Deen Family Cook Off

Hey y'all, I'm Paula Dean. It's a Dean family cook-off day and my sons and I are competing for top honors

Jamie's gonna be up first with his signature beef chili. This pot full of spicy beef and beans is always a big hit

But Bobby might just be the dark horse in the running with his simple and savory salmon fillets over couscous

And y'all don't worry about me Because I gotta plan up my sleazes

Gonna knock the socks off the judges I'm gonna be cooking up

My mama's mouth-watering short rib So judges, grab your forks And let the competition begin

Because the Dean family cooking Is coming your way Winner! Winner

No, it's not a victory yet. Winner! Winner! I don't want any victory signs

That's going to be for me. Guess what's going on today, y'all. Look at all my stuff

We're having a Dean family cook-off. Jamie's going to make a dish

Bobby's going to make a dish. And moi is going to make a dish

So we've got my beautiful daughter-in-law, Brooke. And somebody else is going to judge with you, too

Michael's going to be here with me. Michael. All right, who's going to start this Dean family cook-off

He is. See y'all, good luck. Okey-doke, I'm gonna stay and help him

cause I know he needs it. Yeah, well as you can see, this is a lot of stuff

It is a lot of stuff, so what can I do for you? It's not a complicated recipe, but it does have a lot of steps to it

It takes some time, but it's worth it. So, this is the first time we've ever made chili together

Oh no, it's not. No, I think it's the first time we've done it together. Surely it's not

So what we're gonna do, I like two meats in my chili. We're gonna do a ground beef

and we're gonna do some sausage. I like three. So if you brown the meat and then chop those onions

I'm going to get started down here. Okay, y'all. So I'm going to chop this celery

Y'all make sure, I know you've heard Mama say this before, y'all make sure and don't lose the leaves in the celery

All the flavor of celery are in these leaves, and it's really pretty in whatever you're cooking

Right, it's beautiful. It adds texture. It has a wonderful flavor. All of my peppers and onions and things like that

I really kind of like to leave them chunky. Just chunk them out

Don't be afraid to leave a big, nice square. Okay, I've got this garlic browned off

and this is a really good base to start with. I'm gonna add my green peppers and onions and celery. Mm-hmm

All right, all the meat's in the pot, Jamie. Okay, I'm gonna throw these onions in

and then you just have to cook this down for a minute. Love this, love it

Okay, Mama, do me a favor. Hand me the diced tomatoes, please. I'm going to put two large cans of diced tomatoes down in here

and with the juice, this is where we're going to get a lot of our liquid from

But if you would, hand me that other glass dish, Mom. Okay, and what is this, son

Whole tomatoes. I like to put the whole tomatoes in there that have already been peeled

Look at the texture. Okay, here comes the chili flavor. I use cumin, and I've talked to a lot of people, and they never use cumin

Really? Smell that. Doesn't that smell like it? Mm, yeah. I mean, that's what it is

You can't have a black bean without cumin. And I noticed you're putting black beans

You're putting... Kidney beans and chili beans. Chili beans. All I'm going to do is just pour this meat into the colander

Wow, that's pretty snappy. Just like that, yeah. Okay, so I probably have two tablespoons of cumin

and this is our sautéed vegetables and tomatoes. That's not the end of that

and a good bit of this chili powder. Takes a lot of chili powder

A lot. Four and a half ounces of chili powder. We'll go through every bit of that

And rather than try to bring all the flavor where you're seasoning after it's in the bowl

just incorporate it slowly through the dish. And we're going to slow cook this too

for a couple of hours, so it'll really soak it up. And this is going to bring a lot more

Oh, yeah. Yes. We're going to fold this meat in. And then I'm gonna dump our beans in

I like to drain these off, because there's nothing really appealing or tasty about a bean juice

And I leave the juice in. A different thing that I do that most people don't do

I love black beans. I put black beans in mine too. I really do some

Look at this beautiful pie. Oh it gorgeous I gonna dump the pinot beans in Don be discouraged because at this point what we gonna do is cover this up and the condensation is gonna drip down and that gonna make it a little bit juicier

and all the flavors are gonna incorporate. So as long as you got something that you taste

besides bland, it's gonna be good. If you wouldn't mind getting the cover

there's one last secret ingredient. Oh, there is. And it doesn't matter if it's, uh

You get out. As long as it's ice cold is the secret to this

You are... I know. Perfect. Now if you would cover that up

I thought you were going to put it in the pot. I put it in the other pot

We've got some already made, so let's swap it out and give this other a taste. Okay

So how long you had this cooking? I cooked this for about four hours

You don't want to put so much really that the chips are covered because they get so soggy

