How to Make Key Lime Pie and Citrus Chicken | Cook's Country Full Episode (S16 E3)

Today, on Cook's Country, Morgan heads to the grill and makes Julia smoked citrus chicken. I share the legend of Aunt Sally and the key lime pie. And Christy makes an outstanding version of key lime pie. That's all right here on Cook's Country. Back in 1975, in the coastal town of Guasave, Mexico, a gentleman by the name of Juan Francesco Ochoa decided to stop selling shoes in the family shoe business and start selling his family's recipe for citrus marinated grilled chicken. And it was a huge success. He turned the restaurant into a chain known as El Pollo Loco, or the crazy chicken. And even today, you can find hundreds of these restaurants throughout Mexico and California. And inspired by that recipe, today Morgan's going to try to recreate it at home. So actually at El Pollo Loco, they call their chefs grill masters. So I'm after the title grill master today. To get there, I'm starting with a really flavorful marinade. Here I have a quarter of a cup of olive oil, a tablespoon of kosher salt, and then I've got four garlic cloves. I want some garlic here. And onto the citrus. So here I have a teaspoon and a half of orange zest. So at El Pollo Loco, it's thought that they use pineapple juice and a few other actual juices, but I wanted this to be something I could throw in the fridge for an hour or overnight. And so I didn't want any juice that would actually make the chicken tough. So I just went with zest here. It gives a huge punch of flavor, some nice floralness. This is a teaspoon of lemon zest. And then I also have some spice. So here I have a teaspoon and a half of cumin, three quarters of a teaspoon of cinnamon. I have a half teaspoon of pepper and an eighth teaspoon of cayenne. So just a little kick. All right. Just whisk them up. Now set this aside. And this is a citrus and smoke chicken. So here I have wood chips. I have one cup, and I'm just going to fold this into a wood chip packet. And I'm just going to eyeball it, but you're going for something roughly eight by four inches here. Now I'm going to cut two two-inch slits. So easy. So now, the chicken. I have one four and a half pound chicken here, and I'm going to break it down for about three pounds of pieces. Okay. I like to start with the legs. So I'll do one little slash here. And then I actually flip the chicken over, bend it back. And I put my hand here where the oyster is, in the back of it. And then I'll do a little cut here. Ah, so you get the oyster attached to the leg. Yeah. So the oyster, chefs know, is one of the best parts, so you don't want to lose it. And then I'll do the same on this side. So I'll do a little slash here. You can just cut right where that fat line is, so you don't actually end up cutting through any meat. And then again, you just pop it back. And then again, I'll go straight line back. And then I'll use my knife, and I'll put it actually against the backbone, so to avoid hitting any of the oyster. And I save that delicious meat. And then I like to take the wings next. So I'll actually just use the weight of the chicken to sort of help guide me here. Now do the wings get grilled alongside the rest of the chicken? So in this recipe they don't, but I'm surely not going to throw away those wings, so I'm going to save them. And then I like to remove the backbone for this. I just use a chef's knife. I like to get in there with the back of the knife. I'm going to save the backbone. So then I'm going to cut through the breastbone. And again, I'm just using my chef's knife here, because it is a little more work to get through. And then I'm going to cut out this blade bone. Use the back of the knife again, and put some pressure on it. Okay, so then I'm going to actually also cut these breasts in half. So let's see, let's do that. And then same with my leg and thigh. So I like to flip it over, and look for where this fat line runs, and sometimes you have to pull back the skin a little bit. You just cut right along there. If you need to, you can bend it just a little bit. And then you honestly don't even have to cut through bone if you do it, if you hit the right spot. It's okay if you do cut a little bit though. I'm going to make some slashes in the chicken. When I marinate it, the salt's going to actually be making it juicier, but I do want that citrus and garlic and warm spice to get in the meat. I'm going to do two slashes in each piece, about a half inch deep. Okay, so I'm just going to add these in here, and give it a nice toss. I just like using my hands, I'm already covered in chicken, so why not? So I just want to make sure everything gets nice and coated, and then will you cover it for me? I bet. Since my hands are a little chickeny? Yep. Since I don't actually have citrus