Get Cookin'

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Apollo's Best Dishes

I'm your guest host, Bobby Dean. Today, Bobby has selected the menu

and it's some of the best recipes the family has to offer

Take it away, son. We've got the perfect quick meal. Starting with one of my favorite ingredients, y'all, mayonnaise

We got Bobby's roasted spicy mayonnaise chicken with a grilled vegetable basket

Gotta try this recipe. It's on this world. And my niece, Kari, makes a list with her creamy corn chowder

Look how beautiful. And, of course, cousin Johnny has got dessert with her famous red velvet whoopie pies

Are you ready? I am so ready, son. Y'all come on in

Pick you out an easy chair. We got the fire going. And we're just going to entertain y'all today with these wonderful recipes

Take it away, son. We're doing two really simple recipes today. They're right up my alley

Starting with one of my favorite ingredients, y'all, mayonnaise. You can see your influence

This is a roasted spicy mayo chicken. Okay. And we're going to do a grilled vegetable basket

So if you'll start putting together our rub, it's going to be a half cup of mayonnaise

We're going to zest a couple of lemons. We've got paprika and celery seed, salt and pepper

How do you say that word? Paprika? Paprika is how I say it

I have to recognize how many syllables when you say it. All right, I'm putting in two teaspoons of that

Right. And you've got a teaspoon of celery seed. There you go

This is cayenne pepper. That's cayenne, so go light on that. I would say maybe half a teaspoon

Just a pinch. And for this, to go with these chicken breasts, I'm going to do a really nice, like, grilled vegetables

Oh, I love it. Some nice fresh stuff out of your garden here. Beautiful red bell pepper

And those nice cremini mushrooms. Yes, ma'am. Some nice zucchini. Just going to cut these into big rings, you know

The perfect size for grilling. So, son, I'm adding a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of pepper

That's right. I learned to do a mayonnaise rub on chicken through you. Yes. We do that beer in the rear chicken and we rub the mayo on it

Right. It really gets the spices to stick to the outside of the chicken real well

Right. And it also will give it a nice golden brown color when it comes out of the oven. Because mayonnaise is mainly oil, so it's like rubbing it down with a flavored oil rather than just a plain

All right, now I'm going to zest. Two lemons. Oh, lemons. And you want your zest fine, don't you, Bobby

Yes, ma'am. You don't want it in big old chunks. And I've really, really gotten to where I like lemon zest on pretty much all my meats

but on poultry and fish for sure. Yeah, well, it gives just that little kicky freshness to it

Bobby really loves to cook light, y'all. He's kind of really taking a different road from his mother

I think I cook so simply because it's just me that I'm cooking for most of the time

So I don't want to cook a whole bunch of stuff for just me. Well, you know, son, I find it hard to cook for just me and Michael

That's why when I'm really calling myself cooking, I call all of you kids over

To me, son, it's easier to cook for 14 rather than two or three

Right. Need to grab a pan for these vegetables. I've got a store-bought balsamic dressing

I'm just going to toss and cut these vegetables in it. Yeah. It tastes real, real good. So, Bobby, get those vegetables in the pan, and don't forget to slice up that Vidalia onion

Now, I'm going to just spray this just a little bit, son. All right. Whoa, we got the kitchen smoking

Just going to coat these vegetables in that balsamic. Looks fabulous. Okay

Here, let me help you. Let me do it with my hands. I love just getting in there with my fingers and getting it all done

Like I said, these are my recipes. Uh-huh, but you know mamas

I know mine. We tend to be bossy. I don't mean to be

It's totally okay. I love to watch you cook. Okay. I love to watch you cook and eat

Awesome. You got the rub? Yes, I've got my rub. Because I'm going to be ahead of you with the vegetables now

I know it. Well, I just want to wash my hands. I'm going to go ahead and put these on

All right, so my chicken's in here, I'm assuming. Yes, ma'am, bottom drawer

Okay. Ooh, you got four big breasts. Beautiful eight-ounce chicken breasts. Yes

And I guess you want me to just coat. You know what to do

We're going to put that rub on the chicken, and you're probably going to end up using your hands rather than anything

