Making Greek Feta Chicken, Fried Chicken Fingers, and MORE with Jerry Countouris from Drew’s Family Restaurant!

Hello, family and welcome to At Home today. We’re so glad you joined us. Always good when the family comes, particularly today because what we’re doing today is all about family. If you’re part of a family that loves you and you spend holidays and just any — any days together, you’re a blessed person. There’s many people that don’t have families and we that do need to make sure that we include those that don’t because, you know what, when it all boils down at the very end, we’re part of the human race and we’re all family. And when you learn those family values — you know, sitting at my table when I was a child, we learned to respect one another’s opinions. My brothers maybe didn’t agree with what I said and I didn’t agree with them, but we learned to respect each other and your opinion. And just because you don’t agree with me doesn’t mean that I have to hate you. Oh, no, no, no. You tolerate one another. You learn to work together as a team. That’s what family is. And somebody who really knows all about family is my very special guest today. His name is Jimmy Countouris. He’s been here before and we always love when he comes — the crew, everybody’s happy because he’s a good cook. He’s got a great restaurant — he and his brothers — it’s a family restaurant. And the reason why it works and the reason why we always are so proud to take friends with us when we go is because family comes first and, in serving you — serving you as a customer coming in the door is really, really special and important to them. Plus I love the way he treats his staff. I can see people that have been there for years and years. Cooks that have been there since 1970 something. I mean, you have to treat people right for them to stay with you that long, and that’s part of how you treat your family, where you work, where you live, who you associate with, your church family. It’s all important. Family is what it’s all about today. So stay with us because I’ve asked Jerry to do some of my favorites when I go to the restaurant, and he’s agreed to do two of the dishes that — I mean, everybody I introduce them to, they order them again and again. And so, when we get back right after the hint, we’re going to start and Jerry Contouris from Drew’s Restaurant in Forest Hills, PA, is my very special guest. Stay with us. We’ll be right back. Here’s today’s At Home Hint. The microwave toasts nuts, breadcrumbs, and coconut in a quarter of the time it takes in a conventional oven. Spread them out on a plate and heat on high for two to three minutes, stirring every minute. Keep in mind that they will continue to heat for about a minute after removal. If you’ve got a helpful hint, please send it to us at At Home Hints, Cornerstone TeleVision, Wall, Pennsylvania, 15148-1499. Here he is straight from Drew’s. Jerry, I’m so glad you’re here.

Good to see you.

Oh, so nice to see you.

It’s nice to be here.

You know what? You know why I like him here? Because he’s like me — we enjoy talking about food, preparing food, making food, because that’s your whole life, really. Huh?

It is.

From the — from the restaurant. And your mother and dad, they’re great cooks.

Absolutely. My mother was an awesome cook and —

She’s been here with us — a couple of times she was on and cooked. She did!

Sure.

Oh!

Sure. And watching her hands and watching her cook.

Yeah.

And my father also was a tremendous cook. He would always make special meals for everyone.

Unusual things, huh?

Sure.

Because Paul and I would go in and we’d be sitting down. He’d say, “Wait, I’ll be back. Wait, I’ll be — ” And he’d come back with a beet salad or something he had made. It would always be so good. Ach! He was — they’re all — well, you can’t help but enjoy food when you come from that background.

That’s right.

Family — right?

Family.

That’s what we’re talking about. And I know that your brothers — two brothers and Jerry have Drew’s Restaurant. Tell us about Drew’s. Where did that name come from?

Well, it was — we named it after my brother that passed away. I had a brother that died in 1982 from Wolff-Parkinson syndrome, which is a detached nerve ending to the heart.

Wow.

And he died in his sleep.

How old was he?

He was twenty-one years old.

Geez! What a loss! Oh, my. So you did it as a tribute to him.

Yup. We did.

And it’s still going on today.

It sure is. And, you know, we know he’s part of it.

Absolutely. Absolutely. A big part of it.

A big part.

And you know, when a tragedy like that happens in your family, it pulls you together because that’s how you survive. Right?

Well, we were very together back then. And it just —

I’m sure.

— cemented us.

Absolutely. Well, a loss makes you — makes you realize what you have, too, doesn’t it?

Yes.

