Wait, didn’t they have chicken thighs LAST WEEK? Anyway, it was on the ingredients list again this time (first round), and unlike the previous episode, contestants actually cut the chicken into smaller pieces so that it would cook quicker. Unfortunately, judges were still left with undercooked (and therefor inedible) chicken. Other ingredients in round one included lemonade concentrate (GROSS!), quail eggs and croissant (they’re really recycling ingredients, aren’t they?). Another dish made was chicken thighs crusted with panko and croissant, served with an arugula salad (using the lemonade as a dressing), which the judges liked (but thought the egg was a bit “lost”) as well as a pan-roasted chicken with salad and hard boiled quail eggs. This dish was served with salad, using croissant as croutons and the lemonade as dressing (of course). The chicken was well-cooked, but judges didn’t think the salad was “well-dressed” and that some of the eggs still had shells. The remaining two were lemonade grilled chicken pasta with croissant croutons (judges thought the pasta was overly sweet and that the dish was much too big – this was actually one of the reasons why the contestant was chopped) and a lemonade chicken thigh with fried quail eggs (chicken was undercooked, but the eggs were great).
Burdock root: One of the mandatory ingredients in Round Two
Jelly beans were part of the mandatory ingredients list in the second round, along with pork chops, parsley and burdock root (a root vegetable that kind of looks like a cross between ginger root and carrots). I probably would have made grilled pork chops with tabule (because that’s one of the first things I think of when I see parsley), using jelly beans as a “dressing,” but that’s not what the chefs did. Instead, we saw pan-roasted pork chop with a whiskey jelly bean glaze and served with asparagus and king oyster mushrooms (judges thought the burdock root was undercooked and that the presentation was lacking. The plate was a bit small, so the huge pork chop covered the beautiful colours of the vegetables) and a grilled pork chop with creamed burdock root. This dish was served with apples, but the contestant ran out of time and was not able to get sauce on all of the plates. This was not the only thing the contestant was criticized for. Judges thought the burdock was too “fibrous” and that the pork chop was a bit overcooked. The third dish was another pan-roasted pork chop, this time, maple and a lemon jelly bean salsa. The judges loved what this contestant did with the jelly beans, but the plating was a little on the sloppy side. While this contestant was spared, the one who used the “wrong plate” was chopped.
For dessert, the basket contained butternut squash, Gruyere, mixed citrus peel (you know, the stuff they make fruitcake with) and long peppercorn. The dishes were quite interesting! One chef made a butternut squash mousse with what he called a mixed peel “dirt” (the dried fruit with nuts and seeds – he really could have come up with a better-sounding name) as well as a crème fraîche. Though the judges seemed to like the texture, at least one thought the crème fraîche and Gruyere did not “match” the dish. The other remaining chef made a butternut squash crumble served with peppercorn ice cream. Though the judges thought it was a bit “deflated” and “soggy,” it was “different” enough to make crown the chef the Chopped Champion this week!
Image credit: BruceBlock /iStock Photo
