(bright music) - [Narrator] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

(upbeat music) - Hey Tim, I got your 10:33 call for backup, man.

Is everything okay?

- Well, I've got this whole raw chicken and I've got about 45 minutes.

Kids that are hungry, they're about to get hangry.

It's a school night.

Yeah, we got to figure something out.

- That sounds like a serious high stress situation.

Are you sure these shears are gonna be enough to take care of that problem?

- I think with this, there's a method we can use that is gonna make this work.

I've got Chief Wilson here as my backup.

It's a weeknight.

We're gonna roast the whole chicken.

Stay tuned.

On today's episode of "Dapper Dad's Kitchen," I've got my good friend Chief James Wilson from the Norwood, North Carolina Police Department.

Like we're talking about, it's a weekday, you want to get a meal for the kids.

It's always kind of hectic.

So we're gonna cook a whole chicken.

But I know you're saying, "Tim, like, how are we gonna roast a whole chicken in about 40 minutes?

To start off, we're gonna go ahead and spatchcock the chicken, get it splayed out, and then we're gonna do some Hasselback potatoes.

Great recipe.

All on one pan, we're gonna put it in the oven and then we should be done.

We can put it in the pan like this, but what we're gonna do is we're gonna spatchcock.

Have you ever done that before?

- I've not.

- Okay.

This is a great method for speeding along and evening out the cooking process of any bird, whether it's a turkey, a chicken.

I like to do this with my turkeys around Thanksgiving when I put them on the smoker.

Takes less time, everything.

So what we're basically gonna do is we're gonna cut out the backbone and then we're gonna lay the chicken out.

So I'm gonna grab our roasting pan here and we're gonna share the cutting boards.

I'll give you one.

And that'll be the one for the vegetables.

And we'll use this one for the chicken right on here.

First off, kitchen shears.

Any kitchen shears is really good.

This is more of a heavy duty pair.

These will cut straight through bone.

These are specifically kitchen shears, not just like your kitchen scissors.

They do come apart for easy cleaning, so you're getting things out of there.

But you don't need to get fancy like garden looking shears like this.

There are regular kitchen shears, and they also come apart so that they're cleaning because you are working with raw foods and raw poultry.

So that helps get it nice and clean for the next use.

What I like to do is sometimes I like to square the skin right around where I'm cutting because sometimes the skin can be a little tough even for the sharpest of shears because it's just a little, it gives a little bit.

Once that's done, right here, right where the neck starts, we're just gonna go ahead and cut.

Right through the bone.

All the way till we get through the end.

See, that's what I was talking about right there.

Maybe I need to get my shears sharpened.

And then right there.

So now what we've done is we've taken out the back.

If you're making a soup or anything, these work great for stock, but what we're gonna do, we're just gonna set this aside because we're not gonna use it today.

What you do from this point is you're just gonna take the chicken and flip it over, find the breastbone right there, and push down on it.

Or you can pull it.

I like to then tuck the legs back like so.

And then the wings so that the wings don't burn because they'll be up, I always tuck them underneath.

There we go, that's the crack we were looking for.

And now we have what is called a spatchcocked chicken.

Okay, so what we're gonna do here is we're gonna roast this.

This is our roasting pan right here.

We've got some lemon, we've got some onions, and we've got some fresh herbs from my garden out back.

We've got some rosemary and some thyme.

Now what I want to start off doing is what's your level of comfort in the kitchen?

- I'm pretty comfortable here.

- All right, cool.

What I want you to do is I want you to go ahead and take the onion.

We're gonna give it a rough chop.

What I like to do is, it's not really necessary, but I like to take the onion and I'm just gonna put that down as a bed that I put the bird on.

That's gonna give a little bit of moisture and also add a little bit of flavor.

So starting off, a little bit of olive oil on here.

We got my friend Chief Wilson here from the Norwood Police Department.

I had the pleasure of meeting him through a mutual friend a couple years ago at the Norwood Fall Fest and Hootenanny.

It's a great family event.

There's like some vendors out there.

The game warden's out there teaching kids how to shoot bows and arrows last time.

