct.

- So should we get our chicken marinating?

I know you've already got some but ... - Sure.

- So we're going to do both white meat and dark meat and what I can't believe is you cook this stuff to order.

- To order every day.

- So somebody orders fried chicken and then they start ... - [Melanie] Cook it to order and it's fresh out of the fryer.

- [Sara] Yeah, fresh out of the fryer.

- Fresh out of the fryer.

Okay, so what you're gonna do is take, and you gotta do it ... yeah.

Mix it around like that.

- [Sara] Mm, but you want to coat all sides of it.

- [Melanie] You do.

- [Sara] I noticed you're getting under the bones a little bit.

- [Melanie] Yes, you want to kind of rub it in there.

- [Sara] This is like brining.

- Yeah, it is.

- Yeah because it's like a dry brine, you'd call it.

- [Melanie] Yes.

- [Sara] 'Cause you've got salt in there.

- [Melanie] Yes.

- [Sara] So the salt is not only gonna season it but it's gonna, um, pull in all the other seasonings and it's gonna also make it much juicier.

- Correct.

- Wow.

But you've been doing this for generations.

- Forever.

- Yeah.

- [Melanie] It's been over for like 32 years now.

So we now we take some wrap, and you're just gonna wrap this up like so, and then you're gonna put it in the refrigerator overnight.

- So 24 hours?

- 24 hours.

- And that's where all the brining magic happens?

- Oh yeah, that's where the magic comes from.

And we have some already marinated that's been in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

- 24 hours, okay.

- [Melanie] We're going to take a bowl of water.

And then you're gonna add just maybe like a tablespoon of milk, once again, I do free pour so, we're going to do like the... - Yes, free pour.

- And you don't want to add too much milk because it'll make your oil smokey.

So, you just want to add, like, maybe a little dash of it.

- [Sara] Okay.

- It gives it the extra crunch, that crispiness.

And it keeps it nice and moist.

So we have some self rising flour.

- Self rising flour, now tell me why that?

- Because it's like, it gives it that nice crunchy and... - So, it's got baking powder?

- Right.

- So the idea is that it leavens when it heats... - Correct.

- Hits the hot oil.

- Right.

- Brilliant.

And you don't have to mix it yourself, it's already mixed.

- You don't have to mix this, already done.

So, what we do is, we dip the chicken, we put it in the flour.

- Mm-hmm.

- Get nice.

- Mm-hmm.

- And then, we dip it in the milk.

- Oh, flour first?

- Flour first.

And then, flour, milk, and then back to the flour.

- [Sara] So that's sort of double coats it?

- [Melanie] Right.

(uplifting music) - Okay, so now it's time to fry.

- It's, now it's frying.

- We'll take this over.

And you've got the fry layer... - The fry is on, we have it at 350.

- [Sara] Okay, good.

- And we're frying it in some peanut oil.

- Okay, peanut oil is very high smoke point, so it doesn't catch fire.

- Right.

- Okay, good.

All right, so we'll, let's go on over there.

- Okay, the dark meat, we're going to cook that for 20 minutes, and then the white meat is 15 minutes.

- Okay.

- [Melanie] All righty, here we go.

- I just want to say one thing, really important, you notice how she put that in there?

She didn't hold it up here and drop it in?

- Oh, no, you... - [Sara] Just put it right next to the oil.

- [Melanie] Right, correct.

- [Sara] Yeah, because you don't want to be wearing it.

- You want to keep it as close as to the grease as possible.

(grease bubbling) - Not everybody has one of these at home.

- Right.

- How would, how would you do this at home?

- Well, I love a turkey fry.

- Oh, turkey fry, of course she has a turkey.

Do I have a turkey fryer, no I don't.

- It's the best, yeah.

- So, a stock pot?

- Yes, it is.

- So, maybe with about that much oil?

- Yeah, you want a, yeah, correct.

- And use a deep fat thermometer, with a turkey fryer you have that built in.

But, I would use a deep, and 350?

- 350.

- So while that's cooking, maybe we can make the cabbage?

- Yeah, sounds great to me!

(rockabilly music) - So what do you want me to do?

- I want you to cut the onion, let's start off cutting the onion.

- Slice it or chop it?

- Slice it.

- [Sara] Okay, about half an onion?

- Yes, half an onion.

- Okay.

And you're going to... - And I'm gonna do peppers.

- [Sara] What's the name of this cabbage dish?

- Southern fried cabbage.

- Okay, so now we're going to get these in the pan.

- Correct.

- So, olive oil, is that what you usually use?

- [Melanie] Right.

- Okay, and we're just going to soften these, how much?

- [Melanie] That's good, that's enough.

- That's exactly what it needed to be, whatever the heck that is.

