Dapper Dad's Kitchen
The Faux-Fancy Southern Glow-Up: Cast Iron Blackened Chicken Mac & Cheese with Fresh Garlicky Collard Green Slaw
9/19/2026 | 27m 39sVideo has Closed Captions
Family, flavor, and scratch-made, Low-country cooking come together in the kitchen
We kick off the season with the core family. We take beloved Low-country staples and give them a scratch-made, budget-friendly upgrade. The family atmosphere shines through as the kids are brought in for tactile prep work, like grating fresh cheese and tossing slaw, proving that getting the family involved speeds up the cooking process.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Dapper Dad's Kitchen is a local public television program presented by PBS Charlotte
Dapper Dad's Kitchen
The Faux-Fancy Southern Glow-Up: Cast Iron Blackened Chicken Mac & Cheese with Fresh Garlicky Collard Green Slaw
9/19/2026 | 27m 39sVideo has Closed Captions
We kick off the season with the core family. We take beloved Low-country staples and give them a scratch-made, budget-friendly upgrade. The family atmosphere shines through as the kids are brought in for tactile prep work, like grating fresh cheese and tossing slaw, proving that getting the family involved speeds up the cooking process.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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(logo whooshing) - Well, it wouldn't be "Dapper Dad's kitchen" if I didn't have the family in the kitchen with me to cook a meal.
So, today, we've got my wife, Ashley, my daughter, Brooklyn, and my son, Sebastian.
They're going to help us with the meal in the kitchen today.
So, what is one of your favorite foods, Sebastian?
- Mac and cheese.
- Mac and cheese, so we're going to build upon that today.
We're going to kind of do a little bit of a low country upgrade.
We've got some collard greens.
We're going to do some mac and cheese.
It's going to be a great show.
(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) I've got my family cooking with us this week and what are we gonna make?
- Chicken mac and cheese.
- That's right, we're gonna make a blackened chicken mac and cheese.
And for our side, what are we going to have, Brooklyn?
- Slaw.
- We're gonna have a slaw.
More specifically, we are going to have a colored green slaw with a nice sweet dressing.
It's going to be a wonderful time.
I'm gonna go ahead and get the water boiling for our mac and cheese noodles while I'm going to come over here and show you guys what to do.
Brooklyn, what I want you to do, and mommy's going to help you on watch here, these are the collard greens.
Now this stem in the middle here, the vein, it's very thick.
We don't want to eat that part.
So what we're going to do is you're gonna use your knife and you're gonna just cut down each side of it, you're gonna pull it out, you're gonna just set it aside and then fold these over and then go ahead and put them right here, okay?
And then mommy will come in and help you and we'll get those sliced.
Working with the kids in the kitchen, sharp knives can be sometimes dangerous.
That's why I have these knives right here.
They're slightly serrated, but they are not sharp, but they'll cut through just about anything vegetable wise.
All right, there you go.
Remember how I showed you?
- Mm-hmm.
- All right.
Let's see how you go.
(vibrant music) - [Ashley] Perfect.
- And then if you want to,- - Good, good.
- You can do a little cut like this.
You want to go all the way from the top, bring it down and then you can do a little cut like that to get it out and then just go ahead and peel it out.
And then set those aside, fold it over and put it right there.
And then mommy will help slice them.
- Maybe make a little- - All right.
- Triangle at the top.
- Now, Sebastian, we're going to go ahead and work on the dressing over here.
I've got this little bowl for you.
Now, what we're going to do in our dressing, we've got a half a cup of mayonnaise, about two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, some fresh squeezed lemon juice and a little bit of garlic powder with just a pinch of sugar in there.
So go ahead and use this.
And I want you to take this one hand and scoop it all into the bowl.
Now what else do we use mayonnaise for?
What do you like mayonnaise for?
- A mayonnaise sandwich.
- Mayonnaise sandwich.
He loves a ham and cheese mayo sandwich.
And what do you say, ham sammie with mayo?
- Yeah.
(Tim and Ashley chuckle) - All right, let's get that.
I'll finish that up for you, okay.
How's it going over there, Ashley?
- [Ashley] It's going really well.
- Okay, cool, now grab the apple cider vinegar.
