Ingredients: Contestants: Notes: This was a special Thanksgiving episode where the Chopped judges played to win money for the charity No Kid Hungry.
Drew Magary, a science fiction novelist and humor columnist for the sports website Deadspin, had previously posted a satirical application for the show in 2012.
Ingredients: Contestants: Notes: The baskets in each round contained ice cream and each chef was provided with a tray of assorted toppings.
In addition to the deep fryer, each chef was provided with a pot of oil preheated to frying temperature at the start of each round.
All the chefs were from different areas of Charleston, South Carolina, and the third judge, Ray "Dr. BBQ" Lampe, was a finalist in the first Chopped: Grill Masters Tournament.
Ingredients: Contestants: Notes: This was a holiday-themed episode and all the competing chefs were hosts of shows on Cooking Channel playing for charity.
(Payton's appetizer was inconsistently cooked and loaded with raw spices, while Arnold's entree didn't transform her ingredients enough.)
Ingredients: Contestants: Notes: Teams of two amateur cooks, each consisting of a mother-in-law (MIL) and her daughter-in-law (DIL), competed in this episode.
Ingredients: Contestants: Notes: Chef Sampath went on to compete on Beat Bobby Flay and became a judge on Masterchef Tamil in India.
Ingredients: Contestants: Notes: Chef Quiñones competed on Season 19 of Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen, ranking in 8th place.
In the entree round the chefs were given a caddy of five different hot sauces, and the celery, carrots, and blue cheese were all on a platter which counted as one ingredient.
To accommodate the theme, each chef was provided with a preheated pot of oil and the pantry was stocked with assorted dumpling wrappers.
Chef Campbell is the daughter of Leslie Roark Scott, a finalist in the second Chopped: Grill Masters Tournament.
Ingredients: Contestants: Notes: This is part 1 of a 5-part tournament where Alton Brown picked the baskets with specific scientific, gastronomic techniques in mind.
Ingredients: Contestants: Notes: This is part 2 of a 5-part tournament where Alton Brown picked the baskets with specific scientific, gastronomic techniques in mind.
A basket ingredient in the entree round (the beef jerky) was made by Alton from brined, dehydrated flank steak.
Ingredients: Contestants: Notes: This is part 3 of a 5-part tournament where Alton Brown picked the baskets with specific scientific, gastronomic techniques in mind.
Ingredients: Contestants: Notes: This is part 4 of a 5-part tournament where Alton Brown picked the baskets with specific scientific, gastronomic techniques in mind.
The chefs were given 30 minutes in the appetizer round instead of the usual 20 to allow time to properly butcher and cook the goose breast.
The veggie plate in the appetizer round mainly consisted of broccoli, cauliflower, and cherry tomatoes, arranged to look like a Christmas tree.
cut herself in the last seconds of the appetizer round, leaving enough blood on her station and plates to deem her dish unsafe to eat.
Unlike past frying episodes, there was an extra deep fryer in the kitchen instead of providing each chef a preheated pot of oil.
The snack box in the entree round consisted of two eggs, cheese, apple slices, grapes, peanut butter, and bread.
Ingredients: Contestants: Notes: Chef Frank previously competed on season 13 of Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen in 2014, finishing in 10th place.
At the end of the second round, Chef Darius discovered he cut himself, and as a result his dishes couldn't be tasted due to a possible contamination.
Chef Z, going by her real name, Aziza, previously competed on the sixteenth season of Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen in 2016, finishing in thirteenth place.
The piggy dumpling in round 3 was a steamed bun that looked like a pig (with edible nose, eyes, and ears) and was filled with custard.
In the first round: the "rat" meatballs were regular meatballs with edible fake rat ears and eyes on it, the "mac o'lanterns" were orange bell peppers carved into jack o'lantern faces and filled with mac and cheese, and the eye-tini was a martini with a fake eyeball (lychee with blueberry) stuck in it.
In the second round: the shrimp cocktail was served in chilled gelatin inside a prop head bust, and the loaded mashed potatoes had a spider web design piped on with sour cream.
Ingredients: Contestants: Notes: This was a Thanksgiving themed episode where three Chopped judges, and Ted Allen, were joined by their siblings to compete for their charities of choice.