- Yeah.

- [Sara] So all of this goes in?

- All of it goes in, right.

- Okay.

(bass music) - So we're going to cover this?

- We're going to cover it.

- Okay.

You know it's funny what we used to call that in cooking school is sweating it.

We're going to sweat them.

- All right.

How appropriate.

- Okay, now what are we going to do with the cabbage?

You're going show me.

- [Melanie] We're going to shred the cabbage, - [Sara] A whole head, huh?

- [Melanie] A whole head.

(knife slicing) - [Sara] So, it's sort of like, I think that's about half an inch.

- Right.

- I'm trying to get this out of you.

(laughter) You're an intuitive... - Yeah, I'm just... - Let me just grab this over here.

- Nothing by the book, I'm a cook and not a chef.

(laughter) - [Sara] Well, you know Julia Childs said she was a cook and not a chef.

- Yeah, train all by my grandma.

- Yeah, but that's the best way.

All right so now this, does this have to cook for awhile before we add that, or that could go in now?

- That could go in now.

- Okay, so.

(sizzling vegetables) All right.

So this all really melts down.

- [Melanie] It does, it does.

- What else do we need to add, the ham?

- [Melanie] We need to add the ham.

So now we're going to add some red wine vinegar.

- Okay, you're going to say when.

- Okay.

- The famous when.

The very precise when.

- Keep my eye on you.

All right, when.

- Okay.

- Then we're going to add some sugar, like two teaspoons.

- [Sara] Two teaspoons.

- Yes, yes.

And then we're going to do salt and pepper.

(uptempo music) When.

- Okay, good.

- All right and now we're going to cover it.

- So we're going to put the lid on and this is gonna cook down, you promise me?

- [Melanie] I promise.

(laughs) - Okay, how long is that going to take?

- [Melanie] About 10 minutes.

- All right, all right, so we can go check the chicken.

(bluesy guitar music) - Wow, I'm so excited, this has crust for days.

- Oh, yes.

- I'm just going to have to pick it up, that's all there is to it, you know.

- Mm-mm.

- That is good, okay?

I'm gonna just dig on in this cabbage.

- Is that self rising flour that gives it that crunch?

- It's the self rising flour and the milk.

- Oh, Deborah!

- How you all doing?

- Thank you so much!

- Oh, you're welcome.

- I'll come join y'all, too.

- Right, so while we've been cooking, you've been busy cooking, you do all the cooking for this place, don't you?

- Yes, ma'am, I sure do.

- Oh, god, well, I'm glad you're sitting down with us for a minute.

(uplifting music) Ladies, I just want to say thank you so much.

And for you all out there, you gotta come here to Charleston, South Carolina and go to Martha Lou's, because this is the best fried chicken on the planet.

- Oh, yeah.

- Really, whoa.

- So good.

(bass music) - [Narrator] Charleston, known for the reinvention of traditional Southern cuisine, has one of the hottest food scenes in America.

But that style of cooking owes a huge debt to enslaved cooks and farmers.

They were taken from west Africa to South Carolina because they had a valuable skill.

They knew how to grow rice.

- We call them Carolina Gold.

That was the name of the rice, Carolina Gold.

Charleston build up off of rice money.

The sweat of the ancestor's back.

- [Narrator] Story teller, Caroline "Jabulile" White's ancestors were slaves who settled on isolated coastal islands.

The Gullahs, as they're called, had their own language.

- But back in the days when I was little girl, madame would catch a chicken and wring them by neck, because we had what you call a yad chicken.

"Yad" in Gullah means the yard.

- I grew up on that, the yard chicken.

And whatever was left, the gravy and whatever was left, I would, you know, my mother would make this rice.

- [Narrator] Caroline Jenkins is a legendary Gullah cook.

Her rice is based on a style of eating she remembers from growing up Gullah on the South Carolina coast.

- The one thing that I love about it, is that you, you know, you had everything at hand.

We had a farm, they planted all our vegetables.

We had chickens, we had pigs.

They would go out fishing and crabbing, and oyster.

- The most important thing about Gullah food, I would think, is that it'd be fresh.

- Fresh ingredients, that's the basic.

Because you cannot make a good shrimp dish with Indonesian shrimp.

(laughter) (uplifting guitar music) - [Narrator] Fresh food was abundant here by the sea.

Steps away from Charlotte's house I went crabbing with her nephew Tory and Gullah chef, BJ Dennis.

- So this is Gullah country?

- This is Gullah country.

Sea island coaching.

- Okay.

And it goes for how far?

- It goes from Wilmington, North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida, but you know the, little country of South Carolina is the heart and soul of Gullah Geechee culture food ways, so.

- And that's where we are?

