Bananas, Bacon, and a Swedish Pilot’s Legacy: The Flying Jacob at Krokstrom
“How is any of this gonna work?” That’s what Guy Fieri asked when he first heard the ingredient list for The Flying Jacob at Krokstrom in Kansas City, Missouri. Chicken, curry, chili cream, bananas, peanuts, and bacon—all on one plate. His verdict after tasting it? “Absolutely fantastic.”
The dish has an unlikely origin story. In 1976, a Swedish home cooking magazine held a competition, and a pilot submitted his recipe: The Flying Jakob. It became—and remains—the number one homemade recipe in Sweden. Krokstrom’s chef has put his own spin on this Scandinavian comfort food classic, and the result is something Guy described as “an adventure.”
The Two-Day Process Behind the Dish
This isn’t a quick weeknight meal. The chicken leg and thigh get a dry cure of curry powder, salt, and sugar, then sit overnight. As the chef explained, this process pulls moisture out while flavoring the meat deeply. Guy called it “gravlax-ing the chicken”—borrowing the technique typically reserved for curing salmon.
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After its overnight cure, the chicken gets rinsed, then roasted with chicken fat on top for about two hours. But it’s still not ready. The meat needs to cool overnight again before the final step: dropping the whole piece into the fryer. The result? “That skin is just gonna explode,” the chef promised.
The sauce is where things get truly unconventional. It starts with green bananas that have been frozen—a trick that ripens them immediately. Those bananas get combined with a ketchupy chili sauce and cream, brought to a boil, then blended smooth. Guy’s reaction to learning about this component: “Welcome to the next edition of I can’t believe I’m gonna eat that.”
The Final Plate and Guy’s Reaction
The finished Flying Jacob comes together as a composed dish: a rice cake base, that crispy-skinned chicken, the banana chili cream sauce, roasted peanuts, banana chips, and bacon. Guy made sure to note, “Just so you know, not April first. This is not April Fool’s.”
But one bite changed everything. “It’s creamy, it’s sweet, it’s not too sweet,” Guy said. He loved what he called “the little nuggets of friendship” from the peanuts and bacon. His ultimate assessment: “It does not make one bit of sense,” yet he compared the flavor profile to chicken tikka masala—that perfect balance of creamy, savory, and slightly sweet. Similar to how Guy reacted to unexpected flavor combinations in a Crispy Korean Pork Belly Bowl, this dish proved that sometimes the strangest ingredient lists create the most memorable meals.
Tips from the Kitchen
The frozen banana trick: Put a green banana in the freezer and it ripens immediately—no waiting days for it to turn yellow on the counter.
Don’t rush the cure: That overnight curry-salt-sugar cure is essential for building flavor in the chicken, much like the patience required for dishes Guy encountered at at Krazy Jim’s Blimpy Burger.
Fat on fat: Roasting the chicken with chicken fat on top, then finishing in the fryer, creates that explosive crispy skin the chef described.
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