- Hello my friends.

And welcome, welcome into my kitchen.

It's time for another episode of Johnny On Fire.

I'd like to rename it a very special Johnny on Fire because I feel like we're going to be maybe delving into some new territory with this recipe.

My guest, Jon-Michael Passerino.

What are we making today, bud?

- We're making a sweet, hot, glazed fried chicken sandwich.

- Okay, great.

Everybody loves chicken sandwiches.

- Right?

- Why is this one gonna be different?

- We're going a little off script here.

We're gonna top it with candied jalapenos, ice cream, and chili crisp.

- You're not gonna want to miss this.

- Pretty interesting.

- For sure.

All right.

I love this.

You are an avid chef, right?

You cook for your friends all the time.

- Yeah.

Yep.

- Yeah.

And you and I would pretty much belong to the same club "guys who cook," which I'm happy about that.

So, welcome.

And I'm excited to learn this recipe.

I ran into you at the Brew York festival.

- Yes, sir.

- Maybe I'd had a brew or two.

- I think we all did.

- You said to me, Johnny, I got a new recipe and it's this fried chicken sandwich with ice cream on it.

- Yeah.

- Which I love ice cream, so I'm excited to try this.

- Yeah.

- So very good.

All right.

- let's get into it, - So what are our ingredients for this?

- First off, it's just a normal dredge.

Okay.

You got your flour.

I seasoned it with cracked black pepper.

Threw some corn meal in there.

It's probably 75/25 regular flour to cornmeal.

Then you got your eggs and it's simple.

You - We're gonna dredge, do your dredge some chicken breast.

Do - Your dredge.

They're chicken thighs.

- Okay.

Oh, the chicken - Thigh.

I don't eat chicken breasts, man.

Can - We explain - Thighs and wings?

- Why chicken thighs are better than chicken breasts?

- They're just juicier a little more tender.

They take, they're cheaper.

They, they take the heat.

Well they, so it's hard to overcook - Nowadays when you eat a chicken breast, it tastes like nothing.

- Yeah, - Right?

- Yeah.

All the flavors in there.

- Lots of flavor.

- Got some fat going on.

It's nice.

- So besides our dredge, which is gonna be our batter, what we're gonna fry in, what else do you have in here for ingredients?

- So candied jalapenos, colloquially termed cowboy candy.

- Okay.

Yeah.

- And then did - You make those or not?

- No, I should have, - Yeah, - Just for the authenticity, - But, so basically it's a sweet jalapeno, jalapeno and sweet sauce.

- Essentially a bread and butter pickle.

Okay.

But they threw some - Jalapenos in there.

Okay.

- Really good.

It kind of tames the heat.

Yeah.

If you're not adept to - Heat.

Okay.

It's sounds like it's gonna be good.

Of course, our chicken thighs we talked about.

And the brioche.

The brioche bun.

- Yep.

- Alright.

You wanna get - Started?

- I do.

Okay.

So you said you put this together.

So is this gonna be our wet here or this dry here?

Dry here.

Okay.

I'll help - You.

Okay.

That a boy.

- Yeah.

And then this is gonna be our wet, so we're gonna do some eggs.

- Yep.

- Okay.

Do you subscribe to the whole wet hand?

Dry hand theory?

- Or what?

I mean, you try to, but through the fog of cooking they kind of get crisscrossed.

We gonna use all the - Eggs?

Yeah, we may as well.

- Yeah, you may as well.

Okay.

- All right.

This is a simple dish that you can cook at home.

While we're doing this, we actually have a cast iron skillet filled with oil.

What kind of oil you use?

Just canola oil.

Canola oil.

Okay.

And it's in there.

Heating up to about what?

- 325, 350.

- Okay.

- Just kind of regular fry temperature.

- Great.

I'm gonna take a look at it and make sure we're looking good while you're doing that.

Oh yeah.

Doing good.

- We good?

- Yeah.

- Oh boy.

That's fine.

All right.

The dog will get it.

The dog will get it.

- Okay.

So just eggs.

- Just eggs.

Okay.

Sometimes if you wanna cut it with a little water or milk.

- Yeah.

- But I don't see any reason to at this point.

- Chicken sandwiches have gotten super popular in years.

I've never had one with ice cream on it.

This is gonna be a first for me.

- Well get your socks ready 'cause this is gonna knock 'em off.

All right.

You've tried this?

- I have.

Okay.

Yep.

All right.

Tried this over the summer.

- I think we're good.

- I'll take that from you.

- Okay.

