Chadwick Boyd's new green bean casserole cookbook

Well, Thanksgiving is, in fact, just around the corner, and an American holiday classic is getting a makeover. Chef and editor-in-chief of Make It Worth It, Chadwick Boyd, has a brand-new digital cookbook featuring 16 creative takes on green bean casserole, and he is here to give us a preview. Chadwick, good morning, and congratulations on the new cookbook. Thank you. It's a brand-new day. I'm so excited, and I'm... I'm sweating because I've been cooking up a storm here because my favorite holiday is coming, Joanne. Thanksgiving. Yes, and so I really want to know what inspired you to create an entire cookbook around this particular dish. I am fascinated by this casserole and I hear that y'all were having some debates about what a casserole is. Casserole is an American food and tradition tied to our holidays and our family gatherings. 20 million households will make green bean casserole between Thanksgiving and the end of the year and to me I'm like there's something really good about that. Yeah, absolutely. So you're featuring 16 different recipes. I understand you've got, you know, that original one from 1955. You've got some other reimaginings. Give us a little preview of the different varieties you have. Yeah. So what I did was research, like, how does America want to cook? And for all of y'all at home, you have the top most searched green bean casserole. So this cookbook, which is digital, by the way, you can download it and get it immediately on your tablet, on your iPhone. Thank you. There is a vegan version. There's a classic version. If you don't like mushrooms, there's a no mushroom version. There's a slow cooker version if you have a big crowd and everything in between. So it's really 16 different ways that you can enjoy green bean casserole. Which is fantastic because we've been doing a little survey, informal survey here in the building and people have thoughts on it, whether they love it or hate it. I think with all these different options, there's got to be something that everybody's going to love in there. And I know you're making one of your personal favorites for us right now. Well, you know, I love biscuits. So I figured I'd give everybody a preview of one of the recipes. This is a French onion drop biscuit green bean casserole. And basically you can't get an easier biscuit than a drop biscuit. So A green bean casserole is composed of really three different parts. There are the green beans, which, by the way, you can just take frozen. You don't have to thaw them. And then you create a bechamel. Some people have very strict thoughts about cream of mushroom soup, but you can make your own. And this is a very homemade one. It's a little bit French. It's milk with flour and some seasonings. And I'm going to stir some Gruyere cheese in it, and it's going to melt. Then we're going to pour it over top of these frozen green beans and give it a good mix, which is pretty simple, Joanne. I mean, there's not a lot of steps. And Dorcas Riley, who created this casserole in 1955, so 71 years ago, that was the whole idea. How can America make a really good, yummy casserole with very simple ingredients that they find at home? Simple is the key. Yeah, very simple, right? I mean, and I love this because the drop biscuits on top make this a little bit more filling. It's like a nice alternative or combination if you're making stuffing or dressing for the holidays. So I've just mixed up some flour. I've got leavening salt, a little bit of dried thyme. We're going to add in some more of this Gruyere cheese. I have some butter in here. And then I've caramelized... Three onions, you want to let these cool and add about three quarters of a cup of milk, mix it together, and then you're going to just take an ice cream scoop like this. Drop it on top of here, and this is pretty hot, but this just came out of the oven, and look how gorgeous these biscuits, these French onion drop biscuits are on top. We're ready to have a holiday party. You might make me a convert. Well, so tell me here, though, I know you've got three certain keys to really getting this right. Walk us through that. Yeah, so you want your, in the book, there's a pantry and you want your green beans. So either get cut, French cut, or whole. You can do them frozen. You can get them fresh in the produce department. Blanch them in hot water for about three minutes. Drain them well. Or you can use can. Just drain the can. For your sauce, obviously, you can use a cream of mushroom can. You can use cream of chicken. There is a gluten-free version if you want. But if you want to make it homemade, which a lot of people want to do from scratch, it's milk, it is flour, some salt and pepper, and Dorcas Riley's little secret, which is soy sauce. Mix it together, thick. Mix it in with the frozen beans or your fresh cooked beans, and then top it with a topping. French onion, crispy fried onions that you can get prepackaged at the grocery store. You can make your own, which all of those instructions are in this book. And you can get creative, too. You can do, like, butter crackers or potato chips, so you have some fun. I love it. All right, we are out of time, but tell me really quickly, because I know there's another good reason to feel good about purchasing this. Some of the proceeds will fund scholarships, right? That's right. So Dorcas Riley was a home economist. 10% of the purchase of this book will go to fund directly a scholarship for future food innovators. That is fantastic. All right. Well, Chadwick, thank you so much for your time this morning and a happy Thanksgiving to you if I don't talk to you before then. Happy casserole-ing, y'all. I know you're going to be busy and you can keep up with Chadwick on social media and his website, chadwickboydlifestyle.com.