Stop Being Lazy With Your Cast Iron Pan...

0:00 if i had to live in the woods and i could only bring five items a cast iron pan is certainly coming with me not only is this thing super durable but it's so versatile yet when people think of cast iron they go straight to just searing up a steak or frying up some eggs my goal is to show you that there is so much more this thing is capable of now i've spent the last few weeks experimenting and really pushing my cast iron pan to its limit and today i'm not only bringing you five incredibly delicious recipes but also five really interesting techniques that you probably didn't even know were possible to pull off with your cast iron pan now the first one might be obvious you might have even seen it on this channel but this pan right here can crank out some incredible pizzas but what's incredible because of the shape of the

0:47 pan there are different forms of pizzas we can make and that's where things get interesting so the first type of pizza is more of a deep dish think pizza hut where we'll be taking advantage of the lip of the cast iron to get some height on our crust and we're gonna start with a 10 inch cast iron that's at room temperature and i've got some dough balls already prepared if you want to dive deep into that world my last video which is below in the description was a complete breakdown of every step of pizza making and i'll give that cast iron a good hit of olive oil and you don't want to skimp on this because the last thing you want is dough sticking to your cast iron pen now i'm going to lightly shape it to the pan with my hands and then once that gluten starts resisting just let it sit for another 10 minutes and then it should be a lot easier to hit the edges of the pan i'll go on with some homemade tomato sauce and then i chopped up some fresh mozzarella cheese and i'll sprinkle that

1:33 on top of the pizza oops all right just a quick note every single cast iron recipe today will feature one key piece of produce from my garden so right here i've got these beautiful italian style zucchinis i'm not sure what the actual name is but they are growing like crazy right now in my garden what i like to do is use these almost like pepperoni i mean they don't taste anything like pepperoni but they are round and they make a great pizza topping so i'll slice them up throw them all over the pizza hit them with a little bit of olive oil just so they get nice and crispy and a little bit of salt you know what maybe i'll hit it with the flour as well i think i've seen the zucchini flowers used on pizza looks awesome look at that beauty so this is off to the oven i got it preheated at

2:18 550. i always keep an oven steel in my ovens to regulate the temperature and i will set it for 10 just check it then all right it's been 10 minutes i just want to check in on it looks like we still need a little browning on the top there probably three more minutes let's see where we're at i think we are done oh yeah bubbly bubbly hot mess oh all right i am definitely gonna just let that cool for about five minutes let's pray this thing comes out switching utensils yes oh we got a little stickage all right though gotta hit it with some fresh bazil this crispy guy oh boy look at the crust on that that's what you get that deep-fried dough crust i would say the only thing i would change i would have used the digger dough ball so it was just a little more

3:04 deep dish this is definitely a little bit thin wow when you bake dough in olive oil like that it gets so crispy and the flavor is outstanding oh so good wow wow i want to eat that all but we have to make one more style pizza which if you do not have a pizza oven cast iron is the best way to make neapolitan pizza all right this one takes a little bit of technique but it comes together quickly i've got a inch cast iron here on a high heat just to give me a little extra room and in the meantime roll out some pizza and just like neapolitan style you're protecting the air in that crust lock it in all right now i'm reading about 600 and you want to make sure that's even you want a nice even ten i'm gonna turn that off so it doesn't burn the bottom

3:51 of the crust through my final hole on this into the pan oh i don't have much sauce left hit it with the cheesy a little bit of basil any hint the olive oil see what's going on under there perfect so we're just letting the residual heat cook the bottom of that pizza it's coming along nice looking great you can see that beautiful puffy and once that starts to puff and you're happy with the bottom which i am that's when we transfer away from here i've got my broiler which is this top heating element on a high heat super important we've cooked from direct heat from the bottom now we're cooking direct heat from the top that will take probably three minutes all right let's see what's going on oh yeah just want to confirm the crust is cooked oh yeah perfect see the bottom oh yes i

