It's 6:45 in the morning,

現在是早上 6 點 45 分

I'm feeling it.

我感覺到了

(dramatic music)

(戲劇化的音樂)

It's Chicken Watch, baby!

這是雞的守衛戰，寶貝！

It's a special day today.

今天是個特別的日子

I'm not on my way to pick up Chris,

我沒有要去載 Chris

I'm actually on my way to pick up Justin Tan.

其實我要去載 Justin Tan

(dance music)

(舞曲)

♪ Chicken watch, chicken watch, chicken watch ♪

♪雞的守衛戰、雞的守衛戰、雞的守衛戰♪

Yeah, All right, how you been?

耶，好喔，最近過得如何？

- I'm all right. (laughing)

我很好 (笑)

- [Keith] Oh, God.

- [Keith] 喔，天啊

(piano glissando)

(鋼琴滑奏)

- Yeah I don't like this,

- 我不喜歡這樣

I just got transferred from the driver's seat,

我只是從駕駛座

to the passenger's seat--

換到後座

- Oh, do you want to switch, should we?

- 喔，你想換位子嗎？要嗎？

- And now I'm in the back seat?

- 啊現在我在後座？

- Well typically Chris drives. - Well, typically I drive.

- 通常是 Chris 開車 - 是啊，平常是我在開

- Oh really?

- 喔真的嗎？

- But now I'm just slowly getting knocked back.

- 但現在

- Well do you want to sit up here?

- 你想坐這嗎？

- [Justin] Yeah.

- [Justin] 對呀。

- Do you want to make Justin sit in the back?

- 你想讓 Justin 坐後面嗎？

So, last time we had Tokyo fried chicken,

所以上次我們吃了東京炸雞

it was incredible.

很讚耶

Oh wow, it's light and crispy.

喔哇，很清爽又酥脆

- [Chris] It's like a potato chip.

- [Chris] 很像洋芋片

- This really feels like a southern meal,

- 這真的很像南方料理

but the flavors are all crazy.

但口味超狂的

I think it's some of

我覺得這是

the best fried chicken I've ever had.

我吃過的最好的炸雞之一

- It gave us some peace,

- 它好治癒

some peace of mind.

心靈上的平靜

- [Keith] But today, we're going to Lao Tao,

- [Keith] 但今天，我們要去 Lao Tao

we're doing some Taiwanese spicy popcorn chicken,

我們要嘗試台灣鹽酥雞

and Justin has actually been here before!

而且 Justin 之前有來過！

- Oh yeah.

- 喔耶

- You look very much like a Sith back there.

- 你在後面看起來超像西斯戰士

- Oh, a Sith.

- 喔，西斯戰士

- [Together] Chicken watch!

- [一起] 雞之守衛戰！

- Chicken watch.

- 雞之守衛戰

- [Man] Just got to go by the gym.

- [男子] 剛經過健身房

- All right and one, two, three.

- 好的那一、二、三

Hey, who are you and where are we?

嘿，你是誰我們又在哪？

- I'm David, I'm the owner of Lao Tao,

- 我是 David，我是 Lao Tao 的老闆

and today we're introduce the popcorn chicken.

今天我們要介紹鹽酥雞

(funky music)

(放克音樂)

Basically, it's one of the

基本上，這是台灣最受歡迎的

most popular street foods in Taiwan.

小吃之一

Every street corner you're gonna

在街頭巷尾

find popcorn chicken everywhere.

鹽酥雞隨處可見

- Everywhere makes it?

- 到處都有人在做鹽酥雞嗎？

- Yes.

- 是的

- It's like hot dogs in New York,

- 就像紐約的熱狗

it's like all over the place. - There you go, there you go.

到處都有 - 沒錯，沒錯

There you go.

沒錯

- What is the history of the Taiwanese popcorn chicken?

- 台灣鹽酥雞的歷史是什麼？

- According to legend-- - Love a good legend.

