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Oct. 27, 2025 - Dr. Oz Podcast
41:59
Best Store-Bought Mac and Cheese Ranked | Dr. Oz | S10 | Ep 88 | Full Episode
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Time Text
Are there harmful additives in your favorite mac and cheese?
I was really shocked to find out that it might contain chemicals.
We investigate the best boxed, frozen, and diet options.
Guys, we're giving you lots of tips.
And I have an Oz-approved spin on this Comfort Food Classic.
Oh, my goodness.
Plus, it's Todish on Oz.
This week's Food Fail Fixes.
Three clever tricks to get the crispiest chicken skin of your life.
I can't wait to go try this.
Coming up next.
Y'all ready for season 10?
I love you, Becca.
We are breaking all the rules, and that means looking into the foods that you love, that you adore, that may have been off limits before.
Today, we are investigating mac and cheese.
Makes you happy, doesn't it?
Mac and cheese, to find out if there's truly an Oz approved version of America's favorite food.
Have you noticed manufacturers come up with so many different ways for us to get our mac and cheese fix?
I've noticed it.
You can buy it in the box, right?
You can buy it ready-made in the refrigerated aisle if you're really desperate, right?
Because you don't want to wait.
Or there's even frozen, dyed, and family-style mac and cheese that heats up in the microwave.
Right over here, simple, easy, fast.
But recent reports have speculated that prepackaged mac and cheeses are giving you more than you bargain for.
Reporter Marsh Gavacampo is investigating.
Take a look.
America's favorite comfort food has gotten some bad press.
Recent headlines about chemicals called phthalates found in boxed mac and cheese have moms everywhere concerned.
Phthalates are potentially harmful chemicals used by manufacturers to soften plastic, not something you want in your mac and cheese.
But a study by the Coalition for Safer Food Processing and Packaging found phthalates in 10 different boxes of mac and cheese.
The study also found phthalates in 19 other popular cheese products, but the chemical was four times higher in mac and cheese.
And unfortunately, even organic mac and cheese.
So today we're deconstructing mac and cheese, letting you know what, if anything, you need to worry about.
Is there truly an Oz approved mac and cheese?
That's the big question.
Marsh Gavacampo is here with food scientist Taylor Wallace to help us find out.
And we are starting with boxed mac and cheese.
Tamara, how concerned are you about these reports regarding phthalates?
You know, I feed my kids boxed mac and cheese all the time.
It is my daughter, Nina's favorite food.
I spend a little extra money to get an organic brand, so I was really shocked to find out that it might contain chemicals.
So I wanted to do the story, not just for our viewers, but also for my family.
And she covered it well.
Now, Taylor knows about phthalates Eliza Food Scientists.
In large amounts, they can be problematic.
There are animal studies showing that.
But in the amounts that we're getting in these foods, are you worried about it?
Not at all.
In fact, it's very minimal.
We're actually exposed to phthalates all over in our environment.
They're in plastics, they're in hairspray, they're in detergents, hand soaps, moisturizers.
The list goes on and on.
Just a child crawling on the floor has almost 100 times the level of exposure to phthalates as you would see in a serving of this macaroni and cheese.
All right, so there's good news out there, guys, big time good news in the box mac and cheese space.
I'm going to convince some of the big brands, crafts an example, they remove the bad ingredients from boxed mac and cheese.
I like when companies do that.
We swap out the artificial fluorescent orange color for more natural options.
And you actually, you know, you brought me some samples, which I love.
Right.
And so we actually swap out the artificial colors for spices that are all natural like paprika, annoto, and turmeric.
I get, what to me is fantastic is the industry hears us.
We have power, guys.
When you guys say things, people listen.
Taylor's equivalents in big business, they can make these swaps.
We also looked into specialty boxed mac and cheese to see if they were better.
So I've got Dara for my audience.
How are you, Dara?
I'm good, and you?
So you say, if I understand correctly, you're a big white cheese flavored mac and cheese person.
Is that true?
Yes, indeed.
A must is also.
All right, so white cheddar has become a very popular one.
Your thoughts on that?
Are they healthier?
Yeah, I actually prefer the white cheddar too.
I'm like your son.
But we looked at the difference between the white cheddar and the traditional cheddar, and the difference is actually minimal.
I took a very close look at the nutritional information and the ingredient labels.
The white cheddar does have a little bit more sodium, but again, it's minimal.
Sometimes it can be more expensive too, because a lot of people do prefer it, so you want to keep that in mind.
But really, it's just a matter of taste.
So tell your son to go for it, and I'm going to keep eating the white cheddar too.
Thank you.
How do they make white cheddar?
So actually all white, all cheddars are white, right?
It comes from milk.
That's a good point.
It's actually a cultural thing, Dr. Oz.
If you go up to Vermont, you'll see a lot of wonderful white cheddars.
