UK 2 Hairy Bikers - Chicken & Egg

'Hello. Can I take your order please?'

Two large fries, some onion rings,

two milkshakes - banana-flavoured.

'I'm sorry. What? I didn't understand a word of that.'

Leave it to me, dude, leave it to me!

Buck buck-buck buck buck.

Buck buck, buck-buck-buck-buck buck buck.

'No problem, sir.'

Buck buck buck!

'Ooh, cheeky!'

Ee!

Here you go. There's a free muffin in there for you too.

Buck buck!

What happened then?

I keep telling you -

chicken, it's a universal language.

Everybody knows it.

-SIMON AND DAVE:

-We're back!

Sha-boom!

'And we're on our biggest adventure ever.'

Let's go!

'We're taking our bikes to four continents...'

Where's Dave?

'..to find out how chicken has taken over the culinary world.'

Absolutely superb.

This is almost a religious experience.

'And why it's about to become the planet's most popular meat.'

We are going to cross France just to find a chicken.

'We'll uncover the world's most fascinating and delicious...

-Curry!

-'..chicken and egg dishes.'

Chicken!

'From the Great British roast to exotic spices in Morocco.'

'And the best ways of cooking them.'

HE CACKLES

-BOTH:

-Oh, yes!

'We're exploring the history and cultural impact

'of the humble chicken.'

It's the Holy Land.

'Ah, and the egg, dude!'

'From the home of lip-smacking fast food...'

Thank you!

'..to French cordon bleu.'

Oh!

Paris!

Ooh la-la!

'It's our most finger-licking, chickeny adventure ever.'

-ALL:

-Yay!

I don't know how you top this.

Eee!

'We've already eaten some of the best chicken and egg dishes

'that Morocco...'

'Israel...'

'France...

'and the US...

has to offer.'

'But this week...'

Howzat?!

'..we're back on UK soil...'

Geonbae.

'..celebrating the British love affair

'with the wealth of chicken dishes

'that make Britain an epicentre for global cuisine.'

'So we can visit all the chicken-loving nations

'we didn't get to on our chicken world tour -

'right here in blighty.'

I need more chicken!

'We'll be tracking down dishes from Jamaica...'

'India...'

'Korea...'

'Portugal...'

'and Bangladesh,'

'and meeting some of the inventive and inspiring cooks

'who've introduced us to a world of flavours on our doorstep.'

Forget going on your fancy cruises,

I've seen the light!

-Tell you what, though, it's good to be home, isn't it?

-Yeah!

Do you know what I've really missed whilst we were away?

-What's that?

-A good brew.

Oh, yeah!

Which, for you, was the best chicken or egg recipe in the world?

I'm just wondering whether we've tasted it yet.

-What do you mean by that?

-Well, if you think about it,

we live in one of the most culturally diverse countries

-on the planet.

-Mm-hmm.

So, by the very nature of the people that have come to settle here,

what did they bring?

Recipes - with eggs and chicken.

And this is the story of some of our best-loved chicken dishes

and the people that gave them to us.

Our journey starts in London,

one of the most multicultural cities in the world.

The hottest new food trend here is one of our favourites -

Korean!

Korean takeaway orders shot up by 85% last year.

It's finally, and deservedly,

emerged from the shadows of its Far Eastern cousins.

Korean food is packed with bold, uncompromising,

and sometimes unusual flavours -

and we love it.

That, and, at proper Korean restaurants,

you get to cook at your table.

Koreans love chicken so much, Kingy, they even eat their feet.

Nice!

Oh, I could eat some Korean food now.

I tell you what, mucker, you might be just in luck,

because there's a little Korean hidden nugget

right in the city centre of London.

-BOTH:

-Kimchi!

Jinwook Kim, known to his mates as Kim,

is a cordon bleu-trained chef.

He's worked in Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris,

but he always dreamt of creating an authentic slice of Korea in London.

And he's even got karaoke in his basement.

Oh, look at that.

-Beautiful, isn't it? Hello, Kim.

-Hi.

Who would have thought we would have found this piece of Korea

in the city of London?

We are the only one in the city of London.

I've been here about one year now.

So how important in Korean culture is the chicken?

Ten years ago, we used to slaughter

about 100 million chickens a year.

-Right.

-Wow.

But now, going up about 900%.

-Right.

-What?!

So 900 million chicken is slaughtered every year.

Chicken is, like, people's protein of choice.

And, of course, you've got the eggs as well.

Kim starts by whipping us up a side dish called gyeran jjim,

a lightly seasoned souffle-esque steamed-egg dish

that won't spoil your appetite.

Here you are.

And, as always, the egg comes first.

SI SIGHS

'Then, out comes the Korean fried chicken.'

Savoury. Sweet chilli.

This is a honey-butter garlic KFC.

-There's something missing, Kingy.

-Yes.

-It's a bit like the British.

-The Koreans have a drinking culture as well.

-Oh, yeah. Serious!

Yeah. What's "cheers" in Korean?

We call it "geonbae".

Ah, geonbae.

Yeah, it means dry up your glass.

-BOTH:

-Geonbae.

'Reinventing fried chicken is a bit like trying to reinvent the wheel.

'But, you know what, the Koreans have pulled it off -

'their KFC's a national treasure.'

It's unctuous, it's crispy, it's sticky, it's tasty.

Perfect combo, man.

-How are the eggs, Si?

-Really yummy.

-You don't so much as order a portion as order a cloud.

-Yeah.

'The best restaurant experiences are when you get to order off-menu.'

'Now, in Korea, chicken feet are a popular bar snack

'in the same way chicken wings are in the States.'

The best way is to take the gloves...

-Right.

-Wow.

So you grab it like this.

It's spicy.

Oh, I must say, I'm not too keen, really.

It's a bit like, you know when you have fish

in a fish and chip shop...?

-Yeah.

-And the fish is awful and you just eat the batter.

-Yeah.

The sauce is great,

but I'm not sure about sucking a foot.

You know, I think Korean food's here to stay.

But, for me, the fried chicken, it's magic.