There was a petting zoo, hay rides, a hay tower to climb on.

As well as we had a chili cook off here that I got to judge.

So it was really cool being there in the community with everybody just kind of walking around.

My daughter was there with us that time.

And I think that's coming up again here soon, isn't it?

- It is, October 31st.

- October 31st, so right on Halloween.

We gonna have any trick or treating?

- Oh, will have a lot of trick or treating, that's gonna be a great time.

- My question is, are you gonna dress up again?

- Ooh.

I'm sure, I'm sure I will be talked into it.

That's the way it usually happens.

- So one of the cool things, a little history about Norwood that I remember that you showed me was there is the old jail.

It's an old, it's like a one man jail.

- Two cell jail.

- Two cell jail.

- Two cell jail.

- So do you want to tell the story about that?

Because it's right next to the train tracks.

- It's right next to the train tracks.

And back in the old days, I'll say the old days, the prisoners were held in this jail until the train arrived and transported them up to Albemarle.

So they would, you know, it may be two or three days before the train would come through.

So they would have to be held in this old brick jail.

And it's pretty impressive and just a neat part of the history of Norwood and the community.

- So what would happen was like the police chief back then would come by and make sure they were fed, because I've been in there.

It had an old cool fireplace or something, and it had a bathroom and everything in there.

But like it didn't have any offices like you would see in a police station today.

- It was just a two man jail and you got your food brought to you.

And yeah, you waited for the train.

- It's like Johnny Cash, I hear the train a coming.

(laughs) All right, while you're doing that, I'm gonna go ahead and chop up some herbs.

Always when working with poultry, I like to make sure that we're keeping everything separate.

So that's why he's got the vegetable stuff over here.

I'm gonna go ahead and start with the herbs.

We've got some rosemary and some thyme.

So I'm just gonna go ahead and pull the thyme.

So I'd just like to pull the leaves off, make a little pot.

- Oh, that's perfect.

- Just go ahead and dump it right on that tray right there.

Now what are some of the things, like how long have you been with the the police force, either in Norwood or just as a career?

- So as a career, I've got 25 years in.

- Oh wow, congratulations.

- Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, it's been a wonderful career.

I thoroughly love my job and what I do and the community I get to serve.

And we've got a lot of really great people there and a great community, great council.

Yeah, just a blessing to be where I'm at.

- So that's great.

Has your whole career been at Norwood?

- No it's not, so I started my career off at the Roxboro Police Department, which is just north of Raleigh Durham area.

So I started there and born and raised in that area and transferred down for the chief job in Norwood.

- Oh, that's cool.

That's really cool.

So how big is the department?

How big is your staff?

- We're a small department, so we are considered a small agency.

We have 12 full-time officers that are in the department.

- But you guys are busy because I know there's a big high school there.

And it's also near Wingate, right?

Does that fall under here?

- Wingate is close by.

It's not in our jurisdiction, but it's close to where we're at.

So about 30 minutes away.

- Okay, great.

All right.

What we're gonna do now is we're gonna go ahead and take this bad boy here, and we are just gonna put him right on top of that.

Get those wings tucked underneath there.

And see, like, it's laid out, the legs, the thighs, and the breasts are all gonna cook right about at the same time.

So you don't have to worry about is one part done before the other.

Now, I'm gonna go ahead and put some olive oil on there.

Plenty of olive oil, go ahead and rub that in.

And then we're gonna go ahead and put our herbs on here.

Now what is your favorite thing to cook?

I know you got kids.

I know they're getting older now.

They're not as young as mine.

- They are.

All of my boys have graduated high school and love to eat.

Love to eat.

Yes.

We do a lot of grilling at my house.

A lot of stuff on the blackstone, a lot of stuff on the smoker.

Barbecue steaks are my kids' favorite.

They're into the high dollar foods now.

They like the good steak cuts and, so yeah.

- So they'll eventually get there is what you're saying.

So I've got one, she's crossing the bridge into like enjoying steak and everything.

The little guy, he'll eat whatever you put in front of him if he likes it.

But we have the rule here, you have to try it once.

