Alejandra Ramos: Tonight on "The Great American Recipe"...

There is one pantry item that almost every household has on hand-- noodles!

Leanna: I am a pasta girl-- all the pasta.

Khela: A little bit of extra butter because you can't add too much butter.

Ha ha ha!

You don't want to overcook anything.

Brad: If my dough's, like, very crumbly, what would you do to make it more doughy?

Maria: The trickiest part about this dish is gonna be the broth.

Ah!

Ahh!

This is amazing.

Alejandra: This is "The Great American Recipe," a celebration of foods from across the country to around the globe...

I am making bison short rib.

Bison is a traditional Native American food.

Alejandra: steeped in years of tradition.

Abbe, voice-over: Chicken soup is truly Jewish penicillin.

Will cure anything.

Alejandra: This season, our home cooks from regions all across the country get their chance to share their most treasured recipes.

Mmm!

They taste like mom's.

Graham Elliot: This shows us what we are all about, "The Great American Recipe," highlighting all the diversity.

Who taught you those secrets?

My mom.

I love that.

Our food memories is how we keep it going, how we're talking about the people we love.

It's so important.

Maria: Thanks, guys.

Alejandra: After 8 weeks of challenges celebrating the heart of American home cooking... [Cheering] one home cook will be named... Wow!

the winner.

Welcome back to "The Great American Recipe."

♪ ♪ Brad: All right.

Week two.

I feel pretty good going into the second week.

Last week, I was top two in the first round, and I won the second round.

Tiffany: We absolutely love the fish cake and the Israeli salad.

I mean, it was just incredibly beautiful and tasty.

Brad: I want to use that good high energy from the first week to manifest into continued success.

Alejandra: Hi!

Tiffany: Hello!

Salmah, voice-over: Last week, I didn't do my best.

Graham: The execution is the thing that I have the biggest issue with.

My yolk is overcooked.

Salmah: So I am so happy for the opportunity to continue on, and I can't wait for the next challenge.

Alejandra: Welcome back, cooks, to week two of "The Great American Recipe."

We're back with our judges Graham Elliot... Aloha, all.

Tiffany Derry...

Welcome back!

And Leah Cohen!

Hello.

Nice to see everyone again.

Alejandra: Last week, you introduced yourselves to us by cooking dishes that represented who you are and the region of the country where you're from.

It was a great introduction to all of you.

Sadly, your fellow home cook Mike had to leave the competition early, and he will be missed dearly, but we're delighted that all of you will get to continue on this journey even longer.

We couldn't be more excited than to have y'all stick around for the long haul.

Graham: We're going to provide you some pointers for areas of improvement for all of your dishes, and just like before, we're going to decide our favorite dishes at the end of each round of cooking and tasting.

Alejandra: Your rankings will shift each week based on the judges' critique of your dishes, and the 3 top-ranked home cooks will earn their spots in the final week of the competition and have one of their recipes featured on the front cover of the "Great American Recipe Cookbook."

How's everyone feeling about that?

[Contestants cheering] Yeah!

I like this!

Well, let's find out what you're cooking this week.

This week's theme is the daily dish, and the first round today simply asks, "What's for dinner?"

You'll have 45 minutes to make a quick dish with the go-to staple ingredients you always keep at home.

Your dishes will be judged on taste, execution, presentation, and how well your dish delivers on the theme.

Let's not waste another second.

Your time starts now!

♪ Alejandra: All right, judges.

What are you looking to see?

Tiffany: When it comes to those quick dishes, just make me feel good.

For me, it's about execution.

This is a dish you've made time and time again.

This is your go-to.

They should be able to nail it.

Leah: I'm interested to see what people have in their pantry.

Alejandra: Every challenge is about getting to know them.

This is just kind of, like, sneaking a peek.

You know, you look in that medicine cabinet, you look in the pantry.

Oh!

You're one of those.

Graham: You're a medicine cabinet person?

You'll turn your eyes, and she's in your cabinet.

♪ We're gonna get the spinach in here in a minute.

As a busy dad, it's definitely in my wheelhouse to make sure that I can get that quick dinner done.

I am making a feta and spinach stuffed chicken breast.

These are looking good.

The pantry items I chose for this round are chicken breasts, feta cheese because we always have feta in a Greek house.

When we say stuffed chicken breasts, we are going to stuff these chicken breasts.

This is the first meal that I made for my wife when we were dating.

And thank God now-- married 17-plus years-- she still loves it every time I make it.

As a dad who enjoys cooking for his family, this is I what I wanted to share with the judges, and I know it's gonna be a winner.

[Sizzling] Relle: I've always got chicken, panko flour, eggs.

My go-to quick-and-easy dinner that the kids will love is chicken katsu, edamame rice, and homemade tonkatsu sauce.

Mom's always needed.

"Mom, Mom, can I get this?

Mom, can I get that?"

That's what I feel like.

Ha!

In essence, chicken katsu is fried chicken... Dry, wet, dry.

but in Hawaii's version, we do a katsu style, which is, like, Japanese style breadcrumbs, fry it up.

In Hawaii, Japanese culture definitely plays a large role in the food that we make.

Let's make some katsu sauce while we wait.

Kind of a ketchup-based sauce, but it has Worcestershire sauce, and I put a little bit of shoyu in it, too.

Representing for Hawaii.

Can't live without shoyu.

So it has a little bit of tang and a little bit of sweetness.

This is so yummy!

It's a grand slam in our house all the time.

Ha ha ha!

Good.

Leah: Hi, Relle.

How are you?

Hi.