Smell that and tell me what you think.
- Smells good.
- Smells good?
Vinegar smells good?
All right, pour it in.
- Good job.
- Okay.
Now go ahead and put the lemon juice in there.
And that's going to be about a tablespoon of garlic powder with a good pinch of sugar.
So go ahead and put that in there.
Put it back on the tray.
All right, I'll get this out of the way.
Now what I want you to do is just take this, this is called a whisk, and you want to go ahead and just stir everything up till it makes it nice and it's even, okay?
I want you to go ahead and do that and I'll get this out of the way for us.
- [Ashley] We're making some good progress over here.
- [Tim] You're making good progress over here?
All right, awesome.
- I think we've learned that if we make a little triangle at the top, it helps kind of pull that out easier.
- Yep.
- We've only got two left.
- Two left, okay.
How's this looking over here?
You know what we always do, Sebastian?
Let's give it a taste.
(cutlery clanking) Just a little bit.
- Okay.
All right, I think we're good.
- [Tim] Tell us, what do you think?
- It tastes good.
- It's like, what is it?
But it's tangy.
It's a little citrusy.
It's gonna be really good, it's going to be very bright when we make the slaw.
Okay, Ash.
- We are good.
- Now, I'll have you step just to the side.
We're going to have mommy come in with the really sharp knife.
We're going to take a few of these at a time, we'll put them back over here, and we're going to have you go ahead and slice them.
Now we're going to slice them very thin.
So what I like to do is do it like this, we're going to go ahead and fold it over like that.
You're going to take this knife- - Mm-hmm.
- And then just slice it very thin.
- [Ashley] Okay.
- Go through all that.
And then we'll put all these in the bowl when mommy gets them done.
I'll let you girls go do that.
- Okay.
- Okay, Sebs, we're going to go ahead and set this aside.
We'll need that in just a moment here.
Let's see how our water's doing.
Is it boiling?
- It is.
- Looks hot?
Okay, do you want to go ahead and dump this in there?
Two hands and be very careful.
Good job.
Give that a stir.
And I want you to do me a quick favor, okay, buddy?
I want you to get some salt, a good... No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Four fingers of salt, put it in there.
Good deal.
Yeah, you know, see, I've taught him well.
He spread it out, he didn't just dump it in there even though we're just doing it in the pot.
I like that, building good habits.
Now we'll go ahead and salt it a little more.
Technically, I should have salted it while it was boiling, but it's not going to hurt anything right here.
And when it comes to salting your pasta water, you always use a lot.
I think that when you're salting your pasta water, the water should taste just a little bit salty.
Shouldn't be ocean salty, but also, although some chefs will say that that's how they like it, but we'll just go ahead and put a little bit of salt on there.
We'll bring this to a quick boil and then we'll go ahead and drain it.
Wanna see how the girls are doing over here?
- Mm-hmm.
- All right, they're coming right along.
- Nice.
- Yep, doing good, doing good.
Now, while they're doing that and finishing up, we're waiting for this to boil, what are some of the favorite things that we make in the kitchen that you like, other than mac and cheese?
- I was gonna say that.
- You were going to say that?
Okay, but what are some of the other things you like?
What do you like for breakfast?
- I was gonna say, how about some breakfast stuff?
- How about cheese grits?
You like a good scrambled egg, sometimes some sausage.
We already know your favorite lunch sandwich, which is a ham and cheese sammie made with mayo.
Now what's your favorite snack?
- I don't know.
- You don't know?
- Cookies.
- See, there's way too many.
- Cookies, cookies.
And what about you, Brooklyn?
What's some of the favorite things that you like to do?
- I like to make cookies and cake.
- Now, Brooklyn is a baker.
She loves baking, she learned a lot of baking from my mother-in-law and she bakes with her mommy here.
But yeah, Brooklyn loves baking cookies, cakes.
Doing good, looks good.
- We recently just made a cake for grandpa's birthday.
- [Tim] Yeah, we did.
- And Papap's.
- And Papap's birthday, yeah.
- And Papap's.
- You're doing great, Ash.
I need you in the kitchen with me more often.
- I (indistinctness).
- Dad.
- Now don't let my wife fool you, my wife is a great cook.
Yes, sir, oh, that's good.