- [James] Absolutely, absolutely.

Good rule.

- One of the things we're gonna do to make this kind of citrusy is we are gonna add some lemon zest.

Now, you ever used one of these before?

Lemon zester?

All right, have at it, just go ahead.

We're gonna do the whole lemon.

We're gonna use the top side right there.

So you can do that.

While he's doing that, I'm gonna go ahead and borrow your knife real quick and cut this bad boy in half on your cutting board.

I think this is a great just kind of wholesome meal.

And I know it might be intimidating to a lot of folks to try to pull off on a school night.

This is gonna be really easy.

It's gonna be really flavorful.

And I'm fair to say it's gonna to be very healthy and everything as well too.

- [James] Yeah, that looks really good.

- So I'm gonna take some of this garlic and I'm gonna just go ahead and brush it around on our bird as well.

Give it a little bit of garlic flair.

Now as a dad, as a busy dad, probably working all kinds of crazy hours and everything, do you have any kitchen hacks?

What's a kitchen hack you'd like to share?

- Oh, a kitchen hack.

- Just something that makes it easy.

What's your dirty little kitchen secret- - I think it's preparing as early as possible.

- Okay.

- Helps, helps, yeah.

It just helps speed things along, you know, having all your ingredients together pretty much like you have here, get everything situated before you cook and it just really helps with the process, speed things along, yep.

- While you were doing that, I just basically put a little bit of salt and pepper over here and salt and pepper's always to taste.

Some people like a little more.

Salt is just a flavor enhancer, so don't be scared to put too much of it.

Just make sure you sprinkle it.

One thing I always tell everybody too is if you're gonna use salt, this is what I teach my kids, don't go down low because if you go down low, it's all gonna end up right there.

So not get a little crazy with it, but I always hold it up high when I sprinkle so that way it gets everywhere.

- Great tip.

- All right.

So we're gonna get this little guy and we're gonna take this lemon zest.

That's the zest of one lemon and I put the juice of about half a lemon in there.

So we're gonna go ahead and put this over our bird.

Got to rub it in a little bit.

There's my brush.

Now, one of my little hacks is spray butter.

Sometimes you don't have time to melt butter.

You just want to put some, put a couple of sprays on there.

- I love it, I love it.

- Now, have you ever sliced potatoes very thin?

This is a little secret, and you're probably wondering why we had chopsticks.

- I've been wondering.

- Okay, okay, cool.

So this is what chopsticks are gonna do.

Now Hasselback potatoes are potatoes that are sliced very thin.

They kind of will fan open as they're cooking.

Crispy edges, warm, buttery, just mushy on the inside.

So it's kind of like a, just a little different style of a roasted potato.

It's gonna go good with this as well because we all know just roasting and baking a whole potato is gonna take some time.

So what we're gonna do with this is we're gonna grab this.

We're gonna grab our knife.

Super sharp knife helps for this.

I'll do the first one and then I'll let you go for it.

So the key to this is to not cut all the way through it, but make slices as thin as we can.

You always have to be a little bit careful with the edge because it's not touching.

So what we're gonna do so the folks at home can see, we're gonna cut through.

Now the first couple cuts, I got to be very careful because I don't want to go all the way through.

So I'm just gonna make some very thin cuts.

Kind of take my time.

But then when I get to right about here, we can just go all the way down.

And the chopsticks will stop us from cutting through.

And we're cutting all the way through it.

Try to get a little, just make sure you keep them up under there.

I'd say just a little bit thicker than, I mean, the thinner the better, but we also want it to stick together.

And then as we come to the end, slow down a little bit, and it doesn't matter if you cut it off.

There you go.

So now we've got this, but it's all together.

- Oh yeah.

- Yeah?

- Nice.

- All right.

So we're gonna set that aside.

I'm gonna let you take a stab at it.

- Let's try it.

- Okay.

There you go.

We'll just put this back over here in the bowl.

So yeah, like on the end, just kind of, you don't want to go all the way through, yep.

And then right about there.

Next one, yep, you can go all the way down.

Yep.

And it'll stop you.

I'll hold these for you.