Well, I think we should give that a go.

Oh, aye. Two sauces and a plain.

Right, come on, then - let's go.

We laugh in the face of potential humiliation.

We're taking on Korea's number one chicken dish in a Korean restaurant!

I hope you're feeling fired up, Kingy!

HE CACKLES

Ze time has come to breathe life into ze monster.

Ha-ha!

Igor, hit ze 20,000-volt button now!

Ooh!

Ah, you see - he live!

Tell me, Monster, vot is Korea's greatest export?

Affordable motoring.

Oh, no! Go to sleep.

Igor, give him ze 50,000 volts now.

Eee! Ooh!

Vot is Korea's finest export, Monster?

Korean fried chicken, dude.

Zat was correct. Come on, let us make beauty.

-Come on, baby.

-Thank you.

Shoom!

It's not cos you can smoke,

it's something you cook your barbecue on.

Up, periscope!

It's like The Hunt For Red October, isn't it?

-It's great.

-Yes.

-Right.

What we've started off with is,

these are beautifully, beautifully prepared

skinned and boned chicken thighs.

Now, the thing about Korean fried chicken is it's super crunchy -

it needs to be battered.

So, basically, you need to do a preparation

to enable the batter to stick.

That preparation is

a couple of big spoonfuls of flour,

one of cornflour,

cos cornflour, it's always crispy, it's lovely.

And about a teaspoon of baking powder -

that's to give it a bit of humph -

and about a teaspoon of salt.

-Mr King.

-There you are.

-Your dusting.

The next step for me to do is to make the batter.

For the batter, I start out with 125g of plain flour.

Right, I want 25g now of cornflour.

I like this repetitive lot - it's great, I'm machine-like.

Half a teaspoon of salt

and half a teaspoon of baking powder.

Much as before.

Now, this is like a tempura batter - it's really quite thin.

We're not talking haddock and chips here,

we're talking Korean fried chicken.

In here, I've got some ice-cold mineral water,

just stir that in.

But we haven't finished with the liquid yet,

because now we have our secret weapon.

Ohh, yes!

100 ml of vodka.

No, we haven't gone bezonkers -

vodka kind of explodes to make it really, really crispy.

And, after all, Korea is near Russia.

Now, obviously, it's still all right for the kids to eat,

because what's going to happen

is the alcohol is going to disappear when we put it in the fryer.

Mr King, I do believe that's your batter, sir.

-Fantastic.

-The thing is, we're double-frying the chicken.

And, apart from the vodka,

that's one of the secrets to our Korean fried chicken.

It's a bit like the double-cooked chips -

it just makes it super crunchy

and it makes sure the chicken's cooked right the way through.

So, oil, preheated at 160 degrees,

you dip your chicken...

into...

the batter.

And then pop it in, for between eight and ten minutes.

Now, we're going to do two sauces,

but we're going to have ours as dipping sauces.

So you pays your money, takes your choice -

one sauce, the other sauce, or no sauce, or both sauce.

And, as we well know, variety is the spice of life.

There we go. Isn't it great? Cos you can cook at the table.

So, I want four cups of soy.

Add 25ml of mirin,

which is rice wine.

The same of vinegar.

A bit of grated ginger

and two cloves of garlic.

Stir in about 50g of brown sugar

and a few drops of sesame oil.

Add a teaspoon of cornflour to thicken.

And finish off proceedings

with a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

Ta-da!

That's the first dipping sauce - the sweet, soy sauce.

But it wouldn't be Korea without a banging-hot chilli sauce.

We start off with this staple of Korean cookery,

the red pepper paste.

-Hot! It's addictive, isn't it?

-It is, very.

It's chillies, they release endorphin and it makes you happy -

I think that's why the Koreans are happy.

Now, one big spoonful of chilli sauce

and one teaspoon of rice vinegar.

And now one tablespoon of honey.

So, again, it's massive sweet and savoury hits.

I finish that off with a little splash of sesame oil.

Let's have a few more sesame seeds on this, just cos we can.

There we are - in for eight minutes

at 160 degrees.

Now, that's the colour that we're looking for.

Cooked through, but we're going to put

the most wonderful colour on it when we turn it up to 190 degrees.

Agh, that was hot.

-Second fry - two minutes.

-Right.

The sauces are done there, they're waiting with anticipation.

The chicken's nearly there.

-I'll just clear down a bit.

-Thanks, mate.

Ooh!

Right.

Ooh!

The anticipation's killing us.

The moment of truth - the colour.

-Oh, yes.

-Oh, yeah. Right.

-That batter's really stuck well, hasn't it?

-So good.

It's not covered in grease, it's not oily -

and the secret to that is you get the temperatures correct.

Get it right, the steam expands, forces out all the fat.

This looks good.

That'll do.

But the burning question is...

what does Kim think?

This?

-That's the sweet soy dipper.

-Mm-hmm.

Ginger smells really nice. I could smell it.

Very juicy. Perfect.

Strong ginger taste. Good.

Mmm.

Mmm.

-Ooh.

-Oh, that's good, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Which sauce is your favourite?

-Chilli. But that's nice as well.

-They're both nice, yeah.

High praise indeed from the man himself.

'And the perfect drink to wash it all down with

'is a glass of makgeolli,

'Kim's potent home-brewed rice beer.'

-Geonbae.

-Geonbae.

-Geonbae.

'Aye, and, after a couple of glasses of that,

'there's only one thing left to do.'

Right, time for tunes.

'Oh, do we have to?'

-OUT OF TUNE:

-# Like a shooting star leaping through the sky

# Like a tiger

# Defying the laws of gravity

# I'm a racing car passing by

# Like Lady Godiva... #

'That home brew's got a lot to answer for, hasn't it?

'Flippin' Nora!'

-Oh, no, there's not, is there?

-# Burnin' through the skies, yeah

# 200 degrees

# That's why they call me Mr Fahrenheit... #

In the last 60 years,

Britain has gone from rationing

and an unadventurous national cuisine

to having one of the most exciting cuisines in the world.

