Celeb Chef Roger Mooking Reveals The Secret to Perfect BBQ Chicken

What's up, guys? Young Hollywood is standing in front of one of the hottest barbecue restaurants in Los Angeles, and standing next to one of the hottest chefs around, Mr. Roger Muking. Welcome to Los Angeles.

Thank you, thank you. I love Los Angeles.

It's a pleasure to meet you. Your name is Leslie, that's my wife's name.

Listen. This is meant to be. It's meant to be. We're here. You got in?

Yeah, yeah, we got in. I know Big Kev, I know the people here. I hope you're hungry cuz they're gonna take care of us and spoil us appropriately. I am so excited. You say the word appropriately, they do barbecue appropriately.

Very appropriately. Hot, heat, fire, it's your thing.

The whole thing.

That's my thing. Music is also my thing, my family is also my thing.

Well, let's do our thing. Let's do our thing. Let's do our thing. You hungry?

Oh, don't you know it.

Okay, let's go. Sitting in front of this gorgeous food, it smells delicious. Look at that, right? That's how to do it. They know how to do it. Look at this. You got pork ribs, pulled pork, fatty brisket, we got chicken, we got rib tips, cornbread, beans, mashed potato, coleslaw, pickles. Good to go. You're the cooking channel guy. Man, fire, food. It kind of is pretty basic, but there's nothing basic about what you're covering.

Yes, no, you know what's really interesting about the whole barbecue world is the people are really dedicated to the craft of it. You know, there's a, there's a craftsmanship about it for sure, but it's the pure dedication of just the, the labor intensiveness and the logistics of making barbecue. Some of this stuff, they're cooking like 16, 18, 20 hours and you can't fake it.

You want to take a bite? Okay, let's take a bite. I want you to get inspired. Let's go. Oh my. Man, that's a good rib right there. Which one do you want? This, this. Oh.

Yeah, it's like a Oh, that's a West Indian thing. That's why you.

There's passion behind what you're doing. Has that always been there for cooking?

Well, it started cuz I love to eat. And spices and flavors. So then I wanted to, I wanted to learn the fastest trajectory between how do I get to eat what I want to eat, is to learn how to cook it.

Your obsession with fire. Is that a good word, obsession?

I think obsession is fair, yeah.

Okay. Don't tell the fire department that. Oh, wait, speaking of fire hot. Is that hot? I think that's the hot one. Try that one. No. No. Come on, just a little bit. It's not gonna hurt you. No, no, no. Well, it might hurt you. Why are you so tentative, so tentative? That was good. Try it. It's good, right? It's got a little thing, but that's not bad. I think that's the mild one. I think that's the mild one. So obsession, back to the word. Yeah. How did your obsession with fire begin? Because it's like I said, it's your thing.

Well, when I was a kid, I used to like to play with fire. And I think

How'd that go?

Well, I got a show out of it.

This is true. Let's break down your lifestyle. You have four kids?

Four girls.

Four girls. A culinary empire, and music.

You know, I just realized I just focus on a few things, you know. I like to make things. Yeah. So, I like to make, uh, food things, whether it's restaurant, cookbooks, TV shows. Yeah. And I like to make music things. And those are the pillars.

You have a really strong, good reputation in the business, in the culinary world.

Yeah, you gotta have a strong reputation with chicken right now.

Wow. I'm a chicken lover. Okay, yeah. But it's kind of boring, but this doesn't look like boring chicken. What can I do as a chicken lover to make it interesting? But also, let me be honest with you. You can't cook. I can't cook.

Well, then I would advise you to go to places that can cook chicken.

Oh, no. I'm trying to be better. I wanna be good, but this is gonna be good. You know, right? You know it's really tender. Succulent, right? And flavorful, right? That's gorgeous. Gorgeous.

One thing with poultry, you know, for instance, if you're not accustomed to cooking chicken, you can overcook it really easily. Yeah. One way to prevent that is brining it. So what you want to do is bring a saline solution up, you want it to taste like brackish. You can infuse it with spices, aromatics, garlic, stuff like that. And let that come to the boil. And then it comes to the room temp, and then you put with cold chicken from the grocery, put it in there, cover it up, put it in your fridge, 24 hours. Okay? Then you pull it out, pat it dry, discard the liquid.

Mhm.

And then you roast that chicken. That alone will change the game on your chicken. Not even talking like the different types of spices and different kinds of rubs and stuff you can add. If you start there alone, you'll be succulent and juicy like this.

So, we have barbecue and we have the music, the new album, Eat Your Words. Break that down for me.

So, this is my fourth studio record. This album is about that, it's like, you can't bite your tongue and eat your words at the same time. So, we're not eating words, we're just I'm, it's like from the heart. And the music is very kaleidoscopic, all live instruments, throughout the whole album. It's kind of sing-songy, rapping, um, but the topics are like personal topics that happen in my life, you know, from all range of emotions.

You are an adult, you are responsible, you're a professional. But you to me, have like this big kid inside you.

I'm like a big kid, honestly.

So how do you get that out? Cuz I see it, and and it's awesome.

I make things It's just by doing what you do, you know. I just make things. I make things with the spirit of like a four-year-old, you know? And I go into it whole hog, like I wanna make things that are meaningful to people, that will help them. So, you know, if I put out a recipe, I'm thinking, how is this gonna help that family who's trying to cook quickly for their family? Yeah. But still make it healthy, and flavorful and simple. That helps their life. You know what I mean? Yeah. How can I make a record that is gonna help somebody get through a difficult time? Or a difficult emotion, or that help them party, you know? Yeah. How can I do that? How can I make a TV show that's gonna help you fill some time, and you learn something useful, and you have a laugh at the same time, and you can tell that we're genuinely having fun doing it. So I just wanna make things to like enrich people in their lives. Spread love.

This little breakfast treat here. That's a that's a pretty good breakfast, right? This was great breakfast.