Beer can chicken and other yummy things

Tonight’s meal consisted of beer can chicken, barbecued cabbage with bacon, squash and bean salad. I always love squash with my roasted chicken and tonight was no exception. I didn’t do as well at having everything ready at the same time and Abby and I were both feeling very tired and a bit grumpy so we ate things as they were cooked since Mike was out fishing and had said not to wait for him.

Carefully measuring the spices.

The beer can chicken turned out great. We borrowed a chicken roaster and a can of beer from Mike’s parents. This is not your traditional roasting pan but something that props the chicken up in a ‘standing’ position. It has a tray for catching the drips and holds a beer can. I had one little problem in cooking with it - the chicken was too tall for the barbecue. Being tired and not having my problem solving husband here to help me I put a metal bowl in the barbecue to prop the lid up a bit and tried a couple of things to keep the heat from escaping but none of them worked well. The chicken roaster's instructions actually say to make sure the lid on the barbecue is fully closed. As best as I can tell the only side effect was that it took extra propane to cook supper. I asked Mike about it when he came in and he thought he had taken the rack out of the barbecue on one side and set the chicken directly on the flavour wave plate when he'd done it before. I'm sure that would have worked perfectly.

Beer Roasted Chicken

1 whole chicken 2-4 lbs

1 can of beer

2-3 cloves of fresh garlic

poultry seasoning, fresh or dried rosemary, salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the grill on medium heat.

Rub the outside of the skin with poultry seasoning, lightly covering the entire bird. Add pepper and salt to taste.

Empty 1/2 of the can of beer into a glass or measuring cup.

Place 2-3 small cloves of garlic in beer can along with 2-3 sprigs of fresh rosemary.

Place the beer can on the base and assemble the large holders around the can of beer.

Place the chicken on the assembled roaster and if desired add the leftover beer and any additional garlic and rosemary to suit to the pan of the roaster.

Place the roaster on the grill. Cook the bird 18-20 minutes per pound or until the breast meat has reached an internal temperature of 170C.

The chicken turned out very moist and tender with lots of great flavour. Definitely another make again recipe.

Dinner time!

I cooked the squash in a metal bowl covered with foil but next time I would just wrap it in foil. The bowl seemed to make it take a lot longer to cook. It was the last thing ready to be eaten.

I have made this cabbage recipe once before but with a larger cabbage. The flavour is great and this time it was more thoroughly cooked.

Barbecued Cabbage

1 head cabbage

4 slices bacon

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp. pepper

4 tsp. butter (I didn’t bother with this - there’s enough fat in the bacon in my opinion)

Remove the outer leaves from the cabbage. Divide into four sections, removing the core. Place each on a piece of foil big enough to wrap them in. Add 1 slice of bacon, 1/4 of seasoning mix and 1 tsp. butter if desired.

Preheat oven to medium heat and bake 40 minutes, turning twice.

I let Abby have a real treat and we made S’mores on the barbecue. I know you’re supposed to have a campfire to do that but we just never seem to get around to making one. She loves all of the ingredients and was excited to watch the marshmallows puff up on the barbecue. I set the crackers directly on the grill but it would probably be better if they were on a tray or foil as we almost lost Abby’s marshmallows on the grill and some of my chocolate melted onto the grill. It seemed like such a shame to not be able to lick it off.

Mmmm... chocolatey, marshmallowy goodness.