4:36 mean near perfect bottom pretty damn sexy let's bring out the big boy slice slice wow puffity daniels right there probably too hot probably too hot but i'll do it anyway i used to do this technique all the time in brooklyn my wife was obsessed she still talks about it even though i have fancy pizza ovens now so the first technique is definitely easier you get that super flavorful crispy crust but this is damn near perfect neapolitan pizza i'm not gonna lie to you i [ __ ] up the first one when i made it i just didn't show you guys oh okay we're gonna do that one over again this is my second shot at it and it's near perfect one dish that is so specific to the cast iron that is also extremely underrated is the dutch baby i imagine a lot of you

5:23 have never even tasted this dish let alone try to make one at home but i freaking love dutch babies because basically it's a crepe matter but rather than sitting there for 45 minutes making individual crepes you just pour the whole damn thing in a cast iron pan and you get magic on the other end so i'm going to quickly whip up a batter in my blender here with only four ingredients and the first ingredient i did not grow but my chickens did three eggs a little shell in there and it's super important that your eggs and your milk which is the next ingredient are at room temperature i'm gonna do two thirds cup of whole milk all-purpose flour pack in half a cup actually this fourth ingredient is optional but i'm just gonna sprinkle on a little bit of sugar to season and then a little bit of salt it's that freaking simple i'll just slowly blend that

6:08 together yeah scrape down the sides real quick more blend done all right now just so you know batter should be very thin like that and what i'll do is just get a cast iron preheat that on a medium-low heat and get your oven preheated to 425 because this sucker's gonna puff up in there now my one ingredient from the garden is asparagus now a lot of people don't know this but asparagus are actually perennial and when you plant them the first year you let them grow and fern out to really put all of that energy back into the roots so more asparagus come every single year but i did happen to get some late asparagus which was a nice little treat and i decided to pick them and i only have like five right here little ones but that is all right and

6:54 i'll give chef john full credit i saw he did like an asparagus bacon dutch baby and i got inspired now to cook this we need something that can hold up to the heat so i've got some ghee here which is going to be great flavor but you can use oil go in with a nice chunk of that you really want to get a nice coating on the bottom fry up those asparagus real quick and then pour over the entire batter right into the middle and you'll start to see pretty quickly after about 30 seconds those sides starting to puff up around the edges got a big bubble right in the middle already for me i'm going to open this and just delicately transfer over this uncooked dutch baby right into the oven at 425 for 20 minutes should be good we're beeping 20 minutes

7:42 look at that beast now this will not stay like that just comes super inflated straight out of the oven and then over time it deflates shut up what i will do is hit it with a little bit of fresh lemon gear crackle and free-ish honey i just love these things because you get this incredible crispy edge and then this chewy inside and one of the best breakfast textures that i've tasted pop that out actually that's not really deflating that much pretty epics give you a little slice of the slicity now remember there is no actual leavening agent in here just eat that it's kind of like a pop over just made in a big old pan what i love is the texture is extremely unique almost slightly chewy towards the center of the dutch baby and then very

8:28 crispy crunchy on the exterior if i'm being honest i didn't start making these until i started researching this video quickly become one of my family's favorite breakfast items and if you have guests staying over this is a showstopper brunch right here so while we're on the topic of cast iron i figured i'd go over my favorite brands in the game we've got a cast iron from field company connor and phoenix now up first this beauty from field company is a pan i've been using for years it's got more of a classic style look but it's made right here in the us and the level of craftsmanship is incredible definitely a few notches above your entry level cast iron and it comes actually unseasoned but you can see right here it's been very well seasoned just by using it over the last few years if you're looking for something a little

9:13 more stylish this is the milo from kana and it has a really nice modern design it actually comes in eight different colors so if you're looking for a pop of color in your kitchen this is a great option one of the big differences here is it's actually enamel coated so rather than seasoning it like this it comes ready to go right out of the box which is nice because you'll never have to worry about rust or anything like that and then finally the absolute mac daddy over here this pan is from phoenix and it's definitely the priciest of all three but the build quality is out of control i could do some bicep curls right now these pans are all made in portland oregon and you can see there's some very unique design features rather than a circle these eight sides make it easier to scoop something out like a cornbread or frittata this spring coiled handle just like a wood fire stove gives