After World War II, we needed to rebuild the country

and, thanks to the British Nationality Act,

all Commonwealth citizens got free entry to the UK to help.

And, in the 25 years after the war,

nearly half a million people arrived here from the West Indies,

bringing with them cultural influences

that have changed our...

music...

fashion...

and, best of all, food.

Since the 1960s, Caribbean carnivals

have been the showcase for one of the best things

to come out of Jamaica - jerk chicken.

The seasoning was invented by escaped slaves in the 1600s

to preserve their meat.

It's now so popular

we think of it as the Jamaican national dish.

We've travelled the world, Kingy,

and we're not afraid of going a few extra miles

to find the finest jerk chicken in the UK.

What, you mean it's not found in our great capital?!

No, Si. We're off to Birmingham.

Outside of London, more West Indians settled here than anywhere else.

It's the perfect place to find a jerk master.

Lorenzo Richards is an award-winning chef from Bromsgrove.

Steady on, dude, is that not a bit rude, like?

No, I'm not calling him a jerk!

I mean, he is a master of the application of jerk seasoning.

This man'll jerk anything,

but his piece de resistance is jerk chicken.

But how does one greet a jerk master, dude?

I don't know, bud. But, you know,

I'm looking forward to being transported to a Caribbean paradise.

Endless rum punch, beaches, palm trees - the whack.

Hot, savoury, spicy, flavoursome meat

that conjures up the essence of a Caribbean island.

Oh, I'm there!

Well, this doesn't look like a Caribbean paradise, Kingy.

I reckon we've got it wrong.

Well, I was following YOU!

I was following you, but you always get lost.

I mean, you get lost trying to find your way to the bathroom.

I don't!

Du... Dude.

Dude, look, it might just be me,

but this definitely does not look like a jerk master's palace.

Just a minute. Can you hear something? Can you hear it?

-No.

-Lads, can you just keep it down for a minute!

Whoa!

-DISTANT STEEL BAND PLAYS

-Listen.

That sounds more like it!

BELLS JINGLE

STEEL BAND CONTINUES Will you shut up with the bells?

That is the sound of jerk chicken.

Right, we're off.

Crack on, boys. Crack on.

-Yes!

-Get in!

This is the Caribbean. ALL CHEER

Hello!

Hello, ladies.

-Oh, Master.

-We're not worthy, dude.

-How are you? How you doing man?

Good to see you, good to see you.

You're like the Obi-Wan Kenobi of jerk chicken.

Well, you know, that's the word in the universe.

-Look at that.

-My infamous jerk...

chicken on the go here.

-Beautiful.

-Oh, man. Do you do this?

Do you get everybody from the community together

-and have a crack on and...?

-We've been doing...

We do a Caribbean night here once a month,

and we've been doing it for the last seven years.

It's great, because, for me,

it's bringing Caribbean food to the countryside.

You've got real ale, jerk chicken, Morris men and the steel band.

And do you know what? It works.

Lorenzo's parents came to the UK from Jamaica in 1967.

He was raised in Birmingham

and he's made it his life's work

to perfect his authentic jerk seasoning.

I spent time in Jamaica, I spent time with my grandparents,

my great-grandparents,

understanding the ingredients and how to blend them together.

You can get jerk seasoning in the shops,

but this, ladies and gentlemen, is the real deal.

How long will that cook for?

This'll take about 30-40 minutes.

It's a lot of smoke coming there. In fact, I'm blinded.

There is, there is - but that's where all your flavour is, you know?

These aren't just for show.

These are to protect my eyes.

Tell me, Lorenzo, what is the difference,

say, between jerk chicken

and the average Joe doing, you know, barbecued chicken?

OK, well, jerking, yeah, it's a mixture of the cooking process

and the blend of spices used, yeah?

And the treated wood that we add to the coals

will infuse and add extra flavour.

What do you treat the wood with?

-I like to use beer and stout.

-Man, this is going to be amazing.

It's just a flavour sensation, isn't it?

It's a taste explosion, is what it'll be

when you actually get to taste it, yeah.

'Finally - the moment of truth.'

Oh, look at this, man.

'Lorenzo's about to reveal his secret

'to making an authentic jerk marinade.'

Over here, we've got...

This is like discovering the theory of evolution.

-It is.

-Onions, ginger, garlic.

-Yeah.

Scot's bonnet, cinnamon, all-purpose seasoning,

some oil to pull it together,

some fresh thyme, curry powder.

And this is pimento. Have a smell of that.

-Oh, man.

-Yeah?

'I'm amazed that there's so much in it, Kingy.

'A real mix of wet, dry and fresh stuff,

'and the skill must be not burning the fresh ingredients.'

Gents, making some jerk seasoning, I think, is in order.

-Done, dude.

-If you can chop these spring onions for me.

-Yeah.

-If you can mill some of this pimento here.

-No worries, man.

-How much spice do you like in your life?

-Oh, man, as much as I can get.

-We're practically Jamaicans.

-When I've tasted your jerk, you know, I'll know.

I'll know if it's real or not. OK.

So this is the decider, this is the scotch bonnet, this is where

you decide how much heat, you know, is going to be in the jerk.

-This is the nuclear reactor.

-Let's go three.

HE MAKES EXPLOSION SOUND

'Lorenzo's recipe also includes an ingredient from the Far East...'

Oh, and then there's soy in there as well.

'..which, he says, improves the depth of flavour.'

-To be honest...

-God, you could bring people back from the dead with that.

LORENZO LAUGHS

Yeah, I've done that.

OK, so this is just a whole chicken that's been cut in half.

Just score the chicken,

just to let the flavour get into it a little bit more, you know?

'Leaving the skin on means it will be delicious and crispy.'

-And what we're going to do is be very, very generous.

-Yeah.

-Do we need to leave it to marinate?

-I always marinate it for 24 hours.

How important is chicken in the Caribbean, the West Indian culture?

Sunday, we'd have chicken, rice and peas.

-Monday...

-Monday.

-..we'd have what was left from Sunday.