Thank you for telling me about that.
Let's go ahead and get our spoon,- - Here.
- Make sure we stir it.
- Well, that's a lot bubble.
- Yeah, that's bubbles.
We're going to go ahead and leave the top off of it.
Set it right there, and just let this bubble.
We are going to cook this to what we call al dente, where it's not completely through and it's still just got a little bit of... It's very kind of firm.
We don't want it super, super soft because we're going to go ahead and put it with some other stuff that's going to get hot and cook it a little bit more so it's gonna go through from there.
But like I was saying, don't let my wife fool you.
My wife is an excellent cook.
The only difference between the two of us is I'm the more of the creative cook in the kitchen.
Now my wife, she can follow a recipe to a T and it will look just like the photo in the cookbook, magazine or on the box.
- That is true, I appreciate that.
(Tim chuckles) - Well, that's what a lot of people always ask.
They're like, "Wow, you know, Tim must do all the cooking."
Like, I do... We share equally.
We definitely share equally in that.
I do do all of the grilling though.
- Yeah.
- All right.
You know what?
I think we've got enough there.
- Okay, should we finish these off?
- [Tim] No, don't worry about that.
- Okay.
- We'll finish off the ones you're working on, we'll get them put in there.
- Know that we set you up for success with that kind of knife.
- Yeah.
- But you're doing great.
- Yep, well, that's all.
- Good job.
- We'll take care of that there.
Now, we've got a red onion over here.
Go ahead, what do you gotta question?
- Isn't that purple?
- Yes, technically it's a purple onion.
What's your favorite color?
- Purple.
- Yeah, I knew you were going to bring that one up.
Now, what we're going to do, we're going to let mommy do this with a super sharp knife.
What we're going to do is we're just going to slice this.
So we're just going to do slices.
Just whoop, whoop, whoop, okay?
If we think they're a little big, we can go ahead cut them, but we want them in the same kind of strands as the slaw.
- Okay.
- All right, you go ahead and do that.
We've got this coming along over here.
Let's see how we're doing on this.
I think we're just about there.
You want to taste one?
It's very hot.
Blow on it.
See?
It's good?
- It's good.
- All right, cool.
While the girls are finishing up, I am going to go ahead and drain the pasta and let it sit.
And then we'll go ahead and start making the chicken.
And mommy's going to help you guys shred some cheese, okay?
- Sebastian, do you know how to tell if spaghetti noodles are done?
You can throw them against the wall and see if they stick.
- Don't tell them that.
We're going to have spaghetti all over the wall tomorrow.
- Did you know that?
- No.
- No?
- But you want to do it.
- [Ashley] I bet you do.
Tim, do you want the end fire onion cut?
- Yeah, we got half an onion,- - Okay.
- So yep.
- Maybe you can finish off that part.
- All right, I'll finish off that part right there.
You scared for your fingers- - Yes.
- Or your manicure?
- No, fingers.
(Ashley chuckles) - That one's kind of thick, we'll leave those out.
- Okay.
- We'll go ahead, we'll put those in there.
- Perfect.
- All right.
Now, Brooklyn, what I would like you to do is go ahead and pour that in there.
- [Ashley] Go for it.
- First off, let's pour about half of it in there.
We can always add more, but you can never take any away.
A little more than that.
There we go.
- Can I mix it?
- You want a... - All right.
- Oh, good.
- And just go ahead and kind of... We're gonna kind of toss it, so we're gonna kind of just flip it up like that, okay?
Actually, we're going to go ahead and put it all in there.
- Here.
(Ashley screams) (Tim laughs) Sorry.
All right.
Good work, guys.
- Work together, not against each other.
So with the acid in this from the vinegar as well as from the lemon, we're going to go ahead and put it in the refrigerator and it's going to soften those collards without us having to cook them.
And that's why we also slice them very thin, we know collard's got a tough leaf, usually takes forever to cook, but we're going to go ahead and do this.
That's really good, all right.
Now, you might say, "Why aren't you seasoning it, Tim?"
Well, because we've seasoned the dressing that it's in.
So, all right, that's enough, Sebie.
I'm going to go ahead and put this in the fridge for a moment and then we'll begin with the rest.