Because they do get a little squirrely.

Now these style of potatoes, Hasselback potatoes, they come from Sweden.

There was a Swedish restaurant called the Hasselback Restaurant.

It actually means, if I remember correctly, hazel slope.

There's a lot of hazel trees on the slope behind this restaurant, so I've been told.

But yeah, there was a young chef there that was trying to impress probably the head chef.

And he came up with the way of doing the potatoes like this.

So we'll just leave it together like that.

We'll go ahead.

You did pretty good there.

You want to knock out a little?

Yeah, aw man, yeah, you're a pro.

Now are the guys back at the station, they're gonna make fun of you?

- Oh, they're gonna rag me, yeah, but it's okay, that's normal, that's good.

- I haven't spent much time there and I need to get there in the summertime.

I've only been there in the fall to hang out with you guys, you and the boys.

And it's a wonderful, you know, it's an up and coming town.

It's growing.

We've got Lake Tillery nearby, which is a beautiful lake that I need to go spend some time.

You got any good fishing up there?

- We got great fishing up there.

Amazing catfish up there too.

- These are perfect.

I'll go ahead and knock out this last little one here for us.

I'm gonna go slow because I don't want to show you up and- - I appreciate that.

- When I do, I'm gonna mess up big when I do, and it's gonna be all kind of weird.

Another fun trick hack you can do with these is you can put them in the air fryer.

I love doing that as well too.

So, all right, we've got these.

We're gonna go ahead and put them on a cutting board.

We're gonna kind of splay them out like that just a little bit.

I'm gonna grab my brush again.

And we had some melted butter here.

And what we're gonna do is we're gonna get this butter all up in the crack.

We're just gonna rub it in there.

And when this melts, it's gonna just drip down inside there, and it's gonna make these super tasty.

Now what I like to do is once we get this done, we'll pull our plate back over.

Cooking gets kind of messy sometimes, but I think that's the fun part about it, just getting in there.

What are some of the other things that Norwood is is kind of known for or is up and coming around Norwood?

- Yeah, so we are a growing community, and again, we are on the lake, we have Lake Tillery.

So we got a lot of property on that lake.

And that draws a lot of individuals from out of town to come and enjoy the water.

And the 4th of July, just the summertime is just a huge, busy season for Norwood and out on the lake.

And we have a really good time out there and a lot of boating and fishing activities to do, so.

- And I think one of the other cool things about the tight-knit community there is in Norwood, you're a well-known guy.

I mean, when we were there, everybody was like, "Hey chief, what's gonna on?"

I think that's like got to be really cool to be on that kind of level where people, you know, feel really comfortable.

Feel like, "Hey, there's Chief James."

Like hey, what's up?

- It's kind of like the old Mayberry.

- I wouldn't go that far.

You guys are a little bigger than that.

- We definitely are, yeah.

But we've got good people, a good community, and very supportive of us as law enforcement.

- That's great.

That's great.

So we're gonna put these, we're gonna kind of just place them right here.

We're gonna squish them down.

Kind of spread them out a little bit.

As it starts to bake, they'll open up.

Put this one here like that one as well.

And then we'll put these two bad boys up here.

Now get my towel.

Now always we're gonna finish off with a little bit of salt and pepper over our, we already put it on the bird.

Over everything, and then, you know, it doesn't hurt if you wanted to add a little bit of garlic to these bad boys.

Just put some of that on, some of that minced garlic with the butter.

When it mix, it'll run down in there.

It's gonna be delicious.

Now, this is only gonna take us about 40 minutes.

So now that we've got this prepped, we've got our oven preheated to 425.

We're gonna go ahead and put that in there.

And then I think we still have a little bit of time.

I found some really awesome peaches.

I think we're gonna make a wonderful little dessert to go with everything.

- Oh, excellent.

- Okay, so while the bird is doing its thing in the oven, I found these wonderful South Carolina peaches the other day, and I think this is gonna make a good dessert to kind of accompany that.

We're gonna be a good crowd pleaser.

We've got some peaches here.

I've got grandma's trusty skillet, a little bit of butter, and some ricotta cheese, as well as some powdered sugar.