- 根據傳聞 -- - 喜歡很棒的傳聞

- Yeah, the owner of the chicken farm,

- 是啊，養雞場的主人

basically the business was kind of slow,

因為生意成長緩慢

and there were a lot of chickens left over,

剩下了很多雞

so they basically chopped up a lot of those chickens,

所以他們將雞肉切塊

and started selling them as fried popcorn chickens.

然後開始賣鹽酥雞

- Every part of the buffalo style.

- 水牛城的風格

You know? - There you go, there you go.

你知道嗎？ - 沒錯沒錯

- And buffalo sometimes, is a word for chicken.

- 水牛城有時候也是雞的代名詞

(chuckling)

(咕咕叫)

- [Together] Chicken watch.

- [一起] 雞之守衛戰

(upbeat music)

(炒熱氣氛的音樂)

♪ Everybody look at me ♪

♪ 我眾所矚目 ♪

♪ I'm wide awake, I'm ready to eat ♪

♪ 我醒來了，準備開動 ♪

♪ And take and take and take ♪

♪ 吃啊吃啊吃 ♪

♪ Taking the Chicken that is made for me ♪

♪ 吃下為我特製的雞肉 ♪

♪ Little popcorn kernels, baby, can't you see ♪

♪小小塊的鹽酥雞，寶貝，有看到嗎 ♪

♪ I'm gonna throw 'em in the air ♪

♪我要拋向天空 ♪

♪ And catch 'em in my mouth, swallow the chicken ♪

♪ 然後張嘴吞下雞肉 ♪

♪ And it goes down south ♪

♪ 然後往南跑 ♪

♪ Feelin' really good, spicy popcorn ♪

♪ 感覺真的很讚，辣辣的鹽酥雞 ♪

♪ Popcorn chicken from Taiwan ♪

♪ 來自台灣的鹽酥雞 ♪

♪ Popcorn chicken from Taiwan ♪

♪ 來自台灣的鹽酥雞 ♪

♪ Popcorn chicken from Taiwan ♪

♪ 來自台灣的鹽酥雞 ♪

♪ Popcorn chicken from Taiwan ♪

♪ 來自台灣的鹽酥雞 ♪

♪ Popcorn chicken from Taiwan ♪

♪ 來自台灣的鹽酥雞 ♪

- [Together] Chicken watch!

- [一起] 雞的守衛戰!

- All right, this is learning how to cook chicken.

- 好啦，來學習如何料理雞肉

Could you walk us through,

請問你可以指導我們

how to make your popcorn chicken sort of step-by-step?

如何一步一步的學做鹽酥雞嗎？

- At the beginning, of course you have to

- 一開始，當然你必須要

cut the chicken into little pieces,

把雞肉切成小塊

then you marinate the chicken,

然後再醃製雞肉

we have about seven to ten different spices we put in.

我們還需要加入七到十樣的新香料

Minced garlic. - Wow.

蒜末。 - 哇。

- Minced ginger.

-薑末

You wanna use shovels or the hands?

- I wanna use shovels!

- There you go.

Oh, yes, shovel that chick.

- But then we add Mijiu,

which is the Taiwanese rice wine.

That's one of the main ingredients.

And there's the star anus.

Oh, I'm sorry. (laughing)

- Star anus, wait. - Star, star anise.

- Anise, anise, anise. - Star anise.

- It does taste like anus on it's own.

- We bread them,

and we kind of powder them.

I just imagine usually we do like,

ten times this amount.

- Right. - Yeah.

- Do you have a bigger sifter? - Right, that's a lot of prep.

- [David] Yeah.

- I grew up with two big sifters,

and they were so mean to me.

Justin, do you wanna lay down a

quick rap about what we're doing here?

- A quick rap?

- Yeah, are you ready for this?

♪ Check it, check it, check it ♪

♪ In this kitchen ♪

♪ Just making some ♪

♪ Chicken ♪

♪ Yeah, Keith and Chris ♪

♪ Giving a little kiss ♪

- Should we? - Give him a little kiss.

- Should we do a kiss?

Okay.

- Well, that was the weirdest thing I've ever heard.