So we'd have chicken, rice and peas. Chicken southern fried style.

Chicken wings. Barbecued chicken.

You know? So, yeah, chicken is really important, really.

And it's cheap, relatively cheap and it's quite healthy as well.

Compared to some other meats. It's something that we've always used.

So, how much longer have we got to wait, Lorenzo?

I suggest probably about ten minutes for some of the smaller pieces, and,

you know, we'll be good to go.

'Now, what can we do for ten minutes?'

-Limbo!

-CHEERING

Go, go, go.

Lower, lower, lower. Go, go, go, go,

go, go, go, go, go, go,

go, go, go, go, go... Ah!

-You've got the groove, man.

-'This is immense.

'Who needs to go to London for a Caribbean carnival atmosphere?

'And the authentic jerk chicken.'

You can forget going on your fancy cruises.

Bromsgrove! I've seen the light.

-Yeah, it's exactly that, man...

-Oh, here we go.

-Gentleman.

-Oh!

-Lorenzo!

This is a little surprise for you.

-You've got some jerk chicken Scotch eggs here.

-Oh, you are kidding me.

'I thought we'd seen it all when we tasted the Manchester egg

'made with black pudding.

'But a Scotch egg made with jerk chicken,

'this could be a game changer.'

It's still warm.

Oh, man, that is awesome.

The flavour of the chicken... The egg is just so...

Chicken and egg in a one-er.

-Oh, yes!

-Hey!

OK. Gentlemen, I give you jerk chicken in its purest form.

Oh, man, look at that. I've died and gone to heaven.

Wow! Yeah.

It's savoury, it's smoky, it's juicy.

The heat from the chillies, though, dude. Perfect, man.

It's one of the most complete things I think I've tasted.

-It is so, so good.

-It really is quite special.

-Jerk chicken, washed down with British ale.

-It is, isn't it?

The most quintessentially British drink

crossed with Caribbean chicken.

And that's it, isn't it?

I just love the way everybody comes together around the world and

-enjoys chicken.

-But you know, Si, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

What would you think if I told you that one of Britain's

greatest culinary exports came from just up the road in Birmingham?

-Can you guess what it is?

-Er, porkpie? Bacon?

-Hedgehog flavoured crisps?

-No.

Let me take you back to 1970s Birmingham.

IN BRUMMIE ACCENT: Memories, dude, memories.

Since 1951, immigration to Britain's second city from the

Commonwealth has increased by 900%.

Most of the new arrivals came from the Indian subcontinent,

and they brought their traditional recipes with them.

It was in the mid-1970s

that Britain's most popular curry dish was invented.

The chicken balti!

It was the Pakistani/Kashmiri communities

who based this dish on home style cooking.

I mean, it's not for nothing that Birmingham's known

as the curry capital of Britain.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

Now, the chicken balti is world-famous. And get this...

It's even been exported back to Pakistan and India.

Well, that's mad. It's like selling coals to Newcastle.

You know what, dude, that's amazing.

I tell you what, it's put me right in the mood for a curry.

Here, dude.

I know this bloke, right, that can make

a bona fide Birmingham chicken balti in less than ten minutes.

You're on, man, but let's make it quick.

Only a handful of chefs in Birmingham can lay claim to

being authentic chicken balti chefs.

And it's not your average chicken balti fella, I'll tell you that.

A campaign has been started for the Birmingham chicken balti to

have protected status. You know, like Parma ham.

-Well, and Cumberland sausages.

-Yeah.

If you want to taste a real Birmingham chicken balti,

you'll have to find one of the six restaurants in the UK that

serve the genuine article. Luckily, we know where one of them is.

Chef Zafar Hussain is standing by like a coiled spring.

Now, my mate Si, he reckons that you can produce

-a balti from scratch in less than ten minutes.

-He definitely can.

I don't reckon - I'd definitely know, sir.

If you don't believe me, you can time me.

Is that kind of normal for a balti, it's got to be done quick?

Yeah, because the average customer

is not going to wait an hour and a half for a chicken curry,

so it's got to be fast-cooked and fresh as well.

We cook the balti in the proper balti dish itself,

and I believe in it that much, I've even got it stamped.

-"Made in Birmingham. Home of the real balti."

-Come on!

-This has to be seen to be believed.

-I tell you, he's awesome, dude, he's awesome.

-Right, Kingy, stopwatch at the ready.

-And five, four, three,

two, one, go.

OK, first of all, vegetables.

Green peppers, onions and tomatoes going in. Fresh garlic.

-That's the building blocks of most good cooking.

-Absolutely.

-So, sizzle up.

-Ah, now that's the flavour, isn't it?

That's part of the flavour.

You get restaurants down in London, or up in Newcastle,

claiming they've got a balti on their menu, but it's not.

It's a complete fake.

Because what they do is they cook in a different pan and then

transfer it into a small, shiny, little bowl and saying it's a balti.

But that's not the real deal. THIS is the real deal.

'Zaf's using the chicken breast, which is unusual for curry as

'chicken on the bone or the thighs gives more flavour, but no part of

'the chicken cooks quicker than the breast, and this is a quick curry.'

A bit of green chilli. Paprika.

Turmeric.

And a bit of chilli powder.

As soon as they hit the pan and flame,

-the smell just, oh...

-Yeah, yeah.

All those flames that you can see burning off,

that's the excess oil that the dish doesn't need.

-It's just going to clog up your arteries and give you a heart attack at 40.

-You know, he's not wrong.

-That's us told, definitely. Well, I know what I'm doing.

-Time check, Kingy.

-Three minutes and eight seconds.

-And then this is our base sauce.

-Right.

-All it consists of is just a bit of onion, garlic and ginger.

And a few spices as well.

How old were you, Zaf, when you started working here?

-I was 12 years old.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-Don't tell me about the child labour laws.

-No, I'm not on about that.

THEY LAUGH

-Cumin.

-Yeah.

-Fenugreek.

Then you've got garam masala and coriander powder.

I tell you what, it's just a pinch...

You just instinctively know, don't you?