Now, if you go down south to where I'm from, Kentucky, where the good cooking is, you'll see that now it's coming out.
We're going to be cooking.
Well, you'll see that we prefer the orange-yellow cheddars.
So we add these types of colors in there to really enhance your cultural preference.
But you're good either way.
Right, and so the other interesting thing about these cheeses, right, is their powders.
And so how food scientists make that happen is we add liquid to the cheese, we make it in a solution, and then we force that solution through a little tiny hot tip that has a sprayer on the end of it.
It's a process called spray-drying.
And when that liquid forces through that tiny tip, the water evaporates and the powdered cheese falls down as you see on the table.
Look, as far as I'm concerned, what I've learned today is we're okay with either one of these.
It's fast, it's easy.
Your kids like it.
And it's a cheat food.
Not an everyday food, but a cheat food.
Yes.
Thank you very much.
Mark, coming over.
So we also look at whole wheat and organic box mac and cheese to see what differences those labels make.
You acknowledge that you actually buy the organic versions for yourself.
You do.
But let's start with whole wheat.
Yeah.
So I was really surprised to learn that the flour that is used to make the pasta in the whole wheat mac and cheese is the same flour that's used to make the pasta in the traditional macaroni and cheese.
How's that possible?
There's essentially no difference.
One is just bleached and the other one is not.
Oh my goodness.
You also have essentially the same calories.
Now the whole wheat does have a little bit more fiber and a little bit more carbs, but really the biggest difference between the two is the label.
Yeah, if it's the same flour, then I don't think it makes a big difference.
How about the issue of organic?
This is where you are going to see a little bit of a difference because the organic mac and cheese is made with organic ingredients.
That means no artificial flavorings, colorings, or preservatives in the products that are used.
All right, next category are the mac and cheese you get in the frozen section of supermarket.
What are the benefits of these versus the box ones you talked about earlier?
Yeah, so frozen mac and cheese tends to be less processed than the box mac and cheese.
So that's always a good thing.
So the first ingredient in frozen mac and cheese is cheese, which is exactly what you want.
The exception to that is going to be diet mac and cheese because then you start to see some of those flavorings creeping in.
But for the most part, the frozen, less processed, cheesy.
So let's talk about this.
You mentioned the diet.
So many of us have stood in front of the freezer, you open it up, and you have to think, am I getting the regular one or am I getting the diet one?
Right?
We've all been here, guys.
So what is the difference if you get a diet mac and cheese versus the regular one?
All right, look at that.
If they're frozen.
Yeah, so this is frozen regular and frozen diet.
This is 600 calories of the regular frozen mac and cheese.
And this is 600 calories of the diet frozen mac and cheese.
You can see how much bigger it is.
You get 77% more.
I would do that.
Yeah.
Is there a catch?
I mean, usually you don't get away with this kind of stuff without something.
Right.
So here's the thing.
The regular frozen mac and cheese has more straightforward ingredients.
So it's pretty much milk, cheese, pasta, flavorings, real simple.
The diet frozen mac and cheese is going to have other stuff added in there to make up for all the fat and the calories that have been removed.
Gums, thickeners, flavorings.
So if you want pure, more simple, go with the regular.
But if you want a hearty portion, go with the diet.
All right, next, the ready-made cake get out of the refrigerated aisle mac and cheese.
Thoughts on this?
A very popular busy mom.
Yeah, this is.
This is that, you know, you don't have to even boil the water.
You don't have to do a thing.
This is fantastic.
No mixing, no measuring, no stirring.
It's pre-made, it's packaged.
It's in the refrigerated section, so you know that it's fresh.
You just buy it and bring it home.
The catch?
The catch.
There's always a catch, Dr. Oz.
I've learned that from you.
Sodium.
We found one brand that had a thousand milligrams of sodium per serving.
That is half the amount of sodium you're supposed to have for your entire day.
So you're going to way overdo it on the sodium.
Guys, we're giving you lots of tips.
Look at the back of the package.
You have ideas here that make you get whatever you want for whatever you want to have it.
I'm okay with mac and cheese again after hearing all this annoyance from you.
But there's some pitfalls.
Pay attention to.
When we come back, we're going to one-up it.
We have an Oz-approved mac and cheese recipe that you won't want to miss because trust me, your family will love it and they'll thank you for it.
Stick around.
Coming up, how to turn a cake catastrophe into a work of art.
We're making my favorite cake pops.
Stick around.
Can mac and cheese ever be Oz approved?
Foodie and Chef Allie Rosa and my med unit took on the task of coming up with recipes.
They're not just ooey gooey and delicious, but they're also healthy and nutrient-rich.
You can do both together.
It's comfort foods you can feel good about.
My bike club members are here.
They're ready to taste test recipes.
You guys are going to hold us accountable, right?
They will tell you the truth.
The first is an Oz approved Greek yogurt mac and cheese.