I'm going to go ahead and get the skillet warmed up.
You know whose skillet this is?
Well, it's mine now, but it's was my grandma's so it would have been your great-grandma's skillet from Greenville, North Carolina.
We're pretty sure this thing is probably older than maybe all of us put together.
- Yeah.
- So I'm going to go ahead and get this started and we're going to put our chicken in there.
But what I want you kids to do in the meantime, and your mom's going to help you, is we are going to grate the cheese.
- I wanna do that.
- Can't have mac and cheese.
Well, we've got two so you can do one and Brooklyn can do the other one.
Now, what I want you to do is I want you to use this side, but touch it.
Not too hard, bring your fingers down it.
You, other way.
- Yep.
- It's sharp.
So we don't want to grate our little fingers, so that's why mommy's going to keep an eye on you.
What you're going to do is, you're going to take this in your hand, and Brooklyn, she's a lefty, you can just flip it around and do it that way.
This is an ambidextrous grater, that's how most of them come.
Now, what you're going to do is you're just gonna take this and you're just gonna run it down the side.
You see?
- What are the two types of cheese that we're doing?
- We have a sharp cheddar and some Monterey Jack.
- Okay.
- And that's how you do it.
- Looks like noodles cheese.
- It looks like noodle cheese?
That's what Sebastian calls any type of shredded cheese that comes in a bag.
He calls it noodle cheese.
I'll let you do this one, Brooklyn.
And mommy will keep an eye on you.
As it starts getting towards the end, she'll take over and then you get to do that one, okay Seb?
- This way.
- While we're doing that, you can kind of help me over here.
We're going to get this warmed up and we've got some seasonings.
Can you guess what seasonings we have in here?
I know you can pick out two of them.
- Salt and pepper?
- All right, salt, pepper, we've got a little... Just a touch of cayenne and about two tablespoons of garlic powder.
We're gonna use this to kind of blacken our chicken just a little bit 'cause we're also gonna use the fat and grease from this to go ahead and build our roux.
Can you say that?
Roux.
- Roux.
- Roux, R-O-U-X.
Roux.
- Roux.
- All right, there we go.
How's it going over there, Brooklyn?
- Good.
- All right, cool.
So I'm going to go ahead and put this in here.
(pan sizzling) - You know what the difference is between healthy foods and non-healthy foods are?
- Yeah.
- What are you looking at me like that for?
- Everything Sebastian likes is non-healthy.
Which is also why it's important to cook with your kids.
Teach them some healthy habits and they're also more likely to try something that they haven't tried before if they helped make it.
All right, so while that's going, we're going to go ahead and stir these together.
No, not with our finger.
And then we're going to sprinkle a little bit over top.
- [Sebastian] Can I do that?
- Let me do this part 'cause the oil's popping a little bit.
We're gonna put a little bit on that side.
Then we're gonna flip them in a minute and I'll let you do some of it, okay?
- We're making some progress over here.
- We're making some progress.
Now here's the thing, Brooklyn, remember how you ran your fingers up it and it was smooth?
You don't have to pick it up every time.
You can just go up, down, up, down, up, down, like that.
- It won't cut when you go up, but it will make the process smoother when you go down.
- So for the chicken, I'm using chicken thighs.
I love chicken thighs, they do impart a lot of flavor.
Chicken breast is going to be a little bit healthier, a little better for you, the white meat chicken, but this is what we need for this meal to just add a little bit of extra natural fat to it and everything.
Then we're gonna turn this up just a little bit there.
What kind of chicken do you like?
Nuggets?
- Chicken sandwiches.
- Chicken sandwiches, yeah.
- And chicken tendies.
- And chicken tendies?
Who doesn't like chicken tendies?
I don't like chicken tendies.
All right, you're going to have to switch with Brooklyn here in a minute and I'm going to come over and let Brooklyn see some of this, okay?
- Get your cheese ready... - Here, come over, stand over here, Brooklyn.
So we've got the chicken, we're gonna get it to it's nice brown like that just a little bit.
And then we're going to go ahead and get them flipped and let them all go.
This is a big skillet, but we're going to need it that big for when we do our mac and cheese and everything.
Why don't you tell our friends what some of your favorite proteins are?