I'm fine, thank you.

What do you have?

So I'm making chicken katsu.

My kids love it.

My son is 10, my daughter is 6, so who doesn't love breaded chicken, right?

It's like chicken nuggets.

Chicken parm, so there you go.

My kids love it, too.

It really does seem like you're taking our advice from the last round.

You just need to edit yourself down a little bit because to do 5 dishes perfectly in 90 minutes, it can be a little bit challenging.

There's not too much going on.

Thank you so much.

Mahalo.

Abbe: Let's get this dinner on the table.

Today, I'm making dan dan sliders.

This is a dish from the Sichuan province in China.

I love Sichuan food, and after visiting Chengdu, I love Sichuan food even more.

I love to travel just about anywhere that you give me a ticket to.

Our last big trip was to China, where my son was living at the time.

Traditionally this is made with noodles.

I decided to make this one day, and I didn't have noodles.

I had slider buns on the counter, and it became my own Sloppy Joe.

It's a common go-to in our house.

It's made with ground pork, tahini, peanut butter, garlic, ginger, scallions, and then the most important ingredient-- the Sichuan peppercorns.

Can you smell it?

Everyone loves this dish.

♪ Maria: Mmm!

Nothing like some garlic and onions.

When I see I've got some chicken and some cheese and tortillas, I'm like, "Game on.

We're making enchiladas."

I'm gonna make my enchiladas with green chile, chicken breasts, and a homemade enchilada sauce.

Baking the chicken breasts is gonna be the quickest way to get the chicken done in time for this challenge.

Think we're getting there.

I learned to make this from my mom.

It was actually the first dish that I learned to make on my own.

I'm gonna throw it into the blender with some vegetable stock, some green chiles, and it'll make a beautiful little sauce.

I was maybe 9 years old.

My mom had some friends over.

All of her friends were impressed that this little kid had made all of this food, and it was the first time that I had really realized that food can bring people together and make other people happy.

Nnn!

Oh, no.

Everything's falling.

That was really formative in my relationship with food, and that's why I'm sharing these recipes.

Yeah.

That's pretty good.

♪ [Sizzling] Khela: Ooh!

I'm getting hot.

Hoo!

Holy mackerel.

I'm making garlicky shrimp with spinach and a rice pilaf.

It's kind of a play on a scampi.

Throw it in a pan, and it's quick.

It's just easy peasy.

This is for my rice pilaf.

I like lots of vegetables, and I can sneak them in for my husband and my boys, who are probably eating a whole lot of frozen pizzas while I'm gone.

Ha ha ha!

I have two boys.

Alex is 23, and Sammy is 20, and my husband Matt, too.

He's a giant boy.

We were empty nesters for a hot second.

Ha ha!

Not so much now.

We have boomerang boys.

They're back.

Two minutes left on my rice.

OK. Come on, baby.

Maria: You got this, girl.

Khela, voice-over: I love these other cooks.

Thanks, Maria.

You're a punkin pie.

No.

You're a punkin pie.

Khela, voice-over: Even though I love them, I sure would like to be on top.

That makes me happy.

Hoo!

More lemon.

I'm making baharat seasoned chicken thighs and hummus.

I really want to represent Libyan Jewish cuisine and show the world how beautiful our culture and our food is.

When I visit Israel every year to see my dad's humongous extended family, my dad being 1 of 16 kids, so I probably have, like, 100 first cousins, the one thing that I must get every single time I go is called Libyan baharat, and it's just a Middle Eastern spice blend.

There's, like, a little cinnamon, there's a little allspice, there's some clove.

It just really gives a lot of depth of flavor.

How are you, Brad?

You know, stressed like usual...

Stressed?

but doing my thing.

I see some hummus.

My hummus has chickpeas, tahini, lemon, oil, salt, and cumin.

I like to work out a lot, so, like, I always have, like, sort of protein in the fridge.

You know, also like beans.

Really a good source of, like, nutrients.

So this is a healthy meal?

Healthyish.

You know, as healthy as I get.

You've been on top a lot...

I know.

And I don't know if you're feeling the pressure.

You can only go down from the top, so I'm a little worried, but we'll see what it is, so...

Thank you, Brad.

Thank you.

Good luck!

Thank you.

I have a nice piece of flank.

I am making pepper steak.

Pepper steaks are very popular in Guyana.

It's a stir-fried Chinese dish.

A lot of Guyanese cuisine is made up of Chinese influence.

The sauce is of course oyster and soy.

That's a sharp knife.

It has peppers, onions in a spicy but also slightly sweet sauce.

Hoo!

That's a strong onion.

This is one of my go-to meals because I have two children.

My daughter Hannah, who is 15, my son Salah, who's 13.

Between work, getting the kids out for school, I can quickly stir fry this meal up for any weeknight dinner.

Salmah!

Hello!

What do you got going on?

So half of pepper steak is the prep.

Ha ha!

Yeah.

So friends are driving over, and you're getting it chopped, and then when they're here, you're like, "Oh.

Let me just throw this in."

Exactly!

People are like, "Wow!

She's got it!"

It's the show of it.

Uh-huh.

I've got my veggies all sliced and diced waiting for me.

My meat has been marinating and seasoned, and then my sauce-- oyster, soy, honey, grated garlic, grated ginger, salt, black pepper.

Oh, wow!

That's great!

The honey really comes through the flavor, too, yeah.

And then I'm gonna do them in batches.

How do you feel with the idea that no one's going home?

I--I love it.

I'm just glad I'm here so that you're able to really get to know me, get to know--understand my food, and learn what Guyana's cuisine is about.