You knew it was coming, guys.
Greek yogurt is just like, how'd you even incorporate it?
But I love that you did.
Well, so first of all, this takes the same amount of time as a lot of those boxed mac and cheeses that you were looking at earlier, and it has so many less ingredients.
It's so easy.
We're using chickpea macaroni here, but you can use regular macaroni here.
That's just the lower carbs.
That makes it approved.
So throw that in.
We've just got our Greek yogurt here.
And you're just going to stir it.
Once your macaroni is basically cooked, then we're going to put in our cheese here, and I'll do the salt because I know you don't like it.
She's so picky out there.
I know.
I love my salt.
And this, and that's just it.
You just let it melt and then it's completely done.
So I'm going to give you a little bite of this.
And what do you think?
Oh, we're super kids.
Thank you.
Oh, my goodness.
Right.
I mean, you touched on it.
Yeah.
The little bit I taste, I like it.
It's just full in your mouth.
Exactly.
It gives it an extra creaminess that actually works.
So easy, the same amount of time as a boxed one.
Now, Bite Club, I have heard rumors from our audience that they don't trust my taste buds.
They think I'm too focused on healthy stuff, and I need to be getting to that ooey gooey element.
What do you guys think?
Who's up?
Ashley, you want to compare it?
It's actually very creamy and cheesy.
I would definitely make this for my next work pot look or for when I have friends over.
So I give it an A plus.
Good.
I'm so glad.
All right.
So next you have an OzApproved spaghetti squash mac and cheese.
Listen, I'm already biased about spaghetti squash, but I want to know how you incorporated the secret ingredient into the dishes so even your kids couldn't tell you did it.
Right, and so this is really key here for a lot of people who don't want any of the carbs that come with a regular macaroni.
My sister's doing keto, so she loves this recipe.
Kids love this recipe.
Spaghetti squash is so great.
You just start by putting it in the oven for 30 to 60 minutes at 450, kind of depending on the size of your squash, because they can get really big or they can be kind of this small size here.
And then once you have that all done, we put the milk in and we put the cheese in.
And then we're just going to mix it up to start with.
That's kind of it.
We'll do the cheddar cheese because the parmesan is really going to help us.
This is all about texture here.
We really want to make sure that we're getting the crispy texture and that's where the parmesan comes in.
So here you're just going to stir this up.
And once you have your mixture, you can either do it, we have it here in the bowl, but I like to do it as kind of flat as possible.
And so you're going to put it on a sheet tray.
And here's the real key, right?
Texture is key with mac and cheese because you really want to have a little bit of crunch.
And so to get that crunch, you want to make it as flat as possible because that way when we put the topping on top and we put it in the oven, then it's going to crisp up and then you don't necessarily notice that what's underneath it is squash rather than macaroni.
So now we're going to put that parmesan cheese on top.
You're going to sprinkle it.
Sprinkle it out.
And give it a good, you know, you can use as much as you want.
You can also do this if you have people who are vegan, you know, you can do this with vegan cheeses as well.
But I obviously think that the real thing is good.
And now our cereal or panko.
Exactly.
You just sprinkle it on there.
It's really that you want to have a little bit of crunch here.
And then you just put this in the oven and that's it.
All right, bite club.
Thoughts.
How many minutes are you cooking like this, by the way?
You can cook it for 10 or 15 minutes, kind of depending on your oven and how much squash you have.
You can also put it under the broiler for an extra minute if you want to really get that brown, crispy topping.
Look at this, guys.
Oh my goodness.
Bite Club.
Your votes while I'm eating.
I really enjoyed the texture of this with the crunchiness and creaminess together.
I definitely introduced this to my family.
So I enjoyed it.
I was not a big fan.
I didn't like the crunchiness.
I actually had a piece that was too hard to choose.
Past hers over here.
Pastor.
No, I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
Give it to me.
It's good.
I'm almost done.
You know, and that's the thing.
You can crush up that cereal.
And also, if you don't like that texture as much, that's where Panko also comes in great.
That has a little bit less of it.
So it's really kind of up to your preference just to get that crispiness on top.
But you control your destiny because you're making it.
You add what you want to make it.
Exactly.
Two Ozafron versions.
We're going to show you here's the piece.
The Dr. Oz newsletter.
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Take advantage of the newsletter, share it with your friends, and sign up to follow what we're really doing every single day.
If you're looking for a vegan option moving on, I'm putting a video for macaroni and cheese made from nuts on my Facebook page.
You're going to die for it.
You'll want to share it.
Be right back.
I'm with my favorite fruity of the dish.
Jamika, what are you making today?
We are taking that salty chicken skin to the next level with a recipe that will have your chicken skin crispier than ever before.
Stay tuned, y'all.
If you walk down any beauty aisle or open any magazine, you're going to see the latest skincare product pop up.