So while I'm gonna cut these in half, what I'd like you to do is go ahead and whip that together.

We're gonna put about, I know there's a lot in here.

We're gonna try to taste it first, but we're gonna go and put about a tablespoon.

And watch out one second.

We're gonna to put about a tablespoon-ish in there, and we're gonna see how that tastes.

We can always add some more.

All right, so while you're whipping that, I'm gonna go ahead and cut one of these bad boys in half and get the pit out of it.

Oh yeah, there we go.

That's awesome.

We'll get this guy out.

Oh yeah, that's a good looking... So we're gonna do that, in there, grab this one.

Aw man, beautiful.

So while we've got our peaches, we've got the pan heating up.

We're gonna slow it down just a little bit.

I also have a little bit of bourbon and some honey.

What we're gonna first do is we're gonna get just a little pat of butter.

Go ahead and put that in the pan.

We could do a little bit more than that.

So, your kids, they like a lot of fruit?

- They do.

- Okay.

So a lot of people, they like kind of get scared when there's like warmed fruit.

But like I love to grill and sear fruit if I can.

Now we're gonna take some honey.

Actually, we're gonna wait.

We're gonna let that do its thing for just a couple of minutes.

We don't need it to do very long.

See?

Just to get a little bit of color on there.

Let's grab a spoon and a taste.

I think we need a little more powdered sugar.

We got to think about it now.

We're also gonna put some honey on it.

So let's, you know, let's actually do this number.

Let's put a little dab of honey in there and some more powdered sugar.

Give that a whirl.

Then I'm going to add a little bit of bourbon, just a little bit.

(peaches sizzling) Now I think using local fruits always can kind of enhance a meal.

Whenever you can get some local vegetables or fruits to put that in your meal, not only are you helping out the community, you're buying local, you're buying very fresh, lots less preservatives and additives and everything in it.

But like most importantly, I like it because we're helping out the local community.

Oh yeah, nice little char on there.

Not too crazy.

These two look the best.

See, get all that gooey stickiness from the honey and the bourbon and the sugars in there.

The natural sugars and everything.

That's looking great.

Okay.

All right, what we're gonna do is we're gonna go ahead and pull these bad boys.

I'm actually gonna flip them over.

I've never done this part before, but I'm actually gonna flip them over.

How do those look?

- Look great.

- Drizzle a little more honey on there.

And we don't have to worry about it, the alcohol cooks off, so we're gonna be safe to drive out here.

- Excellent.

- All right, so let's go ahead and put these in here.

And then what we will have you do is if you just want to take like a good dollop and put it in the middle of each one of those like that.

Okey dokey.

Turn that off.

Always cleaning as we go here.

Make room for the star of the show, which is gonna be that roasted chicken, right?

I mean, when you're cooking, cooking's this easy, it's almost a crime, is it not?

- Right, home.

- Here on "Dapper Dad's Kitchen," you got to be prepared for the dad jokes- - [James] Dad jokes, got it, Dad jokes coming.

- What we'll do is we'll take a little bit of this honey and we'll go ahead and just do a little drizzle over there.

If you, your kids, whoever don't like this- - [James] That'll be a hit.

- All right.

Beautiful.

It's gonna be a tasty dessert.

We're gonna let those sit for just a moment.

And I'm gonna go ahead and pull this chicken, get it cut.

It should be perfect temperature now.

And then we'll be ready to take a sample of that, okay?

One other tool that's really important and cool to have is a probe thermometer of some kind.

Most probe thermometers are very inexpensive, run on a little battery, and they give you the temperature of the internal because that's what we want to check.

And when you're checking meat, you want to stick it into the thickest part of the meat.

So with the chicken, we're probably gonna go ahead and put it right into the breast.

So these are, you can pick one of these up anywhere, any online retailer, your grocery store.

It doesn't have to be super fancy.

This one is collapsible.

And I like it because it's magnetic, so I don't forget about it when I'm over here.

Our bird has done its time.

It's wonderful.

We've got the peaches there and everything.

This is definitely a winner right here.

Do the guys at the station cook like this?

