Ragebait Bad Food: Toasted Buttered Chicken Drumsticks

In this video shared to Facebook Reels by Janelle & Kate, an anonymous person cooks chicken drumsticks on a toaster. It should be noted that in this review that the word “cook” is being used very loosely here. Also, this isn’t similar to air fryer salmon or stir frying, as some have said.

Raw Chicken Dreams

Some people are fascinated with bad food, and that’s what this video might be. It’s probably why some people can’t stand TikTok food. This video starts with a barehand placing raw chicken drumsticks on a toaster. It is at this very moment, not one second in, do you realize something isn’t right in the kitchen. With freshly painted fingernails, the cook, if you will, presses down the lever on the toaster to begin cooking.

It takes some squinting, but you can see obvious rust stains around the openings in the toaster. The cook is preparing chicken tetanus. The bits of rust and shards of charred metal promises to add a rare copper flavor and sharpness to the food. It’s a meal worth going to the doctor and dentist for apparently.

After placing the chicken, she takes two whole sticks of butter that have been sliced vertically into halves and places one on each drumstick. Nobody has to graduate med school to know a half stick of butter per drumstick isn’t good for your health.

Also, the butter is seasoned already, but she then piles enough Lawry’s Seasoned Salt on the food to spike the blood pressure of an elephant. She’s so generous, she even haphazardly seasons the toaster.

It’s not until the butter drips into the toaster and sends up smoke signals does the cook remove the butter halves. Before doing so, she manhandles each one with her signature barehand move to spread it on the chicken. She then grips all four pieces of butter and takes them off camera.

Here, you have to pause. She’s wearing nails that appear to have been recently done professionally, but she’s handling raw chicken and butter as though she’s never heard of food safety. She doesn’t come off as concerned that some of the bacteria from the chicken could linger deep under her nails, even after washing. And after seeing that, people would assume her hands probably smell like a corpse from all the bacteria.

To continue, she turns and flips the chicken a few times, but, by the end, the skin of the chicken is blotchy with dark spots. The drumsticks are roughly 165-degrees underdone. It’s more of a throwaway meal.

But just to add a little pizzazz, as a final touch, the cook squirts shamefully thick lines of barbecue sauce along each drumstick. Then, the camera pans out, offering us a terrifying view of what the cook herself probably thought was good. Or maybe she thought the food was trash. This is where the idea of ragebait comes up.

I often check out food posts, and I laugh at the comments that sometimes call a plate of food “ragebait”. The phrase is hilarious to me because, how seriously does somebody have to take the internet to feel “rage” incited by a goofy food post? I do understand some people’s concerns about food waste.

Not all food-related ragebait posts are easily identifiable as such. Some people genuinely are just beginning their cooking journey and are seeking feedback or making new dishes from a place you’ve never been before. In those instances, it takes opening your mind to understand what they’re doing.

But some posts are ragebait, and some creators may waste food. If a person is making content and is being reasonable about their use of resources, they should be cheered on. Some people shake their fists at bad food posts. Some people laugh. Others laugh at those who shake their fists. I’m one. Ragebait dishes stop viewers, even those who don’t like it, from scrolling by. It does what it’s intended to do, as the video reviewed here does.

The Takeaway

The cook in this video didn’t do an excellent job of preparing or cooking the chicken. Instead of using a conventional stove or oven, she chose to use a toaster. And she handled the raw meat and butter with her gloveless hands. Even though I can understand how this type of content can trigger some people, it shouldn’t incite rage. The video is intriguing for many reasons, and not all of them are good. It’s entertaining. As far as the food goes, I’ll rate it on preparation (2/10, and the 2 is for seasoning), cook (1/10) and presentation (2/10). Also, some olive oil on the chicken instead of butter and white rice could’ve helped. Overall, 1.6/10 as a meal. It gets a flawless 10/10 for entertainment.

This update was produced by Jermaine Reed, MFA, the Editor-in-Chief of The Reeders Block, who also works an Adjunct College Professor. Join the email list to get notifications on new articles and books. This article is 100% human-written. And remember, if you see an error, that’s what makes us human. Subscribe and share.