The old dip in the egg.

- Nope.

Flour first.

- Oh, excuse me.

Jon-Michael.

You know that's my middle name.

Michael.

- Stop it.

- The only person that calls me John Michael is my mom.

That's it.

- Me and your mom are gonna start calling you Jon-Michael.

Usually when she's mad.

- Yeah.

Okay, so, - So you go egg.

- Yeah.

- And you go back in the flour.

Make sure you get everything nice.

Everything nice.

- I'm gonna let you do the next one.

- 'cause Okay.

- This is your recipe, bro.

For the dog.

Okay.

How's that?

- Perfect.

- Okay.

You do the next again.

Chicken thighs.

Oh, we forgot to mention, what's this right here?

- That's chili Crisp.

That you can find that at really any grocery store, but I go to the Asian store on State Street.

- Yeah, they're great there.

- Yeah.

Love that place.

- Okay.

Flour first.

Egg.

flour.

Do you have an official name for this recipe or no?

- I don't.

- Okay.

You know what, we should come up with one.

Like, you know what I mean?

Like this is, is this like a signature dish for you?

- I mean, it, it's gotta be now it's televised.

So it's funny, you ask a friend of mine, she, she prompted a chat-GPT or oh, something on AI.

- To name it.

- Yeah.

To name it.

- All right.

We're gonna, I want to, we want to dig into this list.

All right.

I'm gonna help you one more time.

So just for fun, because we can, we'll bring the fry pan out right here on the counter, and we'll drop the chicken.

Just don't bump into me.

Okay.

This is very hot oil.

- Understood.

- I'm coming right now.

Okay.

Don't try this at home, kids.

Okay.

You ready?

We gonna hold hands while we do this.

Ooh, look at that.

I had like to fit 'em all in there.

I think we can.

- I, eh, no, come on.

Yeah, sure.

Let's do it.

Okay.

Make a little... make a little room for them all, and then they go right back into the wood fired oven.

All right.

All right.

You have to get out the Chat-GPT.

We gotta come up with a name again.

We're eating a fried chicken sandwich.

Everybody loves the fried chicken sandwich with ice cream and candied.

What's it called?

- Cowboy candy.

Cowboy candy.

Candied jalapenos.

- Okay.

All right.

- So the, the prompt was, gimme a fun flirty name for this recipe.

Sweet Hot glazed fried chicken sandwich.

- Okay.

- Topped with candied jalapenos, honeycomb ice cream and Chili Crisp.

So the names that, that it spit out was the Hot Honey Heartbreaker.

Aw.

The Sweet Heat Seduction Sandwich.

Oh my.

The Jalapeno Kiss.

Okay.

The Honeycomb Heat Wave, which I'm kind of partial to.

I kinda - Like that.

Why?

Why honeycomb?

Are we using Honeycomb ice cream?

- Yes.

Our ice cream is - Oh, you didn't mention that.

- Honeycomb ice cream.

- Okay.

- So one more, there's a couple more.

The Flirty Fire and Ice Sandwich.

Sugar and Spice and Everything.

Nice Chicken, which is a little wordy.

And then the Spicy Lover's Crunchwich, which kind of sounds like, I mean, we're, sounds like a Taco Bell.

- We're two bros cooking chicken sandwich.

It's a little flirty, but, okay, we'll let it go.

The honeycomb - Heatwave.

Sounds good.

We'll let go.

Kind of like that.

All right, so we're gonna check in on our fried chicken thighs right now.

Let's take a look, see how they're coming out.

Yeah, push that one in the middle down a little bit.

- You got tongues?

- We do have tongs.

You wanna flip 'em?

- Not yet.

I just want to kind of see what we got on the bottom side.

- Okay.

A little, starting to brown a little bit.

Oh, they look phenomenal, bro.

- alright.

Put - 'em back - In.

Whichever way the pan is, kind of rotate it, so, okay.

We can get some even heat going on - There.

So let's get back to talking.

What's your, what's your day job?

- I'm a interior remodeler.

- Okay.

- Kitchens and bathrooms are our specialty.

And - What's your, you have a, your own contracting business?

- Yes.

- What's the name of - It?

Yep.

Passerino Painting and Contracting.

- Okay.

So there you - Go.

Very North Country Original.

- Here's the deal.

He can come in, he can remodel your bathroom and he can cook you a meal, which I think is pretty cool.

- Yeah, that could be a niche operation.

You completely reinvent myself.

- At night when you're done, you cook 'em dinner and Yeah.