All right.

Good luck!

Thank you, Graham.

Just trying to make a good meal and hopefully get in the top two.

I have decided to make a creamy sundried tomato fried chicken with mashed potatoes.

The first thing that I do is I get my chicken marinating into lime and salt.

Let's get this into the fridge.

I'm very busy.

I'm a mom, a wife, an attorney.

I work full time, my husband works full time, my son plays 3 sports, so I'm often in a time crunch to get dinner on the table.

Can I get a time check?

How are we doing on time?

Alejandra: 32 minutes left!

Just keep peeling, just keep peeling.

Leah: Leanna's making mashed potatoes, and I'm just a little concerned about her timing right now because she's going at a snail's pace.

Aah!

Right now, I feel like time management is all over the place.

All right, Le, you got to get these potatoes in the water.

Let's go, let's go.

At home, it wouldn't be an issue.

OK.

So dinner takes 5 more minutes.

Big deal.

Ooh!

Here, though, that's the difference between getting the meal on the plate and not having anything to present to the judges, so I've got to get a handle on my nerves.

All right.

Come on, potatoes.

Do your thing.

I'm gonna give it another... Alejandra: There's a lot of chicken happening out there.

Ted, Maria, and Leanna are using chicken breasts while Relle and Brad are using thighs.

Graham: Chicken is kind of the blank canvas to where it can be turned into anything and highlight any culture or region.

Leah: For me, chicken breast is not ideal.

I think it's really easy to overcook and get dried out.

Khela: Rice is looking good.

With my rice done, I need to start my sauce for the shrimp, so I pour the clam juice into the pan with the shallots... turn this baby up a little bit.

and it has wine--heh-- of course.

Is it too early to drink?

Ha ha ha!

Wine.

Ha ha ha!

That's always in my pantry.

I'm gonna use this.

I don't think that needs an explanation.

I like wine.

Ha!

Gonna let that cook down.

Graham: All right, ladies and gentlemen.

15 minutes to go!

Maria: Ooh, boy!

This is gonna be saucy!

I'm staying focused, and I'm just gonna make it work.

That's what I can do.

I've got my chicken frying, and then I get going on my sauce that has sundried tomatoes and parmesan.

Ooh, gosh!

I get the potatoes out and throw those in the mixer.

Pretty good.

Could be smoother, though.

5 minutes!

5 minutes?

Oh, my God!

Oh, my God!

OK.

So I'm starting to panic a little because I'm not really happy with the potatoes.

I know they're not as creamy as I would like.

OK. OK. Whoa, whoa.

Was not expecting that.

And if I have to choose between potatoes having a few extra lumps and serving undercooked chicken, I'm definitely gonna focus on the chicken.

We're gonna pop it in the oven, give it a little bit of extra love.

♪ Relle: 90 seconds left.

90 seconds.

Hoo!

Leanna: This was not the calm energy I was hoping for.

♪ Maria: This is insane.

♪ Alejandra: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!

[Cheering] My family will eat it.

Salmah: Mine, too.

♪ Alejandra: All right.

Now that the round is over, it is time for the judges to taste your dishes.

Leanna, come join us.

So today, I made for you a creamy sundried tomato fried chicken with mashed potatoes.

We're a very busy family.

My husband and I both work full time.

My son plays 3 sports, so I'm always looking for what I grab really quickly and throw together in between practices.

Leah: Having a kid play 3 sports is very time-consuming, so for you to put this together.

I think the cook on the chicken is great.

Chicken breasts can get overcooked, and this is not overcooked.

So good job on that.

Thank you, Chef.

Graham: Yeah.

It's super tasty, but potatoes need some work, right?

A little silkier, a little more cream or butter.

Something I would do in the future is look at that time management again.

I saw you over there peeling these potatoes.

Just throw them in there and mash them, you know, skin-on.

Thank you, Chef.

Salmah, come and join us.

Salmah: I made pepper steak.

This is my go-to because I end my workday anywhere between 6:00 or 6:30, and I can have dinner on the table by, like, 7:15, 7:30 at the latest.

Tiffany: Salmah, what a beautiful presentation.

The beef is really nice and tender.

The peppers still have crunch, which is great, and the flavor profiles are really nice.

I love this because it captures the theme of what we're talking about, and it's one of those that in the morning I would warm it all up in a pan and put an egg on top.

Like, that's breakfast.

Nice!

It's one of those homey, tasty meals.

Thank you.

Alejandra: Relle.

Relle: Today, I made for you chicken katsu, edamame rice, and a homemade tonkatsu sauce.

Simple flavors that kids like but can still be really tasty.

Tiffany: I think that it really tells a story of really who you are, and I love the way that you brought it together with the sauce.

It's delicious.

Mahalo.

You listened to us from the last time.

We said, "Don't put 9 million things on a plate, right?

Let's focus on a few," and I think you did that really well.

The one thing I would say maybe some finishing salt, but the cook itself is really nice.

The chicken is juicy.

Mahalo.

Alejandra: Brad.

OK.

So I made baharat seasoned chicken thighs paired with hummus.

Growing up in a Middle Eastern household, we always have cans of chickpeas and tahini, things like that kind of always on deck.

Leah: This is great.

I think the cook on the chicken is great.

It's really nicely seasoned, it's flavorful, it's juicy.

The hummus--I mean, if you couldn't make good hummus, I'd be really disappointed in you, but this is amazing.

Tiffany: I agree with you, Leah.

As far as having this for a quick meal anytime of the night, I'm down.

