We love making beer can chicken and roasted vegetables. Oh, never heard of beer can chicken? You take a beer can, take the entire lid off, fill it 1/2 full of your favorite beer. Rub the inside of a 4 1/2 - 5 lb roasting chicken with any kind of spice rub you like, and put the chicken over the beer can. Put it on a hot grill, put the cover on and let it cook about 45 minutes. Baste the chicken in your favorite BBQ sauce, last time we used a maple bourbon sauce from Williams Sonoma (seasonal item, no longer available) and it was awesome but any one will do when you can’t get my favorite! Cook another 15 - 30 minutes until the chicken registers 160 on your meat thermometer. Remove from the grill, cover with foil and let rest 10 minutes. If you don’t have but want a meat thermometer, I recommend the one you will find on my “You Should Have These” page.
OK, now that you know how to make a beer can chicken lets talk about the vegetables which really is what this post is all about. Eggplant sliced into 1/2″ rounds, red peppers cut into 2″ squares, white and yellow onions quartered (with the root intact to make them easy to turn), whole cremini mushrooms, whole small - medium sized carrots, whole baby zucchinis, and fingerling potatoes. Drizzle all the veg with a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put the longer cooking veg (potatoes, carrots) in a BBQ pan first. Cook them about 15 minutes then add the rest of the veg. Cook until all are to your liking and remove to a serving bowl and cover til the chicken is ready.
Once you are done eating you might have a bunch of veggies left over. Actually, cook enough so you will as there are so many things you can do with them. The potatoes can be cut into cubes and sauteed with some of the onion and/or peppers for a great breakfast potato. The onions, mushrooms and peppers make a great roasted veg omelet filling or bake them into a frittata to serve with the breakfast potatoes. Add some thyme to anything with mushrooms in it and it takes on a completely different flavor. Using a store bought pizza crust, tortilla or even pita bread, make pizzas with slices of the veggies over thinly sprea pizza sauce and topped lightly with cheese. Anything else you have left can be pureed with some chicken broth into a rich, smooth and flavorful roasted vegetable soup. If you have some other ideas, please enter comments so you can share with others.
When it is not BBQ season, you can roast the vegetables in your oven the same way. Or, if you have a stove top grill pan use it. The result is the same, tasty roasted vegetables that are good the first time and all the times after that!
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