Kitchen fun!
Feb. 17th, 2002 10:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sierciaSo, in the vein of more kitchen experimenting, I tried something new today... Beer-can Chicken.
First thing that was new was brining the chicken. I know a bazillion people (including the folks at Cook's Illustrated) that SWEAR by this as a preparation method. Essentially, take cold water, mix in kosher salt and sugar, and let the bird soak in the water for anywhere from 2 to 8 hours. Pull it out, rinse it off, dry it, cook it.
Which is where the beer can comes in. beer can chicken is so named because you upend the chicken onto a 2/3 full can of beer, and insert it into the "cavity" of the bird. So, the chicken stands up to roast, and the beer heats up, produces steam, and cooks the bird from the inside with moist heat. Add a spice rub to the inside of the cavity, and you've got steam heat forcing flavor through the bird. The recipes I had seen for this all claimed that the combination of brining and beer would make for an incredibly moist chicken, and they were not wrong.
It was delicious. And I still have half the chicken to nibble on. Now I round out the meal with some Ben and Jerry's, and it's a pretty good day.
Oh, and those of you who haven't, should check out Tako the Octopus on Deep Fried Live. Go to 8legged.com, click on Deep Fried Live and watch the cartoons. They're a stitch!
First thing that was new was brining the chicken. I know a bazillion people (including the folks at Cook's Illustrated) that SWEAR by this as a preparation method. Essentially, take cold water, mix in kosher salt and sugar, and let the bird soak in the water for anywhere from 2 to 8 hours. Pull it out, rinse it off, dry it, cook it.
Which is where the beer can comes in. beer can chicken is so named because you upend the chicken onto a 2/3 full can of beer, and insert it into the "cavity" of the bird. So, the chicken stands up to roast, and the beer heats up, produces steam, and cooks the bird from the inside with moist heat. Add a spice rub to the inside of the cavity, and you've got steam heat forcing flavor through the bird. The recipes I had seen for this all claimed that the combination of brining and beer would make for an incredibly moist chicken, and they were not wrong.
It was delicious. And I still have half the chicken to nibble on. Now I round out the meal with some Ben and Jerry's, and it's a pretty good day.
Oh, and those of you who haven't, should check out Tako the Octopus on Deep Fried Live. Go to 8legged.com, click on Deep Fried Live and watch the cartoons. They're a stitch!
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Date: 2002-02-18 01:29 am (UTC)Like the lady said....
Date: 2002-02-18 06:37 am (UTC)And also like the lady said, go to http://www.8legged.com/ and check out the site. They've got recipes there, and the animations are worth the time to watch.
Well,
Date: 2002-02-18 07:40 am (UTC)The brine I used was 1 qt water, 1/2 cup kosher salt, 1/2 cup sugar per pound of meat, for an hour per pound, not to exceed 8 hours.
The spice rub I used was
2 tbsp ground cumin
2 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp ground allspice
1 tbsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground cinnamon (which, incidentally I forgot)
But, realy, I think any spice rub that's good on a chicken would work for this - this was just the one that was in Cook's Illustrated. You don't end up with beer-flavoured chicken, so there's no need to worry about a flavour conflict.
Rub the spices all over the bird - on the skin, on the breast meat under the skin, and inside the cavity. This part gets your hands really gunky.
Open a 12 oz can of beer (brand does not seem to matter in the slightest) and pour out 4 oz. or so. Some recipes say to punch a couple extra holes in the top, some don't. I didn't, because I forgot.
Set the can in a roasting/baking pan, and slide the open end of the chicken onto it.
I've seen different time and temp recommendations. I did 500 degrees for 15 minutes, then 350 for about another hour. Cooking time will vary with the size of your bird, but you want to cook it until a meat thermometer in the deep part of the thigh reads 165-175 degrees. My bird was a little under 6 pounds, and took an hour and fifteen. The recipes I've seen all say for a 4-5 pound bird, it should take an hour or so.
addicted to the octopus
Date: 2002-02-18 05:43 pm (UTC)(now of course i'm craving sushi and deep fried turkey......deep fried sushi?)