Dylan Dryer certainly knows her way around the kitchen, but over the weekend, she needed a little help from her favorite sous chef to whip up a classic comfort food.
On Sunday, the 3rd Hour of TODAY co-host showed off her culinary skills at the New York City Wine & Food Festival during a live demonstration in front of a large crowd.
"I cook all the time and I made my chicken pot pie, which is a recipe I've been making forever. It's like my go-to recipe for Calvin. It's got all the veggies and everything," Dylan said on Monday morning as she recapped her experience.
But cooking in front of an audience, Dylan quickly learned, is very different than cooking in the comfort of one's own home. Not long into the demo, the soon-to-be mom of two discovered she needed reinforcements for the show to go on.
"After a minute, I look down at my pot, the chicken's basically uncooked and I realized I'm all out of shtick. I've got nothing else to say and 29 more minutes to fill," Dylan said. "There's a whole crowd in front of me, but I'm out of stories."
Luckily, Dylan did some quick thinking and called on a surprise guest to join her on stage: her son, Calvin.
"It turned into — ya know, I do this 'Dining with Cal' thing on my Instagram — so he was up there, I found a little stool, he cooked right alongside with me," Dylan said. "It ended up being a lot of fun."
But Dylan's pot pie wasn't just fun for Calvin, who turns 3 years old in December. The dish tasted so good that everyone on the 3rd Hour panel truly enjoyed it.
"For the record, I am a pot-pie aficionado and this is fantastic," NBC News senior correspondent Harry Smith told Dylan as he took a bite.
"I make the filling from scratch — it's chock full of veggies, ya know, carrots, peas, everything. And I just put it over the puff pastry so I don't have to worry about making the crust," Dylan said.
To make cooking this traditionally labor intensive dish a breeze, Dylan said she uses puff pastry shells to make individual servings. However, as an accomplished journalist, Harry knows what really counts when it comes to cooking for kids.
"So, here's the real the question, though," he said, "this is how you get veggies into Cal?"
"Yes," Dylan replied.
"And does it work?" he asked.
"It works. He actually eats it," Dylan said, meeting Harry's hand for a fist bump.
Related
Having tried Dylan's toddler-approved cauliflower soup, we believe it.
Now everyone will be able to sneak even more veggies into a cozy fall meal.