Serums.
But what exactly is all the hype about?
And should you start to incorporate serums into your daily skincare regimen?
Today, we're breaking it all down.
But first, I wanted to find out what you know about serums.
So I have a question for you.
Do you use serum?
I do not.
Do you think I need some serum?
Yes, every day.
Do I look like I use serum?
No, I've never used a serum.
Yes, I love serum.
Why do you love them so much?
I really find that that extra layer makes a huge difference in my skin.
What do you know about serum?
I don't know enough.
Pennyless gel, right?
Do you know what it's used for?
Put your face.
I feel like it's part of like a extra way to moisturize your face or maybe brighten or add some radiance to your skin.
It's usually like cocktails like vitamin E and like things that are like, you know, nutritious for your skin.
Do you know how to use it?
I'd read the instructions.
Very good answer.
You're an instruction reader.
I like that.
You probably do a little dab before you go to sleep.
I think you put them under your moisturizer.
No, I put mine on before my main moisturizer.
I layer them.
It's very, very important to layer, but let each layer dry before you put the next layer on.
I am in awe of you.
Renata Makes It Fun.
We will take it from here.
To help enlighten us all, I've asked dermatologist Dr. Whitney Bow to join me.
She's here on behalf of my trusted posture partner, number seven.
Let's start with the basics.
Exactly what are serums?
How should we be using them?
A serum should really be the foundation of your skincare routine because it intensifies the strength of your skincare regimen and it's one of the most powerful tools you can use on a daily basis to tackle your aging concerns.
So serums are, they're lightweight, they're fast-absorbing products that are concentrated with active ingredients.
Things like antioxidants and calcium and peptides.
You know, you can think about a serum sort of like your daily vitamin.
You know, the same way you might take a daily vitamin to ensure that your body's getting all those nutrients that it needs, you can rely on a serum to ensure that your skin is getting all those extra critical ingredients that it needs to look and feel its best.
You all want to know more about these?
The question I want to know is how do you determine which serum to use?
How do you determine that?
While most serums are actually good for all skin types, there are certain ingredients that work best for certain skin concerns that develop as you move through different skin stages.
So, you know, it's important to understand what stage your skin is in so you can really target it with the right serum.
And to make things easier, beauty brand number seven has actually done that for you.
So they have three clinically proven age-defying serums that are actually specifically designed to address the unique skin stages.
There's actually three different ones.
So there's fine lines, discoloration, and then deep wrinkles and loss of elasticity.
All right, so bring this to life.
We gave it to three viewers who are experiencing three different stages of aging skin to try out a number seven serum for a few weeks and report back there.
We're going to start with problem number one, stage number one, which are very fine lines on your skin.
Right, so one of the first signs of aging that women start to notice are fine lines.
You may start to notice your makeup starting to settle into those creases, especially around your eyes, or you may find yourself touching up your forehead throughout the day.
All right, so that's it.
So Michelle's been using the serum for a few weeks.
May I see the results?
Well, you're beautiful to begin with.
But as you compare yourself today to how you were before you started using this serum, differences?
I absolutely love this serum.
I noticed about after the end of the second week that all the lines up here started to disappear and my skin was feeling extremely smooth, tighter.
I fell in love with it.
I'm going to use, I've been using it every single day.
Were your friends jealous?
Yes.
That's what you really want.
So what serum do you recommend for this aging concern?
For this stage of aging, I usually recommend Number Seven's Protect and Perfect Intense Advanced Serum.
It's made with the ingredient hyaluronic acid, which actually plumps up the skin and minimizes the appearance of fine lines.
And like all of Number Seven's products, it's backed by science, right?
So 96% of women actually showed a visible reduction in the appearance of their fine lines when they use this serum.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
We're on the second stage of aging skin, which is discoloration and wrinkles.
So which serum hits this, targets this group?
So a clue that you're in this stage, which I call stage two, is if you start to notice age spots, uneven tone to the skin, and at this point, those fine lines have now matured into wrinkles.
So you brought us a couple before and after photos, if you don't mind sharing this.
This is someone who used Number Seven's Lift and Luminate Serum and before and after.
So what strikes your attention most often?
So in this before and after, this woman actually used the serum for nine months and you can clearly see that those dark spots are brightening up.
You know, her tone is much more even.
There's less discoloration.
But let's take a look at another before and after because this one's even more impressive in my opinion because this is something that bothers me.
So this patient actually used the serum for only six months and you can clearly see the improvement in those fine lines, those wrinkles around the eyes, what we call crow's feet.
So Dr. Bo, what serum do you recommend for this skin condition?
For this stage, I recommend number seven's Lift and Illuminate Triple Action Serum.
It actually combines the most powerful anti-wrinkle technology with both a brightening and affirming complex.
So it helps even out skin tone and smooth out the appearance of wrinkles.
