You’d think a show as violent as Breaking Bad would suppress your appetite, but it’s surprisingly hard to watch without getting hungry. Breaking Bad has been saturated with food from the beginning, and it’s almost as famous for breakfast and Funyuns as it is for its gruesome plot elements. Food is such a huge part of the show that the menu for a viewing party writes itself, and some hungry viewers have gone far enough to make Breaking Bad food items. There’s a surprising glut of snacks inspired by the show to indulge in, from homemade fried chicken to official show tie-ins. Below, we round up some of the best refreshments for Breaking Bad superfans.
Turns out Aaron Paul is addicted to the blue stuff in real life: he’s so in love with the rock candy they use on set that he’s jokingly admitted to “pushing” it to cast and crew. “I get everyone to try it. I literally try to hand out our drugs to new [actors] on the show. They’re like, ‘No, I don’t want to try.’ ‘Here just have one. You’re on Breaking Bad! Eat some of the meth!’ And they do and they’re like, ‘Wow, that’s actually really good.’ And then I always see them go to the big bins of meth, grab out a few and eat it…. I’m like, ‘Yeah, you’re liking my product.’” And thanks to Albuquerque’s generous Candy Lady, you can get the official product right now for mad cheap. The Candy Lady does not recommend giving this product to children.
If you’re looking for a candy meth fix right this second, you can always make your own. Most people will probably add blue food coloring to the standard grade-school recipe and call it a day, but food blog The Glut Life has an exciting spin on the formula. Special ingredients in their “Heisenberg” candy include Blue Curacao and a pinch of chili powder. But we all know Heisenberg wouldn’t dare use Jesse’s signature in his pristine formula, so the more canon-devoted fans could make a throwback “Chili P.” For this style, we suggest replacing blue food coloring with an orange-red hue and the Blue Curacao with something orange-flavored (perhaps Cointreau?). Either recipe will bring your batch a step above mere sugar water.
The Candy Lady sells some incredible Breaking Bad products in her Albuquerque shop, including these Pez dispensers. Unlike the blue “meth,” these collectibles are in-store exclusives, so they unfortunately aren’t readily available to those of us outside of New Mexico. If you’re in the area, we definitely recommend snatching some up.
The fried chicken of Los Pollos Hermanos is one of the most enticing fictional foods on TV, and the food blog The Hungry Bunnie has a fantastic recipe for those hoping to make an imitation. The commercial reveals that the eternally secret formula is a bit spicy, so the chili and garlic powders in this recipe will make it easy to pretend you’re eating the real thing. And hey, nobody had to die for it! In another clever twist on homemade “meth,” this includes a recipe for blue rock salt.
If making your own chicken isn’t close enough to the imagined perfection of Los Pollos Hermanos, you can eat at its real-life surrogate. Twisters is a Tex-Mex chain with outposts in New Mexico and Colorado, so you don’t have to be in Albuquerque to enjoy it. Nevertheless, the one true filming location is on 4257 Isleta Blvd, and it’s become so popular with Breaking Bad superfans that the show is part of employee training. Workers can tell you all about their time as Los Pollos Hermanos, including where specific scenes occurred. Unfortunately, they don’t serve fried chicken, but their crispy chicken wrap sounds like a pretty good substitute.
Breaking Bad has inspired a ton of cocktail recipes that you can find all over the Internet (including here — we made our own last fall). The Avalon Hotel in LA had a special cocktail menu for last year’s Emmys “Blue Crystal,” and you can find an imitation recipe at The Daily Meal. Food blog Grub Street attempted to one-up The Avalon Hotel with a few suggestions: “First off, the drink has to be called ‘Crystal Blue Persuasion,’ and obvious to any fan who watched Walt Jr. puke in the pool or a certain Mexican cartel Don disagree with his Zafiro Anejo, this sucker should be tequila-based. It could surely take a spritz of Schraderbrau beer, a shot of O.J., and has to include a pinch of chile powder to ward off potential psychopaths. And really, wouldn’t a rock candy swizzle stick made with this stuff serve as the perfect garnish?” Grub Street didn’t go far enough to make a recipe from this idea, but you can definitely play around with these ingredients (barring, of course, the nonexistent Schraderbrau).
Perhaps the funnest Breaking Bad-inspired food is Rebel Donut‘s “Blue Sky,” a rock candy doughnut first sampled by none another than Aaron Paul. These products have since become a staple of the Albuquerque doughnut shop, but they’re so popular that fans might have a hard time picking them up. If you’re lucky enough to be in the area, you might want to call ahead.
Thankfully, not all the Breaking Bad food is limited to Albuquerque, and fans can order these gorgeous cookies from Etsy store Charlie’s Cookies. At almost $7 a pop, these are not cheap, but look at that detail! And you can apparently request specific styles, like a burned teddy bear, so this is a product that allows you to have a little fun (if you’re feeling especially morbid, you could see if they’ll make you a La Tortuga cookie). You might even be able to score free rock candy along with your order (the deal supposedly expired on August 3, but the special listing is still up). Top that, Eleni’s!
With Breaking Bad, television’s finest drama, winding up for the beginning of its final season this Sunday, Flavorwire is taking a look back at five years of America’s favorite meth-cooking cancer survivor, and preparing for the last eight episodes of his story. Click here to follow our coverage.