Models Nara and Lucky Blue Smith stop by the Vogue kitchen to whip up crispy chicken sandwiches. Nara—TikTok’s silky-voiced, modern-day Barefoot Contessa—guides Lucky through the recipe, which also includes a refreshing rosemary mint lemonade. As they squeeze, bake, and deep fry, the duo opens up about what really goes on behind Nara’s TikTok videos, Lucky’s hot sauce obsession, and the seven-hour phone call that sparked their relationship.Director: Vivian Kim Director Of Photography: Brandon YoonEditors: Michael Suyeda, Katie WolfordProducers: Rahel Gebreyes, Gabrielle ReichAssociate Producer: Lea DonenbergAssociate Producer, On Set: Justine RamirezAssistant Camera: Alexis AguilarGaffer: Réal GillAudio: Mariya ChulichkovaProduction Assistant: Quinton Johnson Food Stylist: Stevie StewartProduction Coordinator: Tanía JonesProduction Manager: David Alvarez PazLine Producer: Natasha Soto-AlborsAssistant Editor: Billy WardPost Production Coordinator: Holly FrewAudio Mix: Nick Cipriano, BANGSupervising Editor: Kameron KeyPost Production Supervisor: Alexa DeutschTalent Manager: Phoebe DishnerDirector, Content Production: Rahel GebreyesSenior Director, Digital Video: Romy van den BroekeSenior Director, Programming: Linda GittlesonVP, Video Programming: Thespena Guatieri
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00:00Hi Vogue, it's Nara. You gotta restart. You go, you go.
00:03We're here making my hot honey crispy chicken sandwich. No, let's do it one more time.
00:08What's up, Vogue? It's Nara Smith. Lucky Blue Smith.
00:12And today we're making my crispy chicken sandwich.
00:22We're gonna start with making our rosemary mint lemonade.
00:25I always let Lucky juice the lemons or citrus because I'm just not strong enough.
00:30We just don't have any of these at home. Which is shocking.
00:33We do. Nara doesn't have this at home.
00:35No, I do. I have two, but I'm too lazy to use them.
00:37You're better at just squeezing it by hand.
00:39Let's go this way or this way?
00:42Other side.
00:43No, because the juice is coming out from here.
00:45Oh, look at that.
00:47So today we're gonna use lemons, water, ice.
00:50We made a simple syrup with water and sugar and then we're gonna add mint and rosemary.
00:55I love adding rosemary to almost anything.
00:57I'm really focused on these lemons right now.
00:59You're doing really good now.
01:00I know, I'm crushing it.
01:02Now let's add all the herbs.
01:04Just like from in there.
01:05This one seems nice. The whole stick.
01:07Yeah.
01:08All right.
01:09Add the ice and then we'll do simple syrup and water.
01:11We actually don't have a garden at home.
01:13We just bought a house.
01:14So hopefully next spring we'll get around to doing that.
01:17We're gonna add a third of this simple syrup.
01:20Cooking is all about eyeballing things.
01:22So I just had to, you know.
01:24You're feeling risky today and then we're just gonna fill it up with water.
01:28Don't be annoying.
01:30Okay. The tricky thing is now that I didn't think about is pouring this
01:34without all the ice splattering everywhere.
01:38Fun fact.
01:39When Nara's filming her videos,
01:41the entire side of the kitchen that's out of frame is full of dishes,
01:46crusted dough that I have to soak for five hours.
01:49Guess who cleans that up?
01:50You.
01:51And I'm so grateful.
01:52Let me add an ice cube to each of our leaves.
01:55Add a mint leaf too.
01:56Wow.
01:57See, now we're cooking.
01:58Let's try this.
02:02This is amazing.
02:03Okay, so me personally.
02:04You would add even more?
02:06I'm gonna add just a dash.
02:08Just a dash.
02:09I like how sour it is.
02:10But let me try yours actually.
02:13There you go.
02:16That made no difference whatsoever.
02:18We're gonna start on our burger buns.
02:19We're gonna have our yeast mixture, which is water and yeast.
02:22And then we're gonna make a flour paste.
02:24So that's whole milk, water, and some bread flour.
02:28We're gonna put that in the pot.
02:30And then for the other ingredients for the buns,
02:32we have salt, sugar, egg, and butter.
02:35So we're gonna loom our yeast, heat up some milk to 110.