And in a number seven clinical trial, 77% of women had a more even skin tone and 89% had a visible reduction in the appearance of their wrinkles.
And this serum was actually named Allure's Best of Beauty winner in 2017.
I wanted to see it myself.
So we gave it to one of our viewers to try serum for a few weeks.
Jacqueline, can we see the results?
And your thoughts around it.
I love this product.
I've been using it now for over a month and I noticed until the second week, my skin, I had like a two-tone to my skin and I think that was because of being in the sun a lot.
So I noticed like a two-tone, the fine lines up here and in here.
And like within the second week, it started changing.
My skin started evening out.
The lines started disappearing.
My skin feels tighter and there's a glow to it and my makeup just comes on smooth.
I love this product.
I'm a fan.
Congratulations.
Thank you so much.
All right, the more advanced stage of aging skin is deep wrinkles and lost elasticity.
So Dr. Bo, what's your works best for this condition?
So well, at this stage, really those wrinkles are now a little bit deeper.
And you may even start to notice a little bit of sagging or even crepey texture, especially on the neck.
And my patients refer to that as turkey neck.
Yes.
So Pat, you tried it out?
Yes.
May I see the results?
Well, she's here.
What did you notice as a difference?
Well, I noticed that the crepiness is gone.
And the other concern that I had besides having crepey skin was I have very sensitive skin.
So I thought I'd like to try this, but what will happen?
I had no irritation.
I had no burning, nothing.
So I was very, very happy with that.
And your recommendation here?
So for this stage, I usually recommend number seven's Restore and Renew Face and Neck Multi-Action Serum.
So it's made with calcium amino acids and skin ceramides to help strengthen the skin.
They treat those deep wrinkles and it combats that turkey neck.
And in fact, in a clinical trial by number seven, 96% of women actually showed a visible reduction in the appearance of wrinkles and 92% had improved neck firmness.
Well, you all seem like happy customers.
Very happy.
So where do you find number seven?
What does it cost?
So all three of these serums are actually available at Target and Target.com for under $35 each.
It's a good investment.
Listen, regardless of your specific aging concern, there is a serum to try.
Get this on your radar screen.
I'm going to thank my partner number seven.
You know why?
Because you're all going home with all three number seven serums.
We will be right back.
Enjoy it.
Look younger and brighter.
If there's one thing that brings us all together, it's food.
So we're calling everyone to the table to dish on everything.
From the latest food hacks and trends to everyday recipes you can make for dinner tonight.
Singing is my first love, but my other passion is baking.
I'm an iron chef, but mostly the executive chef of Butter Restaurant and mother to an 11-year-old.
This is the first recipe I ever made in a professional kitchen.
They were terrible.
My cooking is like me.
A mix of Caribbean heat, meat, sub and sweet.
This is like my girlfriend in the kitchen.
I am as a chef, first and foremost about flavor.
It's simple, it's celebratory, and most of all, it's about having a great time in the kitchen.
What is going on?
I'm trying to help.
Fletch dish.
Welcome, welcome to the dish on us.
You get them all the superstars.
So Doctor, what's in store for us today?
It's so much deliciousness here, you guys.
Today we are talking about cooking fails so bad we just had to fix them, okay?
These are mistakes we've all made, all four of us.
I'm sure a lot of you sitting in the middle of the middle.
A lot of you, well, you don't cook, so that's the first step.
Alex is going to show us a no-fail lasagna recipe you're not going to want to miss.
And then Jordan is actually going to share how she came back from a cake catastrophe.
Been there, done that.
Baking is tricky.
Jordan's going to fix our problem.
And then Jamika has three clever tricks to avoid soggy chicken skin, a phrase we hope we will never have to hear again.
One of the most common kitchen fails we all struggle with, and we're going to give it a crispy makeover.
Ladies, are you up for this channel?
Yes, yes.
Always.
All right, so Alex is obviously a kitchen superstar, but you had one of the most epic kitchen fails of all time when you were just a young chef, a wee chef, working in Paris.
I was working in a restaurant in Paris, a three-star Michelin.
I was the only woman.
And the president of France came in for lunch, and you're all thinking, please don't order food from my area.
I don't want to cook it.
I'm terrified.
I cooked a piece of fish, basting it, flipping it.
I thought I'm going to be the chef of the whole world.
Three minutes later, the dish comes back into the kitchen with like one little forkful removed, but not eaten, and one of my hair wrapped around and around and around this.
Like a little present.
Oh, no.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It really, yeah.
Do you wear a hairnet when you cook?
No.
As you know, they have to acknowledge the mistakes because we all make them.
Some dish fans sent us videos of the lasagna fails.
You got to see these.
Yes.
Sure.
It looks good, but it's dry again.
13 years ago, I married into an Italian family, and I still make dry lasagna.
Ladies, I'm going to need all of your help rehabbing this recipe.