You know I will. Jamie likes to tell the story that I was the only mother

that taught my 14-year-old boys to rub their meat. You know what

Jamie does like to say that. Why does he say that? quite a lot when I'm with him on the road

I think, I don't know. But I do. I guess there's truth to it

Yes, see, now you can't do this if you're using a brush, y'all

There's only one tool that God gave us that does the perfect job on this, and that's

your ten digits. That mayonnaise is gonna keep it so moist, y'all. Plus, mayonnaise

doesn't come to the table without a lot of flavor So you got that wonderful ooh Bobby All right I gonna wash my hands Vegetables are grilling nicely

You want me to put it on this? Yes, ma'am. Okay. This paprika is gonna help this chicken to brown

Smellin' good. I love this. Looks delicious. All right, in the oven, 425 for 20 minutes, y'all

That's right. And we're going to cook that chicken breast just to perfection

That's right. When we come back, the veggies should be ready, right? Look at them

They look great now. They smell delicious. Coming up, we've got a soup pack full of flavor, y'all

Ooh, Bobby. Isn't that corny? It's very good. And we've got Bobby's chicken coming out of the oven

It looks beautiful. And later, we're spreading around a little family love

And then you take your tongue and you go like this. Whoopee

Here we are, y'all, back in Mama's Kitchen. We're making Kari's Creamy Corn Chowder

And it's really, really simple. Yes, love those simple recipes, y'all. I'm chopping up one medium onion

And I'm going to reserve three cups of the water that we boiled this corn in

and that's going to be sort of the base for our corn chowder

So, Mama, we got six ears of corn here. All right, now I'm going to take a couple of tablespoons of butter, Bobby

All right. So I'm going to get my butter ready for my onion

and I'm able to use a Vidalia because they're still hanging around

All right, so I've got the three cups of water here. I'm going to put it off to the side, so when the butter and onions start going real well, we'll come back to that

I'm going to move that pot a little closer to us, son. All right, so I've got my one onion going

A neat trick that you showed me. Learned this from you. Actually, I learned that from Michael Chiarello, y'all

Well, I learned it from you. From his show. So when you get those cut off, Bobby, then take your knife and go back down and milk that piece of corn and get all that good corn juice

There you go. Just like that. And you can see the milk coming out of that corn

We're going to get every bit of that flavor. it. Gosh, I love corn on the cob. I do too, son. All right, so I'm going to need a half

a cup of heavy cream, so I'm going to go ahead and get that measured. And that cream is just

ooh, I went a little bit over. Well, that ain't going to hurt anything. A teaspoon of

salt and pepper in with my onions. And we're going to, you know what, we're going to add

something else nice to it too that's going to help. What's that? I don't know, down there in that bottom

Oh. See what you got down there. We do live in Savannah. Yes

I've got a pound of beautiful, beautiful shrimp. So they've already been peeled, y'all

I'm just going to pop the tails off. These are so fresh, Bobby

They look beautiful. They do, and they smell so good. You know, if you have shrimp

put them in because it's delicious. If you don't, that's all right. You can just do corn chowder

All right. So the tails are off just that quick, and I'm going to dice our shrimp up

I'm probably going to get five pieces out of each shrimp, so it's going to be shrimpy

All right. And we're going to drop these in last. We're not going to have to precook them or anything, because it's not going to take but a second for these to get done

since we're doing them in smaller pieces, and your corn's just rocking right along by it

It is. All the corn is done and off the cob, so I'm going to go ahead and put it into the pot

Look how many shrimp we've got, son. All right. All right. You can go ahead and put your..

Put the water in there. Three cups of water. This is the water that we boiled the corn in. It's going to give it that real corny, corny taste

And I'm going to add two cups of chicken stock. You think it'll reduce a little bit and some of it will..