Your meats.
- Steak.
- You like steak?
- That's all I like.
- What's that?
- That's all I like.
- That's all I like?
You like chicken.
- I don't like chicken a lot.
- You don't like chicken a lot?
But you're going to try this anyways, right?
- Yeah.
- Okay, 'cause we have a rule in this house, you try everything once.
And then we also have a grading system, so what do you do if you like it?
- Two thumbs up.
- Two thumbs up if we like it, if we don't like it?
- Two thumbs down.
- Two thumbs down, I haven't really gotten a two thumbs down.
I have gotten a 50/50.
Show them the 50/50.
All right.
Now that we flip those over, we're going to put a little bit more in here.
Can you smell the spices?
- Yeah.
- What does it smell like to you?
Does it smell good?
Does it smell... You're like, man, that smells kind of like it might be a little spicy or... What does it smell like?
- It smells good.
- Smells good?
Okay, cool.
We're going to let this go a little bit here, a little bit longer.
I'm going to sprinkle just a little bit more of this over here.
We'll be able to use this.
I didn't want to toss the chicken and all the spices when we put it in there because I know the skillet's really hot, I didn't want it to burn off the immediately when it hit the skillet.
So that's why I'm just kind of sprinkling it over there.
And since we're going to chop it up and put it back in our mac and cheese, it'll be okay.
Have you ever had chicken mac and cheese before, Brooklyn?
- No.
- What do you think it's going to... How do you think it's going to taste?
- I don't really like mac and cheese a lot.
- You don't like mac and cheese a lot?
I don't know about that.
- I was going to say, you're combining your two favorite things.
- Yeah, pasta and cheese.
How's it going over there with the grating, Seb?
- Good.
- Okay, cool.
I'm going to let this sit for just a moment.
- So one of the things that we've been encouraging Brooklyn to do is more baking.
- More baking.
- And she had an idea that she was going to make some dog biscuits.
And then either give them away or sell them in the neighborhood at our little festivals that we have.
Do you remember what the ingredients are of those dog biscuits?
- I know one.
- You do?
- Peanut butter.
- Peanut butter.
- Oatmeal and, I think that was all.
- And I think that there was another option- - Made with pumpkin.
- To incorporate pumpkin.
- Yeah, pumpkin.
- Now what did we do with the oatmeal?
We put it in the blender to make almost like an oatmeal flour, right?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
And when you're cooking those, we also had to look for a specific type of peanut butter, not really a specific brand, but a type of peanut butter that contains no xylitol which is something a preservative that's put into some peanut butters.
And it is actually not healthy for dogs in large amounts so that's why we... I think we used more of a natural peanut butter.
We gave it to some of the neighbors in the neighborhood and their doggies enjoyed it thoroughly.
- And then Sebastian, what have you been up to in the garden?
- We still make... You've been growing peppers in the garden?
- Yes.
- Okay, cool.
And what do we do with those peppers?
- We make little dude spicy sauce.
- We make little dude spicy sauce.
Okay, great.
Now, do you like hot spicy stuff?
Sometimes, not really?
Be honest.
- No, not really.
(Tim and Ashley laugh) - Now, if you could cook anything, what would it be?
- I don't really know.
- You don't really know?
If you could cook anything, what would it be?
- The world's biggest cake.
- The world's biggest cake?
- The world's biggest cake.
- Okay.
- I know.
- Oh, what do you got?
- The world's biggest cookie.
- The world's biggest cookie?
- Oh.
- Okay.
- Then I would eat it.
- And then you would eat it?
By yourself or would you share it with your friends?
- Eat it by myself.
- You'd eat it by yourself?
You wouldn't share with them?
Not even with me?
- [Ashley] No, probably not.
- Okay, that's typical kids, right?
Typical kids.
Okay, cool.
These are getting done so I'm gonna have you pass me that cutting board.
Go ahead and turn this off.
Got my lid collection work in here.
(pan sizzling) Okay, I'm gonna set these over there to you.
- Okay.
- We're just gonna let those cool off for just a minute, okay?
Now, what we're going to do with this, see we've got some of those crusty bits in there, that's not a problem.
To that, we're going to go ahead and add a little bit of butter.
