When we first started itsmydish.com, we wanted to do something different than just another food blog so we came up with this idea of Mike versus Jeff. Each month, we will engage in a friendly virtual competition since we are physically located 8 hours apart. The competition is not against each other but against the rules set up each time. There will be challenges like “Chopped” where we have to create a dish from odd ingredients. Others will be based on a budget or the number of ingredients or the amount of time. The reason for these challenges is to push our creativity as well as showcase to everyone that possibilities are endless when it comes to food.
For our first battle, we need to use these three ingredients, chicken thigh, oreo cookies, and kiwi to make an appetizer in 30 minutes. This is our “Chopped” challenge where three ingredients, often very contrasting items, are given to the challengers to come up with a particular dish.
Before we start, let’s introduce each of the contestants and their cooking background:
Jeff Kang: “I am a self-taught chef, starting to cook since I moved to US 10 years ago. I am a passionate foodie and I always want to know how to make those dishes I like. Even though my main culinary focus is Chinese cuisine, I love all kind of food. I love to try out different ingredients for typical dish.”
Mike Hsu: “I was forced into learning to cook while attending college in the east coast where there were no real Chinese food readily available around campus. In those 4 years, I earn the title Master Chef (not from playing Halo) from the Taiwanese club on campus. The internet wasn’t really invented and there was no Google so I spent many weekends talking on the phone with my mom to write down recipes. After graduating, I worked in Japan for 5 years and was exposed to a variety of Japanese foods as well as international flavors that never made it state-side. I’ve always been a creative person but since I can’t sing or write or draw, I turn to cooking to express my inner artist.”
What are your strengths and weakness related to cooking?
Jeff: “I think my strength is that my hands are really stable and nimble. My musician background enables me to create some delicate decor. I am also fast, 30 min is going to be more than enough for me to do any dish. My weakness is that I don’t have enough experience on creative cooking. Making the food is easy for me, coming up with the awesome idea, that is the hard part!”
Mike: “My biggest weakness is that I have horrible knife skills, especially when it comes to chopping vegetables. After cutting myself one too many times, I resort to tools and gadgets to do most of my cutting. I think my strength lies in using ingredients creatively. I despise eating leftover food so I always try to make something different from the leftovers – whether that’s deep frying them, adding a different sauce, or just throw them into fried rice.”
Let’s get down to cooking. The timer starts now!
INGREDIENTS
Jeff’s Pan-Seared Chicken Salad with Kiwi Dressing and Oreo Crumbles
- 2 leaves of green lettuce
- 1 Oreo cookies
- 1 Strawberry
- 1 Chicken Thigh with skin
- 1 tsp salt
Kiwi Dressing
- 1 kiwi
- 1 Tbsp of Olive oil
- 1 Tbsp of rice vinegar
- 1 Oreo cookies cream
Mike’s Tropical Oreo Chicken Katsu Sliders with Spicy Kiwi Slaw
Chicken Katsu
- 1 chicken thigh
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup oreo cookies crushed
- ½ cup panko
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1 egg
- coconut oil for frying
- 1 tsp mayonnaise
Kiwi slaw
- 1 cup shredded cabbage
- ¼ cup shredded carrot
- 1 kiwi
- ½ jalapeno
- 1 stalk green onion
- cilantro
- 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
- ¼ cup mayo
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 3 oreo cream
- 1 tbsp lime juice
Jeff’s Action Log
0:00-5:00
The most time consuming part is pan-searing the chicken, so I need to do it first! I removed the bone from chicken, cut several cut at the bottom side of chicken so it will cook thoroughly. I applied a pinch of salt to both sides of the chicken and then I placed the chicken thigh in the pan, skin side face down, turn on at medium heat and follow the pan sear process.
5:00-10:00
I cut the lettuce leave at 1 inch width, and use it to carefully prepare the base of salad. I removed the cream of Oreos and broke the cookies into crumbs at this part. Believe me, breaking it into the right size is harder than it looks!
10:00-15:00
I flipped the chicken, covered and continue to cook. While the chicken is cooking, I peeled 1 kiwi. I blended 1 kiwi with 1 Tbsp of Olive oil 1 Tbsp of rice vinegar and the cream of Oreo. After it’s evenly blended, I store the dressing in a container.