Ladies of the dish, please help me.
My lasagna always comes out soupy.
My husband says he can drink it with a straw.
How do I fix it?
I get it.
All right, well, thank goodness Alex is an iron chef.
You have a solve for these lasagna fails.
First of all, if you want to stay married to an Italian, you've got to fix this problem stat.
So there's a few things.
Don't overcook your noodles, right?
That's going to dry it out.
I layer my lasagna with little tiny grandma's meatballs.
That is another way to add a lot of moisture.
Make your sauce.
When you layer the lasagna, start with the sauce.
So this really is a grandma garnishelli's no-fail lasagna?
This was one of the first recipes I ever made that really made me want to become a chef.
My grandmother layered the pasta, the cheese, the sauce on the bottom, another way to create a great structure and keep your lasagna from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Start with that sauce, a true act of love.
But my grandmother did this with me.
And it just, I thought, you know what?
I want to cook and eat my way through my life.
And guess what?
It happened.
It started with this lasagna.
Okay, so you layer ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, more sauce.
What's in the sauce, by the way?
The sauce is just onions and garlic with a little bit of, I like the whole peeled canned tomatoes because you break them apart.
Tomatoes have a lot of pectin, so they're natural thickeners, which is fantastic.
Here's the way they have pectin.
It's a big, big issue right now.
Okay.
Pectin is actually, some people argue, toxic to us.
But when you make pasta sauce, you get rid of the pectin.
It's in the seeds, it's in the skin.
So who knows?
Maybe the Italians do something about what we're allergic to.
Some of you bothered by tomatoes.
This is one of the ways of dealing with that.
Oh, I love that.
I didn't know.
Pectin knowledge.
Pectin trivia.
Pectin knowledge.
All right.
Come on, baby.
I felt like I had to do it with him.
Let us know.
But you promised me meatballs in this lasagna, so when does that happen?
Yeah, so first layer cheese, and then we start geographically situating the meatball.
You're not supposed to eat them all.
I love you.
I love it.
I love the nibbler.
I'm not sure in there.
So you want to orchestrate the meatballs so that when you cut in the lasagna, you get those meatballs in every bite.
So if your lasagna is soupy, those meatballs can really help you out.
Is there cheese in these?
Delusion?
No, there's nothing in there.
It's just there's no meat or cheese or anything.
Very hard healthy.
So is this the finished layered bit over here?
Yes, by the way.
Yes, there's cheese, and yes, that's the layered one.
Exactly.
That's what it looks like when you finish up.
And then you want to cover it when you cook it.
By the way, there is some basil in here, so it's like a salad.
Oh, you guys.
Salad stuff.
Just like a mix green salad is bad boy.
Oh, I love this.
Oh, this is so yummy.
You make lasagna at home?
You know what?
My mom used to make it, and it was so good, and she used to, I can't, I'm getting, I'm getting, I want the string cheese, intoxicated by the, I stole your, oh.
There you go.
Thank you.
I love that.
Oh my spring.
Do you like the little meatball effect in there?
Because it creates this whole kind of act of love thing.
You know, Grandma Garnicelli.
She's onto something.
She's younger something.
I love it.
You guys can find this delicious recipe for the entire family to enjoy on Dr.Oz.com slash the dish.
When we get back, we're more frightening fails.
Jordan thinks to turn this cake catastrophe into a delicious dessert.
Don't miss it.
These guys are literally shopping at your home.
Plus, preventing Porsche pirates from stealing your holiday packages.
Did you ever think it could happen to you?
All nuance.
That's coming up tomorrow.
Slate.
Singing is my first passion from winning American Idol to Grammy nomination, platinum albums.
But another passion of mine was that I love to bake.
Spread the chocolate and you want to cover as much as you can.
Hosting my baking show, Heart of the Batter, has been so much fun that I love sharing my recipes.
Okay, we're gonna put them back in for about five minutes.
I grew up in the kitchen with my mom and Nana baking, and it was one of those things that made me happy inside.
I'm a new mom, and it is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.
And he loves being in the kitchen too.
Some people do salt, I do sugar.
You add a little bit more sweetness to it.
Baking for people is like making music for them.
It makes them feel good, and it makes me happy to see them feel good.
We're back with a dish of nas fixing some of your biggest cooking fails ever.
And Jordan is about to show us how to rebound from a cake catastrophe.
But first, you brought us a little show and tell.
What do you got for us?
I have my Nana's cookbook that she made for my great-grandmother, and then my great-grandmother passed, and then she passed it down to me.
It's one of my most cherished and prized possessions.
I love it, but it's got all of her recipes from my great-grandmother's kitchen to my great-great-grandmother's kitchen to her kitchen.
So, yeah, it's pretty amazing.
All right, so Jordan, you obviously love to make cakes.
Yes, beautiful cakes, but what happened to these cakes?
