December 10, 2009

Life Lessons and Rotisserie Chicken

In the spirit of Christmas, I thought I would give you all a few tips on gift-giving. I know this is a food blog and all, but trust me, I have some very important advice to give.

1. Give people puppies. They're cute, and everybody loves them.
2. Tip number 1 has one very important exception. If you are my brother, give your wife a kitty. Seriously, JUST GET HER A KITTEN ALREADY!
3. Re-gifting is a perfectly acceptable practice. However, if you are going to re-gift, you might not want to re-gift to the daughter of the people who gave you the gift in the first place because she might tell the original gifter about her exciting new gift and the truth will come out. Even if several years have passed since the gift was originally given. I'm talking to you, Grandpa and Grandma! But thanks for the rotisserie (Mom and Dad). I really like it.

I suppose this post is a little more for the purpose of handing out gift-giving tips than for giving you ideas for using your George Foreman Baby George Rotisserie because let's be honest, I must be one of about 200 people that actually has one of these things. Right? I put it on the same level as the product hawked on my favorite informercial - that cooker that makes anything you could possibly want (Chicken breasts! Pancakes! Corndogs!), as long as you don't mind all of your meals being in a perfect half-moon shape. I almost made a crack about the Magic Bullet, but if someone re-gifted me a Magic Bullet I would totally use it. And don't get me wrong, I love my George Foreman Grill. But a rotisserie? A rotisserie?

Anyway, I thought I would show you what you can do with your own rotisserie, should one be re-gifted to you one of these days.


Start with a chicken. The recipe book that came with the rotisserie said that a 4 to 5 pound chicken will feed 4 people. I found this pretty shocking until I remembered the time in college when my friend Justin got drunk and woke up with two chicken carcasses on the floor next to him. Impressive, isn't it?


Select some sort of seasoning mix, spices or herbs. I used Pluto's Jerk Seasoning, which is totally awesome.


If you're interested in ordering your own, refer to the info on the label. Their jerk sauces are really good, too. Easy access to Pluto's products are one of the worst things about my brother and sister-and-law leaving North Carolina.


Anyway, rub seasoning or spices all over the bird.


I've always thought chickens look really vulnerable in this position, and I finally figured it out. It's the wings. This is the exact position we would have to be in during tornado drills elementary school - curled up on the ground with your hands over your head. This leads me to the age-old question: which came first, the chicken or tornado safety?


Truss the ol' bird.


Load it onto the rotisserie rods. I really couldn't think of a graceful way of saying that. Nor could I get a remotely decent photo.


Fire up the grill!


This is what I ended up with 45 minutes to an hour later. It cooked a lot faster than the instructions suggested. More importantly, it was really tasty.


The skin crisped up nicely, and the inside was tender and juicy. Matt and I ate some of whole pieces, and there were a ton of leftovers that we made sandwiches with.

I have a bone to pick with the wishbone, though. My brothers always laid claim to the wishbone when we were growing up, so now that they're not standing in my way you can be certain that I take advantage of that little bone. I let it dry out for a little bit, and when Matt and I broke it we ended up with two even pieces in our hands and the middle section flying through the air. Whaaaaa? Whose wish comes true if the wishbone ends up in three pieces?


Finally, here is something you can make should you not be one of the select number of individuals who owns a rotisserie. Cut a squash in half (this is a delicata), rub it with a tiny bit of olive oil (at least I think I did that), sprinkle it with salt, cumin, and a little cinnamon, and roast it in a pan with a little water loosely covered with foil at 350-400 until tender. It's pretty hard to mess up, and it tastes delicious.

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2 Comments:

Blogger Elizabeth said...

I love the GT express cooker infomercials. That lady is REALLY excited about omelettes! And steak! And pineapple upside down cake!!!

Oh, also, this rotisserie chicken looks awesome.

December 11, 2009  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

confucius says those who evenly split the wishbone both get their wish.

December 11, 2009  

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