02:38And Lucky's gonna do that for me.
02:40I love it.
02:40Your mom's a baker.
02:41You're a baker.
02:42So I feel like...
02:43I just bake cookies.
02:44That's all I do.
02:45He makes the best chocolate chip cookies.
02:47Put this in now.
02:48No, no, no, no, no.
02:49Get your thermometer.
02:50Oh, we went over 110.
02:52Just put the yeast in now.
02:54And then we're just gonna set it aside to bloom.
02:56What are we doing for this?
02:57So we're basically just gonna put milk, water,
03:01and flour in here.
03:02And then we're just gonna stir it to combine until it's a paste.
03:06This goes really quick.
03:08So just keep an eye on it.
03:09I don't want it brown.
03:10I just want it to come together.
03:11God, you're such a chef.
03:13I love it.
03:14The paste came together.
03:16Now we're gonna make our dough.
03:17We're gonna start with the bread flour.
03:19Sugar.
03:20What's your favorite thing I make for you, honey?
03:22Because I make so many things.
03:24We just had a baby a year ago.
03:25He told me he would cook for me and...
03:28Which I did.
03:29I feel like I did.
03:30One day I wake up from my nap at like 4 to the smell of intense burning.
03:34And it's smoky in the house.
03:36And he comes up and he's like,
03:37Honey, did you ask me for help?
03:40Or did you just bring me my burnt food?
03:42I blocked this entire situation out of my mind.
03:45I don't remember what you're talking about.
03:46The smoke alarm went off.
03:47The baby woke up.
03:48It's coming back to me now.
03:49Okay, give that a really slight mix.
03:51On level one, three, three.
03:53Yeah.
03:57I'm getting out of myself, honestly.
03:59We're gonna turn it off.
04:00And then open it up.
04:01It's a nice looking paste, I'll tell you.
04:02Good job.
04:04And then turn it on on low.
04:06Low.
04:06And then you slowly pour the yeast mixture in while that's going.
04:12Okay, now you do the eggs.
04:15Maybe we'll turn it up a little bit.
04:16It's looking marvelous.
04:18Just not everything at once.
04:19Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:20One at a time.
04:22When I actually was doing sourdough and I had my little starter going,
04:25you were the one doing the stretch and folds.
04:27Because I was out and about.
04:28And I'd call you and be like, every 30 minutes, do the little.
04:31Yeah, that was stressful.
04:32Before you left, you were like, honey, you have to do this every 30 minutes on the dot.
04:36I love that that's your recollection of it.
04:38Because mine was like, hey honey, just set a timer every 30 minutes.
04:41If it works out, great.
04:42If it doesn't, great.
04:43No, no, no, no.
04:45Okay, perfect.
04:46Once your dough is not sticking to the sides of the bowl anymore,
04:48it might take a second because of the butter.
04:50You can turn it off and put it in a lightly greased bowl.
04:53I like greasing my bowl with neutral cooking oil.
04:56So any vegetable oil.
04:57But I use algae oil just because it's non-inflammatory and I struggle with really bad eczema.
05:03I also use this to deep fry our chicken later.
05:06Forgive me for going in this with my hands, but they're washed.
05:09Place it in your bowl.
05:10Then you cover it with your tea towel and let it rise for an hour to an hour and a half.
05:15Where do we put this?
05:16Over there.
05:17Amazing.
05:19It's been an hour and a half.
05:21Our dough has doubled its size.
05:23It's supposed to be doing that one.
05:25We're going to portion this out into six, roll them up, put them on our baking sheet to proof,
05:30and let them rise for another little bit.
05:33What's been your favorite look you've worn either in your videos or fashion week?
05:38What's been your favorite one?
05:39If I had to say right now, it would be the recent Paris Fashion Week when I went to the Schiaparelli
05:45show. It was a beautiful sequin mini dress and no one's ever worn it before.
05:50Me and Daniel was kind of holding off on people wearing it,
05:52but he let me wear it, which felt so special.
05:54Oh, you did that so quick.
05:56Then we fold them under and then you kind of just form them into a little ball.
06:03We're going to place our buns onto our tray.
06:06We're going to set these aside now to proof.
06:09These have doubled in size now.
06:11So we're going to brush some egg wash and pop them in the oven.
06:15Yeah, we're doing amazing.
06:16Just make sure to get all the sides because whatever you're brushing is going to turn golden brown and glossy.