So, these cakes sunk.
And I know that a lot of us have had these issues.
They sink in the middle, and you're just like, What do I do with this?
So, if this happens to you, da-da-da.
We have dental floss here, and get the unscented, unflavored dental floss.
You don't want your cake to taste like dental floss flavor, that wouldn't be good.
And so, what you're going to do is you're going to take your floss, put it around the top of the cake that you want to get off, the piece that you need to get off.
Okay, and then you just crisscross them.
Okay, and then you just pull.
Ooh, this one's a heart.
This one's hard.
I knotted my floss.
I want to see how the surgeon does it first.
Yes, I think I put a surgeon's knot in this.
Why am I not slicing?
There we are.
Okay, here we go.
Sample.
Just eased.
Grandma Nana.
Uh-oh.
Uh-oh.
Oh, Lord.
You did it.
Look at you.
And then we take the piece off.
Okay.
This has not worked good enough.
And then you have a flat top for your cake.
You just get it over and look, perfection.
You have a perfect flat.
Oh, my goodness.
General.
It worked.
Wait.
Grandma Nana.
I ripped my floss.
Wait, your floss broke.
I don't know what happened to me.
Grandma Nana, I need help.
All right, so baking can be so stressful because it feels like you get one chance.
One.
Imagine you are just hours away from the party and you have a total cake calamity like this.
Okay.
Your cake has fallen apart, sunken in the middle, terrible.
You can't do anything with it.
Or can you?
Jordan has a fix for us.
Can you?
What can we do?
You can make them into cake pops.
Okay, so my cake, my red velvet cake, stuck.
It won't come out.
So you know what I'm gonna do?
I'm going to make cake pops.
That's how I can save this.
It's not a fail.
This is a whim.
Sometimes, even when you order a cake, it can go wrong.
They pull some of the funniest icing fails on the internet.
These are true.
Look at this.
You have a December birthday.
Yes.
This does get lumped in with Christmas.
Yes, so we wanted to celebrate you here today.
She made you a cake.
Happy birthday, dear Jordan.
Happy birthday.
Get around.
So it's not your skin again.
Jerika has three clever tricks to the crispiest skin of your life when we come back.
As the chef to the stars with my private catering business.
I'm a TV host.
I cook for athletes and entertainers with a lot of well-known celebrities.
I started my career with a regular nine-to-five job and I hated it.
So I traded my suit for a chef coat.
I'm born and raised in the South and my dad is Jamaican.
So my cooking style is Caribbean heat, meets southern sweet.
We are on the beach and all these people behind us are eating my Jamaican jerk chicken and they're going crazy.
So yes, I'm serving up food and holding a baby at the same time.
That's how you do that.
Being a professional chef and caterer for over 12 years, I live for a good party.
If you have a reason to celebrate, you hang around long enough with me.
I'm going to give you one.
Awesome.
Welcome back to The Dish on Oz.
Go with me, guys.
Roast chicken.
It's one of the most romantic foods there is.
Prince Harry even proposed to Megan Markle over a roast chicken dinner they made together.
But nothing pops that fantasy of the perfect roasted bird-like soggy skin.
Y'all say it with me.
Soggy skin.
Oh, disgusting.
Okay, well, today we are fixing your biggest cooking fails and giving you three clever tricks to get the crispiest chicken skin of your life.
Jamika, what is your first trick?
All right, well, the trick to this, to getting the crispiest chicken skin ever, is adding baking powder.
Oh, yes.
Yes, you heard me.
And it's not going to make it rise like a cake.
Follow me with this.
It's a little science involved, okay?
So we have a whole chicken, of course, and the sprinkle mix that I call it, it's kosher salt, a little black pepper, and the baking powder.
Everybody say powder, okay?
Thank you.
Do not put baking soda or else you're going to end up with a hot, bubbly mess.
And don't tell anybody that I told you to do that, okay?
I said baking powder, all right?
So you'll mix this all up together, and you're just going to sprinkle this on top of your chicken, all right?
And you're going to put this in the refrigerator overnight because what's going to happen, I feel like a little food nerd here because the magic of the science happens.
The pH level raises by adding that baking powder and it breaks down the proteins in the chicken skin.
And that's what's going to make it crispy and really brown.
I am so impressed.
I love that.
I don't want to see it inside.
I love that.
I mean, how many people sitting in this audience say that has just completely changed the way you're going to roast your chicken in front of my eyes?
I feel like, no, I cannot wait to go try this.
Baking powder.
You have to baking powder.
I want to know if anybody is going to admit that they've confused the baking powder for baking soda.
Have you noticed?
Of course, that's one of them.
But I mean, the chicken skin is like, isn't that everybody's favorite part of the chicken?
It has to be crispy and crunchy.
My kids fight over the skin.
That's their favorite.
Well, they love it.
They're going to fight over this one when you add the baking powder.