There's no measuring spoons or anything like that.

-Whack it in.

-I've been doing it long enough.

-That's half-time, mate. Half-time.

-Half-time, oh...

-Five minutes.

-Easy.

'You know, the clock's ticking but he's so relaxed

'about his sub-ten minute balti he's preparing some naan bread!'

'Now that's just showboating!'

And what's going in here?

-Fresh coriander.

-He's coasting this, you know.

-He is. Talking as well.

-And guess what? It's ready.

-Right.

-That's it.

-6 minutes 48 seconds.

-There you are, guys. Can't get fresher than that.

-No.

Mr Myers.

It's hot because the balti keeps it warm. It's sublime.

You can taste the flame.

You get that...almost like a char-grilled flavour...

-Yeah, you do.

-..from the flame.

It's because it's been cooked in the same dish.

Anything that's in there stays in there.

Then you get the crispy bits on the bottom of the balti dish.

-What I love about our job, dude...

-Mm?

..is the privilege of being able to eat stuff like this,

and meet people like you.

-That's absolutely superb.

-That's great.

Birmingham chicken balti.

You know, I can't think of anything better that we've exported

-to the Indian subcontinent.

-I can.

-Really?

It's quite good being out here, isn't it?

Cos they don't it knock it our way. It's brill.

-Oh, crikey, it's like watching paint dry.

-It is, aye.

But there's nothing so quintessentially British

as the thwack of leather on willow.

Freshly brewed tea in china cups.

A tranche of Victoria sponge.

-Cucumber sandwiches.

-Give over!

When was the last time that you ever ate a cucumber sandwich? Blargh!

We've gotta come up with something better than a cucumber sandwich,

dude, at half-time or whatever the flippin' heck they call it.

-We better get a move on...

-PLAYERS:

-Oh!

..because the way this lot are playing, it's not going to be long.

Dude, it's gotta be something quintessentially British.

Aye, I've got it. A curry!

But with a particularly British spice.

Howzat?!

Come here and I'll show you.

HE WHISTLES

CHEERING

-Curry!

-Yes! Not half.

-Right.

-And this is a peculiar curry that we've never cooked before.

-No.

-It's a new one in our repertoire-y

-It is and what a repertoire-y...

Shorshe...shorshe... It's really hard to pronounce. Shorshe Murgi.

-Shorshe Murgi. It means, translated, "mustard chicken."

-Oh, does it?

-Yes.

-Oh.

-And this is what's special about our curry.

This is what it's all about - mustard seeds.

Yellow mustard seeds and brown mustard seeds.

And that is the British ingredient.

Cos that's what you have with your roast beef.

And now, of course, you've got mustard with one of the best

chicken curries you're ever going to taste.

You know what you need for a chicken curry? A chicken.

First off, I take an onion, peel it and chop it.

Everything starts with a peeled and chopped onion, doesn't it?

Well, apart from evolution, of course. We started with the egg.

It didn't. It started with the chicken.

I keep telling you, you cannot have an egg without a chicken.

I want about a 5cm piece of ginger.

Do you know the little takeaway that I use at home, the Tandoori Oven?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Poor old chef, he died.

-Really?

-Mm. It was tragic.

He slipped in the kitchen and fell into a "korma."

A-ha-hey!

Take four cloves of garlic.

My garlic and ginger. This now needs to be pureed into a paste.

Due to the fact that I'm on the edge of a cricket field and I've got

no leccy, I've got to improvise.

But I had an idea - bing! Light bulb moment.

In Thailand they use a blending method called pounding, you know.

Well, it's not a Thai pestle and mortar but this little belter,

this'll sort this out.

DISHES CLATTER LOUDLY

So, the marinade.

Half a lemon, half a teaspoon of turmeric.

If you can get it,

use Kashmiri chilli powder because it's great for colour.

Look at how vibrant that colour is.

Every Bengali housewife's favourite - the mustard oil.

Take the skin off the chicken

so the flavours can get right into the meat.

-Is it working, dude?

-Yeah. Works well, this.

Forget your processor - buy a cricket bat.

Right, dude, marinade's in.

I need to make another paste now,

which is a mustard seed and chilli paste.

You can use the dark or the brown mustard seeds.

I want a spoon of each.

Right, go on.

Into that, I want some chillies. Two of these little fiery devils.

And just give it a quick bash.

HE LAUGHS

Paste number two.

Maestro, the pan is yours.

Right, so you want about a tablespoon of mustard oil.

Cinnamon.

Cloves go in. Two black cardamoms.

Break those down a little bit just so the oils can come out.

-So half a teaspoon of nigella seed.

-Two more little green chillies.

Just slash them like that. I want the flavour rather than the heat.

But when you want the dish you can just pick the chillies out.

There will always be some burke who'll go, "I can eat it."

Well, good luck to them.

When the cardamoms are popping, the onions come a-rocking.

It really has worked rather well with me cricket bat.

Oh, the mustard oil with the cardamoms, the chillies,

the ginger - it's everything I love about food.

-Put the chicken in?

-Mm-hm.

And this has been skinned, which is what we want.

The reason that we want to make sure this is on the bone

is cos it just adds flavour.

And in 15 minutes' time we pop in the mustard paste and some water.

See you later.

# I don't like cricket

-# Oh, no

-Oh, no

# I love it

# I don't like cricket... #

Oof!

# I love it

# I don't like cricket... #

It'll go wrong.

Come ' here, you, ya lummox.

# I love it! #

GLASS SMASHES Ah!

Oh! Massive flavour. That is a good curry from Bengal to Birmingham.

Those that want a leg can have a leg, those that want a breast

can have a breast, but everybody is going to want the sauce.

Garnish with coriander and fresh chilli.

Right, that is like no other cucumber sandwich I've ever seen.

Ooh!

Hey-hey!

Our shmoozy...sherti...shusheshe...

Shorshe Mur-Kingi -

a Bengali curry with a British twist.

Oh, that smells good!

Ooh, what you got, lads?

Oh, cucumber sandwiches.

