Beer Marinated Chicken

By Somer

All I hear about when I talk about grilling chicken is Beer Can Chicken.  It’s all the rage right now.  I’ve always wanted to try it.  It looks absolutely delicious and juicy.  However, since I live in a rental with just a tiny slab of concrete for outdoor living space, I only have a tiny charcoal hibachi on which to do my outdoor cooking.  Obviously I cannot make Beer Can Chicken on this tiny grill so I came up with a slightly different alternative.  The outcome was a juicy, smokey, flavorful dish that almost brought my husband to tears (because it was so delicious.  He can be emotional over food).

Beer Marinated Butterfly Chicken

(My recipe)

3 bottles of beer (a darker beer like an ale would be best)

one bulb of garlic (that’s a whole head, folks!)

1 Tblsp. salt

1/2 Tblsp. black pepper

1 6-7 lb. whole chicken, butterflied

First of all, clean your chicken after you have taken it out of its packaging.  Check for any stray feathers and quills and give it a good rinsing under the faucet.  Pat it dry and get ready to do some cutting.  Butterflying a chicken is really easy, just make sure your knife is adequately sharp or else you’re going to cut your bloody finger off!

Just sit the chicken up on it’s little butt and turn it so that you are looking at it’s back.  You are going to need to cut the backbone out, so just feel with your fingers for where it is and start from the top and work your way down.  You’re mainly going to be cutting through little rib bones so it’s not terribly difficult, just be careful.

It comes out pretty clean.  Don’t throw away that backbone, though!  Save it for chicken stock!

The next thing you want to do is lay the chicken down flat so that the inside is facing you.  Feel for the bone right in the center of the breast and knick it with your knife near the top.  Then simply use your hands to split it (the bone) down the middle.

Once the bone has split, use your fingers to pull out the breast and rib bones so that the breasts are bone-free.  And now you have butterflied a chicken.  Congratulations!  Now wash everything with hot soapy water and make sure there is not a single drop of raw chicken juice anywhere!  Wash your hands and make sure you get under your fingernails as well (if you have any).  Gotta make sure you are very careful when working with raw poultry.

Now, mince all of the cloves from an entire bulb of garlic and place them in a large container.  Add the three bottles of beer and salt and pepper and mix well.  Add the chicken, skin side up, into the marinade and swish about to get things mixed.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

When you retrieve this for cooking the next day, I must warn you…..there is going to be a hell of a smell coming from that bowl.  That entire head of garlic along with that strong beer makes for a strong odor!  It’s not a bad odor, just really really strong.  Don’t worry, though.  Marinades are supposed to be strong.

Now, when it comes to charcoal grills, the best accessory is the charcoal chimney (that doo hickey on the left).  Simply fill the tall part with charcoal, stuff the bottom with newspaper or kindling and light it.  The kindling being on the bottom and burning will get the charcoal going without the aid of lighter fluid, which is good because if you use lighter fluid, the food can tend to taste..well, like lighter fluid.  Don’t dump the coals into your grill until they are mostly white (at this point they are HOT HOT HOT).  Once you have dumped the coals into the grill, run inside and prepare the chicken for grilling!

Now certainly you know that you should have had the chicken setting out to come close to room temperature for at least 15 minutes before you were going to grill it, right?  Ok, good.  Now pat the chicken dry with a paper towel, brush the skin lightly with some olive oil and sprinkle the skin with some paprika.  The paprika isn’t for flavoring, it adds a gorgeous color though.  Once this has been accomplished, lay your chicken on the grill skin down and cook for at least 8 minutes per side (depending on the heat of your grill).  Turn once and make sure to keep the lid closed during cooking.

When the chicken is done cooking, let it rest for 5 minutes before serving.  You won’t have to do much cutting.  If you didn’t overcook the chicken, it will be falling apart and juicy.

What we ended up with was an extremely juicy and tender chicken that was very savory due to the marinade but not really tasting too heavily of either the garlic or the beer.  It was delicious.  I hope you can try this and show it off to some friends.  Enjoy!

