If you don’t dry off your turkey before you drop it, you will get exploded. If you drop a frozen turkey in the oil, again, you will get exploded. Hey, welcome back to Mythical Kitchen where dreams become food. So today, we’re making a mac ‘n’ cheese stuffed Nashville hot turkey, but we’ll get to that in a minute. Today’s video is sponsored by Noom. I know if you’ve been watching Mythical Kitchen for a while, you’ve probably heard me talk about my fitness journey and you’ve probably heard me talk about my struggles with diet-related health issues growing up. But what you haven’t heard me talk about is how difficult it can be to balance my love of the awesome food we make here with my overall mental and physical health. And frankly, anyone who’s tried to find that balance with their nutrition or exercise habits knows it can be difficult. And that’s why I love Noom because you don’t have to go on that difficult journey alone. Noom knows you can’t have a sound body without a sound mind. 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There’s no reason to wait, click the link in the description to get a customized plan for Noom, or visit noom.com/mythical, so you can start meeting your nutrition and exercise goals, whatever they may be. And, thanks again to Noom for sponsoring that portion of today’s episode. All right, so, last Thanksgiving, we made the iconic orange chicken style turkey. Nicole told me to call that turkey iconic. We also found out in Myth Munchers that both basting and brining make the best turkey, but today, today, we’re gonna try and make the tastiest turkey that will also alienate all your family members with IBS, because we’re gonna do ghost chili Nashville-style hot turkey. This is gonna be stupid delicious, we’re gonna stuff its cavity with mac ‘n’ cheese and you know how much I love me a cavity stuffed with mac ‘n’ cheese. We’ve broken the recipe down into three distinct steps. I’ve never said that before in two years. We’ve broken the recipe down into three distinct steps, separated by their parts, you can find them right there. We also got a full written recipe down in the description. Let’s get cooking. We’ve got a large dead bird here. We also have a large pot and there’s a bunch of ice. Now I’m gonna try and fit this puzzle together to see how it all works. Now, so, in the Myth Munchers episode of turkey cookery, we found out that wet brining the turkey was the best way to go, a lot of people dry brine, I’m a big fan of wet brine, so we’re gonna do that today. I’m gonna drop a bunch of salt into water. Salt is like the main thing in brine that actually makes things taste good. I don’t know if adding aromatics to a brine actually makes the meat tastes any better, I’m not gonna BS you. That said, if there’s one time to actually add random extraneous stuff to a brine to try and go over the top, it’s Thanksgiving. How often are you really brining a whole turkey? Might as well add a bunch of sugar and California bay leaves and rosemary and thyme in there. Try and pull out all the stops to impress your relatives that you may or may not love. Family dynamics can be complicated, especially on Thanksgiving. You know, I’m not gonna act like I know your situation. I’m gonna add a bunch of peppercorns in there too. And then, we got some chili there in our bowl. We figured, you know, we’re doing a spicy Nashville hot turkey, why not get some spice in the brine? We also got a whole head of garlic. I’m just gonna go ahead and smash all that, kind of pummel it a little, I lost all of the garlic. So we’re adding that in there, and then we’re just gonna heat this up enough for all that salt and sugar to completely dissolve. Yeah, it tastes nice. And give that another sec and then we’re gonna put the turkey in there. So Nashville hot chicken, something that has exploded nationally over the last five, 10 years, but actually dates back about 60 years to Nashville, which is in Tennessee, a state that I’ve heard of. You know the origin behind Nashville hot chicken is really cool. Supposedly, a woman’s husband was cheating on her and then she wanted to punish him by making his favorite meal of fried chicken, but then ruining it with so much cayenne pepper and spice that he couldn’t handle it. And she was gonna be like, “Ah, gotcha, don’t cheat on me.” And he was just like, “God, this chicken is really good.” And she’s like, “Ah, but I got an empire now.” And so, that’s the story. Who knows if it actually happened? But I just think it’s really cool. I like any food that starts with a revenge story, you know? And I think more food should be like that. Oh man, that smells like the steam room in flavorville. Now I’m gonna cool down that brine just ’cause we don’t wanna boil the turkey so we’re just gonna whisk that ice together until it dissolves. You want this to at least be below room temp, then we’re gonna drop the turkey in there. We’re gonna let it sit