I am not, repeat NOT, calling Representative Boebert a chicken. That would be an insult to a bird that feeds much of the world. No. This Colorado State Open Thread is not going to prattle on about all the stupidity of what she’s been doing over the last couple of weeks (there’s more than just the issue of the theater). This Colorado State Open Thread is focused more on my activity from yesterday. All those interested in cooking on a wood-fired grill can continue reading and enjoy. Those interested in politics might find the offerings rather thin this time around.
A Beer Can Chicken is a recipe I’ve made a number of times. It can (heh) be made using an actual beer can and a chicken (the original meaning of the name), but I’ve improved the experience because beer cans might have some additional things that wouldn’t be good to consume. The beer inside is fine, but heating a beer can on a grill can cause paint flakes, metal shavings and various other things to potentially be added and I am not fond of those.
You can, and people do, use different types of beer for the base sauce. I’m good with an ale, but you can use IPA, stout, or any other type of liquid. The “stand” is made for this recipe and can be found online or in some BBQ sections of hardware or BBQ stores. Maybe even cooking equipment stores. I just used salt and pepper for the rub because I was going to glaze the chicken, but you can use any herbs and spices you like with roast chicken. You don’t have room to stuff the chicken so don’t plan on putting onion chunks in, or garlic cloves or citrus fruit. You can put herbs and such under the skin to add to the flavor. Pour the beer into the “stand” and the plop the chicken on top, tail down.
If you’re using a can, you do the same thing with the can as you do with the stand. I do recommend if you’re using something you will use again, spray it with a non-stick spray. If you’re using a beer can, don’t bother. One more point — a can can be rather tipsy, so be careful moving and placing one on a grill.
The wood-fired pellet grill I have is 17 years old, made by Traeger, and I don’t worry much about what type of wood I use. I use a blend of woods that they sell at Costco, but any wood will probably get you a good flavor. Except Mesquite, which is rather smokey and that should be used for meats like beef and sausages. This combo is apple, oak and hickory, if I remember correctly. I use it for everything. The grill allows me to set a temperature, and I use 325 degrees. The top and hotter side of the grill is on the right side (you can even see some smoke headed out the smokestack if you look close enough) and the temperature gauge I installed on the top of the grill read 375 degrees. The heat circulates, but it also rises so that’s where the discrepancy comes from.
I glazed the chicken with an orange sauce (I really like orange flavoring in most any dish) after about an hour. The chicken had about 30 minutes to go, which is about right for putting a glaze on, be it orange glaze, BBQ sauce or some preserves or ham glaze. Much longer than that and you can wind up with the sugar in the glaze blackening and charring.
My guides for meat say to cook until it’s at 165-180 degrees in the thigh or a deep part of the breast. This would be the temperature when it’s done cooking — when you’ve cooked meat, you’re usually instructed to take it off the heat a bit before that point, as the meat continues to rise a few degrees in doneness as it rests. One other tricky point for a bird is the breast (white meat) and thigh/leg (dark meat) are supposed to be cooked to minimums of two different temperatures. You can dry out the white meat if you cook it longer just to make sure the dark is properly cooked if you don’t take care. I just cook them to average them out. So far, in several decades, I’ve never given guests food poisoning (that I know of). Another way to cook is to separate the pieces so the dark meat cooks longer than the white meat. Do it how your parents (not going to assume mother, like I had) taught you. Or, there’s this useful thing called the Internet that will give you all sorts of tricks for how long to cook meat of all sorts to get their perfect results.
When you’re done cooking, you’ll need to remove the chicken plus stand/beer can from the grill or oven. The stand/beer can will still be mostly full of beer, chicken juice and fat drippings, and it loves to spill hot liquid all over the place if you let it. I pulled the chicken off the stand and put it on this large serving dish to minimize the spill, and you can see I was pretty successful. Take it from me, you do not want to spill the liquid on yourself or on a hungry dog that’s hanging around, hoping for some free food.
At this point, it’s time to let it rest for 10-15 minutes so that juices can be reabsorbed back into the chicken. You can prepare the side dishes and call everyone to ooh and aah at your creation.
Bon appetit!
This isn’t a usual Colorado State Open Thread, but I didn’t want to spill any more pixels on the District 3 embarrassment. There has been plenty else going on in the state and I’ve talked enough. Please talk amongst yourselves in the comment section below. Please let me know if you liked this diversion into cooking and whatever else is on your mind as Colorado enjoys a beautiful slide into Winter. We’ve lost a lot of leaves up here, but we still have a lot to go. Elkfest takes place this weekend to celebrate the end of the season and the competition for the ladies by the bulls, so please give the elk a wide berth.
The Broncos have been lousy on the football field so far this fall, losing by 50 points yesterday, the Rockies are in the process of losing 100 games for the first time in franchise history, the Avalanche are just getting started on their pre-season after having the best record in hockey and then losing in the first round of the playoffs, and the Denver Nuggets are about to start the defense of their NBA title. On the college level, CU was grounded by Oregon almost as bad as the Broncos were, Air Force is now 4-0 and CSU is now 1-2 after having beaten powerhouse (ahem) Middle Tennessee State.
Now, the floor is yours. Please let us know what is happening in your corner of Colorado.