06:20My style used to be very like street style and masculine.
06:23And then when I met Lucky, he was like,
06:25do you like wearing dresses because we lived in California?
06:27And I was like, no, a dress?
06:30You'll never catch me dead in a dress.
06:32And then here we are five years later where everything I wear is a dress now.
06:36Does it need to get fixed?
06:37No, just right here.
06:38This is my angle though.
06:39Oh, there's a spot right next to me.
06:44We're going to bake these until they're golden brown and then we're going to be back.
06:48Okay, we're going to brine our chicken right now.
06:50So we've got chicken thighs.
06:52I prefer over breast just because they're juicier.
06:54And then we have pickle juice, buttermilk, garlic, salt, egg, Frank's Red Hot, and some pepper.
07:01Pickle juice.
07:02Funny story, Ashie.
07:03Lucky is obsessed with drinking pickle juice.
07:06It has to be very specific pickle juice though.
07:08It's true.
07:08It has to be the Grillo pickle juice.
07:10I remember one night walking in on him in the kitchen and it was dark.
07:14The fridge was the only light in the whole kitchen.
07:17And he was just standing there with a container of pickle juice.
07:21Hey, you got to do what you got to do sometimes.
07:23There's no shame in it.
07:24Half a teaspoon.
07:25Yeah.
07:25Wait, tell them.
07:26Just this whole thing in, right?
07:27Yeah, just a clove of garlic and then some pepper and then.
07:30How much pepper?
07:30Just eyeball it.
07:31You tell me.
07:32Yeah, that's a lot of pepper.
07:34That seems about right.
07:34Okay, tell them about your hot sauce obsession.
07:37Pretty much all there is.
07:38I just love hot sauce.
07:39I put on everything.
07:39Lucky has to have hot sauce with every single meal.
07:42If there's no hot sauce in the house, he will not have the meal.
07:46He would much rather skip the meal if there's no hot sauce.
07:48That's true.
07:49You're wearing white.
07:49It's stressing me out.
07:50If you love hot sauce and you go to Europe, they don't have hot sauces like they do in America.
07:56They have Tabasco.
07:57Yes, they have Tabasco.
07:59So that's what you're going to have to deal with.
08:01We're going to let this sit for about four hours and then we're going to come back to it and bread it.
08:05It's a little bit more hot sauce.
08:07What are we doing in this step?
08:08We're going to batter our chicken and then we're going to fry it.
08:11All-purpose flour, mochiko flour and cornstarch and what else?
08:16Paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, kosher salt and baking powder.
08:20Love it.
08:20And then this is some of the brine that we had the chicken in before.
08:23So we're going to really get it in there.
08:25Like you really want it to coat the chicken.
08:28And then you pick it up, kind of dust it off, put it into the brine, get it on both sides.
08:34Really just giving your chicken like a tender hug, you know?
08:37A tender hug.
08:39Yes.
08:40Yes.
08:40That's okay.
08:41And then back in the hallway.
08:43We want the little dips, not dips, the little drips.
08:47Usually I do this with my hands and I have a dry hand and a wet hand
08:51because you don't want to batter your fingers, but this works as well.
08:54Good job.
08:55Really?
08:55Oh yeah.
08:56I'm just taking over.
08:57So basically in order to get you to cook at home, I just need to make it fun.
09:01Yeah, make it like art class inspired, you know?
09:04We've battered our chicken, aka Lucky battered our chicken,
09:08and we're going to go deep fry this now.
09:10We're heating up the oil to 350.
09:12You be on top of that.
09:14I know that you're going to take this very serious.
09:16I am.
09:16It's important.
09:17Lucky gets really dialed in.
09:19If he has a task, he's going to do it really well.
09:22Tell them how we met.
09:23Long story short, I messaged Nara on Instagram.
09:26We started texting a little bit.
09:27He's a crappy texter, by the way.
09:29I was very slow at texting.
09:31I wouldn't say I'm crappy.
09:32I'm very slow.
09:33I'd like to take my time with what I want to say, you know?
09:36Five business days?
09:37I think one day you were over the texting.
09:40I kind of realized that I was taking too long and we just got on a call, right?
09:43Yeah.
09:44And that call was seven hours.
09:45And then ever since that call, we were on the phone every single day.
09:49There hasn't been a day ever since that day that we've actually not been talking.
09:53That's true.