It does. All right. One of my favorites — and you have to do this when you go to Drew’s. And if you haven’t been there, you’ve got to go — is chicken fingers. No, he doesn’t do the whole hand. He only does the fingers, but they are so good. Jerry, show us how to do it.

Well — first up, we have fresh chicken breast that we’re going to use.

Okay.

And we — we’ll sprinkle a little bit of salt.

So this is not frozen. You don’t get these strips out of the freezer. You make these fresh every time they’re ordered. Right?

Absolutely! What you do is you can take — a piece of chicken breast, pound it out, and slice it into the little strips.

Strips. Okay. Just like that.

What you’ve got to remember, though, is make sure that you’re using sanitation when you work with the chicken.

With raw chicken, you have to, huh?

A lot of people don’t know that.

I know.

And what we’re going to make here is the egg wash. And we’re going to break two eggs —

Okay.

— in here.

There we go. So this is kind of, like, what do you call that? Your breading station or something like that, huh?

Right. Exactly. And this is a — this is buttermilk that we’re putting in right now.

Buttermilk! Okay.

And so —

Okay. So you’re just going to —

— we’ll whip that together.

Okay. That buttermilk has a thicker consistency than regular milk. I think it makes stuff stick better.

It really does stick really, really well and — and it just, with the chicken, it doesn’t add a lot of flavor to it, and you don’t really want it to.

But it acts like the paste —

Exactly.

— so that’s good.

So we’ll take —

Strip.

— our strips, and what you want to try to use here is the one wet, and one dry technique.

Breading technique — yeah!

Breading technique. So you what you want to —

You’re keeping this one dry and that one’s going to get wet. Is that right?

No. This one’s going to get wet, and this one’s going to stay dry.

Oh, okay.

So, you know, we’re going to do —

Okay.

— kind of opposite what you thought.

Okay.

But — so we put all these pieces in — in here.

Okay.

And then we’ll lay them —

Into that. Okay.

— right into that.

Get rid of that. All right. And just — just — that’s plain flour. Right?

Plain flour.

You haven’t salted or peppered — because you put it on there.

— salt and pepper on top of them —

Okay.

— as they were sitting there. All right? And then we make sure that we’ve got — we get —

Do you want me to keep doing this while —

Sure! That would be great.

Because my hands are clean. I’ve just been —

That would be great.

Okay.

So notice I’m — I’m keeping this hand wet —

Right.

— and this hand dry so I can sprinkle the breadcrumbs over it.

And you have to have one in case the phone rings. Right? If the phone rings, you’re out of town.

You know, it’s really funny. It never fails that when I’m doing something in the kitchen or doing something down at the garage and my hands are — are a mess —

Yeah.

— the phone rings —

Always! It’s like they’re waiting.

Ha!

Like they’re waiting. Let’s see — is his hands dirty enough yet? Let’s call him now.

Sure. So — once we —

Now what’s that? Is that breadcrumb? Cracker crumb?

These are all breadcrumbs.

That’s very fine breadcrumb, isn’t it?

Right. And what — it’s made from Mancini bread that we have.

Okay. So you even make the breadcrumbs fresh?

Yes.

Wow!

So breadcrumbs are made fresh. Once we finish them here, we lay them out onto a pan —

Okay.

— so that we can use them.

Yeah. Now you get a big plateful. If you buy these for dinner or the appetizer, I mean, I’m talking about a big plateful. I can never eat them all. I always bring them home and I warm them up because they’re so — they are so light and — and delicious. I mean, they’re just incredibly good. Okay. Then you’re going to brown them. Right? We have three minutes here, Jerry.

Okay. So then we’ll take them and once we’ve got them in this pan, you can do two things. You can take a non-stick pan and spray it. Put them on a non-stick pan.

Okay.

Put them in the oven at 350 degrees and every eight minutes you want to turn them —

Turn them.

— so that you get the browning.

Oh! Okay.

Let me wipe my hands off here because I’ve got —

You’ve got the wet hand going over there.

— well, I’ve got the wet and the dry. So we’ll put them in the oven.

Three-fifty?

Three-fifty — ready to go.

And every so many minutes, you’re going to turn them. Right?

