D. Walker - The Snacking Dead

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 Preheat the oven to 400°F. Heat a large, ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat, then add the oil. Season the pork tenderloin with salt and pepper. Add the pork to the hot oil and sear until golden brown on all sides, 8 to 10 minutes.

2 In a medium bowl, whisk together the Dijon and whole-grain mustards and the brown sugar.

3 Transfer the pork to the oven and roast for 5 minutes. Brush the meat generously with half of the mustard mixture and return to the oven to roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the pork registers 140°F, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a plate, cover with foil, and let rest for at least 10 minutes.

4 Pour the reserved mustard sauce into a small saucepan and heat over medium until just warmed through. Slice the tenderloin and serve with the warm mustard sauce.

Ingredient substitutions are unavoidable when the world has ended. However, there is no morally defensible substitution for pork.

T he walker left a trail of weird crumbs.

He found several more carefully arranged feed areas and a quail with one nibble taken from it as if it had been rejected. He picked up a gore-smeared cleaver that looked like it’d been through ten flavors of hell.

The walker had veered off north. It was no longer on his way home, but he couldn’t let it go now. Something about the way this thing ate wasn’t biter-like. It fed almost like a person. Well, if that person was Hannibal Lecter.

He crossed an empty field and passed a cairn of rocks. On the other side of it sat a lone walker in pajamas.

It reached for him with hands that were nothing but skeleton. It couldn’t even grab him—the finger bones just flopped around on slack tendons like a rubber toy. It gurgled at him in frustration.

He stuck his knife though its rubbery forehead. “Go back to sleep,” he said, curling his lip.

He looked closely at the carcass. The walker’s flesh was still moist. It hadn’t turned more than a day before. There wasn’t much sign of what turned it either, except for the fleshless hands and forearms. It was as if it had been nibbled—carefully.

A walker didn’t eat itself. Something had done this to him. Something that particularly liked finger meat. Something with peculiar tastes. There was an almost dainty quality about it. He recognized the handiwork of his walker. The thing could have written a cookbook: To Serve Man. He laughed at his own joke.

He caught himself thinking about Pam again. She had once told him how she liked to take the chicken feet from her grandma’s stew pot and suck them clean. He’d told her she was probably a sicko. She had just laughed and kept on kicking her feet slowly in the creek water.

Nothing disgusted Daryl more than walkers. But deep inside he had to admit he admired this one’s discrimination. This was not your average biter.

serves 6 to 8

1 pound chicken breasts, patted dry

Coarse kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

½ cup all-purpose flour

2 large eggs, beaten

1 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)

1 cup crushed potato chips

4 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil, or more as needed

½ cup ketchup

½ teaspoon Sriracha or other hot sauce, plus more to taste

1 Cut the chicken breasts into 2-inch long strips, each ½ inch wide. Lay the chicken pieces out on a baking sheet and season liberally with salt and pepper. Refrigerate, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

2 Put the flour in one medium bowl and the eggs in another medium bowl. In a third medium bowl, combine the panko and the crushed potato chips; season with pepper and stir to combine.

3 Dip each chicken strip in the flour, shaking off any excess, then dip into the eggs, and then into the potato chip mixture, turning to coat completely. Transfer to a clean baking sheet.

4 Place a large skillet over medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons of oil. Once the oil is shimmering, add enough of the chicken strips to fit comfortably in one layer. Sear, without moving, until the chicken fingers are golden brown on one side, 4 to 5 minutes. Flip over the chicken fingers and cook until the chicken is golden brown on the second side, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a paper towel–lined plate and add 2 tablespoons oil to the skillet. Once the oil is hot, repeat with more chicken strips, adding more oil to the pan if you need to fry a third batch.

5 In a medium bowl, stir together the ketchup and Sriracha. Serve the chicken fingers warm with the Sriracha ketchup.

Know your survivor group: are they ravenous or peckish? These tasty tidbits can be an hors d’oeuvre or a whole meal.

T he picky walker moved in looping circles,like it was in a giant supermarket without a list.

Daryl found a freshly killed sheep, its belly chewed open. A coyote would have eaten through the rear. This was either the work of a biter or a chupacabra. But a chupacabra wouldn’t have left the pretty little pile of herbs next to its meal. He figured he was still on the trail.

The terrain got drier and he began to lose its tracks. He lay down to side-head a grassy stretch and saw a shiny spot where the biter had tripped or fallen. There were depressions in the leaves here and there, showing it had come through recently. But finally he lost the trail altogether, and even by circling he couldn’t pick it back up.

The light was failing and he had to find somewhere to spend the night. Last thing he needed was a swarm of biters tripping over him in the night.

He found an old sawmill, filled up with dead machines slowly rusting to powder. Enormous wheels with red teeth the size of his head bit halfway into unfinished planks. The honeysuckle was starting to strangle this place like everywhere else in these parts.

As night stretched on, he pulled his poncho around himself and tried to sleep. In his dream he saw the girl, grabbing hold of the hatchet for the first time. First you chop the head , he was saying….

A sound woke him, something on the shop floor. He grabbed his hatchet with both hands and crouched in the darkness, flashlight clamped between his teeth.

serves 6

BISCUITS

3 cups self-rising flour, plus additional for dusting

1½ cups buttermilk

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces

GRAVY

1 pound breakfast sausage, casings removed (or use bulk sausage meat)

¼ cup all-purpose flour

2¼ cups milk

¼ teaspoon salt, or more to taste

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease it.

2 In a bowl, gently stir together the flour, buttermilk, and butter until the dough just comes together. On a floured surface, pat the dough into a 1½-inch-thick round. Cut the dough into 6 rounds that are 4 inches in diameter and transfer to the baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.