Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Well, she took me to the river/Where she cast a spell/And in that Southern moonlight/She sang this song so well - Soda can chicken

As usual, the sales at the grocery store today made my dinner decisions for me. Whole chickens on sale for 69 cents a pound, and nice weather could only mean beer can chicken. As far as vegetables go, my produce department 'clearance' rack obsession hit pay dirt today. I got two bunches of rapini (I LOVE rapini), two bags of a fresh green bean medley, a large package of zucchini and yellow squash, and two packages of oyster mushrooms. Gosh I love that rack! It was all plenty fresh and super cheap.

When I meandered over to the beer aisle to find a cheap six-pack for the chicken, I was surprised to find no 12 oz. six-packs. There were plenty of 12-packs and a few six-packs of tall boys. Weird. I didn't want to buy a 12-pack of beer that I wouldn't drink and the Boy wouldn't like, so I spotted the section of flavored sodas and settled on a pineapple orange one. I've never really noticed the taste of the beer in a beer can chicken so I figured it would work.

Since I was using pineapple orange soda, I thought teriyaki flavors would work. To prepare the chicken for those flavors, I rubbed it with salt, pepper and garlic and sprinkled the cavity with salt. I poured out half of the soda and then added garlic powder, onion powder and a lot of black pepper before propping the chicken up on the can. Midway through cooking, I glazed it with a teriyaki glaze mixed with a bit of orange juice and some lime juice.

Here's the little darling, about two-thirds of the way towards done. Yeah, I gave her a smiling face and a hat.

And here is the end result, with brown rice and sauteed squash.

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