for, I mean, geez, I think you can brine turkey for up to like five days in the fridge. You can even drop the turkey into the brine while it’s frozen and it’ll eventually just defrost, as long as this is held in a fridge or like outside and when it’s cold. Like don’t, probably not, but like, if you live in New York during November, you can just like leave things out. So I didn’t know that was the thing. People just like leave beer outside and it’s ice cold. All right, so now we’re gonna take this bird, we’re gonna drop it into the brine. There we go, yeah, you hear the water sloshing around in its cavity. So we’re gonna cover this, we’re gonna get in the fridge, we’re gonna let it sit for about two days and then we’re gonna deep fry it. Welcome to turkey frying safety tips with Josh, but outside. If you don’t dry off your turkey before you drop it, you will get exploded. If you drop a frozen turkey in the oil, again, you will get exploded. If you don’t turn off the flame before you drop your turkey in, you will explode it all over the place. If you go past the max fill line on the turkey fryer, you will be exploded, and no one wants to be exploded on Thanksgiving, that makes grandma very sad and she’s had a hard life. We shut off the flame right here, we’re gonna drop this in and then crank it back up to get to 350. Also get a bucket fryer, these are way better than the ones that hook into the turkey. Now we just go gently, go gently into that, good night, sweet turkey. Beautiful, and now, fire. How do I work the buttons? Also, wear transition lenses ’cause it helps not get UV rays into your eyeballs. You will get exploded if you do. Now, we’re gonna deep fry it. Get yourself a temperature checker so you can check the temperatures or you will be exploded, all over the place. All right, now you just gotta stand here. If you leave your turkey unattended, you know what’s gonna happen? Exploded. Boom, one shot, explode. Now we gotta let this fry about 40 minutes. Keep tabs on your oil and make sure it never gets above 375. You’re looking for an internal temp on your turkey of about 145, and then, that’s gonna raise 15 degrees to 160 to safely eating it. Or you will exploded. If you eat under cooked turkey, you’ll explode in a different way. I’ve been standing here for 35 minutes in my natural posture. We have shut the flame off and the turkey reads 145 degrees internally. We have not yet been exploded. And so, now I shall remove the turkey with the flame off so as to keep that streak going. Gently, oh, look at her, golden brown and delicious. Hold on, hold on, gently, gently, and ah, okay. All right, so we’ve pulled the turkey, it’s golden brown, it’s cooked, we’re gonna let it rest for about 10 minutes. And now, we’re gonna go back inside the kitchen and we’re gonna make that Nashville hot spice that we’re gonna dust all over that turkey. And then, we gotta stuff it’s hole with mac ‘n’ cheese. Just like I’m gonna stuff my hole with mac ‘n’ cheese this Thanksgiving, high five. I found out that you can make mac ‘n’ cheese or you can just make mac ‘n’ cheese, and this is still pretty good. That’s a fun Thanksgiving hack. You just put all this on your table and then just eat it cold. We’re making the mac ‘n’ cheese to stuff into the turkey. Mac ‘n’ cheese should be on all your Thanksgiving tables, it’s one of the single best additions to Thanksgiving. We’re gonna try and pull out all the stops and make just like the best mac ‘n’ cheese we’ve ever made. I think that’s what our goal is right now. We don’t ever set out to make a bad mac ‘n’ cheese, per se, nut this time I think we’re really gunning for it. There’s a couple of ways that we’re doing that. So instead of just making a classic roux with like milk and stuff in it, we’re gonna be adding heavy cream and evaporated milk. Evaporated milk is quite literally more milk per milk, they’ve evaporated the water out of it so you’re just getting all that milk. That’s why it’s so yellow. That’s exciting. And then, also, we’re gonna be adding some pasteurized processed American cheese product in there. You’re gonna say one of those cubes for snacking later, that’s gonna give it a nice velvetiness to it. But the secret to this mac ‘n’ cheese right here is this little spice blend powder. So we’ve added ground mustard seed, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, and then the secret to this is chicken bouillon. Start adding powdered chicken bouillon to your mac ‘n’ cheese, it just adds an extra little umami punch in there and it makes it frigging delicious. Also baked mac ‘n’ cheese over stove top, you agree? No. Golly, sorry, I cut you off by yelling. Welcome to the podcast. And then we’re gonna top this with more cheese and then we’re gonna bake it. But, right now, we’ve gotta get a roux going, we have the butter going in there, we’re gonna add flour to it. And they’re just gonna give that a nice stir, we’re going for