Oh, yeah, we'll let it reduce a little bit. Oh, it's looking so good

Yeah, it is. It smells good, too. I want to taste it just for saltiness

Let's see if I have a spoon in here. No, I don't have a spoon, but I've got an ice cream scoop

Remember, y'all, I'm from the school of make do. Oh, look, it looks like a smile

It fits my mouth just perfect. Mmm. Keep it. It's corny

Oh, man. Isn't that corny? It's very good. I'm going to cut up three green onions, and I'm going to use every bit of it, all the way down to the white

Okay, great. And that'll add beautiful color. Color and some more flavor

I'm going to drop the shrimp in, son. Okay. All right, now I'm going to add my cream

All right, we're going to cook this for a little while, like 10 minutes

Look how beautiful. Looks like oyster stew with corn in it I was just about to say you could put oysters in there Yes Or you could probably drop a couple of red potatoes in there too do you think Oh yes Wouldn hurt anything

Wouldn't hurt a thing. All right, Bobby. Seems looking good. Yeah, I mean, we're looking at 30 more seconds

So if you'll get out our chicken. All right. I'm going to come down here and I'm going to plate up these wonderful vegetables for us

Oh, you know what? I think I'm going to wait. I think I'm going to put the chicken down first

Oh, Bobby, it looks beautiful. Careful, that pan's hot. And look, it's not overcooked at all

It's perfect. It's going to be perfection. And I'm going to put our vegetables on there

Why don't you start ladling up our soup? Gosh, I'm swallowing so hard

Son, this looks delicious. Gosh, it does look good. I wish y'all were so here to taste it

So tell me what you think. It's hot, isn't it? So, so good

And just perfect for this... So simple. ...kind of nippy day out

Oh, my gosh. Can't wait to taste your chicken. Mmm. Try the vegetables

Mmm. Man. Oh, Bobby. Mmm. That chicken is crazy. It's the mayonnaise

Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. That's my kind of meal right here

Oh, Bobby. I think I'm really impressed. Mm. Y'all. Mm-hmm

Gotta try this recipe. It's honest world. Up next, y'all, we share my cousin Johnny's recipe for one of Bobby's childhood favorites

Jamie and me would come in there and just attack these whoopie pies, y'all

Y'all want to stick around, because we're filling them with... this fluffy, over-the-top, delicious stuff

Okay, y'all, as promised, Mom and I are doing a great dessert here in the kitchen

and it is direct from our cousin Johnny in North Georgia up around Atlanta, and it is a red velvet whoopie pie

You know, I don't think she was making those every day, and then I went and ran my mouth

And begged for them? And I think she has to make them almost every day now

It was just one of those special desserts that she'd do maybe once or twice a week

But I'm telling you, these things are incredible. I'm going to start out with a half a cup of canola oil

I'm going to make the red portion of the red velvet cake here. And I am measuring up three cups of all-purpose flour

And I'm going to get this out of my way now that I've got it measured. Teaspoon of vinegar

White vinegar. And I'm going to add a teaspoon of baking soda

A teaspoon of vanilla. And one and a half teaspoons of baking powder

Whole container of red. You've got to have a lot of food coloring

We're going to make these really red. I'm going to add two tablespoons of cocoa

because every red velvet cake has just a touch of cocoa. So there we go

There's all my dry ingredients. And I'm just going to sit them through

Look how nice and deep red that is. That's going to be beautiful. So now I've got everything sifted here, son

I'm going to beat together two eggs and a cup and a half of sugar

I'm going to measure out one cup of buttermilk, and then we're going to alternately add our dry ingredients with our buttermilk

Don't you just love these old glass bottles? When y'all were little boys, when y'all were babies, we had milk delivery

That's back when milk came to your door. in glass containers like that, right? And you had the little silver

box that sat outside your door and the milkman would come twice a week and

leave y'all's milk so I could make your formula. It's hard to believe I'm old enough that

that was going on. I know, I know, but... I don't remember that part

But son, guess what? You are, and time flies when you're having a good time. I'm moving

on along here. I'm going to need for you to add in our mixtures to this. Okay, I'm going to..

