Since we got back from Austin I haven’t really been cooking anything exciting. I have been experimenting with rice and pasta dishes but nothing outstanding really happened. I decided I needed to dive back into the cooking show realm and find some inspiration!
I found David Chang. He makes mostly Asian food which is my favorite food to eat and cook so it was perfect! It became even more perfect when he said he doesn’t measure or really follow recipes. I got a couple of new ways to make quick pickles and new toppings for rice! Two of my current obsessions.
I fell asleep one night with the show playing and had a dream about a chicken dish. When I woke up, I replayed the episodes I had missed. I wanted to check if I was about to rip off a real dish. I was not! He had made a chicken dish but not the one from my dream.
Roasted chicken doesn’t sound very dreamy. This wasn’t a typical roasted chicken dish. The flavor combinations are ones I hadn’t tried before. It also has been ages since I made “beer can” chicken. I decided to go for it!
I have one of those ceramic dishes with a built in “can” so I got her out and got started.
As usual I didn’t measure any of the things. My chicken was on the small side, just 2.5 pounds so I didn’t go crazy. This was also a chance to use the last bits of things I had in the fridge. Here come the ingredients.
Vegetable broth- about 2 cups
White wine- about 2 cups
Lemons- 3 medium
Ginger Garlic paste- 4 to 6 tablespoons
Salt- 2 to 4 tablespoons
Make sure the chicken is dry before you get started. That will help the skin get crispy. I put about 1/4 cup each of the wine and broth into the can part of the dish. Then, I added 2 tablespoons of the paste and the juice of 1 lemon.
I mixed another couple of tablespoons of the paste with about two tablespoons of salt. I rubbed it around the inside of the chicken as best as I could. I sat the bird on her throne and poured the rest of the broth and wine into the dish. I juiced the other two lemons in with. My girl was a bit lopsided so I propped her up straight with the lemon husks. I also put one in the neck hoping it would help keep the liquid in the bird.
I roasted her at 350 for a couple of hours. This turned out to not be long enough. That turned out to be a good thing. When I went to carve my lovely bird I found that she was still kind of raw around the drummies. I decided to get her as flattened out as I could and finish her in a regular roasting pan. I poured all of the liquid from the can pan into the regular dish. Then, I rolled the chicken around in it. I let her continue to roast for about another hour. At about 30 minutes in to the second cook I added about 1/4 cup of extra wine.
In my dream the chicken came out beautifully roasted with crispy skin. In reality I had to flatten her out and let her bake in the juice. I did not get crispy skin. I did get some amazingly tasty, juicy meat with a gravy like sauce. Since the chicken was broken down a bit for the last cook, it was able to thicken the liquid a bit.
My dream chicken tasted just how I knew it would even though it wasn’t in the form I thought it would be. Who can be unhappy with chicken and tasty gravy? I will try this again. I will make the original dream chicken come true!
Enjoy your kitchen! Follow your dreams! Watch the shows or read the books! Don’t be afraid to try anything!
Ali's Kitchen 