Beer Can Chicken, a Guest Recipe from Andy

We gave Andy and his family some dried herbs from our garden for Christmas. He coated a chicken with them, refrigerated for 24 hours, and then made this Beer Can Chicken:

We like beer can chicken. It's dead simple, easy to clean up, keeps the chicken moist, entertains Abby... it's a winner. I'd recommend getting one of the can stands; they sell them in kitchen stores or even in the supermarket for like 5 bucks. The stand makes it easy to stabilize the chicken, although I've done it with just the can as well. Any beer works or really anything in a can... I've used Dr. Pepper. Just jam a bunch of your favorite spices in the cavity, drink a little of the beer, jam some more spices in the beer can and poke a few more holes in the top of the can, shove the chicken on so its legs are hanging down, maybe put a little olive oil and spices on the outside, put it on the grill on medium (if it's gas) for about an hour and 15 minutes for a 5 pound bird... a little longer for a larger bird... easy. I take it off the grill with a couple metal spatulas and put it on a big wooden cutting board to rest and cut.

A Beach Camping Trip

Nothing derails this blog like its two authors meeting up in real life, huh? We had a great time camping, cooking, and drinking with you, Mom (and Dad).


Here's dinner from the second night of our family trip to Edisto Beach State Park: shrimp from Flowers Seafood, marinated in lime juice and assorted spices from your camper (cumin, chile powder, oregano, salt) and grilled over an expensive wood fire; green beans with tomatoes and cheese; and a quinoa pilaf that was surprisingly toasty and nutty for being made in a nonstick pan over a tiny burner. Excellent job with that, Mom.

The firewood was purchased from the Edisto Piggly Wiggly and cost $3.99 for a tiny bundle. It came with a sewn-on carrying handle.

100% oak AND hickory.

I still can't believe all four of us (plus Emily the dog) comfortably ate dinner in your trailer.

Grilled Chicken Wings

In Chew On This! last week I said teriyaki wings were useless, that the only proper role of a chicken wing is as a vehicle for hot sauce. But I forgot about Lawson's chicken wings. So to make up for my overgeneralization, here the recipe.

Buy a few pounds of chicken wings. We usually get about 20 to share between the two of us if it's the main dish (which is a little too much) -- around 2 pounds, a mix of drumettes and wingy parts. Earth Fare has them on sale a lot, all trimmed and fresh and organic. The above are not trimmed and are from Piggly Wiggly, but they were okay, too.

Sprinkle wings with a few teaspoons of five-spice powder, if desired. Then marinate wings in a ziplock bag containing:

1 part soy sauce
2 parts water
several star anise pods

Prepare a wood and/or charcoal fire (here it's a mix of hickory and generic woodpile wood) and let it burn down to hot coals. Grill wings for 30-50 minutes, staring intently at them as they cook (at least that's what Lawson does), turning often enough that they don't burn but not so often that they stick to the grate. When they're done, the fat should be rendered out and the skin browned but not burned.

I think there's probably some other secret to Lawson's technique, but this is what I've observed. Jason, give it a try and see if it's right!

Grilled Lamb Meatballs

Last night we drank too much and experimented with ground lamb.

Lawson made some Middle Eastern meatballs out of ground lamb, onion, coriander and cumin seeds (toasted and ground), parsley, almonds, salt and pepper, and a touch of cinnamon. But we couldn't agree on whether he should use the food processor or not, so he tried both and we compared them.

Verdict: The food-processed meatballs were much gooier, much harder to thread onto skewers, but the flavor and texture were far superior to the coarser, hand-chopped balls.

The food processor gave us a much more authentically fine, blended texture. I finally understand why Claudia Roden's lamb and beef recipes call for further mincing or processing of already ground meat -- it's a whole different thing. Unlike burgers, where the whole point is the uniform pieces of fat that melt and tenderize, or meatloaf, where excess handling makes the meat tough, lamb meatballs and other spiced Middle Eastern meats really do need to be finely minced or processed.

How convenient: the superior method is way, way easier!

The processed balls are much lighter in color because the onion was processed and distributed throughout instead of in small minced pieces.

To go with the meatballs I made some excellent Jasmati rice; a raita of chopped mint, cilantro, salt, and yogurt; and roasted eggplant slices marinated in basil, garlic, and wine vinegar from the Viana La Place cookbook you sent me a while back. So nothing really matched in country of origin but it all went together perfectly.

Return to Hot Chicken

Tonight we are having, for the third time this weekend, barbecued chicken.

On Friday our friends Ken and Melanie had us over for dinner. They made risotto and steamed vegetables, and they grilled some chicken legs and wings over hardwood charcoal. The chicken was covered in a perfectly balanced classic barbecue sauce made in large batches by Melanie's mother.

Lawson became immediately obsessed and spent the next day reading about barbecue sauces and adding hardwood charcoal and chicken parts to my grocery list. His sauce that night wasn't great -- it mostly tasted like the hoisin sauce he added -- but the chicken was nicely grilled, with crispy skin. We had it with good creamy grits and sauteed spinach. I forgot to take a picture before we ate, but here is what my plate looked like after:



Well, today Lawson announced that he is going to try again. He returned from the store with still more chicken parts and charcoal, plus an enormous bottle of Hunt's ketchup (bleccch! Hunt's tastes like tomato paste.) This time we will eat chicken with sourdough bread and roasted beets, I think. Here is the bread still in the oven: