They showed up a day early and I did not have the house cleaned. When I answered the phone and it was them saying that they were in town, I nearly cried. But then they said that they were tired and were hoping that we could wait to visit with them until the next day. Whew!
Still, the next morning they came at 9:30 and I was in my cleaning clothes and all full of dust and grime. I hadn't taken a shower. I must have just looked awful! I cleaned myself up and took them around town. SSB was working until 4:30 so I had to find something for us to do until then.
I grilled out that night- Beer Butt Chicken. Here are before and after pictures:
The cut onion goes in the neck of the chicken. The openned beer can goes in the cavity of the chicken. Always use a beer that you would drink outright (that goes for cooking with wine too!) I coat the chicken in ground rosemary and sea salt for extra flavoring. The can of beer is only supposed to be 1/2 full, so the glass of beer on the table is for me to drink while I grill. Mmmm!
Here is the chicken on the grill. You put it upright, shut the grill lid and let it cook for about an hour or so.
Here it is all done. YUM!! It was such a delicious meal. We had potatoes, peas & corn in butter sauce, and fried zucchini. We were all stuffed.
The next day SSB actually was able to get off from work. I made zucchini pancakes for breakfast (these are delicious, and as you can tell I am getting PLENTY of zucchini from my garden!).
We went to the Mall of America since that is something that everyone that visits this area needs to go to. We went to Underwater Adventures there. It is an aquarium that has a tunnel running through it that you walk through. The fish swim on either side of you as well as over the top of you. You feel like you are underwater with them. It was actually really cool even though it was pretty expensive. I would recommend going at least once. We even got to pet sharks and rays.
Then we went to our favorite upscale restaurant- P.F. Changs. It is a chain Chinese restaurant (those of you near Salt Lake City should have heard of it. That's the first place that I went to one). I was afraid that they might not like the food and we even offered a pick of four restaurants, but Grandpa insisted that Chinese would be just fine. He ate A LOT! He was eating his food and his wife's, too! She was trying mine- Kung Pao Shrimp (which is fairly spicy, but she asked for more). We had a fantastic time!
They were pretty tired by the time that we got back to town, so we said our goodbyes. I am hoping that we can go and see them in Arkansas yet again this year. We always have a great time when we get together. I try to use the excuse that it is distance that keeps us from seeing each other more often. But, then, my brothers and sister live right here in Wisconsin and I haven't seen them for a couple of years either. Maybe we are just lazy.
Chang's kicks ass. I hope you got the lettuce-wrap appetizer...SAY YOU GOT THE LETTUCE WRAPS!
Unless it was a fluke, their calamari is awesome too.
And yes, I eat more than just appetizers when I go to Chang's...
July 27, 2005 4:05 PM
We were going to get the lettuce wraps, but we had already ordered so much food, we decided to skip the wraps. THEY ARE SOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD!!!! Oh, I so wanted to get them.
I love calamari. I didn't know that they had that. Maybe next time I go, I will get that.
July 27, 2005 4:38 PM
pf changs IS awesome. I think last time I had the duck. YUMMM!!!
ahem.
wow...beer butt chicken and zucchini pancakes sound like GREAT recipes. if only there were someplace you could share them...
OH YEAH, THERE IS!!!!
(pitiful attempt to get you to send me the recipes for my recipe blog)
July 27, 2005 4:54 PM
ESC- I actually saw your call for recipes today and had been thinking about it. I often make my up my own recipes so they would be ultra exclusives! I'd need to have shameless credit for my work, of course.
July 27, 2005 6:02 PM
well, you can become an EXCLUSIVE MEMBER of the blog. then everything you post will be credited to you.
then you can post shameless plugs to your recipes from your own blog.
then I'll make the recipes you post, take pictures, and post more shameless plug.
it's a delicious cycle of egotistical goodness :)
AND you'll add another blog to your impressive collection, and be a blog whore like me.
July 27, 2005 7:09 PM
Sounds like a great time!
Where did you buy the utensil the beer can sits in?
July 27, 2005 7:45 PM
ESC- That's tempting....That's really tempting. Oh, yeah. I love shameless plugging (not as much as I have read that YOU do though ;p )
Sierrabella- I got it from Home Depot, but I have seen them at grocery stores too. You can do it without the can holders. My dad did that for a long time before I purchased one of these for him.
July 27, 2005 8:08 PM
Beer butt chicken!? I thought eating green jello with carrots was out there...
(Just kidding. It looks tasty.) :)
July 27, 2005 9:33 PM
The best part of the meal was having to face the posterior of the bird away from the grandparents because it looked so inappropriately obscene!
July 27, 2005 11:01 PM
That chicken looks likes he/she's one of the family, standin' upright and all.
July 27, 2005 11:39 PM
Mmmm beer butt chicken! We have one of those but it doesn't fit our BBQ as the lid touches the chicken. We NEED a new BBQ then. ;)
The grandparents sound fun and cool! What a great visit you all had.
July 28, 2005 12:02 AM
Do you need a special stand-up chicken cooking thing to fit the can of beer in? Does any of the can's writing/paint/ink come off onto the bird? I'm very intrigued.
Iusually stuff a lemon and an onion into the cavity of the bird, but may try beer instead, but would use Guiness. It would have to be called "Stout Butt chicken" instead which is more of a description than a recipe...??
Then again, they only make guiness in big cans...would I be able to find a compatible chicken?
what beer do you use?
very interesting....Hmmmmmmmm....
July 28, 2005 5:34 AM
I am so glad I happened upon this blog...I am so going to try beer butt chicken this weekend....if it doesn't rain. Thanks!
July 28, 2005 5:48 AM
Maria- My dad likes anything that sounds silly. When he found this way of cooking chicken he jumped right on it. It is really good!
SSB- Yeah, it didn't seem to matter what we did with the bird, it just seemed so wrong!
Cookie Christine- It is an honor to have you visit my blog! When it came off the grill I said we should set a place at the table for it.
Jennifer- Depending on what size bird we get, sometimes the lid touches our chickens too, but that's part of outside cooking.
Lyvvie- for years my dad did this without the can stand, so I know that it can be done. The beer acts as a tenderizer, moisturizer, and flavorizer for the chicken. Tall cans huh? Deeper grill? That sounds like some experimenting is in order. You could be thbe one to convert this recipe for the UK.
Tammy- Welcome to my blog! I grilled this chicken in the rain. I also grilled the one before that and the one before that in the rain. It always looks nice when I start up the grill, then as soon as I go to put things on, it starts pouring. Sometimes I just go stand out in the rain and get soaked and sometimes I make someone hold an umbrella for me.
July 28, 2005 7:02 AM
That chicken looks really good.SSB's grandparents sounds like an awesome couple.
July 28, 2005 11:42 AM
my bf uses the tall cans when he makes the beer butt chicken, he just cuts the top off.
July 28, 2005 12:45 PM
June- They are a fun couple! They have a great sense of humor. SSB said later that while I was telling a story a couple of times his grandpa looked over at him with a look that said "You've got a live one there!"
ESC- THAT is a VERY GOOD IDEA!!
July 28, 2005 1:07 PM
OK, Me and the family will be over at 2:00 pm. What kind of beer do you have?
July 28, 2005 3:30 PM
Leinies, of course!!
July 28, 2005 5:04 PM
The beer butt chicken makes me miss Wisconsin. Maybe it didn't originate there, but I learned of it there...
July 28, 2005 8:19 PM
Shannon- We have a great sense of humor here in Wisconsin, that is for sure!
July 29, 2005 8:33 AM