09:53We're going to gently drop in our chicken.
09:55We're going to do three pieces at a time.
09:57I don't want to overcrowd the pan.
09:59That smells so good.
10:01Yeah.
10:01I don't want to splash oil on it.
10:02That's fine.
10:03I got this.
10:04Yeah, you go.
10:05What's your favorite date night we've ever had?
10:07Do you remember when we had like a movie night in the trunk of our activity in our car?
10:14We were in Malibu, actually.
10:16And we just went into the Malibu Hills and found a good spot to kind of pull over and do it.
10:20But that was really fun.
10:21I enjoyed that.
10:22Let's pull this because I'm impatient and I want to eat.
10:25We can do those later.
10:26There you go.
10:28While they're hot, I'm just going to get some salt on them.
10:30Yes.
10:31Okay, amazing.
10:33So now that these are out of the pot sprinkled with salt,
10:36we're going to glaze them with a hot honey glaze.
10:39We have all of our ingredients laid out.
10:41So we have our buns.
10:42We made some aioli, pickles, iceberg lettuce, and some red onion.
10:46For the glaze, we did...
10:48Frank's heart and gojujang.
10:50Yes.
10:50And then what else?
10:52Frying oil, garlic, honey, salt.
10:55You can glaze it with a brush.
10:57I like it because it feels like painting,
10:59but you can also just dip your chicken into the glaze if you want it just like really soaked.
11:06Lucky's going to have two.
11:07He's probably going to have more later.
11:09Okay, do you want to cut our buns?
11:12Yes.
11:13I struggle cutting bread in straight lines.
11:15I don't know what it is.
11:16I usually have a bread machine, but I let Lucky do it.
11:21All right, how are you going to plate it up?
11:23We go in with aioli first.
11:25I like a lot of onions.
11:26I'm going to do mine first because I started with the aioli.
11:29Put our chicken on top.
11:31Wow.
11:32That looks insane.
11:33I'm going to brush it with just a smidge more of the glaze.
11:36Okay, in my opinion, the secret to a good sandwich is having multiple textures and flavor profiles.
11:44Oh, I should have put the pickles down first.
11:45But I'm just going to put them on top.
11:47Don't do this at home.
11:48Put them down first.
11:50And then we're going to put our bun on top.
11:52There we go.
11:53We're going to make Lucky's now.
11:54We're going to be right back.
11:56Well, we're still going to be here.
11:57But we need to go to bed earlier.
11:59Keep going to bed at like, what?
12:002 AM?
12:01It's bad, honey.
12:02Once the kids are in bed, it's like me time, right?
12:06No, I get that.
12:07And so I don't want to have to go to bed early and then wake up and have, you know,
12:12crying and fussing start.
12:13So it's like procrastination, you know?
12:16It is.
12:17What's this?
12:18Aioli.
12:18Aioli?
12:19No.
12:20Stay far.
12:21I think you need it, but...
12:22No, no, no, no, no.
12:25Load it up with onions.
12:27There you go.
12:27So I usually plate it the way I think he would enjoy and the way I kind of wanted to cook it.
12:32Yes.
12:33And then for seconds, thirds, and fourths, he can kind of just go ham.
12:36I like a good amount of lettuce.
12:38Lucky does like three leaves.
12:40It's more than three leaves.
12:42Oh, wow.
12:43You guys see this action right here?
12:45Cheers.
12:46I need like...
12:48More hot sauce.
12:49Because I like to dip.
12:50I'll just do a little dip action.
12:52Yeah.
12:52Okay.
12:53Yes.
12:54This bite.
12:57Mm-hmm.
13:01Are you proud of it?
13:01Wow.
13:02It's amazing.
13:03And with the lemonade...
13:04Oh, and with the lemonade.
13:06Get out of 10.
13:07What do you rate it out of 10?
13:08Lucky's really harsh with his food.
13:10A solid 7.9.
13:13That's good.
13:15That's a solid rating.
13:16What would have made it a 10?
13:17No, no, no.
13:18It's not the recipe.
13:19It's the dish.
13:20Got it.
13:21You know, I'm more of like a steak guy.
13:23Yeah, that's what I'm saying about...
13:25This is actually stunning though.
13:26It is really good.
13:27Thank you, Vogue.
13:28We're going to go enjoy our food now.
13:30And we'll see you next time.
13:32Bye.