(laughter)

- Well, we haven't done that before.

- That's straight hip-hop, baby.

- Then you fry it.

- No, actually we par fry it, and then we deep fry it.

Once it's fried, then we season it with

popcorn chicken powder, powder, powder.

- Oh, nice hard dust!

Oh, wow, I got a little dust up the nostrils,

but it feels good.

- One of the secret ingredients I use.

I shouldn't be telling you guys,

but we are doing a...

- Secrets....

- Another dish that uses the shitiake mushrooms,

we use the shiitake juice to marinate the chicken.

So you're gonna taste this flavor in the chicken.

- David, shh!

- These are the type of secrets I want!

- [Together] Chicken watch!

- Ow, I just remembered, last time I was here

was the last meal I had with my ex-girlfriend.

(somber music)

♪ Found a picture of you ♪

Then we broke up, a day later.

- [David] Okay.

- This hicken doesn't make people break up.

- I hope not. (laughs)

- Oh we all hope not, David.

- Yeah.

- Are you okay, dude?

- Yeah, it's okay, it just hit me right now.

- I'm sorry to hear that.

- [Justin] Sorry to bring it down.

- Did she just want something less spicy, and you

were delivering like a Taiwanese level of spice?

- I was delivering a Taiwanese level of spice, for sure.

- And she wanted something more mild.

- Yeah.

- All right, well then you don't need her anyway.

- No, exactly.

- You're just gonna trudge through it.

- Yeah, that's right.

- You can let go slowly.

- Yeah, but no, this place brought back those memories.

(laughter)

- [Together] Chicken watch!

(laughter)

- So Justin, we have a rubric,

crispiness, the moisture, the salinity,

which is sort of the seasoning.

- Salinity?

- Yeah, we sort of picked this up.

- What does that word mean?

- It means salt content typically.

- Yeah, that's what I thought.

- The sucrosity, we learned about serenity.

- Serenity?

- Yeah.

- We misheard whatever the other one is,

what's the other one, sal-saltanity?

- We never get it right.

- Satanity.

- Not satanity, salinity.

- [Together] Chickenwatch.

(metal music)

(speaking foreign language)

- All right.

Oh, I love that it's salty.

So we're gonna start actually with the non spicy.

We got to make an extra batch of that anyway,

just so we can taste the flavors a little more.

So, everybody stab a chick.

- [Chris] Oh, my god.

- Probably not the best way to say it.

(chuckles)

(speaking foreign language)

- All right.

(upbeat music)

- It's awesome. - Hmm.

- Like the chew of it is like very delightful,

very crunchy, very salty.

- It's a little french fry-ish to me.

- Mm-hmm, I'm gettin' that umami mushroom taste at the end.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- It's like on my tongue like I ate mushrooms.

- Mm-hmm.

Takes me back to the mother land.

- Have you been? - No.

- I'm of European decent but I've never been to Europe.

No one will invite me there.

- Is this about me? - I was open about it.

- I don't know do you want to make it about you?

(suspenseful music)

- This chicken doesn't make people break up?

- I hope not.

(suspenseful music)

- You know, why don't we try the mild?

This is what they said is the only level we should try.

(laughs)

This will be spicy enough.

- I just touch a little bit with my tongue and I went like,

woo.

- That's plenty of heat.

- That's all you need.

It's a little bit of a hot Cheetos's feeling.

- Uh huh, yeah. - Where you're just like--

- Oh I got to eat more. - Gotta have more.

- Cause if I stop, I'll die.

- The salt level is really nice.

- Yeah. - It's really good salinity.

- Woo, my mouth's getting hot.

Oh, boy.

- This has gotten much less spicy to me

just eating a couple bites.

- Really?

I'm opposite for me.

I'm sweatin'.

- Look we can go to Europe, we can all go to Europe.

(suspenseful music)

- Look at the shape of this guy,

look at him, look a him.

- I mean he warned us that level two is going

to be pretty hot.

- Yeah he said this would be more than enough

and we shouldn't eat this.