Cinco de Mayo Feast

By Somer

Happy Cinco de Mayo everybody!  As you know, today is a day to celebrate Mexican heritage.  Since I love Mexican food, I always like to celebrate the fifth of May every year by making a Mexican feast.  Sometimes it is a simple plate of tacos and tortilla chips with salsa and other times it is a more complicated feast.  I went for something a little more complicated this year and it was delicious.  Ok kids, brace yourselves.  This is going to be a long one……

I wanted to make fajitas with a marinated skirt or flank steak.  Alas, my grocer was not carrying those cuts of meat (weird…) so I ended up buying a brisket.  I made a marinade for the brisket and let it marinate overnight.  I then slow roasted the brisket in a 250 degree F oven for 5 hours to ensure tenderness.  Here’s how to do it:

Marinade:

zest and juice of 1 lime

1 Tblsp. garlic powder

1 Tblsp. onion powder

2 tsp. dried oregano

1 tsp. dried chili powder

1/2 Tblsp. salt

1/4 Tblsp. black pepper

4 chipotle peppers, finely chopped (I use the canned ones in adobo sauce)

1 Tblsp. adobo sauce (from the can)

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Just mix it all together (it will be a thick paste) and cover both sides of the meat and store in an airtight container overnight.  Cook the meat on a sheet pan and when it has finished cooking, cover it in aluminum foil for 45 minutes before cutting.  After you cut the meat, saute lightly in a skillet with sliced onions and then serve with tortillas.

I also decided to make guacamole and pico de gallo as condiments for the fajitas.  These are super easy dishes and are very fresh tasting in contrast with the savory meat.

I prefer a creamy guacamole over a coarse one.  Simply throw 1 avacado (peeled, and roughly chopped), 3 cloves of garlic (also peeled and roughly chopped), and the zest and juice of 1 lime into a food processor and process until smooth.  Easy easy.

For the Pico de Gallo, dice and deseed one large tomato, place it in a bowl.  Finely chop one jalapeno pepper, 1/3 cup of onion (minced) and 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro.  Zest and juice 1 lime and toss with the tomato mixture.  Bam,  Pico de Gallo.  Easy easy.

Simply spread the guacamole on your tortilla, add your meat and onions, then top with the Pico de Gallo and roll.  It’s very delicious and fresh tasting.  The perfect way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.

I would be remiss if I neglected a wonderful drink to go with this festive meal.  I’m not much of a beer drinker, so my next option was a Lime Margarita.  I love a fresh margarita, i.e. it doesn’t come in a pre-mixed form.  I saw Ina Garten (Food Network Barefoot Contessa….my favorite FN cook!) make a fresh margarita once and wrote down the recipe.  I’ve been dying to make this drink and was happy that I finally had an excuse.  Here’s the recipe:

Margarita

Ina Garten

1 lime, halved

kosher salt

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

the juice of 1 lemon

1 cup Triple Sec

1 cup White Tequila

3 cups ice

I made my mix ahead of time in a cocktail pitcher and put it in the refrigerator to chill before blending with ice.

Simply mix the lime juice, lemon juice, Triple Sec and Tequila together.  When ready to blend, put the 3 cups of ice in your blender and blend with the mix until frothy.  Use the halved lime to rum along the rims of your cocktail glasses and dip into a shallow dish containing the kosher salt.  This is a fresh tasting and delicious margarita.  I’ll be making this for my mom this summer and we’ll drink it pool-side.

Oh yeah, I promised a finished picture of my Key Lime Pie:

I let my whipped cream sit out a little too long so it was deflated when I piped it onto my pie.  It still looks nice.  It was a very good Key Lime Pie, especially with that pretzel crust.  Please try that recipe.  It doesn’t get any easier and it is very good.

Happy Cinco de Mayo everybody!  I hope you enjoyed it as much as my family and I did!  Enjoy!