Beer Can Chicken on the Grill

My husband and I first made beer can chicken shortly after we were married.  For whatever reason, we weren't impressed. We had bought one of those metal devices you can use to put the beer can in and balance the chicken.  Fast forward seven years and we're spending a summer night cleaning out our garage (and making two trips with a packed mini-van to Goodwill!) and I find the beer can chicken gadget. I decided that we should give beer can chicken another go.

This time we make the chicken, we live in the desert and it's hot, hot, hot outside. I love using the grill every chance we can get and roasting a chicken outside is perfect for our current lifestyle.  This time, I fall in love with the chicken. The skin is perfectly crisp and the meat is perfectly moist inside.  Our family inhaled a 4 pound bird. We grilled our chicken on a round baking sheet, just for ease of moving the bird in and out of the house.

I saw a website call this "Coq Au Can" - and that's my new name for it!

Beer Can Chicken on the Grill (or Grilled Coq Au Can)
1 3-4 pound chicken
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper
Paprika
Italian Spices
Seasoned Salt
1 can of beer, root beer, soda, whatever you want

Remove innards and neck from chicken.  Pat dry.

Prepare rub (this is my husband's "home rub"): mix together salt, pepper, paprika, Italian spice mix, and seasoned salt in a small bowl. Use as much as you like for each flavor, about equal amounts, but watch the salt!

Pour out half the liquid from your can.  Set can inside metal holder, if you have one.  Otherwise, put chicken over can and place on a baking sheet.  Rub chicken all over with olive oil, then rub on the spice mixture.

Turn on the heat on only one side of your grill and allow grill to warm up.  Place chicken on the OTHER SIDE of the grill (cook it off heat). Close the top and walk away.  Half-way through your cooking time (around 30 minutes) rotate the chicken 180 degrees so that the sides of chicken are evenly crisped.

We cooked our chicken with the grill on high heat and it was done in under an hour. I would suggest using a lower cooking temp, but it's not necessary. Just rotate the chicken so all sides are evenly browned. Use a meat thermometer to determine doneness by inserting the thermometer in to the thigh area. Chicken is done at 180 degrees.

Chinese Chicken Salad

Salads are perfect summer meals.  I try to make one "main course" salad a week. I like to make sure to include some form of protein in a main course salad in order to make it feel more like a meal.  The best part is that main course salads are one dish meals. Make the salad and you are done!

We all loved this salad. In fact, we ran out before everyone got their fill (oops!). My uber picky 4 year old did not eat salads so I put aside some of the chicken for her . If your child likes honey mustard for dipping, you could give them some chicken and dressing. I used leftover grilled chicken breasts on the bone when I made this. But you could cook your own, use a store bought rotisserie chicken, use canned chicken - whatever would work.

Chinese Chicken Salad
1 large head of lettuce, torn or chopped in to bite size pieces
2 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
5-6 green onions, diced
Shredded cheese
Chow mein noodles
Honey Mustard Dijon dressing

Toss all ingredients together in a large bowl. You can pour the dressing on the salad and toss, or add to individual bowls.

Adapted from Tammy's Kitchen Recipes.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Hmmm... doesn't LOOK so appetizing, but they are really good!

It's kind of funny how you get something stuck in your head for no apparent reason and it won't go away until you do something about it! Or maybe that's just me (and it explains a closet FULL of various arts and crafts projects that never happened).  I got it in my head that Chicken Lettuce Wraps sounded like the perfect summertime meal.  The idea of nice fresh lettuce wrapped around a light delicious protein mixture just struck a chord with me. So of course, I had to make them.

I haven't had them at a restaurant in close to ten years so I can't  vouch for whether or not these taste like Pei Wei or P.F. Changs, but they were very tasty! My husband loved them.  I thought the kids would really dig them, but not so much (except our 2 year old son who just pretty much digs FOOD!).

This is a mix of two different recipes -- one from Food Network Magazine and the other from AllRecipes.com. I used ground chicken because I had it, but feel free to dice up boneless breasts or thighs.  I doubled this recipe using 2 pounds of ground chicken and 1 box of firm tofu.  I keep a lot of these Chinese ingredients on hand because we like to cook our own Chinese food.  Most of it will last you a good year or so. I did however, make my own hoison sauce (which I will post).  Be careful of the oyster sauce -- some brands contain MSG, but others don't. Just read the label carefully.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Sauce
2 Tablespoons oyster sauce
1 Tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon dry white wine
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons Arrowroot powder (or corn starch)
1/3 cup water

Whisk all ingredients together and set aside.

1 1/2 pounds diced or ground chicken
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon peeled ginger, minced (you can use powdered, but it's not as flavorful)
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced (WEAR GLOVES!)
4 scallions, chopped in to 1/4 inch pieces
1/2 pound mushrooms, stemmed and diced
3/4 cup water chestnuts, diced (I did not use these)
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 head of iceberg, Boston bibb or butter lettuce, cut in to quarters

In a large skillet, heat 2 Tablespoons of oil (peanut is great!) over medium high heat. Cook chicken until cooked through. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon.

Add 2 Tablespoons oil to pan and heat until almost smoking. Add ginger, jalapeno, garlic, scallions, salt and sugar to pan. Cook for 30 seconds. Add mushrooms and water chestnuts and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add sauce and chicken and cook for 1 minute. (Optional: stir in peanuts)

Serve mixture in lettuce leaves and eat like a taco!

