Cordon Bleu “CornDog” (Sous-Vide)

The genesis of everything I do has a beginning, but I rarely discuss or share how this happens. In this post, I will give you some insight into how I think and what inspires me to conceptualize my crazy recipes, which some have called creative. Generally speaking, I never include my thought process (or lack of) in a post or share what inspires me because it has no bearing on the recipe. Anyhow, I was being interviewed by Darrin Wilson for his Podcast (Click on his Logo), and one of the questions (which I am paraphrasing) that came up was, "Where do I get my inspiration?"

The answer is simple.....I get my inspiration from all of you.

The idea for this recipe came from my buddy Kevin Holmes Liddell. What exactly did Kevin contribute? He sent me a really creative video on Cordon-Bleu. In this video, the person split the breast open from the top and created a small pocket. They stuffed it with cheese and meat. Drizzled in a bechamel sauce and topped it with mozzarella cheese. Anyhow that got me thinking about Cordon-bleu. What could I do that is diverse, wild & crazy. After a week or so of thinking and dreaming about Cordon-Bleu, I created this recipe. Most guys dream of sex when they sleep, but I dreamscape culinary wonders. When I close my eyes, I intentionally think of crazy things to do with food. I do this for most of the things I come up with. In a relaxed state, your mind is free to focus, and that is where the magic happens. I go to sleep to dream about food. You'd be surprised about how our brain works. Our psyche, when allowed to relax, can work through complex issues and solve just about anything.

So here we go. It all starts out with Boneless-Skinless-Chicken-Thighs. Having to guesstimate as to what I needed comes very easy to me and that's exaxtly what I did. After trimming, I had about 1400 grams. Why trim? Occasionally you find cartilage and bone fragments, and they're not good eats. To replicate this recipe, I decided to use a little math too. I love using percentages, and so will you once I show you what I did. Anyhow after trimming cut into smaller pieces and partially freeze them. Doing this makes it easier to grind. I have a professional grinder, but since I am processing almost to a Pate consistency, I only needed my food processor to get the job done.

To increase the flavor, I added Schmaltz & Gribenes. For those of you not familiar with this ingredient allow me to give you an analogy. Schmaltz & Gribenes is to the Jew like Pork-Cracklings & Lard is to the Gentile.

I always have frozen gribenes on hand as well as schmaltz, which made this recipe easy. Take the frozen gribenes and the schmaltz and process into a paste using a food processor. I used exactly 10% of the weight of the Chicken-Thighs. 1400 grams X 10%= 140 grams. I also used 3% of Schmaltz. 1400 grams X 3% = 42 grams. Note: Very important to process Gribenses and Schmaltz together to form a paste. And if you need to add a little water to aid in the processing.

Add the Gribenes & the Schmaltz Paste to the ground up chicken. Mix it very well.

I purchased this seasoning at Costco, and it happens to be one of my favorites. I added 3 Tbsp mixed along with the Gribenes & Schmaltz. How did I know to only use 3 Tbsp? I pinched off a meatball size portion and fried it up and tested it for seasoning. Add whatever you want, but make sure to fry up a meatball size ball to taste for seasoning. Very often, this is overlooked when people prepare food i.e. Meatballs for Meatloaf.

This next ingredient is essential to the recipe. I am sure by now you've all heard of Meat-Glue? It's actually called Transglutaminase, and I use the Activa RM Version. I used exactly 1.2% of the Weight of the Chicken plus the Gribenes and Schmaltz. 1582 grams X 1.2% = 18.984 grams......I rounded up and used 19 grams. Place TG in a powdered sugar dispenser, which will help you distribute evenly.

The easiest way to incorporate the TG is to use a Heavy Duty Mixer such as a Kitchen Aid. With the machine set on it's the lowest speed slowly sprinkle in the TG. Increase speed and mix until you think it's fully incorporated.

When it comes to stuffing these Corn-dogs, you can use any meat or cheese you desire. There's no such thing as authentic IMO so, please don't tell me that I should have use Ham (which I don't eat) or Swiss-Cheese. Anyhow, I used Honey Turkey and Havarti Cheese. I layered the meat between two slices of cheese. Truth be told, I should have used Gruyere or Emmentaler Cheese. And I wish I would have added more cheese. Although they turned out stupendous, I wanted more of a cheese presence. I also wish I had Duckcetta on hand because this would have been better than the turkey.

The below pics will guide you through the process. You have options on thickness and length. Depending on the width of the cheese and protein, you could be thicker or thinner. My wife thought they were a little thick at 35mm. Next time I will try to spread out the chicken a little thinner and shoot for 30-32mm.

Before making this version, I turned to no other than Alton Brown (Good Eats). I tried his recipe, but it was just OK. His method lacks a viscosity that I was hoping to have, but there's a plus side. AB's version was my inspiration for my batter.

Combine all the dry ingredients (except Corn-starch) in a large bowl and mix. Now combine all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and mix. Combine wet into the dry and fold until well combined. Give it a 10-minute rest to activate the BP and BS. If you find the batter to be too thick, go ahead and water it down with some water or milk.

Lightly dust the corndogs with corn-starch.

Note: Did you remember to retherm as described above?

Choose a narrow container to dip corndogs into. Dip them one at a time and place in a 350f oil and fry until golden brown.

I chose to serve them with a Honey-Mustard-Sauce. I made it with several different mustards. Sorry I did not write down the recipe.