Yeah.

That's a - Great idea.

Like a concierge chef/remodeler.

Okay.

So it would be kind of - Fun, obviously you do painting with interiors and like you said, like renovations, you do people's baths.

So - The painting just kind of came along with Right outta college, I'd started an actual painting business, like solely painting.

And over the years I just kind of started amassing a collection of tools and started dabbling here and there.

Before you know it, I'm into carpentry and, you know, tile work and finishing sheet rock.

So really do it all besides roofs and exterior work, I try to stay inside where it's comfortable, especially this time of season.

- Obviously cooking is your passion on top of all the great work you do through your business.

So that's pretty cool.

Yeah.

All right.

I can't wait.

I don't know though.

I don't know if you're gonna, if you know, this whole idea behind ice cream on top of a chicken sandwich is a good idea or not, but I love ice cream and I love chicken sandwiches, so why not?

- Yeah.

- All right, let's take one more look at our fried chicken and see how it's doing.

All right.

Oh - Yeah.

- Beauty Johnny.

Now, just so you know, we did brown, our brioche rolls our brioche buns in the wood fire while the chicken was cooking up.

So we have those standing by.

It smells awesome.

I would've never thought about using chicken thighs instead.

It's a great idea though.

'cause I do, I love the chicken thigh.

- I mean, any chicken place worth its salt is gonna do chicken thighs.

- Do they?

I never knew that.

I always thought, thought it was chicken breast.

- And if, if you find out that they're doing chicken breasts, you walk out.

- Yeah.

Okay.

I'll make sure I do that.

All right.

I'm gonna get rid of this hot oil, so it's nowhere near us.

Sure.

I'll put it right up there.

Okay.

These are some beautiful beasts.

So we're gonna build, - We are, - I'm gonna let you build, bro.

All right.

Build this how you want.

- Okay.

All right.

So, so we just start with your chicken thigh - Honestly, though.

Where did, where did you get this recipe from?

- I saw a picture of a chicken sandwich with just a bunch of ice cream on it.

I was like, I could probably make that, but better.

So that night I, - All right.

Started tricking around and, all right, I'm ready.

I'm gonna have one.

Gonna do one.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Now we just get, looks like a little, they call it a quenelle.

A smidge.

Oh wait.

Oh, I'm doing this wrong.

Is it?

Hang on, sorry.

I gotta, okay.

- Oh, we're gonna do the jalapenos first.

Okay.

- Kind of insulates the chicken with the hot chicken and the cold ice cream.

- This looks crazy good.

This is like one of those meals you make at like late night.

- Oh yeah.

- After you get home from the holiday party.

- Oh yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Beautiful.

All right, now let's do our ice cream.

- Are you watching this at home?

This man is putting ice cream on a chicken sandwich right now.

What do you think crew?

Would you eat it?

So far so good.

Yeah, we're getting lots of yeses so far.

How about you at home?

Would you, - Okay.

Alright.

Ooh.

Okay, now we get our chili crisp.

Do we have another spoon on you or whatever there.

- Okay.

- If you'd be so kind.

There you go, bud.

- You don't think this is gonna be spicy, do you?

- It's really mild.

- The idea though, is you've got the, the coolness and the creaminess of the ice cream.

Wait, what's this?

Oh, oh, do we need to add it or no?

Don't feel bad.

If we don't - Need it, we don't need, we'll do it for the the other ones.

- All right, here we go.

We're gonna boom.

Those of you watching at home, this is what a chicken sandwich topped with ice cream looks like.

I want to cut it in half.

There we go.

We're gonna taste it right now.

This is it.

Jon-Mike's ice cream topped chicken something.

You ready?

- Yeah, let's do it.

- That's pretty good.

I would say it works right?

I would rate that as a summer day, like the best summer day you've ever had.

Right there.

You've got your spiciness, your savory crunchy chicken breast and that creamy ice cream on top.

That's a mess, but, I can always clean up after.

I'm pretty sure everybody's eyes will be giant when you put it in front of them.

Thank you so much for being my guest today, bro.

It's been an absolute pleasure.

We have had the best time.

You can check out all of our back episodes of Johnnyonfire@wpbstv.org.

Listen to me on the border 106.7 radio show.

We also have the Johnny On Fire dinner at Johnny's podcast as well.

But definitely go to wpbstv.org and check out this, this great recipe and so many more.

Thank you so much, bro.

My pleasure.

Jon-Michael, thank you.

It does need some more hot sauce.

- You were worried about it being too hot.