The Mouthful
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Extra crispy fry tactics

Extra crispy fry tactics

+ tortilla soup, korean loaded fries, vodkas sauce, and college budgets

Ethan Chlebowski & Keith McBrayer
December 11, 2022

Happy Sunday. If you have any ideas or feedback for the newsletter (or just want to say hello) — you can reply to this email! We read and respond to every single message.

Our goal is to get your cooking juices flowing and inspire you to try new meals. In this week’s case, our goal is to get you to try a few different techniques too.

As always, a full grocery shopping list in Notion is linked at the end of this email.

In This Week’s Edition

Try Something New 🤯 — Chicken tortilla soup w/ homemade crisps

Throwback Time 🍳 — Extra crispy fry tactics

The Leftover Shelf 🥡 — Korean-inspired loaded fries

Extra Helpings 🍽 — Vodka sauce, college budgets, and more!

Try Something New 🤯

The best thing I ate this week.

Chicken Tortilla Soup w/ Homemade Crisps

Scratch-making tortilla soup is the best excuse to learn how to 1) fry your own tortilla chips and 2) use whole dried chiles.

Soup Base Ingredients

1 lb (~450 g) boneless, skinless chicken thighs
3 whole dried ancho chiles, seeds and stems removed
1-2 Roma tomatoes
1/2 onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp (3 g) cumin seeds
1 poblano pepper, diced (optional, or up the heat with a serrano pepper)
2 quarts or 64 oz chicken broth*
Optional: fresh corn kernels or a can of corn, drained
Optional: can of black beans, drained
Neutral oil & kosher salt, for cooking

Soup Toppings (To preference. You do you!)

Avocado, diced
Grated cheese
Cilantro, rough chopped
Lime wedges
Homemade Tortilla Strips
- Corn tortillas, cut into 1/2-inch strips
- Neutral oil for deep frying

*or water with bouillon. Even better: caldo de tomate. If you know, you know.

Instructions

In your soup pot of choice, heat a thin layer of oil over high heat. Sear chicken thighs until browned on at least one side, but not cooked through. Remove. Add in onion & poblano, sauteeing for a few minutes, then follow with garlic, cumin, and prepared ancho chiles. Saute until fragrant.
Add the chicken thighs back in, the whole tomatoes, and the chicken broth, stirring to release any fond that glazed the bottom of the pan. Simmer for 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and tender.
While the broth is simmering, fry your tortilla strips! In your frying vessel of choice, bring 1-2 inches of frying oil to 375 F. In batches, add in tortilla strips and lightly agitate (to prevent sticking/burning) until most of the spattering has subsided (indicating the moisture has been fried off and the strips will be crispy). Using a spider or slotted spoon, remove strips and drain over a wire rack or paper towel, seasoning immediately with salt. Now back to the soup.
Key Finishing Steps: Scoop out the tomatoes and now-rehydrated ancho chilies and add to a blender with a bit of the broth. Blend until smooth, and add back into the soup (look at that color!). Remove the chicken thighs and shred them with a couple of forks, and add them back into the soup. If using, add in black beans and/or corn. Taste the broth and adjust the seasoning with salt, lime, or bouillon.
Serve and garnish with toppings of choice.

Throwback Time 🍳

How crisp can fries get? If deep frying isn’t your thing, you can actually achieve astounding levels of crunch in the oven, with a bit of food science. The video is a real throwback, but the techniques are timeless.

Check out the video, or read the recipe here.

Making fries in the oven, instead of deep frying them, means you can make a couple of sheet trays worth totally hands-off. It’s time to get creative with the extras.

The Leftover Shelf 🥡

Leftovers are back in style…if you know how to use them.

This week’s move:

Leftover, extra crispy fries → Fridge-raid loaded fries!

Use what you have in the fridge. To make a complete meal, I’m looking for protein, some vegetables, and then toppings/sauce that add acid, creaminess, or crunch.

I had some leftover chicken, kimchi, scallions, and some pantry staples. Here’s how I turned my fries into a more complete meal — in this case, with Korean-inspired flavors.

Fries & Toppings

Leftover fries
Leftover chicken, shredded or chopped
Scallions, sliced
Kimchi, rough chopped (this provides texture and acid)
Kewpie mayo (provides creaminess), or ranch
Sriracha (provides heat)
Toasted sesame seeds

To assemble:

Spread a serving of fries and chicken onto a sheet tray or foil sheet. Heat and crisp up in a toaster oven or air fryer. Add to a plate and sprinkle with scallions, kimchi bits, and sesame seeds. Drizzle with kewpie mayo (or ranch) and sriracha, and enjoy.

Variation: Experiment with flavor profiles from other cuisines too! Or, try the classic moves: load your fries up with leftover bbq elements, or treat them like nachos with carnitas, jalapeños, cilantro, lime juice, & sour cream.

Extra Helpings 🍽

🚀 Viral Eats

The latest cooking trends explained.

Q: Why did vodka pasta get so popular? And does the vodka really do anything?

A: Penne alla vodka is a long-standing tradition in Italian culture. But the origin story for vodka sauce varies depending on who you ask.

Italians claim that the recipe originated in a restaurant in the heart of Italy during the mid-’70s. Americans claim that the sauce began by an Italian-American chef named Luigi Franzese at his restaurant in New York.

Regardless of where the recipe began, there’s no denying the fact that the ingredients and cooking methods stem from traditional Italian cuisine. Supposedly, the recipe grew in popularity because the dish became used by men looking to impress their dates in an affordable way.

Vodka pasta has since been popularized by model Gigi Hadid, among other American influencers.

Why is it so delicious? It might actually be the vodka.

According to Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking”: “While large amounts of alcohol tend to trap other volatile molecules in the food, small traces boost their volatility and so intensify aromas.” This means that undiluted alcohol overpowers natural flavors, but smaller traces (typically achieved by “burning off” the vodka) actually releases more flavor compounds. In other words, it’s not that vodka adds a special flavor, it’s the alcohol in the vodka that intensifies flavors already hidden in the sauce.

🤔 Reader Q&A

Q: I’m a college student with a pretty basic kitchen but want to start cooking. What gear do I absolutely need? I don’t have much of a budget. — Maddie S

A: Love it! To start, I would recommend buying the very basic essentials such as baking sheets, small glass bowls, a cutting board, a bread knife, and spatulas at your local goodwill or community thrift store, and saving your budget to invest in a few nicer pans and knives later on. That said, you can cook almost anything in a standard cast iron pan, and prep almost everything with even a cheap commercial chef knife.

But to give you a better idea of an equipment-stocked kitchen, this video covers my minimalist kitchen essentials, which can actually all fit into one travel-sized case. If interested, you can see the gear itemized with links here in a notion table.