10:00 you the ability to actually handle this cast iron when you're cooking rather than having to use a towel when it heats up so if you're interested in one of these brands click the link below in the description head over to chromecooks.com and browse our cast iron section we are an official authorized retailer of all three of these brands and again if you treat these right it will last you a lifetime and you will certainly get a whole lot out of them okay up next is a chickenpop high which i was obsessed with back in the day i used to take them down at boston market and then as i grew up and learned how to cook over time i realized you could make a pretty clean chicken pot pie that's not super heavy that won't take you down and the best way to do that by far is in the cast iron which you will see why in just a

10:45 second so the first thing i'm going to do is get a cast iron preheating on a medium heat and then i'll start working on my aromatics and i'm just using the basics here i'll chop up some celery some onion and one carrot all around the same size so they cook evenly now when it comes to chicken pot pie you really can use any piece of the chicken that can handle a longer cooking time so just avoid chicken breasts whatever you do i broke down a whole chicken last night and what i have right here are some chicken thighs with the bone out and the skin off so what i'm gonna do is dry them off season them up with some salt and pepper on both sides get a little bit of oil in my pan and start searing those off until they're nice and crispy and in the meantime this is a great time to bang out a pie crust so this is around half a cup of cold butter that i'll just cut up and cubes i'll add that to the food

11:32 processor along with about two cups of all-purpose flour and i'll start pulsing that up until the butter starts breaking down into the flour right that's what you're looking for the butter is nicely incorporated still some chunks in there not too smooth that's what we want now here we should be yep perfect building up all that flavor on the bottom of the pan oh yeah yeah now we'll start streaming in a little bit of water to bring this crust together check it we just want it to really form together like that right on the cutting board this is the world's fastest chicken pot pie gotta do what you gotta do i'm gonna form it into a ring like this pop it into a bag and we're going to pop this in the refrigerator about 30 minutes

12:17 explain these in a second and these right here are definitely ready to go now we can toss in our aromatics while that pie crust chills for about 30 minutes one more thing what do pie crusts bake at 375 sounds right i'll be cooking these aromatics down for about 10 minutes on a medium heat and while they're cooking i'll just chop up one clove of garlic and add that to the mix with the goal of really softening them up but also building a ton of flavor to the base of our chicken pot pie and while these are cooking i'll work on the final ingredients to the pot pie it is fresh sweet corn seasoning so i'll just take this corn right off the cob ah boom i don't think i forgot the fresh garden ingredient which is here i actually don't know what these are if i'm being

13:03 honest some type of white bean obviously i planted these a few months ago just recently they started to dry out so i picked a bunch of them and since they're fresh they shouldn't take too long to cook so beans and corn to really top it off and now we're actually done here so we can talk roux so i'll add a knob of butter along with some salt to season and when that's all melted and incorporated i'll go in with a few tablespoons of flour and this is going to dry up really quickly but the goal is to just keep stirring everything up in the pan so your flour toasts up which will take around two to three minutes then i can start pouring in my milk little by little so you don't get any clumps and you get a nice creamy base so you can already see the milk is really starting to thicken up what i like to do to lighten it up just a bit this is a roasted chicken stock i made from a

13:48 whole chicken that i butchered down to get these rather than doing like an entire cream base i'll add in some stock and that will thicken up from the roux over time adds a ton of flavor now i can add these beans corn and i'll just cap that let everything cook together while the pie crust chills for about 15 more minutes all right check this out how creamy that is wow power to the roof i'm just gonna scissor up this chicken slice that in juices now these were remnants from the chicken stock i made not much flavor there but good texture bulk it up a bit boom freaking incredible pie crust should be done oh yeah roll this out looking good feeling it i think my

14:34 ratios were somehow magically on par here that feels about right between an eighth and a quarter of an inch now the reason i love cast iron so much we are making a one-pot meal because of it trim off some sweet it i guess i don't know what i'm doing completely feels right make a quick egg wash brush brush brush brush mike gee the pie baker right now can't forget a little let's look ventilation holes feels about right okay all right that's my signal oh my goodness hallelujah i should probably put this on something i'm not sure if i'm supposed to be waiting to serve this but it's just not going to happen oh that crust insane under there