Potato and Leek Soup

I have been wanting to try Julia Child's potato and leek soup recipe  Even though it was over 100 degrees today, I couldn't turn down the opportunity to make the recipe with potatoes and leeks we picked ourselves. We picked the produce in the morning and made soup in the evening.

Our 11 year old is responsible for cooking dinner once a week so she actually made the soup.She was very proud of her dinner and was begging our picky 4 year old to just try a little bit!

It's amazing that water, potatoes, leeks, salt, and pepper make such a delicious meal. We figured out that it cost about $.75 to make a gigantic pot of soup. We added in a scoop of sour cream and served the soup with shredded cheddar cheese on top.

Potato and Leek Soup (Julia Child)
4 cups sliced leeks
4 cups diced potatoes
7 cups water
2 teaspoons salt
Pepper to taste
Optional: sour cream to taste

In  a heavy 3 quart pot, bring the leeks, potatoes and water to a boil.  Add salt to taste, partially cover, and allow to simmer for 20-30 minutes or until vegetables are tender.  Puree soup with an immersion blender. Add in salt and pepper to taste, sour cream, butter, cheese, etc.

Serves 6-8.

How to Make Homemade Pizza, Part 1: The Dough

Pizza dough can be as easy or as complicated as you want it to be. I've made pizza dough in 5 minutes and I've made pizza dough over a few hours. You can really use any bread recipe you like as your pizza dough. Just shorten or skip the rise unless you like a thicker, breadier crust, then by all means let that baby rise!

I think the easiest way to make pizza dough is just to use a hunk of Artisan Bread in 5 minutes A Day Master Recipe. I almost always have this dough in my fridge and in a pinch, I scoop out a hunk, roll it out and go. The crust is FABULOUS!

My current favorite dough is Camille's (nope, not me!) Best Ever Bread Dough. While this dough requires a few more ingredients and steps than most pizza doughs I've used, it is truly impossible to mess up. It also has a magnificent flavor. I love that there is no need to let the dough rise. At all. I make 4 pizzas out the recipe.

The basic pizza dough recipe below is the one that started it all for us. We still use this recipe on a regular basis and I love it.

The best thing about pizza dough is that you can freeze it! I always make a double batch (or in the Best Ever Bread Dough, I just freeze half that single batch) and freeze. I wrap the dough in plastic wrap and tuck it way back in the freezer so that it freezes quickly. I then put the frozen dough in a freezer bag. I'm not perfect at thawing it and I'm trying to pin down a precise thawing process. I like to give it enough time to thaw and warm up and rise just a bit so I know the yeast is good to go. How long that takes just depends on the time of year. But I usually let it sit out on the counter all day long.

Basic Pizza Dough
1 cup warm water
1 package dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon sugar
2 Tablespoons oil (I like olive oil)
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups all purpose flour (you can substitute some whole wheat)

In a bowl, mix yeast, sugar, and water. Add in olive oil, salt and 1 1/2 cups of flour. Mix to combine. Keeping adding flour by 1/4 cups until the dough is smooth and tacky, but not too sticky. Bread dough should almost always have a little annoying stick to it. Let dough rest for 5 minutes, covered, up to 2 hours.

Do you have a favorite pizza dough? I'd love to try it out!

Homemade Spaghetti and Meatballs in the Slow Cooker

There are probably thousands of recipes you can find on-line for homemade marinara sauce and meatballs. I am on a continual search for a go-to recipe.  The December 2010 edition of Cook's Illustrated magazine takes up the challenge of a "better" spaghetti and meatballs. I gave the recipes a go, making my own changes to make the recipe a bit more pantry friendly.  For example, the Cook's Illustrated recipe calls for Knox Gelatin for the meatballs. While I agree it probably plumps them up nicely, Knox Gelatin is expensive and I never have it on hand so I skipped it.I also cooked my sauce in my Crock Pot instead of the oven.

I was really pleased with how this turned out. I made the meatballs two days before I made the marinara. It was nice to make the marinara in the morning and just let it simmer in the Crock Pot all day long until we were ready to eat! This will easily feed 6-7 adults -- with meatballs left over for the freezer.

Homemade Meatballs
1 1/2 cups finely ground bread crumbs (preferably panko)
Just over 1 cup buttermilk
3 large eggs
3 pounds 85% lean ground beef (or 2 lbs beef/1lb pork or turkey)
1 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley (or fresh, if you have it)
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine bread crumbs and buttermilk in a large bowl (this is a panade). Let sit, mashing with fork every once and a while, until a smooth paste forms.  Add eggs, meat, parsley, garlic, Parmesan and salt and pepper. Using hands, knead the mixture until it is uniform making sure that the panade is fully integrated and mashed up (or you end up with mini-bread balls in your meat!)

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Line a jelly roll pan with foil. Roll meat mixture in to 2 inch balls. Place meatballs on prepared pan. I put any extras in a glass baking dish and bake them in there. Roast until browned.

Homemade Slow Cooker Marinara Sauce
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1-2 onions grated
6 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
6 Tablespoons dry white wine
Salt, pepper and sugar to taste
10-12 cups of tomato sauce (mine was homemade from cooking down tomatoes)

Heat olive oil in pot or pan. Add onion and cook until soften and golden around edges, about 6-8 minutes. Add garlic, red pepper flakes and oregano and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add in wine and tomato sauce and bring to a simmer. Once simmering transfer sauce in to the crock of slow cooker.  Add in about 20 meatballs if desired. Cook on low for as long as desired, but at least a few hours, I like 4 hours. Add in salt, pepper, and sugar to taste. I use about 3/4 Tablespoon of sugar. I also added in chopped fresh basil at the end.