Just enough to kind of get them juicy. And then look at this

I'm going to put some of your favorite shredded cheese right on top of there

Big doll for the sour cream. A couple of these chopped up onions

Wow. How beautiful does this look? Oh, it looks yummy. The cheese and the sour cream

Oh, I love this on a rainy, chilly night. Chilly, get it

Look at that. I mean, that's really seriously delicious. Good luck beating this, Mama

I have to tell you, it is wonderful, Jamie. Mm-hmm. So I'm going to try to beat it, though, y'all

because I'm going to be coming up next. I'm going to be making my Mama's short ribs

and I'm going to serve it over a hot buttered rice. Welcome back to our first ever Dean Family Cook-Off

Can you believe it? Jamie's finished his amazing three-bean chili, and now it's Mama's turn to take over the stove

Jamie just finished making a wonderful pot of chili, and I really have to say it was very, very good

I wonder who he learned how to cook chili from. Listen, Lady Bird's even putting in her two cents worth

But I'm relying on an old standard that my mama used to make

and everybody just adored her short ribs. And I'm going to take my short ribs

and I'm going to toss them in house seasoning and seasoning salt

I want them to be big on flavor. The house seasoning, which is a cup of salt

a fourth of a cup of black pepper, a fourth of a cup of garlic powder

Now I'm just going to toss this into the flour, and I'm going to put in a couple of tablespoons

of oil in my cast iron Dutch oven, and I'm going to sear this off, and I'm not like going

to dredge this too, too much in flour, just enough to give it a little coat, and we're

going to brown these off. Now I remember mama cooking them in the oven, so that's the way I'm going to do mine today

And I especially like that way because you don't have to add as much liquid to it

because it's not sitting over a direct flame. So you don't have to worry about it burning, putting enough liquid in so that it won't burn

So I really like the oven method. And while that's browning, Okay

I'm just going to give this garlic a few whacks. Just enough to bust it up and let the flavors come out of it

So I'm gonna pour some beef consomme or either beef broth, whichever you choose to use

I'm gonna pour a little bit of that over the ribs. And then I'm gonna add a little bit of water

and I don't want to cook these like drenched. I don't want to drown them

I want that natural broth to come out of those ribs and I want them to kind of cook down

and be like in a natural gravy. I telling you what if Michael Groover if Michael Groover votes for chili or salmon he going to be hungry for a long time

No cookies for him. Okay, now our ribs are balling

All right, so I'm just going to take them out and transfer them to the casserole dish

Ooh. Ooh. They're smelling so good. And these are gonna cook down the longer they cook

the more they're gonna shrink up on us. All right, now I'm gonna take my fresh garlic

I'm just gonna toss that around on top of my meat. I'm gonna put me a few plugs of onion in there for the flavor

and I'm gonna ladle this wonderful broth over them. I'm gonna bake these at 350 for probably a couple of hours

So that's how easy short ribs are. Now I'm gonna just put this in the oven

and like I said, I'm gonna cook it for about two hours. It should be good and succulent and tender by then

In fact, I have some ready here. And let's just find out how good and succulent and tender

Look at them. All right, and I got some rice back here ready

Look at that beautiful rice. And it's just the way I like it

It's steaming. And I promised y'all hot buttered rice. So I'm gonna just put a little pat of butter

That butter just does something to that rice. Okay. Look at that

Ooh. You can see the way that meat has kind of shrunk down

And look how tender. All right. And I want to get in there

and you can see how beautifully thick and rich this natural juices have turned into

I just wanna ladle some of that over my rice. Look at that

Mama rocks! So, Jamie's chili was wonderful. Mama's short ribs are wonderful

Bobby's got to really come out here and strut his stuff. So all you single girls, stay tuned

because he's going to need all the rooting from y'all he can get, because he's cooking salmon and couscous

It's a Dean family cook-off, y'all

Now we've got Jamie's chili, my delicious short ribs, and I can't hardly wait to taste what Bobby's gonna cook

Mama? What, baby? I want you to know what the winning dish is gonna be

Short ribs? No, no, no, not at all. Chili? It might be, actually

But I'm going to show you what I do. Salmon. And I've got like three or four pieces of salmon here

and they're like probably four ounces a piece, three or four ounces a piece. Which is so good for you

It's so wonderful for you. And not only that, it's easy to cook

There's a couple of reasons why I'm doing this. It's really quick, it's really affordable

and it's really easy. And you can cook for one with this dish, which I do quite often, actually

All I did was put a little olive oil in the bottom of this dish so the salmon doesn't stick to it

And it's so simple. I just take a regular, you know, just a lime

Anything I can be doing for you? No, I don't think so. You can stand back and observe the winning dish

