Beer Can Chicken Avec Chef Jason

Inspired by the chicken at Man Camp & Gustad Mody's post, I hatched a diabolical plan to hook up some beer can chicken for a few friends. This was actually a dry run for tomorrows TC meal, so I didn't invite the boys, or take pictures (except for the one above, d'oh!). Having decided that the meal was suitably awesome, but not awesome enough to eat twice in 3 days, I changed tomorrows menu, so I'm safe to blog. I'll have to make this for the TC crew on another occasion.

So I'm texting away like a madman on Monday & I soon realize that 'a few friends' has ballooned into 14 people. I've never cooked for that many people before, or ever thought about it, so I was somewhat daunted.

Needless to say, I got a bit of a late start on Tuesday after a late night of poker & sake. I had already marinated the chicken though, thankfully. I started cooking in earnest around 3pm & dinner was set for 6, so I needed to hurry. I started by baking a 9" banana cake. I must have had a hole in my measuring cup as it came out less spongy than desired & took much longer to cook, but was still very tasty when paired with Vanilla Bean ice cream. I was forced to put in my 2 loaves of Cranberry Walnut bread into the oven with the cake due to time constraints. It gave the bread a 'banana tinge' which actually was very pleasant.

Now onto the good stuff. There's something life changing about putting a can of beer up a chicken's ass. Sort of like getting chosen last in gym class or your first kiss - you'll never forget it. I bought a massive 33oz can of this wacky Danish Ale from the supermarket, but was forced to pour it into 2 Bud cans so it could fit in the chickens. Pepper corns, garlic rosemary & thyme went in there as well. I propped the little suckers up in a baking dish & voila!

The recipe said 1 hour at 350, but stupid me; that's for 1 chicken! They took a lot longer to cook, but I plied the ravenous horde with a green salad with almonds, cherry tomatoes & my trademark mustard honey dressing. By the time the chicken was done my yam & garlic mash was done too.

So there we were, huddled around my table, coffee table & any other flat surface we could get our hands on. We ate, drank & talked late into the night & nary a bone was left. Good times!