Right. And we’ve got — also, you can take them and you can deep fry them. So we’ll throw that —

Nice hot grease.

— in the nice hot grease and we’ll deep fry a couple of them. All right?

Okay.

We can do these later.

All right.

I’m going to jump to our next dish.

Go ahead. Absolutely.

So that —

Put that right over here.

— sure. Our next dish is called Chicken Fiscardo.

Fiscardo. Oh. What does Fiscardo mean?

— is a town on the Island of Cephalonia which is where we’re from.

Cephalonia. Is that where you’re from? Okay.

It’s on the western side of Greece, and it’s a northern town on the — on the island. And I just named it after that when we did it.

Yeah! Okay.

So we’re going to put olive oil —

Olive oil and butter.

— and butter.

That gives you the high heat without burning. Right?

Correct.

What? And these are just chicken breasts, too.

Just chicken breasts. We’re going to lay them in there.

Just the flour on this — no breading.

No breading. Now you can make this without flour if you wish, for those that are not eating carbs.

Yeah.

I know someone like that.

Yeah. Jerry’s been doing a really great job. You’re looking great, by the way.

Thanks.

And I know —

Not as good as you, though. I’ll tell you.

I’ll tell you what. And whatever anybody is doing, it’s hard. It’s difficult to do, but you can.

So we’ve got these sauteing.

Now should they get real brown?

You want it to get brown before you turn them.

Yeah. Okay.

So we’re going to let them —

Tell us what else we have here.

What we have here is feta cheese.

Oh!

We have — whipping — heavy whipping cream.

Oh, yeah.

Also we have salt, pepper, and oregano, and lemon. So — in various stages.

Those are the flavors that are really big with Greek cooking is the oregano and the lemon. Right?

Absolutely.

I love those flavors.

We came up with this recipe because everyone likes to eat feta cheese with french fries —

Oh, absolutely.

— and oregano. And we thought, well, let’s make something that we could dip our french fries in. And then once we did that, we said, wow, I bet chicken breasts would taste good with that as well.

I’ll tell you what — that — and what he’s talking about, that dressing that — that sauce he’s going to make — you want to lick the plate, literally. You don’t, but you want to ’cause it — you don’t want to miss one little drop of it. Those are getting nice and brown.

Those are getting real nice and brown.

And what’s your — what degree is your oil on?

I have it at 350 degrees.

Three-fifty, yeah. That make it nice. It will cook through but not get real brown.

And we can look at the bottom. We can see that they’re not quite browned up yet.

They need a little bit more browning. Yeah.

You don’t want to cook them too fast because you want to make sure the chicken breast cooks all the way through.

Absolutely.

Does that go in the oven?

No, not at all.

Everthing’s on top.

You can cook it on top.

Nice. Wow! That’s a nice quick supper. Now what would you serve with that?

Well, you can serve rice. You can — it goes very nice with rice because the sauce that we’re going to end up with will go really well.

Awesome. Great. Okay. We’re going to take a break. We come back — more — he’s going to finish up the Fiscardo and then a dessert you want — you’re not going to want to miss. We’ll be right back in just a minute. If you’re just joining us, you’re in for a treat because we’ve already got these chicken fingers that are so good. I can’t resist. Plus he’s got Chicken Fiscardo on that he’s browned off the chicken breast. Now what are we doing, Jerr?

Well, we’ve browned — we browned the one side and we’re going to throw our feta cheese in.

Now how much feta? Is that about a half a cup? Cup? What do you put in?

A cup of feta, and we’ve got four orders happening here.

Oh!

Okay?

Okay.

We’re going to throw that in. We’re going to throw a little bit of salt and pepper.

Okay. You don’t want to use too much because you’ve got salt in that feta. Right?

Right.

Excuse me — I’m eating.

That’s okay. That’s why I’m cooking.

Mm — so good when you’re —

I’m going to throw some pepper in now on this.

Mm-hmm. And oregano.

Okay. That’s a big spice with Greek cooking. I know.

Very much so. And you don’t want to overdo it with the oregano.

Mm-mm.

But you want to make sure you have enough so —

So you can taste it, huh?

— right.

Yeah.

And there’s — if you can notice here, the feta cheese is starting to melt.

Oh, my!

