Chicken Wazoo

Wellllll... really it's called Beer Can Chicken.

Since it's been a hot day, I decided to use the outside grill, so, Chicken Wazoo it was. You take a 4 to 5 pound chicken, crack open a beer, pour/drink off 1/4th of it, then stick the beer can up the chicken's wazoo. Now, the grill has been turned on med high on one side only. Place a temperature probe either in the thigh or middle of one breast... the chicken, not the significant other... and rub the skin with either oregano or Montreal seasoning (whatever flips your lid). Now, place the chicken on the grill on the side that's not burning. Spread out the legs to act like a tripod with the can. You're looking for the probe to hit 165 degrees.

That's what we started with. While that was working we tossed some purple cauliflower with olive oil and sprinkled on some Parmesan (that's the dish on the left), put in to bake 375 degrees while the chicken cooks... which hopefully won't be more than 45 minutes. We also took some zucchini and summer squash and sliced long thin planks. We started using a peeler but that was a little thin so we had to resort to a V-Slicer/ Mandolin. Then some onions and garlic got browned and the planked veggies got thrown in a little at a time and cooked until tender. It took a few batches but worth the work (that's the dish on the right).

By the time the chicken was up to temp the skin had turned golden brown and crispy. To keep the exposed bone ends from drying out too much I covered them with a little foil (and cut off the wing tips because lets face it who really eats those anyway). Once the whole thing has cooked, it's easier to take it off the grill using foil on hot pads or use hot pads that aren't going to soak up anything. This is the point where it's helpful to have some help because once you get it in the house and it's rested, it's a little tricky to get the beer can out of the chicken's wazoo. Having one person hold the chicken a few inches above the bottom of the sink and the other push the can out with a butter knife through the neck opening. The can will still be mostly full of scalding hot beer/ sprite/ water/ whatever liquid you like, so be careful with this part. Hey, cooking makes stuff hot so either have some common sense or have someone around who does to warn you when you're about to do something stupid.

Once the bird's free, we used kitchen sheers to quarter it and plate it with the cauliflower and sliced veggies. Our experience on this was very enjoyable, but then this wasn't our first go around with Chicken Wazoo. The veggies were a little bit of an experiment but those worked nicely with the chicken. Try it and let me know what you think.