May 28

Pullet surprise

I’ve posted here before about beer can chicken, which I make in the oven rather than on the grill. You use the same wire rack and a can of beer (or soda or whatever), and set the whole thing in a baking dish, into which you pour a little of the beer.

A few weeks ago, I found a pan at Walmart designed for cooking a chicken vertically in an oven. It looks like a round cake pan with a big cone sticking up out of the middle. The chicken goes down over the cone the way it would normally go down over the beer can, and if you like you can put veggies in the pan to cook in the chicken drippings.

It actually works pretty well, and I’m using it for the second time tonight. I thought the whole point of beer can chicken was that you were steaming the inside of the chicken, and this design doesn’t do that exactly, but I think the cone probably conducts some heat and has the same effect.

Oct 23

Carne asada + Carney – carne + pollo = ?

The last time I was at a Mexican restaurant, I had the carne asada, a wonderful seasoned steak. When in the grocery store a day or two later, I saw Chef Merito carne asada seasoning in the Latino foods aisle and bought it. I tried it on beef and it was good.

Well, tonight I had a chicken and planned to make beer can chicken (in the oven, not on the grill). I love cooking beer can chicken, and it’s a great Friday project because I can eat leftover chicken all weekend.

When you make beer can chicken, you generally use a dry seasoning, and I started to wonder what it would be like to use the carne asada seasoning, not on carne, but on pollo. Yes, it’s labeled as being for red meat. (I see on the web site that the same company makes a chicken seasoning, which I don’t recall seeing at the grocery.) But I felt like the flavor of the seasoning would be just as good on chicken. Call me a rebel, but don’t call me late for supper.

I am now watching the digital readout of my probe thermometer with great anticipation, waiting for it to get to the target temperature. I will let you know how it turns out.