15:20 dude dude that is one of the prettier sights i've seen that freaking crust just came out so nice wow leaky is all let me take a picture of this real quick now the reason i love cast iron cooking especially for something like this do you think i have time to be making complete pie crust with the bottom and the top no and the truth is the bottom of a pie crust unless you're some master baker usually sucks what do you want with a pie crust you want that crispy action and it's all going to get broken up anyway oh my god oh my god cooked perfectly i was a little nervous there watch this crispy i just cannot get over this flakiness

16:05 sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't bottom line with cooking especially when you cook like me and you don't follow recipes high risk [ __ ] here and this freaking works wow we're going to finish things off with some dessert and i'm pretty pumped right now because this is one of the last weeks of fresh peaches at the farmer's market these babies are just tender and perfect and because we are trying to test the ultimate usage of the cast iron i'm not just gonna bake a peach cake in here i want to show off what this thing can really do so we're gonna make a peach turnover by first using direct heat to cook with the cast iron then we make the cake and we actually bake with it first thing i'm gonna do is preheat my oven at 300 degrees and then i'll get my cast iron heating up on about a medium low heat and i'm going to go in with half a

16:50 cup of granulated sugar to start to melt that down and caramelize it wow then i'm going to take five kind of medium smallish peaches i'll slice those all in half remove the core and then i'll start cutting those up into smaller equal pieces so they stack nicely for the turnover so after a few minutes on a medium heat you can see the sugar starting to melt down so i'll just continue to stir this and once it turns into a caramel that's when i'm gonna hit it with a few tablespoons of butter things are gonna bubble up a lot right here so i'll just continue to stir it to make sure everything emulsifies and you get a nice creamy caramel wow look at that just gonna turn the heat off on that make sure you got a nice even coat on the bottom of the pan start laying in these peaches in organized fashion boom

17:36 so you might be asking what is from the garden well i do have some peach trees doing great outside but i won't get peaches till next year what i thought this cake really needed was just a floral hit and i had a little bit of cilantro that went to seed super dried out so these are cilantro seeds or coriander seeds and i'm just going to bash a few up in a mortar and pestle sprinkle them on the peaches for just a beautiful spicy floral touch all right live confessional i'm a little bit nervous right now oh i think i cooked the caramel maybe just a little too long got to like hard candy stage so this is a cake recipe that i found actually from el mundo eats which i've linked below in the description and i like it because it could not be easier i'm gonna start off with three eggs at room temperature and then i'll add about

18:22 a third of a cup of honey and then i'll use my hand mixer to really whip this up which is gonna take around five minutes so it's gonna go through a bunch of transitions until it finally gets nice and frothy and holds its shape just a little better then i'll dump in one and a half cups of almond flour with just a little bit of salt and fold that in gently and just pour that over the peaches and then it's off to the oven all right praying to the heavens here got an oven 300 pop that in there set it for 45 minutes let's check back soon all right took about an hour look at that perfectly brown it's releasing from the edge that's a good sign it's like i should let it cool then part of me doesn't want to wait too long before it hardens again oh it looks very juicy on the bottom i'm gonna stick

19:07 this thermometer in there to see if i can feel hardness at the bottom i don't i don't i don't i'm gonna give it three minutes and then we'll try to pop it out all right the time has come is all right in the universe we'll see in a second [Music] let's cut into this beast i just somehow made this and this and it came out perfectly barely followed a recipe but it worked just the simplicity of this like without even tasting it this is already one of my favorite cake recipes oh my god that is so good that's the best cake recipe ever all of that caramel just like absorbed into this

19:55 cake layer right there and then the peaches just turn into jam i'm gonna try to refrain from eating half of this right now all right cast iron the goal was to take this thing into another dimension and i would say mission accomplished make sure you check out prohomecooks.com to shop the best cast iron brands in the game and comment below with what other kitchen tools you want to see in this series