Beer Can (OK, Really 7-UP) Chicken, Caprese Salad & Flat Bread

Welcome to the first installment of Koszuth Kitchen!  I thought a whole chicken would be an appropriate way to start things off -- Grandma would approve. 

I acually made this a week or so ago, but since I want this blog to have plenty of pictures, I was experiencing technical difficulties (well, actually operator ignorance), and things got delayed.  Now that I'm writing this, I wish I had more pictures to post.  I'll get better at this as I go. 

Family and friends should have gotten their invitations by now to become contributors.  If you haven't, and want one, please let me know via e-mail and I'll get you set up.  Remember, you have to reply to the official invite to become a contributor.  Now, for the chicken.

This is pretty basic.  You will need:

1 Whole chicken, washed & patted dry, with yucky stuff from the inside removed
1/2 (or so) stick of softened butter
2 Tbls. Penzey's Jerk Chicken & Fish, or other spice mix of your choice
Zest & juice of 1 lime
1 can 7 up or beer of your choice (my brothers in law drank all my beer the last time they were here, so I only had 7-up in the house).
1 can Crescent roll dough
Penzey's Brady Street Cheese Sprinkle
Fresh Tomatoes, sliced
Fresh Basil, washed & torn into bite sized pieces
Fresh Mozarella Cheese, sliced
Really good Olive Oil
Really good Balsamic Vinegar

OK, let start with the birdie:
1.  Mix the spices & lime zest with the butter
2.  Rub him (or her) all over the outside with the butter/spice mix.  Be sure to get under the skin as much as possible.  Congratulations.  You are now all gooey, but your hands will be nice and soft.  If you  have time, let the bird sit in the fridge for a couple of hours, uncovered.  This makes for crispier skin.
3.  Open the can of soda/beer.  With a church-key, put 2 or three more holes in the top.  Pour off and drink about half the contents of the can.  (If using beer, I take no responsibility for any culinary accidents that occur after this point).
4.  Give the chicken a soda/beer can enema.  That is, sit the bird, legs down & wings up, on the can.  Refrain from Jr. High-level humor.
5.  Here's where I'm not so exact.  I put it on my gas grill, over very low, indirect heat, for about an hour and a half.  The temp of the grill hovered around 225-250.
This is what it looked like:

And it tasted good, too!

The hard part was getting it off the can, which still had a good amount of soda in it.  Let it rest first for about 10 to 15 minutes.  It was still hot, but I managed with a pair of tongs and a hot pad that then needed to be washed.  After carving I squeezed what was left of the lime over it.

Now, for the Caprese Salad, which is just a fancy name for tomatoes, cheese & basil.

Take all three and lay them out on a plate.  Make it look pretty!  Drizzle with Olive Oil & Balsamic Vinegar.  Here it is:

Oh, except I forgot to take a picture after I dressed it!  (I actually GREW these tomatoes & basil all by myself!)

And finally, the bread.  This is soooooo simple!  And my children think I'm a goddess when I make it!

Lay out the crescent roll dough flat on a baking sheet (I usually line it with parchment paper because I'm lazy about clean-up, but Wally World was out this week).  Sprinkle with the Brady Street Cheese.  DON'T ROLL UP!  Bake at 375 degrees for about 9 minutes.  Voila!

Mine mutated a bit when I was trying to lay them out.  I put the ugly ones on the bottom and the pretty ones on top!

See?  Aren't they pretty now?

So, that was our meal last Sunday.  It was really good, and so were the leftovers. 

Well, I acually envisioned more "in process" photos, but I forgot to take them.  Its hard to operate a camera when your hands are covered in chicken goo.  But, I'll do better next time!

So, everyone get cooking!  Take photos!  and Post!  I'm hungry!

And, (In my best Julia Child Falsetto) "Remember to SAVE THE LIVERS!"

Annie