Masterchef UK Professionals
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Chicken Wings Stuffed with a Thai Flavoured Pork Mince and a Soy Caramel Sauce
Dhananjai took an unconventional approach by pre-cooking the pork mince filling - sautéing it with chillies and garlic before stuffing - rather than using it raw as Philli demonstrated. This was a significant departure but ultimately saved him, as his chicken wings only had a few minutes in the fryer. His butchery was initially shaky but improved on the second wing, removing bones more cleanly. The skin was not fully intact on at least one wing, so he used flour to help seal and hold the stuffing inside - good problem-solving instinct. The pork filling had a good chilli hit. However, his soy caramel sauce lacked sufficient sweetness and lime juice to achieve proper balance. He pan-fried rather than deep-fried the wings, and used egg and flour to help them hold together. He plated just in time under considerable pressure.
Philli Armitage-Mattin: "It was definitely a roller coaster. It wasn't really the method that I used, but I guess it's your interpretation of it. I was nervous the chicken wasn't going to be cooked because it only had a few minutes in the fryer. The chicken is cooked, so well done."
Monica Galetti: "Your chicken wings, clearly you're out of practice. The way that you boned them out, they weren't going to seal. And straight away you grabbed an egg or some of the flour there. Good thinking. Your pork filling, I love that hit of the chili through that is delicious."
Matt Tebbutt: "I'm impressed with what you put on the plates, but the sauce, there's not enough sweetness in there. There's not enough lime juice in there to balance it. It's not great."
Marcus Wareing: "You cooked the pork mince, but in hindsight, if you hadn't, we wouldn't be eating this right now. It'd be raw, because you didn't put them in the fryer for long enough. I'm not sure whether that was just luck or your chef's head, but you got away with that one. All I can say is he's a lucky cat."
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