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Monday, May 11, 2009

Beer Can Chicken

YUM!

If you haven't ever cooked or eaten "Chicken on a Beer Can", you need to. My parents have used this recipe several times. It's super easy and very delicious. You can use the grill or your oven. The first time Ben and I did it on our own, we used the grill. Yesterday, we used the oven. The only difference I noticed was the skin was more crispy on the grill.

Since Ben's mother cooks lunch EVERY Sunday after church, he wanted to cook the dinner for Mother's Day at our house. He found a new recipe that he wanted to try in the oven. It looked good, sounded great, but I was extremely nervous about trying a new recipe for the first time on such a big day. We would have to leave the chicken cooking while we were at church, then come home with 10 other people hungry for lunch, and just hope that it turned out. It scared me. And it turned out AWESOME! I later told Ben, "GREAT lunch. I'm glad I gave in and let you try the new recipe. Sorry I doubted you." It was so delicious!

Our only problem was the beer, ha. Living in a small town, beer can be a very bad thing to many people. Personally, I don't see the issue. Ben and I don't drink, but I don't think that it's wrong. Well, as long as you don't get plastered. My parents drink and so do a lot of my friends. I think it's fine, but like I said...in moderation. BUT...living in a small town, AND being a church youth minister, Ben is always nervous about being caught buying beer. I can understand. You probably can too; we all know how people can blow things way out of context.
So on his way home yesterday, Ben stopped to get Aidyn's football bank, my Mother's Day present, and some beer in Johnson City (about 25 min from our house). We cooked the chickens in the oven and they smelled so good when we got home from church yesterday. Our next problem was disposing of the beer cans before Ben's grandparents got there. They may have understood or possibly may have cooked with alcohol before in the past, I don't know. But we all joked that if they saw the beer...they wouldn't eat lunch. :)

Side Note: We had a Mother's Day dinner at church Saturday night. After leaving there, we went to visit our friend Karen and her husband Andy at Karen's parents' house. She and Andy live in Knoxville and were in town for the weekend. When they come in, we all get together to play games. Before Aidyn, we would sometimes be there until 3am playing games and cards. LOTS OF FUN! Now, we're usually home by 10pm or so. But anyways...we went up there and got home at 11pm. Ben still had to go to the store. So he left for Wal-mart and got home about midnight with everything we needed for Sunday's lunch.

He started getting the dry rub /seasoning ready while I washed the chickens and cut out what was left of the giblets. Yum yum. We had two 5lb chickens. Since you call a turkey Tom, I asked Ben what you call chickens. He said, "Chico". So...below are some pictures of Chico-1 and Chico-2 getting ready for their big Mother's Day debut.

Oh yeah, we finally got to bed about 1:30am. Ofcourse Aidyn was up at 2am to eat. Then we were up again at 8am to get ready for church.



Washed and cleaned. Spices rubbing inside the cavity, under the skin and on the meat, and on the outside of the skins. Uncooked bacon stuffed inside the cavity also.



Beer in their respective holders ready for Chico-1 and Chico-2 to be mounted. Smashed pieces of garlic cloves are also placed down in the beer for added flavor.




The "Chicos" ready for their outer bacon dressings before going into the oven to cook for 90 minutes on 325'.



The bacon dressings.




Chico-1 cooked and ready to eat. Juicy, tender chicken on the inside with crispy bacon on the outside.


I think the bacon on the outside was probably the best bacon I've ever eaten. I say that because it wasn't greasy. As it cooked, the grease ran down the chicken and into the pan. So it was crispy and delicious with the grease. Yum!
We also had mashed potatoes, cream cheese corn, baked beans (thanks Poppy!), and rolls. Ben's mom brought a red velvet cake, I made some Tollhouse cookies, and our friends Daniel and Rachel brought an oreo cheesecake.
It was a delicious lunch! My family was not here since my parents were on a cruise in the Caribbean. They will be back on Saturday. On my way home from church I thought I probably should have invited my brother over for lunch, although I'm not sure he would have come by himself. Maybe though...oh well. :(

1 comments:

Meg said...

That looks and sounds delicious! I'm glad it turned out so great!