Oh, and please don't get red all over me, okay? Or me

Or you. You'll look like Christmas. Or a guy with red food coloring all over his green shirt

All right, I'm going to make sure we get every bit of that. Get it. We're going to alternately add our wet and our dry

We always start out with dry and end with dry. It makes a creamier batter

Okay. All right. These are so incredibly delicious, y'all. Well, you know, I've eaten, you made a lot of these when we were kids

I've had my share of whoopie pies. Believe me, Jamie and I, I know that y'all all have heard the stories about mom would make these and wrap them in, you know, in a plastic wrap

And stuff the crisper drawer in our refrigerator full of these things

And Jamie and me and the rest of the yard apes is what our parents called us when we were kids would come in there and just attack these whoopie pies y and those things are responsible for I think my first 30 too many pounds are from the whoopie pies that mom was making Listen I can see this gang of neighborhood boys y

They would hit that back screen door. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam

My mama's got chocolate gobs. Y'all come on in. And them passing them around. And they did too

didn't they? They would come on in. They would come on in, but I loved it

when my house was full. And this is going to sound real weird, y'all

But I loved it when my boys were teenagers. We used to have such a good time with y'all

We did. All right, you ready to tray them up and put them in the oven? Yes, let's tray them up

I'm going to do a light spray. Okay. And we're going to use like an ice cream scoop, y'all

because we want to make sure that all of these are the identical size

because remember, we're going to make this creamy, wonderful filling, and we're going to put them together like sandwiches

Yes. So here we go, Bob. Do it. I'm ready to put them in the oven. So one level

You're going to get about six, probably six per sheet. Yeah, we're going to do like six per sheet

Okay. I'm going to put these in the oven, okay? Okay. And I'll get the other sheet going

Y'all, we're going to put these in a 350-degree oven, and we're going to cook them anywhere from eight to ten minutes

It just depends. You know, all ovens can vary, so you'll have to just watch these closely

because we're making little cakes. Right? Yes. Coming up, don't miss the best and yummiest part

of our whoopie pies. Oh, yum. So whoopie good. Y'all, welcome back

You've made it just in time because Bobby and I are making our cousin Johnny's

red velvet whoopie pies. Let me catch y'all up. We have cooked our whoopie pies

They have cooled. I went ahead and did up a flour and milk roux

And this is going to get real, real thick. So I'm fixing to show you the consistency

Because we don't want this filling to run out of our whoopie pie

So, Bobby, we're going to need one stick of butter right here

Well, you know we have two, don't you? Yes, always an extra

And I'm going to measure up one cup of sugar. Okay. And I'm going to add a half a cup of solid shortening

This is going to be real thick and real fluffy and creamy

And you just beat the devil out of that, son. Got it. It's going. And so now I'm going to add our cooled mixture of the milk and the flour

all right now I'm gonna add a teaspoon of vanilla flavoring we'd be careful

that stuff pours out fast I'm gonna add just a wee bit more sugar okay I probably added another fourth of

a cup so when y'all are making this you can judge with your tongue if you like

it sweeter or not, okay? That's delicious. You ready to make some

I'm ready. I got us some cold milk. Bobby and I love chug-a-lugging

A glass of cold milk. So let's bring our bowl of fluff over

We have cooled our whoopie pies. Now we're just gonna take some of our filling, y'all

These are perfect. Aren't they beautiful? Like little cookies. Yes. Now, we're just going to put our custard

in there and put our whoopie pies together. Look at that. Brings back so many memories

It does. I'm going to eat mine. And then I'll go back and I'll... Whoa

Do you like it? Look. Mash that down, let that stuff kind of come out

Oh, man, it tastes just like the ones that you made when we were kids. Uh-huh. And then you take your tongue and you go like this

Clean it up? Mm-hmm. Mm. Really good. And then nobody else wants a bite

The way you think. Mm-mm-mm. These are great. Look at that ice-cold milk

Mm. Cheers. To you. I like the glasses, too. These are old, old vintage glasses

Aren't they great? Thank you for... I know it's hard to quit, isn't it

Great time of day, Bobby. We'll be. I had so much fun in the kitchen with you today

We'll see y'all next time. Bye, y'all. So good. I love them

you