Beer Butt Chicken
I've been wanting to try and make Beer Butt Chicken since I saw Jamie Oliver making his on TV a while ago, so when I looked in the fridge this week and saw a fat little chicken and a can of Red Stripe next to each other, dinner was sorted. I remembered the method from seeing Jamie do it himself, but I looked up his idea for a marinade and pretty much copied the one he suggests here. I didn't have any cumin seeds, so I left these out and I added some crazy hot dried chillis my mum had grown and given to me. I've broken my pestle and mortar with some over enthusiastic grinding (!), so chucked all of the ingredients for the rub into my trusty mini blender and pulsed them for a few seconds before smearing all over and inside the chicken. I also made a pocket in the breast between the skin and the meat and shoved a load of the mixture into there too for some extra flavour. Then it's just a matter of hoisting the bird onto the can, which is actually a bit of a delicate operation as the chicken is quite top heavy, so be careful it doesn't topple over as you put it in the oven (shame it wasn't the weather for a BBQ version). Mine took about an hour and twenty minutes, giving me plenty of time to get back to my blender to make some cauliflower rice to go with it. For those who don't know, cauliflower rice is just minute rice sized pieces of cauliflower. It sounds yuck, but we are so sold on cauliflower rice that we very very rarely now actually have real rice - its lovely and fresh tasting and I do not miss the stodginess of rice at all. Here's a link to some more info on it, sorry it's the Mail.
I also made a quick cucumber, rocket and onion salad with a yoghurt and mint dressing, which worked nicely with it. I served the chicken as whole breasts and legs and used the juice from the meat with a few squeezes of lime and a splash of red stripe to take it to the table in the dish. It was seriously yummy and a nice change from standard roast chicken.