-Let's spread the love.

-Go on, lads.

That's we love, some of that.

-Keep your butties.

-Thank you very much.

-There you go, gentlemen.

Thank you, sir.

Mm, that's lovely, that. Mm, gorgeous.

RAIN DRIZZLES

-Tell you what, fellas - rain is definitely stopping play.

-It is.

-It is.

-Let's get in. Quick, come on.

-Typical of the British summer.

-Aye.

It took almost 40 years

for chicken curries to become so popular in Britain.

But sometimes a chicken dish arrives on these shores

that changes the game overnight.

We may have just been halfway round the world and back but that's

nothing compared to the journey one of our best-loved and most

recently arrived chicken dishes has made to get to the UK!

Piri piri chicken is a fiery dish

that made its way onto our high streets via Africa.

Africa? I thought it was Portuguese?

Aha! It stopped off there en route

but the story began on the African continent

where piri piri chillies were used to season meat.

In the 1600s, Portuguese sailors

took piri piri chillies home with them and, over the years,

the nation adopted the seasoning, making it their own.

For years it was every chicken-lover's best kept secret,

until a multinational chain of grilled chicken outlets

opened in the '90s and everyone went bazonkas for piri piri chicken.

Now, those aforementioned outlets serve up more than a half a million

chickens to 800,000 customers a week.

-Yeah.

-What?

-You fancy cooking some?

-What, right here, right now?

-Well, why not?

No time like the present, and cooking on the go is what we do.

Ohh!

The secret to piri piri is that it's simple but effective.

A bit like us.

# Look a balla ba ba-rarra-ba-ra-ra-ra

# Lisbon, Porto and Faro, too

# We're gonna build a chicken piri piri just for you! #

-Portugal have done well, haven't they?

-Haven't they?

Not only were they winners in Euro 2016,

their chicken dish is a worldwide winner.

It's a phenomena worldwide. Worldwidely.

-And so good that they named it twice.

-Piri piri chicken.

The Portuguese went to Mozambique,

and in Swahili "piri piri" means "pepper pepper."

# A-hah! #

Piri piri is that favourite chicken, you know,

that your "nan does" you know what I mean? Yeah?

But now you don't have to go there, to your "nan"...

-You can make your own.

-And it's brilliant cos you can barbecue it,

you can put it in the oven, whatever you fancy.

-So we're going to start, aren't we, Dave?

-We are.

I'm going to concentrate on making the marinade but, you see,

the marinade is everything in piri piri and ours is brilliant.

Better than 'owt you get out of a bottle.

And I have this incredible little blender.

Cos obviously I'm in a car park of a service station.

HE MIMICS LAWNMOWER ENGINE

"I can't get this bloomin' lawnmower to start!"

I have a feeling, dude, it's going to take us ages.

Start off with one roughly chopped onion applied to me magic blender.

-Excellent.

-Thank you.

-I'm just going to start on spatchcocking.

What you do is you turn it upside down, like that.

Spatchcocking just involves removing the bird's backbone

so it's easier to flatten.

Oh, you could have been a surgeon.

I know, dude, I missed me callin'.

See that there? That's what you want out.

Four cloves of garlic are added to my onion.

These big chillies aren't very hot so I'm going to use four of these

just to fire it up. And two of these little bird's eye chillies.

These devils are hot so I'm going to seed and top and tail these chillies

and slice them and add them to the mix.

Of course, chillies like this can be very hot and can be dangerous.

-Oh, dangerous.

-So, if you are worried, you could use rubber gloves

for this.

And that, madam, is one flat chicken.

Once flattened, the breast, meat and legs

can cook more quickly and evenly.

It's also perfect for the barbecue.

-And why did this chicken cross the road?

-Dunno.

To see his flatmate!

Ha-ha!

Oh, yeah, we just keep 'em coming.

So it starts off like that and ends up like that.

It looks like it's been run over by one of those very large trucks that

are constantly passing us and making the sound man slightly twitchy.

-Oh, aye.

-Have a look at 'em. Look, look. That's Tim being twitchy.

-Tim had hair before we came to this car park.

-He did.

I want the zest and juice of two lemons.

-I'll tidy up for you, mate.

-Thank you, sweetpea.

Portuguese are very, very fond of vinegar.

And there's a good reason why - vinegar's a great base

for a marinade because the acetic acid helps soften the meat.

And a splash of Worcestershire sauce.

I put a teaspoon of paprika.

A teaspoon of oregano.

And a teaspoon of sugar.

I think I'm just going to give this a mulch.

-Flippin' Nora, it's brilliant!

-It's brilliant.

Now, half of this parsley, stalks an' all.

This is fragrant and cooling. It's beautiful.

If I can get this lawnmower started...

I've never seen you do so much work for ages.

# Oh-cha, ah-cha, oh-cha-ah

-# Umpa umpa

-Stick it up your jumpa. #

Smell that, it's brilliant.

And there you have the basis of our piri piri marinade.

An intriguing combination of flavours,

it's sweet and tart and fiery and tangy.

It shouldn't really work but it does.

I'm going to put that in there like that.

And then...

You know when you're doing that, what do you think about?

Er...well, you know, rubbing suntan cream into your partner's back.

But, you know, chicken takes flavour so well and this needs to go

into the fridge to marinate for at least 24 hours.

It's going to soak up the flavour.

We just need to make another one and that's two chickens.

No, there's not a problem with two chickens.

No, we need one each. One each.

Piri piri - so good they named it twice.

And so tasty we're making it twice.

But we're not cooking these now.

We'll make our piri piri chicken when it's properly marinated,

which takes a minimum of four hours or, ideally, overnight.

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

# Any time is chicken o'clock. #

So, into our Tardis-like top box they go.

Of course, there's a fully integrated fridge-freezer in there!

Honest!

Exotic dishes like piri piri chicken

are right at home here in Britain.

The smorgasbord of fantastic flavours we now take for granted

means our diet is unrecognisable from the days of post-war rationing.

Birmingham isn't just home to the largest Caribbean community

outside London,

it also boasts the biggest Asian community outside the capital.

