Beer Can Chicken

You had me at beer. My hubby looooves chicken and I loooove beer, so when I was searching the internet for new chicken recipes and came across Paula Deen’s Drunken Chicken I knew I had hit the jackpot. I posted her version along with a couple of others on the blog a while back, and have been meaning to try one of them forever. The fact that we did not have a grill and other intimidating factors, such as removing the giblets and shoving a beer can up a chickens yoohoo deterred me. But I knew the time had come, so I put my big girl panties on and finally defiled a chicken. I ended up using Simply Recipe’s version pretty much to a T, and all in all I think it turned out pretty good. The coolest part is I was able to use the leftover chicken in my chicken chili recipe the next night. So, essentially we got two meals out of one. I love when that happens!

Ingredients

• 1 4-pound whole chicken
• 2 tablespoon olive oil or other vegetable oil
• 1 opened, half-full can of beer, room temperature (I used a blonde ale, but next time I am going to try Guinness!)
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves, or 1 tablespoon dried thyme (I used fresh thyme.)
• 1 tablespoon black pepper

Directions

Prepare your grill for indirect heat. If you are using charcoal, put the coals on one side of the grill, leaving another side free of coals. If you are using a gas grill, fire up only half of the burners.

Remove neck and giblets from cavity of chicken, if the chicken came with them. (Mine did and it was simple, so don’t get scared! It was all tied up in a little bag inside the chicken cavity. Super easy to throw away)

Rub the chicken all over with olive oil. Mix the salt, pepper, and thyme in a little bowl, then sprinkle it all over the chicken.

Make sure the beer can is open, and only half-filled with beer. You can drink the other half! (I did that and had a couple more while I was at it.)

If you want, you can put a sprig of thyme, or another herb like rosemary or sage, in the beer can. (I did that and it turned out well.)

Lower the chicken on to the open can, so that the chicken is sitting upright, with the can in its cavity. Place the chicken on the cool side of the grill, using the legs and beer can as a tripod to support the chicken on the grill and keep it stable.

Cover the grill and walk away. Do not even check the chicken for at least an hour. (I love recipes like this!)

After an hour, check the chicken and refresh the coals if needed. Keep checking the chicken every 15 minutes or so, until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 160°F – 165°F. The total cooking time will vary depending on the size of your chicken, and the internal temperature of the grill. A 4 lb chicken will usually take around 1 1/2 hours. (Mine was 4 lbs and some change and it took exactly 1 1/2 hours.)

If you don’t have a meat thermometer, a way to tell if the chicken is done is to poke it deeply with a knife (the thigh is a good place to do this), if the juices run clear, not pink, the chicken is done.

Carefully transfer the chicken to a tray or pan. I say “carefully” because the beer can, and the beer inside of it, is quite hot. One way to do this is to slide a metal spatula under the bottom of the beer can. Use tongs to hold the top of the chicken. Lift the chicken, beer can still inside, and move it to a tray. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes. Carefully lift the chicken off of the can. If it gets stuck, lay the chicken on its side, and pull out the can with tongs. (Or call your husband in to pull it out while you hold it.)

Notes: This recipe was a complete success! The chicken was moist, the flavor was just right and we had enough for left overs. I am definitely making this one again, but like I said, next time I am using Guinness.

Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad

This is absolutely hands down the best salad ever made in the history of all salads. On second thought, it may be neck and neck with my Spinach, Strawberry and Shaved Almonds Salad. When it comes to texture and flavor, it is definitely too close to call. However, this delowcious salad is a little more labor intensive than most, especially if you decide to make your own special ingredients. For example I like to roast my own beets and candy my own walnuts to really make this recipe special and stand out from all of the rest.

Ingredients

• Mixed greens
• Roasted beets
• Goat Cheese
• Candied Walnuts
• Balsamic Dressing (I prefer a creamy balsamic)

Directions

After you have prepared your Roasted Beets and Candied Walnuts, mix all of the ingredients together for the perfect melody of flavors and textures. You can use dressing or chose to leave it out. It’s up to you. If the beets are juicy and tender enough they act as their own dressing. The crunch of the walnuts and the softness of the cheese mixed with the earthy taste of the beets and dynamic flavor of the mixed greens… It’s like a party in your mouth!

Homemade Candied Walnuts

Ingredients

• ½ cup sugar
• 1 ½ cups raw walnuts (halved)
• ¼ teaspoon coarse salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Step 1. Lay walnuts out on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for about 5 minutes. Taste test your walnuts. If not quite toasted enough, toast for 1 or 2 more minutes. Be careful not to burn.

Step 2. While walnuts cool on a cooling rack, pour sugar into a medium saucepan. Cook sugar on medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon as soon as the sugar begins to melt. Keep stirring until all the sugar has melted and the color is a medium amber.