- That's where you are right now.

- Okay, and this is where you used to go and get crabs?

- Yeah, you can go get crabs out here.

My friend Tory is actually out here right now, bringing his crab pot back in.

- [Sara] So you would just come out and forage?

- [BJ] I mean, that's how the culture was livin' off the land and off the sea.

So, crab, fish, oysters, everything was self sufficient.

That was the way of life.

- [Sara] Oh, wow, you got some guys, there.

- You got some fatties in there.

- This seems pretty good.

(crabs clattering) - Wow, I mean, that's a good haul.

Of course, I'm not an expert, what do I know about crabbing?

It looks good to me.

- [BJ] And he got some rusty ones, too, which means they're nice and fat.

- Oh, really?

- Yeah.

- That color?

- Yeah.

- You always want them straight out of the water.

And... - Lively.

Like these guys?

- Right.

- [Sara] So you're going to rush right home and cook these?

- The fresher the better.

- Yeah.

- This land right here, you know people farmed, they fish, they shrimp.

A lot of it comes from west Africa.

You know, you lived off the land, you know it was a very agricultural place.

- [Narrator] In fact, many crops originally from Africa, like watermelon, sesame seeds, and peanuts became American favorites.

They found their way to Southern cooking through African-American cooks.

Chef Joe Randall runs a Southern cooking school in Savannah and says ingredients like okra came over with the slaves.

- I can't imagine any other way for them to get here.

They were on the ship, maybe to feed the slaves.

They brought what they could to feed them.

The slaves were in, the ones in the kitchen doing the cooking and they were familiar with the okra.

Okra is a dish very prominent here in the South, primarily because it was a dish that was brought from Africa to the South.

- [Narrator] Even barbecue was developed in the slave kitchen.

- The slaves were restricted on the things that they could eat.

Their masters saved the pork loins, for the pork chops for himself, but a pork shoulder might get left for them and so they would smoke it, low and slow.

That method of slow roasting was done in Africa.

A similar way Hawaiians use hot rocks and dig a hole and bury a whole hog.

(uptempo piano music) - [Narrator] So much of Southern and low country food traces back to African-American traditions.

BJ Dennis thinks it's not well understood.

- We've gotten away from a lot of the traditional values of how we came up.

You know my grandfather and his grandparents ate this kinda different than we seeing now.

It kind of debunks the whole myth of Southern food being fried and greasy.

When you raised in it, you really don't realize it until you step outside and then you come back and say, wow, we do have a very special unique culture.

(uplifting music) - So I get a lot of questions to my website.

One that pops up a lot has to do with chicken.

So, I'm going to address that today with Andrew from Manhattan.

Hi, Andrew!

- Hi, Sara, how are you?

- [Sara] Good, how are you?

- I'm well, thanks.

- So, before we get started, so you live in Manhattan, what do you do?

- I work for an antique store that's based here in London, and sell wonderful 18th century antiques.

- Okay, so tell me your question.

- So, my question is, I'm trying to make Chicken Milanese, and every time I get the chicken breasts out and you start to pound the chicken to make it flat, it starts to come apart.

- Yeah, it shreds.

- And I'm wondering how, you know, when you go to a great Italian restaurant where they have it there, it's not, you know, in shreds.

- Yes, this is true.

Okay, I have an answer for you.

So, normally when you pound chicken, what they used to tell us, or they still tell us, is take two pieces of plastic wrap and put the chicken between the two pieces and pound it either with a meat pounder or with a rolling pin.

So, instead of using two pieces of saran wrap, I'm just going to use this, you know, resealable bag.

And something I learned years ago from a New Yorker article, it was in, oh, it was in the late 70's, I was just 12, was that from a chef in Pennsylvania, is that if you put water in the bag or on the chicken, the chicken doesn't stick to the plastic.

And that's what makes it shred, is when it's sticking.

So I've got a piece of, fairly thin chicken, try to get something that's thin to begin with, but for Milanese, it has to be quite thin.

And then you just take your, I'm going to use a rolling pin here, and then you see the chicken's moving around, it's not sticking.

- Okay.

(rolling pin pounding) - This just takes a minute so I'm just going to do that.

You can turn the bag around to get the different sides of the chicken.

All right, well you get the idea, I'm going to show you what it looks like, and for Milanese, you might want to start with a bigger piece of chicken because you want something that sort of fits on the plate, but you can see that it stayed together.

- Fantastic.

- Lay it on the counter.

Very nicely, you know, it's a little bit thinner here, but what's good about it is, especially because it didn't rip in the middle, when it cooks it all comes back together.

That's the great thing about protein.

So try this little trick using the bag and the water and then you won't have the ripping.

So there you go.

- Thank you very much.