juice in there, this can actually go up to 24 hours, and it won't get mealy or anything, it'll stay nice and juicy. It starts getting a little salty after 24 hours. Okay. But yeah, you can do this anywhere 1 to 24. I want a lot of flavor here, so we're going 24 hours. All right, you wash your hands, I'll put this in the fridge. Okay, Julia, it's a beautiful day for grilling. It is. So, let's get this grill set up. Okay. I have my grill, and I'm going to put a wood chip packet in here. So the grill's not hot at this point? No, no, no. Very cold, I can stick my hands wherever I want, not going to burn myself. And I am putting the wood chip packet right here on the primary burner. Okay. So now I'm going to turn it on. The flame's running right there, I want that to get as much heat as it possibly can. Gotcha. I'm going to let this preheat for 15 minutes. Okay, so all burners are on at this point? All the burners are on, all are on high. Okay, so I want it to preheat for a good 15 minutes, that'll get the wood chip packet nice and smoky, it'll get my grill nice and hot, and then we'll be ready to cook our chicken. All right. It smells nice and smoky. It does. I know, and you can see, we got some smoke coming, we're going, we're rolling. So I'm going to turn these two burners off. So I'm going to keep this one on high, and then I'm going to clean and oil my grate. Of course, it's important to start with a nice, clean grill, and time to add the chicken. There's a little geometry that goes on here. I want to put all the thighs and drumsticks closer to the flame. That makes sense. Yeah, they can handle a little bit more heat than the breast, and then the breast pieces I'm going to tuck back here over, as far away from the heat as I can. These I only want to get to 160 degrees, so I want to keep them in this nice, gentle part of the grill. I notice you're keeping the thin side of the breast all the way right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is like the most prone to overcooking. I want that to be like as protected as it can. Smart. And skin side up. Right now, I'm really just going to let that skin render a little bit. Later, I'm going to worry about char. But right now, I'm just trying to get the smoke happening, get the chicken nice and cooked through. I'm going to cover this. I'm going to watch the grill's heat. I want it between 350 and 400 degrees. So I am going to keep this burner on high, but if I need to, I can adjust it, or I can even turn on a second burner. 350 to 400. I'm also going to be cooking it until the chicken registers 160 for the breast, and 175 for the thighs. Got it. So that'll take about 25 minutes. I want to start checking it at 22, just to see. I don't want to overcook anything. Okey-doke. I feel like we're in California. We got the smoky vibes. I can, like, smell the citrus and the spice. Okay. So let's check it out. Okay. Let's see this guy. Okay. So this one's not quite looking like it's there yet, but that's fine. I want to check them and see where they're all at. I want to take them off as they're ready. Right. Okay. So that one's perfect. That one's 162. So I'm going to pull it off and put it on this plate. Let me check the rest of them. And then for any that aren't ready, I'm just going to let them keep going until they come to town. Makes sense. Okay. So we've taken all the chicken off. While it's actually all safe to eat, it's not beautiful. So I'm actually going to char it. So this time I'm going to take it and I'm going to put it all skin side down. So I'm going to try to get that skin nice and charred. And you're going right over the grill packet. You're not worried about that? Not worried about that at all. So I'm definitely trying to concentrate this over the primary burner. So over the high heat. I want to get some nice color here. I'm just going to keep this open this whole time. I can keep a good eye on it. Make sure nothing's getting too dark. I can move them around as I want. So it's going to take about three minutes for them to get some nice color. I want them to look like grilled and smoked chicken. Makes sense. Morgan, that chicken is stunning. Oh, Julia. Look at that. I know. It's like burnished. It's like a little. Yes. I kind of love that with this sort of a recipe, you get a little bit of that nice amber color from the smoke. But you also get a little bit of this like nice caramel-y, mahogany. Oh, it's gorgeous. Okay, I'm going to turn this off. And let's see. We tend this with foil. It'll take about 10 minutes to rest, and then time for us to eat. All right. The chicken's been resting 10 minutes. Now. It smells so good. It does smell so good. But I want to make it look just as good. So honestly, this is really mostly about aesthetics. I mean, I do like having a little zhuzh of orange juice or lemon juice at the end. But it's also just like I want people to know what they're eating. So I'm just going to decorate this all over. It is very clear that this is citrus chicken. Yeah. Well, I do like it when you bring something to the table, people immediately know what to expect. Mm-hmm. We're giving them some clues. And I expect white and dark meat. Okay. Well, hey. I got you. I'm going to grab some citrus pieces. Yeah. I'm going to do the same. I'm going to match you over here. So the citrus, do you put it on the chicken? Because that's what I'm tempted to do. I think you should do that. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Look at that. A little extra. I mean, it's going to be plenty moist. Yeah. But get a little extra citrus in there. I go right for the drumstick. I'm like a little kid. Mm. Mm-hmm. It's really well-seasoned. You get some of that spice. You get some of that citrus. I also like that the skin, it's not crispy, but it's rendered. It's really nice. And it's like not flabby at all. It almost has that sticky quality of well-rendered skin that's been marinated. I know. It makes you do a little handshake. And I taste the cinnamon. It's just ever so faint. It's a backbone. But the cumin, the cinnamon, the garlic, and then the citrus. I might try my breast piece to make sure that white meat is nice and juicy. Same. Mm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, letting it sit in that salt overnight, that helps keep this really nice juiciness. Morgan, thank you for showing me how to make this. Of course. Thank you for grilling with me. My pleasure. If you want to make this smoky, citrusy chicken, start by marinating the chicken with some spices, add wood chips to the grill for smoke, and serve with citrus wedges. From Cook's Country, our nod to El Pollo Loco, smoked citrus chicken. This is amazing. Did you know that with our digital all-access membership, you can stream every season of Cook's Country and gain access to more exclusive content from the entire America's Test Kitchen family? That's anytime, anywhere, and always ad-free. That's right. With our digital all-access membership, you'll unlock our delicious and rigorously tested recipes, along with expert equipment and ingredient reviews, available at home or on the go with our mobile app. For more Cook's Country favorites, scan the QR code or visit CooksCountry.com to start your free trial. Okay, let's get back to cooking. Sounds good. Historians and cookbook authors have long held two theories about the creation of key lime pie. One story says the tangy dessert was created by the manufacturer of canned milk. Another possibility is that key lime pie is a riff on icebox lemon pie. Today, a 19th century cook known as Aunt Sally is celebrated as the inventor of key lime pie. I wrote about her after stumbling upon a legend at a Key West bed and breakfast called Amsterdam's Curry Mansion Inn. Aunt Sally's real name was Sarah Jane Lowe, and she worked as the cook in the home of a ship provisioner named William Curry. Among other things, Curry brought condensed milk to the Keys, and some say that Aunt Sally got the inspiration for her recipe from local fishermen. In the late 1800s, fishermen in southern Florida would put together meals on their skiffs by mixing stale Cuban bread with easy-to-store condensed milk and wild turtle or bird eggs. They squeezed juice from local key limes so that the acidity would both cook the eggs and add flavor. The story goes Aunt Sally turned their creation into a tangy pie. By the 20th century, the pie's popularity spread beyond the Florida Keys, and today at Cook's Country, our version of the classic dessert features a tangy custard base and a pillowy meringue topping. Want more new recipes and stories from Cook's Country? Then sign up for our Cook's Country email newsletter. It's free. Our newsletter takes you behind the scenes with the people and the recipes changing the way America cooks. Plus, you'll also get a sneak peek of upcoming recipes from the magazine, beloved recipes from previous seasons, and so much more. Just scan the QR code or visit CooksCountry.com to sign up and start getting your free email newsletter today. Way back in the 1960s, a Florida state representative named Bernie Pappy Jr. floated a fine to be imposed upon anyone that would sell a key lime pie that didn't use key limes. Now, there's no law on the books today, thankfully, but it does beg the question, do you have to use key limes to make a key lime pie? Well, let's ask Christy, because she is here with all the answers. I hope. I hope so, too. But actually, the lime juice is not the only controversy with this pie. No. No, there's also debates that rage over what kind of pie crust to make. Uh-oh. And do you meringue or not meringue? So, with no clear