- You know, we're not the fire department.

- Ah, those guys.

- Yeah, those guys.

- Well maybe we should have a competition between the Norwood PD, the Norwood FD, and maybe you could bring me in, deputize me, or bring me in as a reserve officer, and then we'll challenge them.

So the challenge is on their Norwood Fire Department.

The PD's gonna outcook it and I'm gonna make sure.

So we're gonna do that.

Well let's dig into this and give this a whirl here.

I'm actually gonna cut on this side so you guys can see.

Aw man.

There you go.

Some of that for you.

We'll get you this potato guy right here.

Give that a whirl.

- All right.

- [Host] I'm just gonna get in there, try that out.

- Wow.

- Wonderful seasoning.

The citrus, the butter, the herbs coming through.

Let's try some of this potato here.

Actually, I'm just gonna go for this one.

Now the potato, I can already see, it's crispy on the outside.

Yeah, it flakes off.

Look at that.

Each one of those individuals.

I think it all came out really good, man.

So what was your favorite part of putting this meal together?

- I really enjoyed watching you spatchcock the chicken.

Well, and the potatoes were good too, you know?

- It's just a new technique.

It's just a new technique on an old favorite.

Like who doesn't like potatoes?

And they're very easy to cook and everything.

So yeah.

Well, let's not forget our dessert here.

Just go ahead and grab you one, my friend.

It's still a little firm in the middle.

Not mushy just because we cooked it.

- Wow, the ricotta cheese and honey, paired with the peach, oh wow.

- The natural sweetness, just a little touch of honey.

We didn't put too much honey on there, just a little drizzle.

I think that came out really well.

I don't know what I like more if I like.

I don't know if I want to keeping going with dessert or just go back to the chicken.

I love finding new ways to cook with fruits and coming up with creative desserts.

And I think this is one of those tickets that, like you saw, it didn't take long to make, but it's also kind of like, it's a little elevated.

So let's say your mother-in-law comes over and you want to do a little cooking, you can make it look a little fancy.

She doesn't have to know that it only took a couple minutes, right?

- Correct.

- Wonderful.

Wonderful.

So what are some of the things that you and the boys and girls at the department do to help out with the community and everything?

- Sure, yeah, so you know, one thing I think is very important that we, you know, as law enforcement, we embed ourselves in our community.

We consider ourselves part of the community versus, you know, a separate entity.

And you know, I'm very proud of my guys.

We have guys that coach football, softball, baseball.

We have youth leaders in our churches who are our officers.

And so we're really active with our kids and just, again, with community.

We host several community events throughout the year.

The Fall Fest Hootenanny being one, Christmas on the Square, which is another great one.

That's a good one.

And then our biggest one is the Norwoods Arbor Day Festival, annual Arbor Day Festival.

- Oh, that's cool.

- Yeah, so we're always there at those events, you know, handing out coloring books, stickers, you know, little tattoos, and just really engaging with the families.

And again, just making sure that they know that we are part of them.

We are part of our community.

And again, just that we are there to serve them.

- No, that's great, and that's the truth.

Like that one time that I was there with you last year, two years ago, you know, just walking around with them, doing all the tasting of all the chili and everything.

He was introducing me to people left and right.

Left and right people were coming up to you and I was able to introduce myself.

And that's what I really loved about that.

Like he says, food and community I think always go hand in hand, and you know, it's just a wonderful thing, especially when you and your team can be in with the community and just there to help out.

And just a familiar face, a safe haven, somebody they can turn to.

Hey, Chief, thanks so much for joining me here on the show.

I will catch you on Halloween at the Fall Fest Hootenanny in Norwood, North Carolina.

We're gonna have a fun time.

Do we know what the contest is gonna be this year?

- It's gonna be a barbecue griller's choice contest, yeah.

- I'll bring my appetite and my notes for judging.

So hey, you know, well, it's kind of funny because, you know, it's not really a great party until the cops come to shut it down.

So that'll do it for this episode of "Dapper Dad's Kitchen."

(upbeat music) (bright music) - [Narrator] A production of PBS Charlotte.