Thursdays Are For Cooking
Cooking Chicken Outdoors
This is aimed entirely at anyone of you who like to cook outdoors. Since Mid-Summer’s Eve is just round the corner and the moon will be nearly full on June 21st, the first day of Summer, this looks like the perfect dish to start the season.
This man does a bang-up job of explaining the entire process of cooking chicken over an open fire, from seasoning the chickens to trussing and hanging them to roast. Plenty of straightforward instructions, and photos to go along with them.
https://overthefirecooking.com/hang-chicken-fire/
To quote him: Everyone loves a good rotisserie chicken. From the juicy legs to the crispy skin, nothing can beat the flavor of this classic dish. But, what if you cooked it over open fire? You would have a hanging chicken.
Now you are playing with a whole new realm of elements. This chicken will take on the flavor of the wood, the fragrance of the smoke and the spice of the seasoning.
It is an experience you cannot replicate anywhere else. That is why hanging chicken over open fire is one of my favorite meals to cook.
Not only is it easy, but it also has more flavor than I could ever describe. When you take a bite into a perfectly cooked hanging chicken, then you will understand! – article
If you know why we cook hot dogs and wursts and ground beef over an open fire or on a grill, then you know why this article will make you even happier about following the very basic instinct of the hunter-gatherer that we all have (whether the ecohippies like it or not).
You all know that you can also put a seasoned pot roast into a cast iron Dutch oven and cook that in the fire, right? And we all like those foil-wrapped potatoes that are buried in the coals to roast, don’t we? And what about plates of sliced veggies like ripe tomatoes and cucumber and onions, never mind the side dishes like potato salad, cole slaw, olives, relishes, and freshly-baked rolls w/butter.
If I ever do run across an article about how to roast a whole (wild) hog in a pit, I will certainly add that to our collection of such things.
Bon appetit!!!! And have a happy Summer!
I like beer-can chicken, using hard cider for the liquid and apple wood chips on the coals for smoke. Yum!
Every kind of beast tastes way yonder more better orasted lowly over a bed of smoking coals! EVERY KIND! And that’s real wood coals, not charcol coals. I keep an assortment of seasoned woods on hand for just those “Good Times!”. Also have a ready supply of “green” pieces to help build up the smoke. Nut and fruit woods There’s an art to pit/smoked cooking and just like making love, take your time, go slow, and do it right. Pro tip on pit cooking a (wild) beast. Pen that rascal up and give it some sweet feed for awhile to get rid of the wild taste, particularly the porcine beasts. And just as you would when making love to a Catherine Bell or Dana Delany type, be prepared to spend all night doing it. And if your “pit crew” includes engineers or Marines, have multiple cases of Cold Beer.
Tanks Ex…Let’s eat! ps…A little gloating here. Had me some smoked porked beast chops with green beans and taters…Mighty fine eatin’!
Couple of favorites that are not chicken….
Baked potato:
Wash the potato and after poking holes in it, rub it lightly with oil. Sprinkle kosher or sea salt and other dry spices if you like.
Squish butter all around the potato. It helps if the butter is not room temp, but not cold.
Wrap strips of bacon around the potato, completely covering the entire potato.
Wrap in tin foil and put on grill or in coals for about 45 minutes. Rotate / flip every once in a while.
When finished, the potato will be soft and buttery on the inside, crisp on the outside because of the salt, and you also have the crispy bacon.
Its good – not healthy, but good.
If you want to impress friend, get some pears or peaches and cut in half along the axis. For the peach, get rid of the pit and for the pear, scrape out the core. Fill the core / pit cavity with raspberries or blueberries. Dust lightly with dark / brown sugar. Pour rum or brandy over the hole thing. Wrap in tinfoil and back until the peach or pear is soft.
It is great by itself or with some ice cream. (You were churning homemade ice cream while waiting for the meal to cook, weren’t you?)
AT this point in life, GC, I prefer GOOD over healthy 😛
If I’m gonna go, I’ma go happy.
“…and on the 8th Day, God created bacon!”
I am still looking for good AND healthy. 🙂
The thing about that tater is that while the bacon cooks, all of the bacon grease seeps into the potato as well. So it is really tasty. It is really hard to over cook the potato, so really all you are doing is cooking the bacon until it is done. Just don’t put them over direct heat or they will cook too fast.
The Cubans have mastered the process of cooking a whole hog/pig, I don’t know if there is a better way but when I was boy… Slow and low heat, with smoke, will render a suckling pig to an Elks Lodge Pig’Pick’n summer delight that is unforgettable. The Cubans, in Florida, will use chain link fence “frames” to maintain the essential character of the pig such that you can turn the carcass without having it fall apart. When my uncles did it, using 55 gallon drum style cookers, they would use chicken wire. It seems that no matter how well anyone plans it, the pig is never ready before nightfall and a second beer run. When it’s my turn to put the pig on the table I use a combination of Dutch ovens in a conventional oven, overnight, at around 190 – 200 degrees and finish off the rendered meat in a smoker. Cooking over an open fire requires vigilance and experience. That’s why we have beer, to gain experience and share our love of life with others. When my father was still at the gang level in the pipeline business there were lots of welders. They would fabricate anything that you might think of, go hunting, and then hold a company picnic. Venison, pig, chicken, sausage, brisket, hell any kind of beef, a quarterly bonus and there was your sign! One friend had been a professional chef, owned some restaurants and lived well, until he didn’t. So, he became a pipe fitter, had a crew and the next thing you know he was back to cooking. Turkey is about as fool proof as it gets, fried, baked, smoked and cheap enough to feed a lot of people for not a lot of money. One neighbor, in Massachusetts, daughter complained that her underwear smelled like bacon. I had been smoking sausage and chickens and the smoke had gotten into the laundry on the clothes line. The daughter liked the chicken I gave them. Later, I smoked some salmon. Happy June, one and all. Tomato season is coming, watermelon too. We take… Read more »