By Leslie
One of my favorite kitchen appliances is the trusty slow cooker. It requires a bit of planning, but usually pays off. I say usually because one time I came home expecting juicy orange chicken, but instead I had dried out meat burnt with a marmalade shell situation on my hands.
Over the weekend I had planned on making enchiladas for dinner. Normally I would boil or saute the chicken and shred it up for the enchilada filling, but since I had this idea pretty early in the day I had time to break out the slow cooker. Here's how the chicken with beer developed -
(Sidenote - Has anyone out there ever made/eaten/heard of beer can chicken? I've heard you can plunk a whole chicken over an opened can of beer and cook it on the grill. If anyone has, please share!)
First I dug through my freezer to find the chicken. Costco has these organic chicken breasts pre-separated into packages of 2-3.
I thawed the chicken and seasoned it with salt, pepper, paprika, and cumin. Then I stared into the refrigerator looking for some sort of liquid. I had some chicken broth but I wanted something with a little more punch. Look, a drawer full of beer! (We don't usually have a produce drawer full of beer. This is leftover from a Father's Day BBQ.)
Pick your poison. My boyfriend really truly likes Yuengling and Coors Light (I KNOW) so I saved those for him. Lucky guy, he is.
The seasoned chicken went into the slow cooker, along with a few diced white onions and some chicken broth. I covered everything with the full can of beer. Then I got a little worried when all the foam appeared. I turned it on high and left the house for a few hours.
When I returned home, the house smelled kind of like...beer! But not in an unsettling, post college party kind of way.
I removed the chicken, shredded it up, poured out the liquid, then returned it to the bowl and added the rest of the filling ingredients. Since I was making enchiladas, I added black beans, chipotle corn, green chiles, cayenne pepper, more cumin, cream cheese and plain greek yogurt. I recovered it and let it sit in there to get aquainted. (My recipe is loosely based on Sam the Cooking Guy's - plus and minus a few things.)
In the end, I would have to say I think the beer chicken was a success. Once I added all the enchilada ingredients you couldn't taste the beer as much, but it definitely helped keep the chicken from drying out. It practically fell apart as soon I removed it from the bowl. I'm already imagining other dishes I'll make with the shredded beer chicken:
Tacos and taco salads
Nachos
Buffalo chicken for salads or wraps
Chicken salad for sandwiches
Do you use a slow cooker? What do you make? (I have this 3 in 1 version, in case you were curious. I love the different sized stoneware bowls.)
I've made beer can chicken many times in the oven. It comes out so juicy and tender! This looks good. I'm always confused about how much liquid to put in the crock pot.
Posted by: Maura | June 28, 2011 at 11:33 AM
Maura- I'm going to have to give the beer can chicken a try! I always add more liquid than I probably should just to be on the safe side.
Posted by: Leslie | June 28, 2011 at 11:50 AM
One of my all-time favorite recipes is Italian Beer Chicken Sandwiches. (Also, I totally made that name up. I don't know what it's really called.) It's so super and DELICIOUS.
1 bag boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can beer
1 package dry Italian dressing mix
1 jar slice pepperoncinis
Dump beer, dressing and pepperoncinis over chicken. Cook on low (I usually cook for about 6 hours).
Shred chicken.
Put on some kind of sandwich bun, top with your preference of cheese (pepperjack is really good) and YUM!!
Posted by: Kristina | June 28, 2011 at 12:25 PM
Kristina - I am totally stealing this recipe! Thank you. Italian Beer Chicken Sandwiches have been added to my list.
Posted by: Leslie | June 28, 2011 at 12:34 PM
Down in TX, it's called "Beer Butt Chicken". Classy, right? Here's a roaster that's similar to what I have (click on the additional pics): http://www.solutions.com/jump.jsp?itemID=12624&itemType=PRODUCT&path=1%2C2%2C4%2C112%2C114&iProductID=12624#detailsAnchor
We make beer butt chicken all.the.time. So easy. WS also has this one that I thought my husband would love since it's for the grill:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/two-in-one-vertical-chicken-roaster/?bnrid=3101866&cm_ven=E3&cm_cat=EDM&cm_pla=0509_2in1Chix&cm_ite=cta&cm_em=kerribu98@gmail.com
Posted by: Kerri | June 28, 2011 at 01:06 PM
Kerri - "Beer Butt Chicken" is way better than Beer Can Chicken. Those roasters are so pretty too! Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Leslie | June 28, 2011 at 01:27 PM
My husband makes beer can chicken in his smoker. It's soooo good!
Posted by: Jessica | June 28, 2011 at 02:00 PM
A friend JUST posted this recipe for beer can chicken yesterday on his FB page. (Disclaimer: I haven't heard of or read the blog or recipe.) http://superman1216.wordpress.com/culinary-stuff/the-original-beer-butt-chicken-recipe/
Posted by: Tara | June 28, 2011 at 03:58 PM
Jessica - That sounds SO good! We have some of those wood chips that you can use for the regular grill, but I bet your smoked chicken is amazing.
Tara - Ok, I'm convinced. I have to make this.
Posted by: Leslie | June 28, 2011 at 10:15 PM
Leslie - Beer butt chicken for the holiday weekend?
Readers - The refrigerator drawer very clearly states "Beer Drawer - Keep Fully Stocked"
Posted by: boyfriend | June 30, 2011 at 09:25 AM