a nice little blond roux right here. You know what they say? Blond roux have more fun. And then, we’re gonna talk about cheese. Now, I know what you’re wondering, Josh, what is cheese? I don’t know, like, I really don’t. I understand the idea of it. You like add stuff to milk, like an enzyme called rennet that’s found in the stomach of baby calves. You put acid in it, you mash at it a bit. And then it’s this, like, I know what it is in theory, like I know how like a cell phone works in theory, but I couldn’t make it happen. All right, I’ve passed enough time, is this roux cooked? Great, roux is nice and blond, so now we’re gonna add all of our milks to it. No particular order, we’re going heavy cream and then milk. You can add it gradually, but like, it really does not matter. You whisk it all and it comes together. The same amount of particles are in there that are always gonna be in there. It’s a zero sum game, if you will. We’re gonna whisk this together, we’re gonna wait for that to sort of come together, we’re gonna add all that… Mm, mm, mm. I just wanna put this in water and drink it on a cold day. We’re gonna add all this spice in there, God, this is gonna be good. A little bit of cayenne there to give it a nice heat. Oh, also, I know what you’re thinking, you said you were gonna stuff this into a turkey, but you didn’t stuff it before you fry it, you know why you don’t do that? Because you will get? Exploded! That’s right, no entrails on the ground this year, Grandma. What we’re gonna do, we’re just gonna dust up that turkey in the Nashville hot spice, get it sort of submerged in that delightfully red oil. And then we’re just gonna retroactively stuff the holes with mac ‘n’ cheese. All right, we’re gonna add that cheddar, oh no, always add your pasteurized processed American cheese product first. Kind of finger it out there, there we go, that’s good ’cause that’s gonna give you a nice base of all those emulsifiers in there that, what’s it called? Sodium citrate, sodium citrate. That’s the chemical in it that makes it melt all nice. And we just got to wait a sec. We’re using the bad burner. Every stove has a good burner and it is generally front left, not for us, ours is the middle, but we’re not using that right now so it’s not gonna cook. I don’t know how to tell you that this is a cooking show, but our burner don’t work, but it is so I’m gonna sit here for a sec. What does evaporated milk taste like? That tastes like so much milk. The first time I fried a turkey, it was in college and it was on a balcony that was overlooking about nine other balconies. It was in kind of like a large building. And I was like, I think I can do this discreetly without anybody seeing. But, for whatever reason, there was like a party going on on a balcony next door. And they started yelling at me like, “What are you doing?” And I was like, “Nothing. I’m just, you know, “I’m doing a little cooking.” And they’re like, “Are you deep frying a turkey on a balcony?” And it was like tiny, we’re talking like the type of balcony that you can put a stool or a turkey fryer, and that’s it. And I was like, “Don’t worry about me.” And then I started yelling and so other people came out and there was just a bunch of people like watching me deep fry a turkey. And people are like, isn’t that dangerous? And I was like, “No, it’s fine, I’m a professional.” And then someone looked it up on their phone and they were like, “It causes $400 million property damage every year.” And I was like, “Worry about yourself. “We’re all renters, we’re fine, not our property.” Anyways, nothing actually happened and it all turned out pretty great. All right, cheese’s starting to melt, now more cheese. We’re adding Gruyere and Monterey Jack, Monterey Jack is another great melting cheese and Gruyere’s a good eating cheese. The strategy for mac ‘n’ cheese is you want equal parts good melting cheeses like American and Monterey Jack, then good eating cheeses like sharp cheddar and Gruyere. ‘Cause that way you get that beautiful silken texture, but then enough delicious flavor to really carry it through. And also, again, we’re gonna bake this so you don’t gotta worry about getting this like too melted. We just want it to get nice and copacetic. And what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna see if all this macaroni fits into this pot. No, no, no, there’s a lot of debate. You should know about this, I want to bring you into our world. Nicole insisted that all of this macaroni and all of this cheese sauce is gonna fit into this pot. And then, everybody that saw it, we were like, this is already bigger, we’re like, no, there’s no way. And then, Nicole’s like, “No, it melts.” And now we’re about to see. Well, like, yeah, I guess. How do you stir it? You just gotta prod at it. So what we’re gonna do is we’re just gonna gently prod this macaroni until it all gets submerged. Now maybe I can kind of, yeah, yeah, it’s