15:00-20:00
Now it’s time to flip the chicken. I had skin side faced down, cooked on high heat and removed the chicken at 2 min. I removed the chicken and let it rest for few min while I prepare the rest of the steps.
20:00-25:00
I cubed 1 strawberry carefully. I ate so many failed strawberry cubes!!
25:00-30:00
I cut the chicken filet, and now it’s time to assemble the salad. Time to apply my artistic sense to it!
Mike’s Action Log
0:00-3:00
I deboned the chicken thigh and rub on salt and garlic powder and let it marinate.
3:00-5:00
I separated the oreo cream from the cookies and then crushed the cookies to a coarse powder and mixed it with the panko. I also ate one of the cookies – brings back childhood memories. I wish I had some milk.
5:00-12:00
Using a food processor, I shredded the cabbage and carrots. I then diced the kiwis and chopped the green onion. Next, I minced jalapeno peppers and cilantro. Then I mixed oreo cream, mayo, lime juice, and rice vinegar. Lastly, I tossed everything together and then add toasted sesame seeds. What took up the most time here was peeling the kiwis.
12:00-15:00
I prepped the dredging station – flour, beaten egg, and panko oreo crumbs. Lightly patted down the chicken thigh with flour then dunked it into the eggs and then covered the whole thing with the panko oreo crumbs.
15:00-23:00
Time to fry! After heating the coconut oil, I lowered the breaded chicken and fried it on both sides for about 3 minutes each and removed and allow it to drain on a paper towel. It came out better than I had expected. I’m glad that the breading did not fall apart in the oil.
23:00-25:00
I toasted the Hawaiian buns and prepped my plating. Then I cut the chicken to fit the bun. I always want the meat to be bigger than the bun whenever I make a burger.
25:00-30:00
Adding some mayonnaise to the bun, I then put the chicken katsu on top. Drizzle a little bit with tonkatsu sauce. Lastly, I layered the kiwi slaw above the chicken and then cover with the top bun. 
The Reflection
What did you think of the ingredients?
Jeff: “The ingredients are chicken thigh, oreos, and kiwi. The first impression is this: it’s going to be a refreshing dish, a little bit of sweet and sour, It’s going to be a perfect appetizer with chicken thigh.”
Mike: “Chicken and kiwi were not surprising, they are actually pretty easy to work with. The oreo cookies will be a challenge because the cookie is bitter with a strong chocolate flavor and the cream is way too sweet for a savory appetizer dish.”
What are some of the concepts that went through your head?
Jeff: “I had a few different ideas, I want to do a crispy bread topped with kiwi-flavored chicken and oreos. I can also do a salad topped with chicken, simple and elegant. The third one is chicken salad, possibly south-asia style. I went with the lettuce salad with chicken”
Mike: “I wanted to try something pretty unique so I thought about blackened chicken nuggets with a kiwi sweet and sour sauce. Another idea was chicken tacos using an oreo tortilla with kiwi pineapple salsa. But both of these ideas were too time consuming to execute in 30 minutes so I went with a Japanese fusion idea of a tropical oreo chicken katsu slider with a spicy kiwi slaw.”
What were your plans with each ingredient?
Jeff: “My theme for the dish is simple ingredients. I want to bring out the natural beauty of those ingredient. Oreo cookies are delicious, but it is going to be the hardest one to harmonize with others because it’s way too sweet. Instead of forcing it to conform with the dish, I would like to keep oreo oreo. Let it be itself, I’m using oreos as the bread crumbs to this salad. Kiwi is a combination of sweet and sour, with oreo cream and extra vinegar, the flavor will be enhanced and it’s going to be a perfect dressing for salad. I will use the pan-seared technique from one of our post to create golden crispy chicken thigh to put on top of it.”
Mike: “To make the chicken katsu, I need to debone and deskin the chicken. I will use the oreo’s chocolate cookie and mix it with panko to make a chocolate flavored coating. Japanese katsu is usually paired with cabbage so a kiwi slaw would be the perfect complement and I can use the oreo cream to sweeten the slaw.”