And ingredients from the Indian subcontinent are so plentiful here

you can pick up essential spices

for a delicious curry in virtually any local shop.

If you got to the Asians shops, they're turning over so much spice,

the chances are what you're buying is going to be banging fresh.

Get in.

Do you know, there's nothing new about herbs and spices in Britain

-cos we've had all this since Roman times.

-Yeah, dude.

But when you explore these shops you can really appreciate

the regional varieties in Indian cooking.

In the North, the cuisine is less spicy but they use

a lot of red and green chillies as well as saffron.

See this, everywhere you look you get ideas for cooking.

Ground cumin.

Ground coriander. And we'll get the whole ones as well.

-There's whole coriander, dude.

-Yeah.

Black cardamoms and green cardamoms.

Green cardamoms give a slightly more subtle flavour. Black cardamoms,

-you've got the smokey, back palate to it, don't you?

-Oh, aye.

Pungent spices like black pepper and tamarind are widely used

in the hotter dishes of the South.

Mustard is popular in Eastern cooking.

We used loads in our Shorshe Murgi - a Bengali curry.

Whilst western India is a bit more cosmopolitan.

Dried spices you cook into the dish,

finish off with...your coriander, your parsleys,

your basils and your freshes.

-I am excited.

-I am too.

Cos we're not shopping for spices for ourselves -

we're going to meet two very special young men.

-What do we take 'em?

-Spice, dude, spice.

-Spice.

-I love it here, it's great.

-Well, they're not having all of this.

Well, you know, we should take some back.

The guys we're shopping for are Raj Chahal and Am Singh

who work the hit festival circuit.

Inspired by their Punjabi heritage they create unique spice mixes

for their chicken dishes.

Chicken dominates the street food, pop-up and takeaway scene in the UK.

It accounts for nearly half of all the meat eaten here.

Wherever people gather, there are flavours from all over the world.

And chicken. And we want in.

But it's a Thursday afternoon in Walsall

so we have to have to settle on Raj's kitchen where the lads

are trying out some new recipes for the upcoming festival season.

-I'm looking forward to meeting these lads.

-So am I. It'll be good.

Now, this might not look like a laboratory of flavour but Raj

and Am are the scientists working their magic in the kitchen.

We didn't want to come empty handed, so we thought...

-That's very nice of you.

-Picked a few bits and bobs.

We kind of got you a bit of everything, really. You go to

a festival or if you're in the street - one, you want something

you can eat in your hands. Two, you want something really, really tasty.

And three, you want it hot and you want it now.

What's going on?

What we've got here is a onion bhaji and we've added chicken to that.

-So it's like a pakora?

-Yeah.

'Raj and Am's seasonings have their roots 4,000 miles away

'in the Punjab region of northern India.

'It's one of the country's culinary powerhouses,

'famed for its tandoori chicken and masala curries.'

Chicken's a bland thing until you add a bit of spice to it

and it turns into something fantastic.

There's a few thousand years of heritage on how to put the

-spicing into your chicken.

-Absolutely.

And the flavour's just going to get better and better

till it's cooked outdoors.

We're not putting any pressure...

-but we want the full festival experience, boys.

-OK.

Right, boys, let's go. Let's go.

How you experience food makes a huge difference to how it tastes.

We prefer using thigh as opposed to breast cos our cooking method...

chicken breast can quite often dry out.

Chicken for three different wraps are whacked on the grill -

a spicy one called the Just Right,

a tandoori one and a garlic butter one.

We're also lucky enough to be sampling some poultry prototypes

yet to be unleashed on the festival circuit.

The chicken pakora/onion bhaji hybrid we saw being prepared earlier

and a chicken and cashew nut surprise.

And looking at all that fresh fenugreek popping away -

or methi, as it's known in the Punjab -

it's going to be a nice one!

No onions needed.

Just cumin or jeera, as pronounced in Punjabi.

Other herbs and spices.

And to get properly in the mood for this fragrant food,

we're staging our own mini festival.

-You all right, festival friend?

-Yeah, it's brilliant.

-Aye.

-I love festivals.

-I do. I go to loads, me.

And true to form, guess what? It's started flamin' raining.

Beltin' down. Come on, Dave, it's great in here.

-Oh, look at that, man.

-Don't touch the flysheet, it'll come in.

-Oh, can you smell that food?

-I can, I'm starving.

It's a proper festival thing - it's raining outside,

we're all cosy in our lovely tent. Nothing could be more perfect

unless I had something hot and spicy in me hand.

'Here, I hope you're talking about Raj and Am's chicken wrap!'

Are you having a good time?

Well, I've never been this close to your groin, so, no, not really.

Is it raining? I can smell that food. I stood on my poncho.

Oh, I'm having a belting time.

-Who's that?

-Just followed us in.

Festival friend.

-Back to reality with a frenzy.

-Come on, boys, come on.

This is a full experience, isn't it?

And I'm looking forward to tasting those pakora/bhajis cos they're new.

-I've never tasted anything like that before.

-Oh, look at that.

The sweetened yoghurt dressing is to balance the lemony chicken.

And it all smells amazing.

Enjoy.

Just look at that.

-At this point the crew have decided they hate us.

-Look.

-Oh, hey, man.

-Into it?

The chicken thigh is so succulent and juicy, the spicing is perfect.

It is like a meteorite that has come in from the Planet Lovely,

straight into the crater that is my mouth.

Oh!

That's our new one. Nutty chicken.

-Oh, wow.

-The smell is amazing.

Oh, hey.

The nut comes right through it, doesn't it?

The thing is, we've just been around the world, you know, eating chicken,

and some of the best chicken we've ever eaten is in a garden

in Birmingham.

-Oh, look at that.

-There's your tandoori.

-Enjoy.

-Thank you.

Five, four, three, two, one.

It's as good as you think it is.

Traditionally, because we've been brought up with, obviously, Indian

heritage, Punjabi cultures and watching our mums make

miracles from nothing, we didn't want to just stay within the

Punjabi or Indian remit, we didn't want to pigeonhole ourselves.