This would definitely hit the spot.

Brad: Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

Alejandra: Abbe, come on up.

Abbe: My go-to dinner dish is dan dan sliders because it's simple, it's quick, it's flavorful.

Graham: This is a great dish in a pinch.

The flavor pops.

If anything, I would just try to make it a little more saucy.

Tiffany: Abbe, I think this is a very clean-looking dish, and it looks inviting.

The flavor of the dan dan, I was expecting a lot more spicy, but I do get a little bit of that numbing from the Sichuan.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alejandra: Maria.

So today, I made green chile chicken enchiladas.

This is actually the first dish I ever learned how to cook.

Leah: So I love how you put this in its own little container and then you got it nice and melty with the cheese.

The flavor's awesome.

You have the heat.

Tiffany: I think the enchiladas itself have great flavor, but I want you to be really careful with your knife cuts.

So when you get chunks that big, that means that another bite won't have any chicken, but flavor-wise, you executed.

The flavors are delicious.

Thank you.

Khela, it is your turn.

Khela: This is garlicky shrimp with spinach and rice pilaf.

So I love shrimp, and shrimp cooks super-fast, and the rice because, you know, veggies, I can sneak them in.

Ha ha ha!

Graham: Presentation-wise, this is one of the prettiest dishes that we've seen today.

Just remember if you're cooking with alcohol to cook all of the alcohol off.

I still taste some of that in there, so that's just one of those nonnegotiables, but overall, a very simple, tasty dish.

I think you nailed the idea.

I do agree with Graham.

There is a little bit of raw wine flavor, but the shrimp are cooked perfectly, the rice is cooked really nicely.

I think everything overall was well done.

Khela: Thank you.

Alejandra: Ted!

For dinner, I made feta and spinach stuffed chicken breasts.

I make this dish at home quite a bit.

I can get it done in probably about 20, 25 minutes.

Graham: The stuffing's great.

It's very smart.

The chicken itself, though, needs to pop a little more, so when you cut it open, before you stuff it, make sure you season it inside there.

Tiffany: But where you did well is the flavor of that spinach and that feta that's in the inside.

It is moist and a little salty and a little creamy, and it's really, really good, which makes us want more of it.

Thank you.

Ted, voice-over: These world-renowned chefs enjoying my stuffed chicken breasts?

Could Ted be in the top two?

♪ Alejandra: Cooks, we asked you to show us the quick meal you go to after a busy day.

Judges, whose dishes best stood up to the task?

Salmah, we really enjoyed your pepper steak.

It had so much flavor, and we all continued to talk about it.

Salmah, voice-over: This is a dish I make on, like, a Monday or a Tuesday.

Like, I close my laptop, I run downstairs, and I'm just in my kitchen doing my thing, so for me to be named as top dish, I'm just like, "Wow!

I did this."

Alejandra: And we had many delicious chicken dishes, but the one that came out on top was... Brad!

Congratulations.

Brad: Thank you.

Brad, one of the things that I love is that you've brought a piece of you to this challenge, not only from your dish but the ingredients that you use at home.

Everything on the plate was awesome.

Brad, voice-over: Finding out that I'm one of the two most successful dishes, I'm a happy camper.

I'm excited to make my family proud.

Graham: And to all of the other home cooks, I know that you have so many more beautiful recipes and dishes to share.

All of those were a success.

Alejandra: Remember, the judges are ranking everything that you cook, so be sure to take everything that you learned from these dishes into the next round.

♪ Alejandra: In the last round, we got to see some of your most frequent daily dishes using some of your favorite ingredients from home, but there is one pantry item that almost every household has on hand, and it just so happens to be one of the most versatile ingredients in the world-- noodles!

For round two, you'll have 60 minutes to make a noodle-based dish that best represents your heritage and culture.

As always, your dishes will be judged on taste, execution, presentation, and how well you represented the theme.

Are you ready, cooks?

Ted: Yeah!

Leanna: Ready!

Yes.

Your 60 minutes starts now!

♪ Leah: Second week.

First week jitters are gone.

They know they're not leaving.

They can really bring it.

Graham: Having noodles as a blank canvas is the best way to showcase the different countries, regions, cultures of the home cooks.

Leanna: Hold steady.

Do not cut yourself.

So when I heard noodles, I was already excited.

I am a pasta girl, all kinds of pasta-- cheesy pasta, creamy pasta, spicy pasta, all the pasta.

Ha!

But if you ask me, I identify myself as Caribbean American.

I am just much Bajan as I am American.

Bajan is just how we refer to people from Barbados.

I'm making jerk Alfredo pasta with pan-seared scallops.

Noodles aren't really too big in Barbados, but my brother and I loved pasta, and so even though it wasn't something that my mom really grew up cooking, because we liked it, she learned how to do it.

So I want to give the judges something that is truly representative of the Caribbean.

It's bold, it's flavorful.

Something that I want to keep in the top of my mind is time management.

I'm taking my time to actually get prepared so that when I get cooking, things can just roll like a well-oiled machine.

I don't think there's a way for me to be successful if I don't get my time management under control.

All right.

Cool.

Time to hit it with the salt and pepper.

♪ Hmm.

Just a little bit more for good measure.

For this round, I am making vamazelli.

Vamazelli is a Guyanese sweet noodle dish.

A lot of times when you hear about noodles, it's always something in the savory form.

Don't always see it in something sweet, so I wanted to share a little bit of my culture and my tradition with vamazelli.

So vamazelli is toasted vermicelli noodles slightly spiced with cinnamon and clove, boiled down, and simmered into a milk syrup.