okay, no, no, that’s working, I understand now. You gotta just stir from the inside out and then the levels are dropping. Yeah, Nicole, it worked. Yeah, I know. I owe you an apology and $3. Anytime someone can beat me in a debate, I give them $3. Debate me, you won’t, coward. All right, so, I’m gonna stir this mac ‘n’ cheese. Do you notice that when I don’t know what to say, I just say what I’m going to do in future tense as I’m doing it. Of course, I’m going to stir this mac ‘n’ cheese, I’m doing it currently. Now we’re gonna take the macaronis and we’re gonna dump it into a pot ’cause we’re gonna bake it off. Shoot, crap. Can the camera see me? Spoon all of that out. There’s so many bowls, who would do all these dishes? So what I’m gonna do is I’m just gonna take some, what’s this called, cheese? We’re not gonna try and take this too far, really just sort of trying to seize this up and melt the cheese, seize the cheese, as Julius Caesar or whomever said. Who said carpe diem? Porous? Horace. Horace, Horace Gump said carpe diem, seize the day. Life is like a box of macaroni, you always know what you’re gonna get. All right, I’m gonna put this in the oven and melt that there cheese, bye. All right, we have our turkey that has been fried. It’s been rested, it’s still nice and warm and supple. We’re gonna figure out how to like coat this entire thing in spiced up grease, which is the cornerstone of Nashville hot chicken, it gets dunked in the grease. We’re taking a whole lot of cayenne pepper here, and we’re adding that with some smoked ghost chili, ’cause like, again, why not? You’re trying to burn Nana’s, I don’t want to talk about your nana’s hole. Nana’s had a rough life, she can handle the spice. And then, we’re adding some smoked Hungarian hot paprika and then we’re adding some chipotle chili powder in there. And then, all Nashville hot spice rubs are different. And I just like adding flavors that I enjoy and then I put it in my mouth, I guess that’s called cooking, right? Combining things you like and then putting it in this hole. And then, we’re adding some garlic powder and brown sugar. That little bit of brown sugar, that to me is what really makes Nashville hot chicken, that little bit of sweet countering all of that spice. And so, we’re gonna take this and mix it up. And then, now what we’re gonna do is we’ve taken some of that same turkey fry oil, that should be nice and perfumed with turkey, and we’re just gonna add the hot oil into the spice. So this is gonna do a couple of things. This is gonna one, make it so you’ve gotta big old vat of grease that you can put on your turkey. Well, that was real hot, eh? Woo. Oh, it smells, man, it smells like that one hot chicken shop that I like. You know, honestly, I think what I’m gonna do is just this. I think I’m just gonna kind of massage that turkey around and then I’m gonna flip it, being careful not to burn myself, and then kind of give it a jimmy, right? This seems like the right move. So the oil is doing a couple of things. It expresses all of the notes. That’s how you know you’re completely BSing because you’re saying expresses the notes. But, no, anytime you add hot oil to spices, it makes them bloom, they call it. It just, it makes it smell more good and taste more good. That’s what you need to know. Add hot oil to your spices. That’s getting nice and covered and submerged, take some of this, kind of reach down there and really brush that all over, that’s rad. We can do this post-haste as well. What the hell does post-haste mean? What does post-haste mean? Is that a word? Does that means like fast? We got this pretty well submerged and then now I’m gonna take it and like Nashville hot chicken, that fell in the hot oil, that’s great, I need that later. And we’re gonna put that right onto that there bread. Ah, God dang it. Okay, now the brush is covered in grease. I’m gonna take this, and kind of just got dot that around the bread. Nashville hot chicken typically served on white bread because it catches all the grease off of that chicken. I’m gonna brush the top of this, yeah, buddy, with more of that delicious Nashville hot oil. This is gonna be spicy, dude, with the ghost chili. I’ve never had a spicy Thanksgiving like this. But now we’re gonna take some of that extra seasoning that, we didn’t save any, but, you know, whatever. And we’re just gonna dust that on top of the bird all over. Oh my gosh, I forgot I said I’d stuff it’s holes with stuff. Dang it, now we’ve gotta do it. All right, I got macaroni in there. Give me a sec, give me a sec, yeah. Oh, the transition lenses is steaming. How we gonna do this? Okay, well, first off, just expose the hole to yourself. There’s no point to doing this, I have to say, like, what? We’re just gonna put mac ‘n’ cheese into the turkey’s hole so people gotta reach back into the turkey’s hole to take the mac ‘n’ cheese out the turkey’s hole? It doesn’t make