Okay. Which is what —

That’s really going to make your sauce. Right?

— right. That and then this little thing we’re going to add in here.

Can’t be bad. Go for it.

Heavy whipping cream.

No wonder I like it.

Okay?

Oh, so good!

So we’re just going to let all of this simmer.

Okay. I see you have a lemon there. What do you do with the lemon?

The lemon gets squeezed on top.

Top. Okay. Is that at very end? Or is that —

No, that’s right now.

Right now. Okay.

All right. And we’ll let all of this just simmer and cook.

Okay.

And while that’s doing that, until this becomes —

Real thick.

— the feta cheese melts and this thickens up.

Okay. Should be a couple minutes, huh?

Right.

Okay. Now the dessert.

This is called “loukoumades.”

Can’t wait.

And loukoumades is a dessert that actually comes from the western part of Greece.

Okay.

It’s really famous from the island that my wife is from, which is the Island of Helios.

Okay.

And so we’ve got our flour. This is —

How much flour is that? About a cup.

Two —

Two cups.

— two cups of flour. One package of the yeast.

Okay. Dry yeast.

Dry yeast. And we’re going to have one cup of warm water.

Because that’s going to activate the yeast.

Right.

Right? Okay.

Half a cup of milk.

Half a cup — regular milk. Not the heavy cream. Just regular milk.

We have the sugar which is — three quarters of a tablespoon.

Because that activates the yeast. Right?

Right.

That encourages it to grow.

And it also allows it — the mixture to brown when you — when you’re frying them.

Oh, okay. When you’re frying them. Sure.

And a little bit of salt.

Okay.

And a — a little bit of olive oil.

Again?

That’s — that’s at the end.

Oh, look how green that olive oil is. Wow, is that good.

Well, that’s good olive oil.

Absolutely. I can tell.

So we’ll mix this up.

So you don’t have to use a mixer. Just with a — a whisk.

With a whisk.

Now I know this has yeast. It has to rise. Right?

Sure does.

How long will that rise?

It will take an hour to rise, at least —

So —

— depending on how warm your kitchen is.

So what’s it going to do? Double in — in size, kind of?

Yes, it will.

Okay.

And — and once it rises — and so you mix it really well.

Get all the lumps out of it.

Make sure all the lumps are out of it.

Okay.

So once it’s mixed —

Then he’s going to show you what he got. Going to get all this out of the way here.

It rises and you’re left with that.

Look at that!

Again, we’re going to come back to our chicken here because we don’t want to lose it. But you can see it’s starting to thicken up here a little bit.

Thicken for sure. Wow!

Okay? And it’s all starting to simmer and cook right in there. We’re going to go over to our grease here.

We’re going to Greece! Ha ha! Not literally, but figuratively. And?

And we’re going to —

By spoonful?

— by spoonful.

Why are you doing that?

It helps the dough not to stick to the spoon.

Really! Okay. Well, makes sense.

It’s an old —

Trick.

— trick that the Greek ladies did.

Well, yeah.

And you take it and then you’ll pump it in there.

You just drop it.

Just drop it in.

And that makes the balls. Oh! These are Honey Nut Balls — an incredible dessert that you find at Greek food festivals and just Greek — oh, and they’re so good. So incredibly good. And just do it with a teaspoon?

Right.

And then you just — do they cook like a donut would until they —

Exactly.

— float and then you flip them?

Exactly.

Is that how you do that?

Exactly.

Okay. That makes sense. Oh, my goodness!

We’ve got a couple of them going there. And then we can take and —

You start watching them. Turn them over, huh? Oh, boy. Oh! Wow! Look how beautiful they are. They puff right up!

Yes, they do.

That yeast in there.

They’re all air.

Oh, okay. Now I know that you put things on top of that. Right?

Right. You could — traditionally, they put honey and syrup, and I had the recipe for the syrup. It’s one part sugar, one part water, one part honey with a little bit of — cinnamon in it.

Oh, okay. To flavor it. Yeah.

Right. You could see our — our Fiscardo here.

Beautiful.

Thickening right up.

I can’t even tell you how good that is. Oh! Mm.

You can see that the feta cheese is melted.

It is, and it’s thickening the sauce.

So we’re ready to go here, almost.

Now how long do you have to let that cook?

Well, how long have we been doing it? A couple minutes.

Just a couple minutes. Yeah. Is that it? Okay. Until that chicken is cooked through.

And it’s pretty much cooked through. We don’t want to —

Do you — do you put these out on a paper towel or something?

Yes, you do. Yes, you put them out on a plate and a paper towel when you’re done. That will help absorb the —

Yeah. When we get to the table —

— nice and brown.

— he’s going to do the honey and the nuts and the cinnamon there because when these are hot, right out of that grease, that’s when you want to put that on. Right?

That’s when you want to eat.

Yeah. I know!

Holy cow!

I know.

I know that —

Yum!

— they’re — they’re crunchy on the outside and like air in the middle. Right.

Yeah. Puffy in the middle. I’m telling you. This is awesome. Okay. We’re going to take a break. When we come back, we’re going to be in the dining room with everything Jerry prepared today. Here’s how you can get today’s recipes. You don’t want to miss them. You have to send for those recipes. Just a self-addressed, stamped, business-size envelope. Or if you have subscribed online — don’t forget, that’s just ctvn.org. You can get all of these sent to your email address every month — automatically. You never have to send for anything for a whole year for fifteen bucks. That’s a deal, huh?

That’s a good deal.

That’s a big deal because you get lots of recipes. I’ll tell you what’s a big deal. Look at this table. I am telling you — Jerry, you outdid yourself. But this is what I’m typically used to when I go to Drew’s. You always put out wonderful food beautifully placed on the plate and garnished. And the best part is it always tastes so good. Oh, my! Let’s start down there with chicken fingers.

Here’s our chicken fingers.

Oh, tell us about the — the two sauces you have there, too.

I have a honey mustard sauce —

Which we’re going to give you the recipe. We didn’t have time to make it, but —

And the other one is our famous horseradish sauce that we have at the restaurant.

No recipe!

Unfortunately, that’s a secret recipe.

That’s all right. We understand. Then next to that is Chicken Fiscardo. Tell us.

That’s the Chicken Fiscardo. And you can see the sauce and how the cheese melted —

I’m telling ya.

— and how it — it all came together.

Oh, that is so tender, you literally cut it with a fork. I’m serious. And then you even said, like, you put some rice with it. So we have a nice bowl of rice here that we would lay with that, or a baked potato is good with that. Or people eat fries. I mean, anything and everything. Next to it, Jerry just brought us in a typical Greek salad. Look at that salad. If you order a Greek salad at Drew’s, that’s what you’re going to get. Everything and anything, and a wonderful — is that a balsamic?

It’s a balsamic vinaigrette. We make — all our dressings are homemade.

They are awesome. They are so good. And, of course, right next to that is —

Loukoumades.

Loukoumades — mades. Okay. But they’re honey nut balls and I’m telling you I have been snitching on them. They’re best when they first come out of the grease, when they’re hot.

Well, when my mother made them, we would stand right next to her and she was terrified because it’s made with grease.

Yeah, it’s hot. Yeah.

And they were coming out hot. And we just wanted to have them right away.

Honest to goodness, you just drizzle the honey over top and some cinnamon. Right?

Right.

And then a few walnuts. And when they’re hot, they are as light — they’re lighter than a donut. You know, sometimes the heaviness of a donut hits you all at once. This — it doesn’t happen. They are so light. They’re delicious! And then Jerry wonderfully brought us some sides of french fries which are always good at — at Drew’s. And then he brought this. This is another thing that I go there for. This is zucchini. Now we’ve all had zucchini places, but not like you have there. He does this fresh and it’s the same batter as what?

As the chicken fingers.

The same process.

Same process.

The buttermilk — the flour, the buttermilk, and the breadcrumb.

Absolutely.

These are so tender. They’re delicious. And the only thing missing at this table is you. Be sure to join us the next time. It wouldn’t be the same without you. Thanks, Jerr. Bless you.

Thank you.

See you next time.

Furnishings provided by Levin Furniture, featuring Lane’s Country Living collection. Food provided by Jordan Banana Company, wholesalers of fresh fruit and vegetables in Dravosburg, Pennsylvania.

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