What about the other ingredients you used in your dish?
Jeff: “For the salad base, I chose green leaf lettuce over other veggie. The reason is that cut green leaf lettuce has the prettiest shape for plating. The color gradient of the lettuce makes this dish look like art. I also use cubed strawberry to add the red color to the pictures. The end product should look like golden chicken fillet, chocolate cookie crumbs, and ruby-like strawberry resting on top of a dark green emerald lettuce, drizzled with bright green delight with sugar cream in it!”
Mike: “I fried the chicken in coconut oil to give it a tropical feel and who doesn’t like chocolate and coconut? The best slider buns are Hawaiian sweet rolls. Japanese food has a lot of sweet and salty combinations and this is no exception. As for the slaw, my secret is to add more tang to counterbalance the sweetness of the oreo cream. I chose underripe kiwis along with lime juice and rice vinegar for the sourness of the slaw. Lastly, adding a bit of jalapenos, cilantro, and green onion for heat and flavor.”
What are you proud about and what are your concerns about plating?
Jeff: “Salad with chicken fillet on top. It’s both pleasing to the eye and to the mouth. It’s simple and it’s delicious. The only worry I have is the oreo crumbs. It will be too sweet if it’s too big, but it will taste like sugar powder if it’s too small.”
Mike: ”I didn’t want to go overboard with the plating because sliders are best to be eaten by hand and not by knife and fork. This also means that I needed to control the sauce and slaw so that it doesn’t make a huge mess when biting into it. Lastly, I never can eat just one slider, even if it’s an appetizer so I provide two – which is perfect since that’s one chicken thigh.”
Well, there you have it. The first Mike vs Jeff cooking challenge. Mike focused on using his creativity with his versatile cooking technique to create “Tropical Oreo Chicken Katsu Sliders with Spicy Kiwi Slaw”. Jeff, on the other hand, took the ingredients and allow them to bring out their individual unique flavors in the chicken, the dressing, and the oreo crumbs with “Chicken Oreo Salad with Kiwi Dressing.” Give both recipes a try and let us know which one you liked the best.
- 2 leaves of green lettuce
- 1 Oreo cookies
- 1 Strawberry
- 1 Chicken Thigh with skin
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 kiwi
- 1 Tbsp of Olive oil
- 1 Tbsp of rice vinegar
- 1 Oreo cookies cream
- Cut the lettuce leave at 1 inch width
- Prepare the base of salad
- Remove the cream of Oreos
- Break the cookie into crumbs
- Peel 1 kiwi
- blend 1 kiwi with 1 Tbsp of Olive oil 1 Tbsp of rice vinegar and the cream of Oreo
- Remove the bone from chicken
- Cut several cut at the bottom side of chicken
- Apply a pinch of salt to both sides of the chicken
- Pan Seared it (insert the hyperlink of pan seared chicken with Ponzu sauce)
- Cut the chicken cutlet
- Cube 1 strawberry
- Assemble the salad
- 1 chicken thigh
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup oreo cookies crushed
- ½ cup panko
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1 egg
- coconut oil for frying
- 1 tsp mayonnaise
- 1 cup shredded cabbage
- ¼ cup shredded carrot
- 1 kiwi
- ½ jalapeno
- 1 stalk green onion
- cilantro
- 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
- ¼ cup mayo
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 3 oreo cream
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- julienne cabbage, carrot
- dice kiwi, green onion
- mince jalapeno peppers, cilantro
- mix oreo cream, mayo, lime juice, and rice vinegar
- toss everything together and then add toasted sesame seeds
- debone / deskin chicken thigh
- use meat tenderizer to tenderize thigh
- sprinkle salt and garlic powder on the chicken
- mix Japanese panko and chopped oreo cookies (minus the cream)
- follow Japanese dredging technique - lightly flour the chicken, then dredge in egg wash, then cover with oreo panko crust
- deep fry in coconut oil for about 2-3 min each side and remove to drain and cool
- lightly toast Hawaiian sweet roll
- smear some mayonnaise
- cut chicken to fit on roll
- cover with kiwi slaw
- ready to serve!
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