What I'm doing right now is I'm parching the noodles in some melted butter with cinnamon sticks just to toast the noodles.

Typically for us Muslims, we eat this on Eid mornings to celebrate.

Eid al-Fitr is the holiday that us Muslims will celebrate after we have completed a 30-day fast for the month of Ramadan.

The tradition is that you start your day with something sweet so that it begins on a good or happy note.

Starting to slowly change color.

Getting a little toasted.

I was on top in the last round.

I just hope that that I can keep that going.

Ted: Did you bring your own cinnamon sticks?

Salmah: I did bring my own cinnamon sticks.

Can I use one?

Of course.

It's over there on the tray.

Yes!

All right.

I'm gonna grab it in a moment.

All right.

Start with some onion.

I'm making beef kokkinisto with macaronada.

This dish is a very traditional Greek dish.

It's almost like a ragu over macaroni-type noodles.

So it's a braised beef.

I'm using tri-tip today for mine.

I'm gonna cook it in the pressure cooker, get the beef nice and tender, and we're gonna sear it first.

The sauce will come from all of the ingredients that I'm gonna put in the pressure cooker with the meat.

How you doing?

Good, good.

So I'm doing a braised beef in a tomato-based sauce, so in Greek, it's kokkinisto.

Kokkinisto.

Yes.

Kokkinisto.

Kokkinisto.

Kokkinisto.

What I'm gonna do at the end with the sauce-- I'm gonna take the immersion blender and thicken it up.

Brought my own noodles from Chicago.

It's like a bucatini but a little bit thicker.

So you're getting all that sauce in between, you're gonna get all the richness of the meat.

I am very much looking forward to tasting this dish.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ted, voice-over: This is something that is very special to me because this is something that my mom made growing up all the time, and it's one of those dishes that brings me back to that time when she was still around.

Oh, yeah.

Just what I want.

My mother passed away years ago, and unfortunately right as she was losing her battle with cancer, my father became ill, and when she passed away, he died of a broken heart.

After our parents passed away, we made it a point to celebrate life and to rediscover those recipes and traditions and make sure what we pass those down to our kids.

So this is one of those ways that we can keep their memory eternal.

Should be enough cheese.

♪ Abbe: Sticky.

Alejandra: Abbe, hello there.

Hello!

I'm making a sweet noodle kugel, a traditional Jewish dish.

I hope you love it because there are those that prefer savory, and there are those that prefer sweet.

When I grew up, my mother made a savory noodle kugel.

I never wanted to tell her, but it was not my favorite.

Well, you know what?

You were very polite as a child.

Yes, I was very polite, so when I got older and I inherited a lot of my grandmother's Jewish cookbooks, and I found there was such a thing as a sweet noodle kugel.

How would you describe it?

A kugel is wide egg noodles, and basically, you make an egg custard with some sour cream, some cottage cheese, and I add cream cheese for a little richness, little bit of sugar.

I add a dash of vanilla.

That's great.

I'm excited to give this a try.

Thank you, Abbe.

Thanks.

Abbe, voice-over: Noodle kugel is a baked casserole.

Most people make it in a 13x9 pan.

It takes 45 minutes to an hour to bake, so I decided to make it in individual ramekins so that we could serve it in the right amount of time.

Noodle kugel is a very polarizing dish.

You either love it, or it's just like noodles.

Maybe it's taking a risk, but YOLO-- you only live once.

My daughter had to tell me what that was.

Ha ha ha!

♪ Relle: All right.

Almost done.

For this round, I'm making chicken hekka with wonton.

Chicken hekka is Hawaii's spin on a Japanese hot pot, which is, like, a Japanese-style soup.

You got to soak the bean thread noodles before you oil it.

It's a bean thread noodle pasta with a shoyu chicken and shiitake mushrooms.

This is actually my mom's recipe.

Single mom, you know.

Always wanted to make sure we had good food on the table, and this was one of her go-tos.

My biggest inspiration in life is my mom.

She raised me as a single mom.

That's no easy feat.

My mom made it look easy.

This is something that I get to pay homage to her, and actually, this is her recipe.

Getting the win with her recipe would be really special.

You don't want to overcook anything because that'll be a downfall.

♪ See what I need.

I need garlic.

Tomatoes already here.

It's a noodle round, so I am making nukides with lamb sauce, and nukides is basically a potatoless Libyan gnocchi.

Ffbbb.

So 60 minutes is an insanely short time for this, so I immediately get started with the lamb sauce.

I add lamb stew meat, tomato paste, chopped tomatoes, garlic, and spices to the pressure cooker.

Not only do I have to get the lamb soft, but I also have to make the pasta.

Traditional Italian gnocchi's made with potatoes.

This is made with flour and semolina.

Libya has a lot of ties with Italy, so, like, you do see a lot of kind of little pastay dishes pop up.

Libya was colonized by the Italians, so there was a lot of culinary influence and language.

Like, actually, both my grandparents spoke Italian.

I remember my grandmother would make this dish, so I'm making this in honor of her.

I look around, and I realize I'm the only one that's making my own pasta.

It's a little ambitious, but I'm kind of hoping for the best.

It's, like, very crumbly, and I don't know how to fix it.

I don't know why, but it's a tough rock of a dough.

I don't know.

If my dough's, like, very crumbly, like, what would you do to make it more, like, doughy?

Leah: Like, if you're really unhappy with it and you have time, start it over.

Brad: I'm gonna just do it again.

I'm listening to Leah, adding a little bit more oil.