-It's world food with a Punjabi heritage.

-That's it.

And that, I think, is really clever.

And it's also quite a difficult balance.

What festivals are you doing this year?

City of Colours this Saturday. Got WOMAD.

-Are you doing WOMAD?

-Yeah, we're looking forward to going to WOMAD.

WOMAD, it's a festival of world music.

Within that you've got food and that's one of our riches.

We can celebrate world food in our little island and we're dead proud

and excited by that.

As the years have gone on, adventurous cooks, like Raj and Am,

are producing some really wonderful kind of exciting stuff.

And that has given us a food heritage

with which we lead the world.

The best thing about coming home is seeing first-hand how chicken

transcends race, religion and culture in the UK.

The story of the chicken and egg dishes we've adopted and adapted

tell a much bigger one about how the UK continually embraces

global influences.

Which is why we've ended up with some of the best food in the world

right here on our doorstep.

And the best way to find all that food in one place is at a festival

like WOMAD.

WOMAD makes complete sense. It's world music and global grub.

It could be Around The World In 80 Eggs.

-Hey, you, don't you forget the chicken.

-Eggs.

-Chicken.

-Eggs were first. Eggs, eggs, eggs!

-Chicken!

More than 40,000 people come here every year to celebrate world music

and food in a field in Wiltshire.

-It's heaven on a plate.

-Well, a recyclable plate, eh?

This is epic, dude,

but not as epic as all this chicken from around the world.

What a great start, Si. We've got chicken from India but, look,

-over there - Tibetan sesame chicken.

-It's great.

But it just makes me want to cook our piri piri chicken and make

a contribution to this world festival of foodiness.

-Look, there's Raj and Am.

-You thinking what I'm thinking?

That they're two incredibly fine-looking men?

Oh, give over, sweet cheeks.

What I'm thinking is we could borrow their stall to cook our piri piri.

Is there any chance we can borrow your stall for a bit

and knock our piri piri out for the telly?

-You see, cos we forgot.

-A Hairy Bikers takeover?

-No, no, no.

-Just borrow your stall. We'll clear up after ourselves.

You're more than welcome.

Ha-ha-ha!

-The empire, this is ours!

-This'll do us, this'll do us.

Now, we're not going to scoff these chooks ourselves.

No, we're getting into the festival spirit and sharing the love, man!

Chicken's like a sponge for flavour.

With so many potent ones in our marinade, and the time

they've had to soak in, these birds are going to taste epic.

They better had.

Piri piri is one of the nation's favourites,

so ours has got to hit all the right notes.

-Boom!

-Oh, yes.

-Yes.

You may have noticed we put some corn in there too -

bit of colour, bit of taste.

-This is going to be exceptional.

-It certainly is.

Roll up, roll up! Hairy Bikers' piri piri chicken with corn on the cob.

Everybody, come and get it!

-Yo!

-Hey!

-There you go.

-That looks good.

-What's the name?

-BOTH: It's piri piri chicken.

Oh, that's lovely.

It seems to be going down well, doesn't it? Lots of happy customers.

How we doing? You all right?

-Here you go, Auntie.

-Thank you.

We need more chicken. It's going down a storm.

It's brilliant - the sun's shining, the people are great,

but there's one thing we haven't done.

Silent disco!

VERY FAINT MUSIC

No.

We still haven't worked out which came first - the chicken or the egg.

Flamin' Nora, you're right.

Well, you know what we've got to do, then, don't you?

'We've been halfway round the world

'and we still haven't answered that question.'

-Chicken!

-Egg!

-Chicken.

-Egg, egg, egg.

-Chicken.

-Egg.

We're running out of time to settle this once and for all.

We need some help!

This is well cheeky, this - the band will understand.

It's important!

Stop!

You cook an egg dish, I cook a chicken dish and let WOMAD decide!

CHEERING

This is the cook-off to end all cook-offs,

to answer the question that mankind has been wrestling with

since the dawn of time.

It's my chicken tagine...

Versus my pickled egg scotch egg.

-So, will it be the chicken...

-Or the egg?

Dudes, it's the moment of truth!

What came first? The chicken...?

Or the egg?

If you want eggs, shout eggs.

-CROWD:

-Eggs!

If you want chicken, shout chicken.

-CROWD:

-Chicken!

Dude, that's way louder!

What do you think?

HE CLUCKS

YES!

SI LAUGHS TRIUMPHANTLY

Oh, yes!

It came first!

Right, you know what you've gotta do now, don't you?

I will go and get my outfit on.

-So our adventures in chicken...

-And egg!

-..have come to an end.

-Hey-hey!

-Yee-ha!

In Morocco we saw how the humble chicken is transformed using spice

and has gone from zero to hero in the last 40 years

to become the country's most-eaten meat.

-I was not expecting that.

-No.

Paris, here we come!

In France we ate some of the poshest chickens in the world.

We lifted the lid on the origins of haute cuisine in a country

where the humble chicken is revered as a gourmet ingredient.

That's the way I'm cooking my chicken from now on.

In the USA we got to the bottom of how fried chicken went from

slave food to one of the most popular fast foods in the world.

Crispy!

And how to keep the locals happy.

-Yes!

-Yes.

AMERICAN ACCENT: Have a day, y'all.

Israel was a revelation...

So much food we're discovering for the first time.

..in a country where chickens have been farmed for over 2,000 years.

Eating it was a religious experience.

And here in the UK we've seen how people from all over the world

have introduced us to new and exciting ways to eat chicken

and egg and changed our cuisine to make us culinary world leaders.

-That's absolutely superb.

-That's great, isn't it?

From coronation chicken to the poshest of roasts, no matter how big

or small your budget, there is a chicken dish for you.

It's a versatile and affordable meat that absorbs flavours brilliantly.

And that is why chicken is taking over the world.

Something well worth celebrating.

MUSIC: The Birdie Song

# La-la-la-la... #

The old wing walker.

# La-la-la-la... #

CHEERING