- I see Milanese in your future.

- I, I hope so.

- So, if you want to ask me a question for Ask Sara, it's a nice little segment we do on my show, please email me at saramoulton.com.

("All the Dog Day Long" by Glen David Andrews) Red beans and rice is one of the signature dishes of New Orleans.

That's why New Orleans' favorite son, Louis Armstrong used to sign his letters "Red Beans and Ricely Yours."

Now that virtually all of us everywhere can enjoy this classic combination, I didn't see why I couldn't turn it into a delicious soup.

So, I ground some ham here, about six ounces when you chop it up, about one and a third cups, we're going to put two different kinds of pork in this.

It's a meaty soup, a hearty soup.

I've chopped up a large onion here.

And yeah, it's about two cups after you chop it up.

In Louisiana cooking, they have three favorite vegetables that are the base of everything and it's called the holy trinity and it's onions, celery, and peppers.

You know, it's interesting, because almost all cultures have a vegetable mix that they like to use.

In France, of course, it's Mirepoix, which is celery, onions, and carrots.

In Spain and in Latin countries, that have something called a Sofrito, which is again onions, and oftentimes pepper and garlic and tomatoes.

So it's, it happens in every culture.

I'm chopping up four stalks of celery, about two cups.

You know, the thing about sauteing them first, as opposed to just adding them to broth in a pot, is they'll just pick up more flavor.

We're bringing out some of the natural sugars.

Now, my folks don't like green bell peppers, I don't know, they prefer red, you could do that.

It wouldn't be very New Orleans, but that's okay.

I like to chop my peppers this wasteful way, where it leaves the core in the center.

I'm using one large green bell pepper and that gives me about one and a half cups.

All right, in goes our green bell pepper.

I'm going to put a tiny bit more oil in there.

I can see that I didn't have quite enough to begin with.

Oil is an important ingredient, not just so it doesn't stick or even for flavor, it's a conductor of flavor.

Any time a little tiny pinch of salt, just for the vegetables, you want to season as you go.

I'm going to add the garlic in a minute, but first I want to get my Creole seasoning ready.

Here we have some hot paprika, some kosher salt, garlic, black pepper, onion powder, cayenne, oregano, and thyme, I'm going to mix these all up now.

I just wanted to show you what they were.

And this is the kind of spice mix they use at the famous Commander's Palace that Paul Prudhomme used on his blackened fish, that Emril puts into his essence, that all, you know, many of the New Orleans chefs have their own little twist on this mix of spices.

Okay, and herbs, their spices and herbs.

Here goes our garlic, and we're going to add a couple of teaspoons of the Creole mix.

And we don't need to cook it for too long, but you do need to cook it a little bit, just to sort of bring out, you know, waken up all those dried spices.

Any time you cook with dried spices or herbs you have to do that.

All right, so now I'm going to cut up my Andouille, is a wonderful sausage from Louisiana, and it's, I'm going to put my bay leaf in here, too, but this is one of those ingredients, it's very hard to find outside of Louisiana.

So, if you can't find it, a perfectly acceptable substitute and is actually what we're using today would be Kielbasa.

But if you can find it, by all means use it and you'll be happy.

(calm guitar music) In goes our Kielbasa in an Andouille suit.

All right, so here is our kidney beans and we've drained them and rinsed them, you know, get that goop off that they have in their can, and we're just going to add two cans.

And here is our six cups of stock.

We're going to put back in the ham, too, there we go.

All right, so we're going to bring this up to a boil and simmer it for about 15 minutes and then we're going to finish it off with the rice.

Okay, great way to use up leftover rice for this soup.

You can get both white and brown rice these days at your, when you order sushi or Chinese food.

So we're just going to add some of this, so it's cooked, you could also cook your own.

And all we need to do is just heat it, because that rice was cooked, so there we go.

Very, very hearty, husband loves this soup.

Got nice green salad to go with it.

I'm just going to put some chopped chives on top because I have them from my garden.

You could certainly use some sliced galleons if you wanted to.

All right, there it is, red beans and rice soup.

I'm sure this is going to become one of your favorites.

(rockabilly music) - [Narrator] I loved making these Southern dishes and learning more about Charleston style of cooking today.

Because when you dive down into the roots of Southern food, you discover every day traditional food isn't ordinary at all in the hands of these incredible chefs, it really is extraordinary.

Visit us online at saramoulton.com/weeknightmeals and on our YouTube channel.

Sara's Weeknight Meals is made possible by USA Rice, Sunsweet, Ninja, Chef's Choice and thanks to the generous support of... - [Female Voice] The 2016 Subaru Legacy.

With Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive plus 36 mpg, it pairs well with every kind of road.

Subaru, proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

(piano music)