Just squeeze a lime over the salmon. You know how this goes together so well

I just love it. Mm-hmm. Well, you know, I've learned from you that your house seasoning is good for anything

including fish. And I was kind of surprised. It was sort of a bit of an experiment when I used it for the first time on the fish

I didn't know if I was going to ruin it or if it was going to be too strong, if it would go or whatever

But just a little, you know, I don't want to steal the flavor of the fish, so I'm not going to use a whole lot

You know, just that. A couple of pats of butter. You know, I might take that

I wouldn't use probably as much as you. What you doing cutting it in half? You know, don't really need that much. Firds

Don't really need that much, do you? That's going to melt down. I hate to tell you, but you ain't going to win using a little old teeny dab of butter

You don't think so? No. Watch my smoke. All right and the salmon and the couscous you really would want to get going at the same time sort of because they take about the same amount of time This is only this is probably 20 minutes on 350 so I going to go ahead and throw this in the oven I would be what are we going to do with all this What do you mean What you going to do with all this

Oh, that's afterwards. That's afterwards. Okay. So, you know, Bobby, salmon, I'm going to go ahead, what is in this pot

That is two and a quarter cups of chicken broth. Okay. So I'm going to add your couscous

Ten ounces of couscous. Okay. If you're kind of home alone and cooking for yourself, this is so simple

It takes less than 30 minutes. And like I said, it's really affordable, so one of my favorite things

All right, I think the fish is probably ready, so why don't you... Okay. This will make you so happy

Why don't you add some butter to the couscous for a little flavor? You want to? You might win

I may. With you on my team. Oh, it's so beautiful. I think that's exactly what this dish needs

And I've gotten... You know what? I have to tell you, this has become an acquired taste for me

I never really was a big fish fan, period. Uh-huh. But I kind of made myself try it, and I love it

Oh, good. I'm glad. And now? Your couscous looks good now. It looks perfect

What are you going to do to that now? Add diced tomatoes to it. Pretty much what you like

Right. There's no recipe. This is sort of a, I just, you know, put it together

Yeah. A little feta, crumble feta. I love feta. I do, too

It's such a great. I love, love, love feta. It's such a great flavor

Nothing to it. It's so simple. Feel free to add some of butter, and you know what

I have got some green onions here in the refrigerator. How about a little

Oh, that'd be, yeah, yeah, yeah, please do. I think that would be just yummy in there

That's wonderful. Okay, son, let's get you a big spoon. Okay. So we can really, like, pile that high up in the center of your plate

Okay. Because this is a simple dish. It's very simple. But we want the presentation

Mm-hmm. You know, we want that presentation beautiful. I'm helping you win

Thanks, Mom. Doesn't that look delicious? And maybe the piece of fish across there

Yum. It tastes wonderful. It's quick, and it's cheap. And it's easy to cook for one

I'm going to help you. And I do the same thing. Whenever I get finished with it, I always sprinkle the leftover tomatoes on top

and I always add a little bit more crumbled feta to it. It's so simple, and it's impossible to mess up

It's really, really a winner. I wouldn't go so far as to say that, because you know what

Folks still love meat and taters. Well, I'll tell you what, Mama, we'll find out who loves what next

Stay tuned to watch me take the crown. In case y'all have just tuned in here at the tail end of the show

Jamie and Bobby and I have had so much fun today. We've had a Dean family cook-off

The judges today are going to be judging Jamie's homemade chili, Bobby's salmon over couscous

and my mama's wonderful tender short ribs over buttered rice. I think I'm gonna taste my husband's chili first, so. Okay

Done, look awesome, y'all. Isn't that awesome? Pretty good. The winner is

Well, not good. Now try the ribs. Y'all try the short ribs

Oh, that's not even good. Spit that out. It'd be most dish good

Reel it in, baby. Reel it in. What? I love it. Delicious

All right, now y'all taste the winner. Just delicious. Okay, this is my salmon, and it's just salmon filets over couscous with some diced tomatoes and a little feta cheese in there

And it looks so good. In fact, it looks like the number one dish on the table

Not. Spit that out, baby. Spit that out. That is delicious

You think we should try it again? I think we should. I think y'all should, too

What's going on here? What's your favorite, Brooke? Well, they are all extremely delicious

But. Oh. But. Chili. And baby, I'm not trying to hurt your feelings

I think I might like the salmon. I think I might. The salmon

And it's healthy, too, right, Bob? It is, Brooke. I like all of them

But believe it or not, I think I like the chili the best. Well, you know what, Michael? What

A victory for my children is a victory for me. So I'm thrilled that they won

And if y'all believe that BS, stay tuned for tomorrow's show. Love and kisses and best dishes, y'all

From our cook-off to yours. Thank you