I've got about four tablespoons of butter in here, we're gonna go ahead and put those in there.
Turn it back up, let it heat up a little bit, we're going to melt that, this is our fat, right?
Our butter is our fat.
So see, we're scraping up all those bits, that's going to give us a lot of flavor in there.
So now what we're going to do is we're going to take this and we are going to add the flour to it, but we can't dump it all in there at one time and let's get this heated up really good.
All right.
- [Ashley] And what are you doing now?
- We're going to build a roux- - Okay.
- Which is kind of just like a base sauce, it's going to be the binder.
I'm going to do this 'cause it's really hot over here, buddy, okay?
We're going to do this and we're going to keep adding the flour till it almost becomes kind of like a paste.
All right, we're going to go ahead and put one more in there.
Turn it down a little bit.
So the cool thing about this one is too is we're going to put... Once we get that cut, we're going to put it all back into the pot.
So if you want, I cleaned your knife- - Mm-hmm.
- And you can use this and go ahead and just chop it up.
Doesn't need to be pretty just as long as they're in kind of uniform pieces.
Get all the bits off the bottom there, Okay.
Now we're going to let this cook down.
I'm going to get, scrape that stuff up off the bottom.
I'll point it this way so we don't get it on anybody.
And that's where all the flavor comes from.
I'm going to put a little bit more of our spices in there since we didn't use them all on our chicken, add to it just a little bit.
All right.
- Are these good sizes?
- Yeah, those are good sizes 'cause we're going to blend them in.
And once you get them cut like that, we'll go back and we'll chop, chop, chop them up a little more.
- Okay.
- So now what we're gonna do is we're going to slowly whisk in two cups of milk.
This is cold milk, so we're going to go very slow.
(upbeat music) This is going to make our sauce.
See, now it's going to start to thicken up a little bit.
The flour is starting to stick to the fat.
(upbeat music continues) Now Brooklyn, will you go get the macaroni?
- Okay.
- And if you can slide the cheese over, Sebastian.
- So all of this is going into one... - All this is going into one skillet.
- Okay.
- We're going to go ahead and put some of this cheese in here.
We've got both the cheeses, once again, sharp cheddar and the Monterey jack.
- [Sebastian] Noodle cheese.
- Noodle cheese.
We're going to go ahead and stir these together.
(upbeat music continues) See, we're making that.
Look at that, Sebastian.
- Cool.
- Milk and cheese.
Falling it out, using last of the milk.
We'll go ahead and add in a little bit more cheese.
The cheesier the better, right, Seb?
- Mm-hmm.
- All right.
Now one of the things, other thing that, you know, kind of just cooking with your family, y'all take a break, we get to hang out together, everybody has a task.
Usually you guys wash dishes, right?
- Uh-huh.
(Ashley chuckles) - I do.
- You do, you have.
This guy doesn't.
You mean put them in the dishwasher?
- I put them outside of the dishwasher.
- You put the dishes outside of the dishwasher?
Well, that's not to help, at least you're moving it over to closer to the dishwasher, right?
All right, now, what we're going to do is we're going to start putting in some of this.
I'm just going to go ahead and use my hands, get it in there and fold it in.
Now, unlike, you know, most of your baked mac and cheese, since this is all done and everything, we won't have to go ahead and put this into the oven.
It's going to be good to go from here.
I'm going to give you a taste here in just a minute, Seb.
- Okay.
- Or we're gonna turn it down.
- [Ashley] I think we're good on the chicken,- - All right, cool.
- Whenever you are ready.
- Now, the one other great thing about this is, have you ever heard of a... Have you ever heard of macaroni pie?
It's kind of like a mac and cheese like this and it's got the meat in it.
It's kind of like a one contained little meal.
It's kind of like a, you know, old low country, old southern classic.
And basically what you can do is with this, once it cools off, it's going to kind of... Kind pull together, kind of thicken up.
And then you can just cut slices out of it and, you know, just wrap it up and put it in your lunchbox.
Okay.
Go ahead and pass the chicken over for me.
- Be careful because there's a little bit of- - Little bit of- - Juice.
- (indistinct) on the juice on there.
We're just going to go ahead and actually put that in there.
And then we're going to go ahead and we're going to slowly add the chicken in.
