Masterchef UK Professionals
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Pan-Fried Chicken Thigh with Crispy Mushrooms
Pan-Fried Chicken Thigh with Crispy Enoki Mushrooms, Bean and Pancetta Ragu with Onions, Chicken Livers, Chicken Heart, and Herb Oil
{Polly}: "The first thing that came to mind when I saw liver and onions. So I'm going to do like a really nice almost ragu."
{Marcus}: "You're still working this out, aren't you?"
{Polly}: "It's a work in progress. I think I'm just going to, you know, pack it full of flavour."
{Marcus}: "You used to be a pro golfer?"
{Polly}: "Yeah."
{Marcus}: "What was more stressful? Like, some golfing tournament or doing an invention test here in MasterChef's kitchen?"
{Polly}: "Golf is a lot like cooking and you sometimes just have a bad day. But today is not the day to have a bad day."
{Polly}: "Nothing I do has recipes. I like to just chuck a bit in there. Chuck a bit in there. Everything's always an invention test. I think when I cook."
{Polly}: "Don't like working offal and it's just gross. I don't want to cook a cow's tongue. You know."
{Polly}: "Definitely getting there. All of my elements are kind of here, so now it's time just to work out how to plate it up."
Voiceover (Marcus): "I think what we've got here with Polly is a posh style of a chicken stew."
Voiceover (Monica): "We've got some offal with onion. Just taking some cannellini beans and cooking it down with pancetta. The onions need to be stewed down. Wonderful and sweet."
Voiceover (Marcus): "She's using a thigh and she's going to be pan-frying that. I think it's important you get the chicken beautifully cooked, maybe a little bit crispy, render it down. I think this dish is going to be simple. When you're carving a thigh on top of a stew, there's nowhere to hide."
Monica: "Polly, nice presentation. A tad bit on the rustic side, but I think it can be like that when you're making a ragu. The ragu itself is creamy. You've got the beans, there's a little bit of pancetta. You have used the offal, which I commend, and I like the way the chicken thigh is cooked. I do feel, though, that you could have done a whole lot more to really elevate the chicken bits that you chose. Bring some of your personality into it. Polly, don't be afraid to just try something different."
Marcus: "I think the ragu is delicious. I love the way you brought the offal into that. Enjoying the herbs. I like the texture of it. The beans, there's not too many. Good, good sauce. I'm enjoying that. If there's just one area that I think you could have worked on and improved, it's the thigh itself. I think you could have fanned it out, put something through it, maybe rolled it up, give it a bit of a roast into the oven. Let's start punching above our weight, shall we?"
{Polly}: "Could have been a lot worse. I think it was like a B, you know, could have gotten an A, but, you know, I'll take a B any day."
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