Step 3. Add the walnuts to the sugar, quickly stirring and coating each piece. (Sorry there are no pictures of this step. I had to move very quickly and my hands were a little preoccupied.)

Step 4. As soon as the walnuts are coated with the sugar mixture, spread them out on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Use two forks to separate the walnuts from each other, working very quickly. (You have less than a minute before the sugar hardens and forever joins the walnuts in one big mound of walnut. Don’t freak out. You are not going to get every piece of walnut separated. You just want to get them in a single layer and separated as much as possible. You can always break them by hand once the sugar has cooled.)

Step 5. Sprinkle the nuts with the salt. Let cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Notes: Candied Walnuts are great as a simple snack or can be used as an ice cream topping or even a salad topping. I love to use them in my Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad recipe. Be sure not to burn your nuts and to move very quickly for this recipe. Preparation is the key! Oh and don’t freak out…

How-To Cook Beets

I love love love beets. I am so sad I spent the first 27 years of my life never having tasted them. What a waste! I definitely have a lot of beet eating catching up to do. So to get started I thought I needed to learn how to cook them at home. That way I could use them as snacks and in salads more frequently. I did a little research and learned that there are many different ways to prepare beets. You can bake, boil, roast or even steam them. I picked the two methods I thought would possibly suit my cooking style and decided to do some trial runs to see which way I liked them best. I chose to boil one batch and roast the other. Here are the processes.

Watermelon Sours in a Watermelon Keg

This post is a twofer. It is a mix of Friday’s 5 o’clock somewhere cocktail recipe, and a fun How-To tutorial on making your own watermelon keg. Sounds fun to me and brings a whole new meaning to throwing a watermelon bash! This is definitely on my two do list once I get back to the states. First lets learn how to make the keg…

Supplies

• Whole watermelon
• Apple Corer
• Shank and faucet

Directions

Prepare your watermelon by cutting a lid from the top and scooping out the fruit (save the fruit to use later to make the drinks). Use an apple corer to drill a hole just slightly smaller than the keg shank. Attach the shank and faucet and you’re ready to add your cocktail.

Ingredients

• 4 cups watermelon chunks, pureed
• 4 oz Alizé Red Passion, or any other fruit-flavored liqueur
• 8 oz gin
• 2 cups sour mix
• Sparkling rosé
• Lime slices, for garnish

Directions

After pureeing 4 cups of watermelon chunks, strain. Stir in your fruit-flavored liqueur, gin and sour mix. Chill. Add sparkling rosé before serving. Garnish with lime slice and enjoy!

• Source: The Food Network Magazine
• Recipe Yields: 10-12 servings

Basic French Toast

French toast is by far my favorite breakfast food of all time. In fact, it is a strong contender for my favorite food in general. When I was little my Grandpa Roger would make it for me every time I visited him. I loved going to his apartment on the weekends. It was a nice little escape from the stressful day-to-day of a 9-year-old. To this day, every time I eat french toast I think of him. Needless to say, I have eaten a lot of french toast in my day. Enough to know what I like and what I don’t like. You would think that somebody that knows exactly what kind of french toast they like would know exactly how to make it, but french toast is harder than you think. There are so many factors: The type of bread you use; How much milk you add to your egg mixture (custard); Do you use cinnamon and vanilla; How long you let the bread soak in the custard; How long you cook it for and on what heat level; How evenly your skillet cooks. The variables are endless and each yields different results. So to the drawing board I went, to try to figure out my favorite french toast method. I experimented with many different techniques and think I have settled on one that I am happy with.

We are not fancy bread type people, so I tend to use basic wheat sandwich bread, because it is what we have in the house. I am more of a thin crispy bread, sightly “overcooked” kind of french toast person rather than a thick soggy/wet french toast girl, so I don’t let the bread sit in the custard for too long. I start with cooking it on the stove until it is a nice even golden brown on both sides, and then I add it to the oven to get and even crisper crust, while maintaining just the right amount of moisture in the center. I also love cinnamon, so sometimes I can be a little heavy-handed in that department. It can be hit or miss, depending on the stove and pan performance and my level of patience, but overall it is the closest I have gotten to the delowcious french toast of my childhood. When it comes down to making it, really I just eyeball everything, which is another reason I get different results each time. But if I had to come up with a recipe, this is what I would say:

Ingredients

• Whole wheat bread
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup milk (Sometimes a little more, because I eyeball it and don’t like my french toast super eggy)
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon (If I was being honest, I probably use an entire tablespoon.)
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract (A little goes a long way, so be careful!)
• Butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Beat eggs in a bowl large enough to dip bread into. Add milk, cinnamon and vanilla and mix together.

Dip bread into mixture and let soak for 5-10 seconds. Flip and repeat.