mandate, we decided that we would develop a recipe that had a soft but set filling that really kind of straddled the fine line between tart and sweet. So, to start with the crust, we love a graham cracker crust. Yes. And I have six ounces of graham crackers that I've broken into one-inch pieces. It's about 11 crackers. We're going to start there. We love the sweet flavor and also that kind of crystalline texture you get from graham crackers. Sounds like short crust. Yes. But we're going to up the buttery, salty ante by adding some pretzels. I've got two ounces of mini pretzel twists. It's about 35 pretzels, if you want to count them. I do. Yes. And we're going to add that to the mix. And that extra bit of salt is really going to not only balance the sweetness, but it's going to make that lime flavor even more pronounced. Excited about that. I also have a quarter cup of packed light brown sugar. Okay. And a quarter teaspoon of salt. Gotcha. We're going to process this for about 30 seconds until it's very finely ground. Okay. That's pretty good. See how it's all nicely broken up? Got a fine texture. So, now we'll add the butter. This is eight tablespoons of melted, unsalted butter. Now, we're just going to pulse this about eight times just to make sure that it's all incorporated, everything looks nice and sandy. Now, I have a nine-inch pie plate, and you really need to use a sturdy pie plate. This is not a place to use aluminum pie plates because this is going to be a substantial custard inside the crust. Oh, right. So, it needs support and depth. Now, you know our favorite way to press a graham cracker crust into a pie plate is to use a dry measuring cup. I kind of scooch and try to get a nice, even bottom. This is going to be nice and thick all the way around. Nice. So, once I get the bottom, I kind of start to go up the edge, and I usually use my finger to know where the top of the pie crust is. A little finger blockade there. Yes. Now, I am going to put this on a ribbons baking sheet. Okay. To put it in the oven, and I have the oven set to 350 degrees with the rack in the middle position, and we'll just bake this until the crust is set and it's starting to get nice and fragrant, about 17 minutes. Bridget, as you can see, we have our lovely baked pie crust. It smells great, so that's all ready for us. I just have it on a wire rack. It can cool a little bit. It doesn't have to be hot when we add the custard to it, so it's just fine hanging out here. Most key lime pie custards start with sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks. Right. And that's where we're going to start. Okay. So, I have one and a half cups of sweetened condensed milk, and that will require opening two cans. I'll pay that price. Add it to your coffee. That's right. Yes, exactly. So, we'll add those four large egg yolks, and they're obviously going to add some richness to the custard, but we're also going to add six tablespoons of heavy cream just to add a little extra richness, make sure that it's nice and silky. So, now, we need to add some lime juice. You could use key limes. We have some key limes here. They definitely add a more floral, nuanced flavor, although we did find it was a little astringent in the custard, and you need three times as many key limes to get this same amount of liquid. Right. So, we're using six Persian limes, three quarters of a cup of juice. Just regular limes. Love it. And then we are adding an eighth of a teaspoon of salt. So, just whisk this together until everything's incorporated, and that's it. Just making sure those egg yolks are broken and everything's nice and smooth. Okay. So, I'm just going right into my pie crust. I left the pie on the baking sheet, and we'll use that to go into the oven, too. Fantastic. Now, we'll go back into our 350-degree oven, and we'll bake this until the outer edge of the filling is starting to set, but the center is still a little bit jiggly when we wiggle it. About 30 minutes. Okay. This is what we're looking for. See, you can see that it's starting to set around the edges. Yeah. But if you give it a little jiggle, it's still loose in the center. That just means that it's not going to overbake as it continues to carry over cook. Okay. Yep, makes sense. I will transfer the pie plate directly to a wire rack and let it cool to room temperature about an hour, and then I'll transfer it to the refrigerator, and we want to chill it for at least four hours. If you want to do it ahead of time, you can chill it for up to 24 hours, but you'd want to put some greased plastic over the top of it so you don't get a skin. No pudding skin. Now, Bridget, a meringue topping isn't necessarily traditional, but it's going to give us some really nice contrasting texture. It makes a beautiful, stunning topping for this pie, and