any sense, but, why? I think it’s hilarious. That’s really funny, eating mac ‘n’ cheese out of the cavity of a once living animal, come on, that’s comedy, folks. Crack it like a creme brulee. Whoa, macaroni. And, in you go. Yeah, it’s nice, it’s nice, really cram it ’cause when you cram it in there, then it’s gonna get perfumed by the turkey. Yep, grosser than I thought it would be, but not nearly as gross as it could be. Oh wait, oh, just the mac ‘n’ cheese with the Nashville hot, yes! All right, now, ow, I burned myself. Nashville hot chicken is often served with pickles. So pickles, pickles, pickles, pickles, pickles, pickles, and coleslaw, we’re just gonna kind of adorn, adorn with some slaw. If you want the recipe for the slaw, you can call Nicole directly. That’s 310-213. I didn’t have a plan for adorning this with slaw, but this is what I’m doing, it feels right. Yeah, that’s it. That’s all, okay, hold on, now a little more grease, I got some slaw on the grease. Yeah, one more brush. Does this look done? I’m willing to call this Thanksgiving. I want to say, you know what I’m thankful for? That this exists. Well, here we have it, here. Maybe I’m gonna do that like rotating shot that they do in food shows. Here we go, here we have the Nashville hot chicken, stuffed with macaronis and adorned heavily with coleslaw and pickles, pickles, pickles, pickles, pickles, pickles, pickles. It’s too beautiful, I don’t want to cut into it. Sike, I really do, I’m excited, I’m excited. So, I’m just gonna butcher up, we’re just gonna splay off that leg there. Ah, all the Nashville hot grease got down into the crevasses. I’m gonna try and to grab a little white meat, what I like to do, a lot of people will carve the bird, and then gonna slice it off, but I take all the skin for myself off the breast. And then, I just leave people naked, dry turkey meat. You gotta brace it with your hips, slice that off, gorgeous and juicy. That is a well-cooked bird. And now, I’m gonna go deep into the cavity to grab my mac ‘n’ cheese. We stuffed it kind of as a joke, but I really love mac ‘n’ cheese. The turkey cavity keeps the macaroni really warm. And so, that’s pretty cool. Grab some bread, and now you’re just gonna sit here and watch me as I eat this whole turkey. And take a bite. We might’ve did something. We might’ve did something, I don’t know that I want any turkey that hasn’t been Nashville hotified. Deep frying birds is really delicious, but you could do this in an oven too, just like put the turkey in there, brine it, baste it, and then, just cover that in Nashville hot spice, this is freaking incredible. I mean, this is actually the best turkey I’ve ever had. The orange turkey last year, like that was fun and all, but that was really difficult to do. This is easy and freaking delicious. I think this is really good, serve it on a bunch of white bread, take a bite. I like to make a little like sandwich, like a little taco. I wanna high five all of you ’cause this rules. But Thanksgiving isn’t Thanksgiving without your friends and that’s why, we’re gonna go ahead and feed our friends. Mikayla, what are you doing? Work, I guess. With a closed laptop? You’re crazy. Do you want to eat Nashville hot turkey instead? I made it. Ooh, yay, why not? Do you have any food allergies? Not that I know of. Lactose intolerance. No. Turkey intolerance. No. General macaroni loathingness. Not loathing, but I am picky about macaroni, so I hope it’s good. Ooh, do you wanna try the macaroni first then? Let’s do it, yeah, yeah. I’m pretty proud of this. Gotta get under there, all right. Okay. Ah, I don’t know why I made the ah sound for you. Mm, mm. Judge me harshly, I deserve it. Wait, hold on, you can formulate that, but first, grab some of this Nashville hot turkey. ‘Cause it’s meant to go together. Mm-hmm. It works, right? It does. Would you serve this at your own Thanksgiving? Would you make this for your friends and/or family? Definitely. Right? For sure. It’s actually really good. I love the kick to it, yeah. That’s delicious. Man, this is the best friendsgiving ever. Yeah, friendsgiving. Thank you so much, Mikayla. You’re welcome. Thank you so much for stopping by the Mythical Kitchen. We got new episodes for you every week. We got new episodes of our podcasts, “A Hot Dog is a Sandwich” every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. I’m like too full to breathe. Hit us up on Instagram, @MythicalKitchen, with pictures of your mythical dishes. See y’all next time, have a good Thanksgiving. Mikayla, have a good Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving, Mikayla, what are you thankful for? Everything. That’s a terrible answer. No, don’t say, this is practice for your real Thanksgiving. Okay, I’m thankful for money. Yeah. The Mythical Trucker Hat is literally the only hat I wear and I swear I’m not just saying that because this is an ad. So go get yours now at mythical.com.