Beer Can Chicken

This will be the last in the chicken recipes for a while. I'm "chickened out" ;-)

But don't think I've ever shared a BEER CAN chicken recipe with you.

You can make this on the grill or in your oven. I made mine in the oven.

1 organic chicken

red onion

Cilantro

garlic

dried pepper (any variety will do)

bacon

garlic powder

paprika powder

cayenne pepper

sea salt (optional)

Saute some garlic cloves, red onion, fresh cilantro and sliced up dried pepper.

With kitchen shears cut up 2 slices of bacon.

Wash the chicken inside and out and pat it dry. Now take the sauteed goodness ans stuff it inside the chicken and under the skin. Add the bacon pieces to it, again under the skin and inside the cavity. Sprinkle the chicken liberally with garlic powder,paprika and cayenne. (I did add some sea salt)

Take a can of beer and empty half of it. Take an oven proof dish, and put the chicken cavity over the beer can. In the oven she goes at 325 for about an hour or more depending on temperature.

Would love to know if and when you decide to try this and how it came out.

(The dark bits at the bottom of the pic. are not charred skin, but pieces of the dark red dried california pepper I used)

Make it a GREAT WEEK.

Flavors, Cultures and Eggs

I like experimenting with different recipes from various cultures.

Mixing up the flavors and ingredients. South American flavors combine very well with Mediterranean I find.

Here's a Cuban recipe known as Achiote Chicken.

These are the measurements needed for two chicken quarters

Achiote powder 2 tbsp

Garlic 4 cloves

Cumin 1 teasp

Evoo 2 tbsp

Fresh cilantro 2 tbsp

Sea salt to taste (or none at all)

Make a paste out of the above ingredients.

Coat the chicken with it and refrigerate over night (at least 6-8 hours)

Grill on high heat for some nice grill marks and then move to indirect heat to finish.

If you don't have a grill, you can use a cast iron pan to sear it on the stove and then move to the oven. 325 for about 20 minutes should do the trick.

I also "blackened" a few eggplant on the grill and then removed the skin. Tossed that in the food processor with 2 small cloves of garlic. To go with that, I made some tahini dressing.

Tahini, 1 small clove of garlic, drop of lemon juice, 1 tbs evoo and water. Add water at the end and keep adding so that you get a runny dressing consistency. It is great drizzled over the eggplant mush, but also great to dip your achiote chicken in. The farmers market had fresh Okra, so I picked up some. Simply sauteed with onion and dried California chili peppers that I bought at a little roadside farm stand. They are not spicy, but have lots of flavor.

Delicious!

EGGS;

At that same roadside stand, I bought some fresh eggs.

Now I need your help, I'm not 100% sure theses are chicken eggs.

What do you think? They are HUGE in comparison to the Organic Valley brown eggs (lower right for comparison) I have in my fridge. The shell of these eggs seems thin. Any thoughts?

I have some cool posts coming up with reviews of a new REAL FOOD cook book.

More details to follow.

I think you're going to like it.

Happy Friday and Simple

I know I've said many times before, but maybe someone new is reading my blog today, and hopefully this will provide some motivation/inspiration.

It's SO SIMPLE to eat right, don't obsess over it. Buy real food and cook it up any way you like.

It really doesn't get anymore basic than this;

3 chicken breakfast links (Han's brand bought at Whole Foods) browned in butter and a few asparagus tossed in towards the end.

Have a wonderful weekend and do something FUN.

Fish, shrimp and bad pictures

It all tasted so good last night, that I forgot to take pictures until I was pretty much done eating. So my apologies for the bad pics.

I had a piece of fresh grouper and some "Royal Red Shrimp". These shrimp are only available certain times of year here. Their migration is timed with certain water temperatures. They are very tasty and almost taste like lobster as compared to shrimp.

I marinated them in some fresh chopped herbs, garlic and evoo, paprika and cayenne powder.

The piece of grouper got "spread" with an olive, garlic and cilantro tapenade. Simple to make, just chop about 8-10 green olives, 2 small cloves of garlic, handful of cilantro and mix with a drizzle of evoo. Set in the fridge for about 4-8 hours.

Tomato and cucumber salad, with paprika, cayenne, evoo and a tiny bit of feta.

And my last shrimp.......if you're so inclined, take of the heads and crisp them up a bit on the grill. They are soooo tasty.

Quick one...

In a skillet saute the following in some coconut oil;

Thinly sliced yam and onion. Look at the ratio of onion to yam, use a lot of onion it makes the dish. Add a sprinkle of garlic powder and red pepper flakes and you're done with this quick and tasty one. While that was cooking I grilled a quick piece of steak.

Some sea salt, garlic powder and a brush of light evoo.

Anyone grilling something special for Father's day???

Happy Fathers Day!

One of my favorite pools anywhere. It's at South Seas Resort at the very end of Captiva. Sanibel and Captiva are about 40 minutes north from where I live. This is a view of the pass going from the inter coastal waterway to the Gulf of Mexico.

For all of you that have kids and that struggle with healthy "snacks", my kids (when they are at my house) devour these. They are also great to toss in lunches for school. just wrap a slice of salami around a baby carrot.

Enjoy the weekend everyone and to all the Dad's out there, have a wonderful fathers day!!!

Tossed Salad?

Tossed together left overs is more like it.

But it was tasty and satisfying none the less.

4 strips of bacon, when they were done, I removed them from the skillet and added a bunch of baby bella mushrooms and onions. While that was cooking, threw together a salad with some red leaf lettuce, celery and tomato and made a mustard and evoo dressing. Tossed it all together.

If you're like me, enjoy your bacon, and you don't have access to a farmers market or good local grassfed butchers for any of your meat supply, spend the few extra dollars for the good stuff in he supermarket. I think Apple Gate Farms is very decent, and Niman Ranch is a lot better then Oscar Mayer.

Make it a great day!