Maybe second time's the charm.

Thank you, judges, for suggesting that I remake the dough.

Glad we could help.

This feels a lot better.

OK. [Sizzling] ♪ OK.

Cool.

Native American culture, we don't really do a ton of noodles, so I have to get creative with this one to find recipes and connect it to where I come from, which is being an urban Native person living in Seattle.

So I'm gonna make a bison pho.

Pho is a traditional Vietnamese soup with rice noodles and thinly chopped beef on top.

Pho is everywhere in Seattle, and it's one of my favorite dishes, but instead of beef, I'm doing bison, which is the traditional Native food.

I start toasting all of the different spices and seeds to pull out some flavors.

Leanna: All right.

30 minutes, y'all.

That's all we got.

Let's go!

Maria, voice-over: That is not a lot of time to get a good, consistent flavor in the broth.

We have coriander, star anise, cloves, fennel, black cardamom, and cinnamon stick.

I put them into a cheesecloth, tie it up, and then throw that into the broth.

The noodles are pretty basic.

I know this is a noodle challenge, but honestly, I feel like the noodles are an afterthought in this one for me.

The trickiest part about this dish is gonna be the broth.

If I can pull off the broth, the rest of it will be super easy.

♪ Khela: I feel a little bit better about this round, so I know what I'm doing.

Ha ha ha!

I don't ever know what I'm doing.

I am making saucy beef and mushrooms over egg noodles.

Who does not love beef and mushrooms together?

My goodness, it's so tasty.

Time for drunken mushrooms.

Mmm!

[Sizzling] Khela, voice-over: If you ask my boys what their favorite dish is, it's steak and mushrooms over egg noodles.

They're extra wide, yummy Amish noodles that I get at the farmer's market, and my kids go nutso for these noodles.

Look at that pretty piece of meat.

I'm gonna do ribeye because it has a lot of flavor and it can cook fast.

All kind of about the same, so they cook the same.

Maria: How you doing, punkin?

I'm good.

How are you?

Good.

That sauce looks awesome.

Thanks!

I love the color.

Hopefully the wine's cooked out this time.

Graham: If you're cooking with alcohol, cook all of the alcohol off.

I still taste some of that in there.

I think I got the wine in early enough.

Tiffany: There are so many noodles that are in this kitchen right now from vermicelli to rice noodles, egg noodles, bucatini.

I mean, think about it.

Like, no one is doing the same thing.

It's what we are all about, "Great American Recipe," highlighting all the diversity.

Brad is, like "60 minutes, I'm gonna make my own noodles."

That's so cool.

20 minutes left.

Let's make some wontons.

Now I have to make the wontons to go with the chicken hekka.

I'm making wontons with ground beef, ground pork, some water chestnuts, kamaboko, which is Japanese-style fish cake.

Fry that up.

I'll be good to go.

Wontons was one of those things growing up that we as kids got to help with.

It's fun.

It's something my kids really enjoy, and honestly, my 6-year-old daughter is pretty good at it, too.

It's a little bit of a rush now.

I thought I had some time, but we'll see.

♪ Salmah: Yes!

Now the noodles are soft, I can slowly introduce the milks over it.

And slowly, it'll start to thicken and be absorbed by the vamazelli noodles.

I'm also pairing it with raisins and sultanas, which are pretty much a golden raisin, and a little bit of chopped-up cherries.

This is what I'm looking for.

Typically, when we make vamazelli cake at home, it's a large cake.

However, I'm in a time constraint, so I decided to serve the judges their own little individual vamazelli so that I have enough time so that it sets to form this solid vamazelli cake.

It could be good, it could be bad.

We will see.

I got to get those scallops in, though.

Now is the time.

Scallops cook very quickly.

Yes.

That's the color I want to see.

These scallops came out good.

Leah: Hello!

Leanna: Hello, Chef Leah.

How are you?

Good.

How are you?

This is my twist on a noodle dish.

A lot of people think about Jamaica when they think about jerk seasoning, but the truth is it's important all throughout the Caribbean... Sure is.

so I wanted to give you something that was bold, that was vibrant, and was really just a celebration because that's what life is in the Caribbean.

What noodles are you using, this over here?

I'm using linguini.

OK.

It's a little bit of a wider noodle but such a creamy sauce, so you could really, like, scoop up that sauce.

OK. And you're adding the jerk seasoning to your cream sauce?

To the Alfredo.

OK. Great.

And this jerk seasoning, is this something that you brought with you?

This is something that I brought with me, so this is my favorite jerk seasoning, and it's made from scallion and onion and Scotch bonnet.

You got a plan.

Stick to it.

Doing my best.

Good luck!

Thanks, Chef.

Leanna, voice-over: I like things really spicy, but I know things that I eat sometimes bring tears to other people's eyes and maybe clear your sinuses if you're sick.

Given that the judges are restauranteurs and not necessarily Caribbean restauranteurs, I'm thinking maybe I should err more on the mild side.

Yeah!

♪ Maria: I want these guys to be, like, medium rare.

Bison is a traditional food of the Coeur d'Alene people.

Getting there.

For the Coeur d'Alenes, when you came back from one of the buffalo hunts, you would be considered an adult, so in my case, I didn't go on a buffalo hunt, but I arrived as a kid when I went to college at the University of Washington in Seattle and then left as an adult.

I was exposed to a million different cultures, and I'm really proud of where I come from and the people I come from.

I think when it jumps out of the pan that means it wants to be done.

I might add a little bit of extra stock and a little bit of extra butter because you can't add too much butter.

Ha ha ha!