My best chicken definitely centered around the skin.
I put a roast chicken in like any other day, but the oven was higher than I thought, $4.75.
And I roasted it and I thought, oh my God, I could smell it.
Ran over and I thought, oh my God, the oven's so hot.
Inside was this glorious, golden brown, crispy, and I just tore that skin right off.
That's how you...
And I ate it.
Shut up.
The real trick is also to make sure you get friends who like the parts you don't like.
My husband only wants the breast of the chicken.
Yeah.
Okay.
I'm like, you're very good.
What's your favorite part?
The breast.
The breast.
Oh, your husband and I would fight.
While you won't fight over the bird, I'm going to go get my bird out of the oven because I've already roasted one.
And while you do that, guys, Jamika's chicken is almost ready, and we want to check out that glorious crispy skin.
I'm going to crack it and see how crispy it gets.
But we actually put one last crispy chicken skin hack that is burning up the internet to the test.
It's on our Insta story right now.
Let me show you guys.
This is going to blow your mind.
Okay, ready?
Check this out.
Ooh.
Okay, so here you grab your chicken and you take it out of the fridge about half an hour before you're ready to cook it.
Get your hair dryer.
That's what you're seeing right here.
Your hair dryer, hair dryer.
Make sure it has a cool air setting and then blow on that bird.
You also pat it dry.
Make sure you get the, I'm telling you, why a hair dryer?
You put it to the test.
No.
Do not do this, y'all.
We won't do this.
That is so unsanitary.
I know what my hair dry looks like.
I got weave hair.
I got condition.
I'm like, do not bring that in your kitchen and start drying it out.
I'm not eating a hairy bird.
Don't do it.
I don't want to do a hairy bird.
I'm not doing it.
No, I won't either.
Isn't anything worth doing in the name of a crispy chicken skin?
No, I don't want to end up like Alex cooking for the president with hair all over my body.
Thank you.
All right, sure.
All right, we're going to dig into this.
You guys can find this recipe for the crispiest chicken ever on drugs.com/slash the dish.
And all of our terrible pics are on Instagram at the Dish on Oz.
That's wine, man, and that crispy chicken.
When we come back, we're going to taste this chicken and give you a fix for one of the most searched kitchen mistakes.
Don't go away.
Don't be fooled by fake online beauty products.
This is sometimes what you're getting.
Glue Lil.
We investigate how some bogus brands are smuggled across the border.
All new Oz.
That's coming up Friday.
We are back with a dish on Oz, and we've been fixing cooking fails left and right today.
And now we are ready to eat and dish.
My favorite part of the show.
Ladies, let's dig into this crispy chicken that Jamika just made us.
Oh, that's yummy.
Wow.
Get that wing that you were after.
I already ate all the wings on the break.
I'm just eating the chicken so fast.
I love it.
Is that good?
It's good.
All right, so before we go, my dad is with another dish fan here in the audience, and she has a food that she needs to fix.
Let us know what's going on.
Brought her famous chicken soup, but you're not happy with it.
What went down?
No, this is my amazing chicken soup, but it comes out really salty.
And I'm trying to figure out how to get it just right.
Yeah, it could be good.
It could be good.
I love it.
The fix for over-salted food, so this could be as good as it could possibly be.
There is definitely a fix.
And when you taste it and you think, oh my gosh, this is bad, that's how I want you to remember how you're going to fix it.
Here's the acronym, okay?
Bad, B-A-D.
Reach for one of these to fix your over-salted soup.
It's going to be B, like broth, which can dilute the seasoning because it builds up the volume of the soup.
A, which is your acid, which will help to balance out that salty flavor.
And D, which is for dairy because it's a neutralizer with all that nice fat content.
Okay, actually, I'll get the goodies.
Thank you for bringing the soup up.
You got the goodies?
Oh, okay.
Hey, look at that.
Show me how it's done, actually.
Which ones would you use for chicken soup?
It's very self-explanatory, guys.
It's really simple.
So here's your broth.
You add that in with your soup and cook it down a little bit.
That'll help to bring out that, you know, make the salt feel like the appropriate level.
This chicken soup, I think, actually will go really nicely with some lemon juice.
Give that acid a little boost of the bright flavor there, and that'll help cut down the salt in there, Alex.
That actually works.
Who would have thought that would work?
And you know what?
And then the dairy actually works really nicely with, you know, cream and mushroom soup or anything like that, heavy cream, whole milk, whatever.
It might be skim milk, you know, coconut milk soup.
Not dairy, but still good.
I love the dish coolie.
We're back next Wednesday with 12 holiday hacks to make cooking for Christmas easy and fun.
Plus, we're inviting you inside our family kitchen so you can see what we eat for the holidays at the Oz household.
It was a little crazy, but you'll enjoy it.
The other changes happening.
Our journey is just beginning.
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