also it's going to use up some of the egg whites that we have left over from separating the eggs. So I'm going to put my two egg whites into my stand mixer along with a quarter teaspoon of salt and then a quarter teaspoon of cream of tartar. So we will get this started. I'm going to whip this on medium-high speed until we just get soft peaks. It'll take two to four minutes. Okay. Okay, you can see how it's starting to hold the shape of the whisk? Yeah, it leaves a little trail. Right, that's when I like to check it, and you can see that we certainly don't have stiff peaks, but we're getting some soft peaks. There's still a little bit of movement in there. We're going to do some more mixing in a little bit. Okay. So we'll let that sit. All right. Now we're moving over to the stovetop. I have half a cup of granulated sugar added to my saucepan with a quarter cup of water. Okay. I'm going to turn my stove to medium-high, and I'm not going to stir this. The sugar is going to melt, the water is helping it, and we're just going to let that happen. It's going to come up to a boil, and then we just need to let it cook. Yes. So we're boiling now. We want to make sure that we get this to the right temperature so that our meringue will have the right texture. Okay. So we're going to cook this to 240 degrees, and that's going to ensure that we have a nice, stiff meringue. Ah, 240. All right. Perfect. So I'm going to turn off my heat, and would you mind turning this back on to medium? Medium. All right. You got it. How's that? Perfect. So while the mixer is running, I'm going to very carefully pour this hot syrup into the mixer, but I want to try to pour it so that it's between the edge of the bowl and the whisk. Right. So very careful. And then once we get the sugar syrup in, we're going to add a tablespoon of vanilla extract. All right. And now we'll kick it back up to medium-high. Okay. And we'll let this go until we get shiny, stiff peaks, and that'll take about two minutes. All right. Oh, boy. Look, okay. That's a stiff peak. That's a stiff, shiny peak. So we're just going to let this hang out while I go get the pie out of the refrigerator. Sounds great. Where it's been chilling. Bridget, we're all set and ready to spread the meringue. Mm-hmm. Now, you could use whipped cream if you didn't want to do this, but it's not going to be this stable and it's not going to be this pretty. So I want to leave about an inch border. I'm just going to drop the meringue in the center. Then I'll spread it around, but I'll just build a nice little meringue tower. Now, I'm using a spoon. You could use a spatula if you wanted to instead, but I just feel like I have a little more control with the spoon. It's going to look so pretty and wispy if we have lots of pretty curlicues. I think that's good. I think it looks heavenly. Now, the final step. I mean, it looks so pretty as it is, but we had all those limes that we juiced. So I zested two of the limes before I juiced them. So I have two teaspoons of zest here, and I'm just going to sprinkle it over my pie. No doubt that this is a lime pie in there. Right. And so we've got sweet tart lime underneath and a little bit of sweet tart lime on top. All right. So I'm getting a nice warm knife, so we'll cut through that cleanly. I hate to cut into this. Is that okay? Are you ready? If you do not cut into that, I am coming for you. That's a substantial crust. It is a substantial crust. Now, I'm going to dip in between my slices, clean it off, and I'm going to make a big slice, a big wedge. That's for me. Oh, yeah. Hello. Oh, my goodness gracious. It's a little purdy. Yes, it's gorgeous. All right, I'm going for that little piece there. It's making my, you know. The happy glands. Oh, my gosh. That is tart and sweet and balanced. The meringue. It's not too sweet. Well, you built that pie from the bottom up so that the meringue would not be too sweet. You've got the pretzels in the crust. It gives that substantial malty saltiness. And then the curd itself is beautifully tart. There's a lot of crust there. Not too much, but it's enough to really not just be, you know, a shell for the pie, but an active participant in the flavors. Christy, this is pie perfection. Thanks, Bridget. Well, to make this beautiful key lime pie, you want to use graham crackers and pretzels to make a substantial crust. Add heavy cream for a silky smooth filling. And beat hot sugar syrup into egg whites for a tall, stable meringue. And the best part, you can use any fresh lime juice that you want, key lime or otherwise. So, from Cook's Country, really good key lime pie. You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with product reviews and select episodes. Those are all on our website, CooksCountry.com. 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