5 minutes!

5 minutes!

Leanna: OK. 5 minutes.

Got it.

Oof.

All right.

I have the pasta ready, and now it's time to add the meat.

I take the meat and the stew out of the pressure cooker, I pour it into a new sauce pot... and then I mix in the nukides, which I'm just gonna stew them in the sauce.

I just hope that the pasta is cooked through.

♪ Ted: Keep our fingers crossed on the time.

My pasta is done.

It feels really tender, so I'm a little nervous that I might have overcooked it, but I have to keep going.

Gonna go down to the wire here.

Tiffany: Oh, Lord.

He's still blending his sauce, and he should be plating.

Ted, voice-over: Time is running out.

I have to take out that meat.

I get the immersion blender in there, I start thickening it up, but I don't have time to toss my noodles in the sauce the way that I wanted to.

That is it.

Leah: One minute.

You guys have one minute left.

I was hoping they would keep their twist, but they're not.

Ah!

I'm feeling OK now.

♪ Ah!

I want it pretty.

Alejandra: 5... 4... 3... 2... 1!

Hands up, everybody!

[Applause] ♪ This week, we wanted to get a glimpse of your everyday cooking and the go-to dishes in your repertoire.

Leah: In this round, we asked you to prepare a noodle-based dish that incorporates the flavors and traditions of your heritage.

Let's start with Abbe.

I made you a traditional Jewish sweet noodle kugel.

Tiffany: Wow!

I'll be honest.

I've never had kugel before.

When I took my first bite, I wanted more.

Abbe: Aw.

Thank you.

I need to have a kugel every week.

Thank you.

Graham: Yeah, Abbe.

Great job with this.

You get the creaminess, you get that sweet, that cheese, the crunch on top.

Whenever I've made a kugel, it's in the big pan, you know, and it's more family-style, so this is very, like, restaurant or chefy, if you will.

This is your best dish, I think, so far, Abbe.

Thank you so much.

Really exciting to see you pop.

Good job.

Thank you.

Relle, it's your turn.

Today, I made for you chicken hekka with wonton.

It's my mom's recipe.

Graham: Relle, the only thing I'm gonna say just a little more mix of color.

We've got, like, 5 or 6 things on the plate, and they're all, like, kind of the same beige, but the flavor, the idea behind it, the story, I think you did a great job, so thank you.

Mahalo.

Leah: So I love that you're using the bean thread noodles.

They can be a little challenging, but you nailed the cook on the noodles, and it really absorbed a lot of flavor.

The fried wonton is great.

I wish I had more of that because that's that crunchy crispiness.

Mahalo.

Salmah!

Adorned with a cherry is my Eid day vamazelli.

Vamazelli is a Guyanese sweet breakfast.

Traditionally in Muslim households, we enjoy vamazelli for the start of Eid day.

This is amazing.

I wasn't sure what to expect, and biting into it, it was truly an experience-- delicious and flavorful, and I might make this for breakfast myself.

Ha ha ha!

I'm thinking coffee, a little bit of this, I'm feeling good.

Graham: It definitely tastes better than it looks.

There's no getting around that.

Yes.

I get it.

Ha!

It's just a very interesting shape and color... Mm-hmm.

but the flavor itself is great, and I think it's almost like an oatmeal, you know, with the same spices and flavor and texture.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Brad.

So I made nukides, which is a Libyan kind of potatoless gnocchi with a red lamb sauce.

Leah: I think you took a very tricky dish and prepared it for us in an hour, which was challenging, so I appreciate that you really are trying to step your game up.

The lamb came out great.

I think it's tender.

The seasoning's on point.

There's some nice richness to this dish.

Graham: I agree with Leah, and the broth is rich, and I love the flavor, but the nukides are really undercooked.

OK.

Thank you.

Khela, it is your turn.

I made a saucy beef and mushroom over egg noodles.

So it's kind of a play on casserole, right?

We had lots of casseroles in the seventies.

Um, I'm really old.

I'm just like... Ha ha ha!

Tiffany: The actual dish itself is very hearty, very comforting.

The mushrooms are really meaty.

The beef is a bit chewy, but the mushrooms itself, it just, like, melts in your mouth.

Graham: Yeah.

I mean, just like Tiffany said, the mushrooms are sliced perfect, they're caramelized, they've been roasted off.

Just watch when you're cutting your beef.

You'll sometimes have pieces like this that look very lean that will overcook, and then there's other pieces like this that look like 90% of it is fat or gristle.

Just take that extra step now to really refine it.

Thank you.

Thank you!

Ted!

Ted: I made a beef kokkinisto with macaronada.

This dish is extra special for me because this is something that my mom, who passed away, made growing up, and it always reminds me of her.

Leah: I just want to say thank you for sharing your story and sharing with everyone so they know this dish reminds you of your mom, and I think it's beautiful...

Thank you.

but when you doing a pasta, you want to cook that pasta in the sauce so that sauce can get inside instead of just drizzling it on top.

Graham: I agree with Leah, but overall, the sauce, the beef, all of that you nailed.

You clearly have made this before.

You know what you're doing, and this is a portion.

This is Midwest, this is Chicago.

This is what I'm talking about.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Leanna.

So today, I made a jerk Alfredo with pan-seared scallops.

Noodles aren't really too big in Barbados, but one of the things that I loved about my mom, she was very indulgent of me and my brother, so even though it wasn't something that my mom really grew up cooking, she learned how to do it.