Melt butter in a hot skillet set to medium-high and place bread into skillet. Let brown on each side (about 2-3 minutes – depending on your skillet and how brown you want your bread) and then place directly on the oven rack (or on a backing sheet with a cooling rack placed on top of it) and let cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Remove and serve immediately.

Notes: What I love about the stove to oven method, is that you can cook in bulk much easier. Make all your french toast on the stovetop and then add them to the oven at the same time so they can be served piping hot all at once! The only thing worse than soggy undercooked french toast, is cold crispy french toast.

• Recipe Yields: 4-5 pieces

Egg in the Hole

Last summer my cousin, Tyler, made me this awesome breakfast called Egg in the Hole. Sounds a little bizarre and possibly a little perverted if you have “that” kind of mind, but don’t worry, there is nothing dirty about this recipe. Basically, it is a piece of bread with a hole cut out of the center, filled with an egg served over easy. It seemed simple enough to make. I mean come on, if my 19-year-old male cousin can pull it off, I think I can handle it. With a little practice, it has turned out to be a huge success in the Grasso household. The Hubby requests them every weekend for breakfast. My favorite part about this recipe is using the extra cut out piece of bread to make a little piece of jam covered toast on the side. No need to be wasteful!

Ingredients

• Whole wheat bread (one piece per serving)
• Eggs (one per serving)
• Butter
• Salt & Pepper

Directions

Turn on the oven broiler.

Cut a hole out of your bread about 3 inches in diameter. (You can use the top of a small glass or a cookie cutter if you have one.) Lightly butter each side of the bread. and place in a heated skillet set to medium high. Brown one side and flip.

Crack egg inside the hole. (Be careful not to break the yolk.) Sprinkle a pinch of salt and a dash of pepper over the egg. Cook until bread is browned underneath and egg whites are almost cooked through.

Place in oven until reached desired doneness. I like my yolk a little gooey, almost solid, and the Hubby likes his yolk a little  more on the runny side. Everyone is different, but no matter how you make it, it turns out delowcious!

Notes: As I say with many of my projects and recipes, have fun with it. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter if you are making them for someone you love, or even a pumpkin or christmas tree shape for special holidays. Get creative, the hole does not always have to be round!

Summer Sangria

With the official first day of summer just around the corner (June 2oth), I thought it was the perfect time to post a tasty version of one of my favorite summer time drinks. Sangria! My favorite thing about sangria is the fruit that not only adds so much flavor, but absorbs the alcohol for little bites of amazingness. It reminds me of my grandpa, who was a gin gimlet man. I used to love when he would give me the highly coveted olive that was infused with a hint of gin. Just enough to give a 10-year-old a little buzz. Probably not appropriate, but I loved it, which makes me like this fruity recipe even more. What’s even better, this recipe adds a bit of kick with the help of a Serrano pepper. Love, love, love everything about this recipe, created by Jerry James Stone at TreeHugger.com

Ingredients

• 1 small carton of raspberries
• 1 small carton of strawberries
• 1 lime
• 2 apples, granny smith and a braeburn
• 1 Serrano pepper (more if you are daring)
• 1 bottle of Viognier
• ½ cup of white grape juice
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 can of club soda
• Mint leaves for garnish

Directions

For a detailed play-by-play, check out Jerry’s special recipe on TreeHugger.com

Blueberry Lavender Mojito

Ingredients

• 8-10 mint leaves
• 1 ½ parts Rum
• 1 ounce lavender syrup
• 1 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
• 10-12 blueberries
• Pinch of ground Cardamom
• Club soda

Directions

In tall glass, muddle mint leaves, Lavender syrup, lime juice, blueberries, pinch of ground cardamom and rum. Muddle just enough to combine flavors, being careful not to over-muddle. Fill glass with crushed ice. Top with club soda. Stir. Garnish with blueberries on a cocktail pick.

• Source: Drink Eat Travel
• Recipe Yields: 1 serving

Pink Lemonade Margarita

Ingredients

• 1 (12 ounce) can of frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed
• 3 (12  ounce) cans of cold water – (just use the empty pink lemonade can)
• 1 (12 ounce) can of tequila
• ½ (12 ounce) can of Grand Marnier
• Ice cubes – (I like to use crushed ice)
• Salt to rim the glasses
• 1 lime, wedged

Directions

1. Pour the (thawed) frozen lemonade concentrate into a pitcher, and fill the can with cold water.
2. Pour into the pitcher and repeat twice for a total of 3 cans of water.
3. Fill the can with tequila, and pour that into the pitcher.
4. Fill about half of the can with Grand Marnier, and pour it into the pitcher.
5. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour before serving. Or blend mixture with ice to make a frozen version.
6. Serve over ice in salt-rimmed glasses with a lime wedge!

Notes: You can also get the same delowcious looking effect with a grapefruit version from The Barefoot Contessa via There Goes My Cupcake. So whichever way your taste buds pull you, your drink will still look amazing!