You want to do that?
I'm gonna let you do a couple scoops, let Brooklyn do a couple scoops.
So grab.
Yep, yep, yep.
Okay, good job.
- Good job.
Perfect.
- All right, let Brooklyn have a couple scoops.
And we're just trying to go ahead and get this in there.
You can give me a bigger scoop than that.
All right, that's how we do it, that's how we do it.
We'll go ahead and put the rest of those juices in there, we don't want to waste that, that's where all the flavor's at, right?
We're just going to set that right there for a second.
- Okay.
- And I'm going to go ahead and fold this in.
Now we want it... We don't want to overpower it with too much chicken and not enough cheese and cheese sauce and everything.
I'm going to go ahead and turn it down.
- [Ashley] It looks like it's a really good balance right now.
- It's really good balance 'cause like you kind of want, you know, every bite to have a little bit of everything in it so you don't have to go digging for it.
So we're just going to go ahead... I'm going to get it off the sides and fold it into the center, and then scoop the sides out.
Fold it in and scoop it out like that.
- So sometimes mac and cheese has the, like the topping, like the bread crumb topping.
- Mm-hmm, the topping crust.
You could do that if you wanted to with this.
You could put some breadcrumbs on top of it, but typically that's when it's going to be baked so that it'll form a nice crisp.
If we were to put breadcrumbs on top of this right now, I mean, it would still taste great and it would even add... Enhance the flavor a little bit, but it's just going to sit on top and get kind of soggy.
- Got it.
- Here, let me get you a little taste here.
Get a little piece of chicken and a little piece of mac and cheese.
There you go.
We'll do the same thing for Brooklyn here, there you go and then for mama.
Yeah, blow on it, it might be a little bit hot, so touch it with tongue.
- Oh, that's good.
Mm-hmm.
- Is it really good with thumbs up?
We're not just saying that 'cause the cameras are looking at us, right?
I got one... - I said two thumbs up.
- I got six thumbs up on that one, so I must have done something right.
Hey guys, thank you so much for helping me in the kitchen today.
It was truly a pleasure having you here again.
What did we learn today?
- I didn't know you could put chicken in mac and cheese.
- You could put chicken with just about anything, but mac and cheese with all the cheesiness, that's got to be really good, huh?
What about you, Brooklyn?
I - I learned about slaw.
- (indistinct) slaw, 'cause that's not something you've made before.
And so this is also something we've... This is a new recipe for us here in the house with the slaw.
Now you're going to notice, I want you to pay attention 'cause when you were cutting it, you could feel that the leaves were very stiff, right?
Well, now that it's had some time to sit in the vinegar and the lemon juice, they should soften up just a little bit.
Let's go ahead and try some.
What do you want to try first?
- The mac and cheese.
- Mac and cheese, I knew it, I knew it.
Let's go ahead and get you some here.
- Sebastian, what's your- - And I'm gonna- - Favorite... - Put a little bit of slaw on there and I just want you to try it, okay?
Just try a little bite.
- Here you go.
- Brooklyn, have your plate.
This one's allergic to green vegetables, so we'll see how it goes.
- No, she's not.
- I'm talking about you.
- He's talking about you.
(Tim and Ashley) - Me?
No, I'm not.
- Brooklyn eats green vegetables.
- Ate corn.
- That's not green.
- That's not green, but good try.
- Uh-oh.
And mama bear.
- Looks very cheesy.
- All right.
Well, thank you all for joining us again here on "Dapper Dad's Kitchen".
It's a really good idea to cook with your family.
Like it says, once again, kids are gonna try something they may not have tried before because they had a hand in making it.
And whenever you can find really tactile things that kids can do, like grating the cheese or using a safety knife to go ahead and slice some of the vegetables, it's really great and it gets them really involved.
How is it?
- It's delicious.
- It's delicious?
- I like the slaw.
- You actually like the slaw?
- You do?
- Are you just saying that?
- No.
- Okay.
- Wow.
- What about you, Brooklyn?
- I like everything.
- You like everything?
Good deal, good deal.
Once again, thank you for joining us here at "Dapper Dad's Kitchen".
We look forward to seeing you next time only on PBS Charlotte.
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