Leah: I love how you took the idea of "We don't really have that many noodle dishes in Barbados, "so let me incorporate something that I loved growing up "but wasn't very common and then put my own spin on it and bring my Barbados flavor to that dish," and it was really smart to add the seafood.

It makes it really nice and light, and it ties back to where you are from.

Tiffany: But I know quite a bit about jerk, as well, and I'm not getting that flavor throughout the dish.

I would love to have that come and be on the forefront.

Like, "Oh, bring that flavor."

Alejandra: Thank you, Leanna.

Thank you.

Maria, it is your turn.

So I made a bison pho.

I wanted to incorporate the traditional Coeur d'Alene food of bison with my history in Seattle.

Leah: It's hard to get, like, a really intense flavor in such a short amount of time, so I think you did a really good job with that.

The bison is perfectly cooked.

Overall, I think it's a really nice-looking bowl of pho, and I think you nailed the broth on the pho.

Tiffany: Absolutely, Leah.

The broth is great.

It is hearty, it's rich, it's flavorful, but you want to be careful, though, on your noodles.

They were a little overcooked.

It felt like they definitely took the backseat, but when you have a broth and bison so well-cooked, I am enjoying all of this.

Thank you.

Maria, voice-over: I'm so happy that the judges liked the broth as much as they did, and they also liked the cook on the bison steak.

I feel really, really good.

I think this could get me to the top.

♪ Alejandra: Judges, it was really great to see these home cooks show us their noodle recipes in a way that's meaningful to them and to their cultures, but we do have to decide who is going to be on top.

All right.

Let's dive in.

What did you think of these noodle dishes?

Graham: My favorite is definitely Abbe.

The fact that she prepared it individually, it was the right amount of sweetness.

I definitely was like, "Dang!

Abbe brought it."

I liked it!

Leah: I agree.

I think the corn cereal on top that gave it that crunch that we really needed, that's not typical.

She did an elevated version of what it traditionally is.

I mean, she crushed it.

Let's talk about Salmah.

I'm just gonna throw this out there.

I really enjoyed Salmah's dish.

Thank you!

Yeah!

I liked the flavor.

I could have ate that whole dish and been real happy.

It was delicious and flavorful.

The noodles were cooked perfectly.

Salmah's having an awesome day.

Yeah.

She's killing it.

She brought her A game.

Who else is on the top for you?

Maria.

I feel that--the broth I thought had a lot of flavor and the fact that in her Native American family there is no real pasta or noodle, but she's lived in Seattle, where there's pho shops everywhere, and that's where she got this idea for it.

Alejandra: All right.

So I think we have a good idea of who our tops are.

Now let's take a look at the other side of it.

Which dishes were the least successful?

When it came to Leanna's dish, we were looking for jerk.

We were looking for some kind of flavor.

I think for me the biggest issue was that it was dry.

I think this will be a great opportunity to show her she needs to focus in a little bit and make sure those details are done.

I think from Relle now we're all used to seeing beautiful food.

Everything's been plated gorgeously.

This bowl was just very brown, but there were still 6 different things on the plate that were done well.

Alejandra: All right.

Let's talk about Ted.

Tiffany: Honestly, I hate to say it because I love the story, but the truth is it wasn't where it needed to be.

But least he got that beef nice and tender, you know?

Tiffany: Yeah.

This is what's great with no one going home.

We will make him better.

This is what we need to do and help you to where you can celebrate your family even more.

♪ We asked you to show us a noodle-based dish that best represents your heritage and culture.

Your plates were judged and ranked based on taste, presentation, execution, and how well you represented the theme.

Before we announce the winner of this round, the judges would like to share who they felt had the least successful dishes.

Leanna, your jerk Alfredo pasta had a great story behind it, but when you sell something as jerk, we expect something really full-flavored, so we just wanted more.

Tiffany: And the other least successful dish is... Ted, we absolutely love the idea of you carrying on traditions and cooking your mother's recipe, but we felt like you could have added a little more flavor.

Leanna and Ted, the good news is you're still going to continue in this competition and have many more opportunities to continue to grow, learn, and wow us with your recipes.

Now let's hand out the top prize.

Graham: The first dish that won us over was... Abbe, your kugel.

Good job!

Thank you.

I'd never had a sweet kugel.

This was something that was really fun for us to try but also was so smart in the preparation and the delivery.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Leah: Our next favorite dish was... Salmah.

The noodles were cooked perfectly, and you kind of educated us all up here about a new dish that we've never had before, and it was so good, we're all gonna have it for breakfast tomorrow.

[Laughter] Salmah: Thank you!

Alejandra: Great job, you two, but, judges, which home cook is the winner of this round?

The winner of this round is... Abbe!

[Cheering] Abbe, congratulations!

With a kugel?!

[Laughter] Tiffany: It was delicious.

I love winning.

[Laughter] I'm sorry.

Abbe, voice-over: I feel great.

Whenever you're cooking for anyone, it feels really good when they love your dish, and especially making a noodle kugel, which they might not have had that version before.

Alejandra: Well, Abbe, you may have won this round, but all of you are still in the running to make it to the finale and, more importantly, at having your shot at getting one of your recipes featured on the cover of the "Great American Recipe Cookbook."

We can't wait to see you back here next week for your next great American recipe.

Bye, everyone!

Bye!

♪ Alejandra: Next time on "The Great American Recipe"...

It's an interesting challenge because love could mean so many things.

Relle: The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Ted: I do consider myself romantic big time.

Leah: Love a good torching action.

How I did that I do not know!

Tiffany: Your dishes were outstanding.

It was truly love on a plate.

You guys are too much.

Aw!

♪