I admit it; over the years, I’ve never been a big lover of beer. Oddly enough, I usually enjoy a bottle or can when the temperatures are sizzling on the outskirts and I’m busily doing manual work at home. That’s when I’m sweating and I can guzzle down a very cool bottle. It has to be icy cold otherwise, I become unenthusiastic about same.
So anyway, the temperatures have been skyrocketing in my neck of the woods for sometime. As a matter a fact, we were close to triple digits for a few days. Welcome to South Florida guys; that’s what sometimes occur in this locale in springtime. It feels like the good and lazy days of summer.
With beads of sweat gathering on my brow, somehow I gravitated towards the beer aisle. At first instinct, I wanted to grab Red Stripe beer; however, the store only offered twelve pack. What the was I doing with a twelve pack of beer? Of course, I made a bee-line for the Heineken. It carried six in a pack. I could rock that; so, I did.
It didn’t take me long to devour a bottle. I was in a celebratory kind of mood; cooking a snapper fish. Perfect for seafood. Anyway fast forward today, (Sunday), though I wasn’t cleaning and working up a sweat, I decided to sip on one. Bad idea. You see, I didn’t drink fast enough and room temperature took over. Pretty soon an idea came to mind. There and then I decided to use up the other half of my beer on my roasted chicken. The previous night, I had placed the dark portions in a marinade of herbs (parsley/thyme), crushed garlic, lemon, olive oil along with salt and black pepper.
Chicken was brought to room temperature. Then, I placed same on a greased baking sheet along with some roughly chopped red potatoes and carrots. Sheet pan was placed in heated oven at a temperature of 390 degrees for approximately 45 to 50 minutes.
In a small sauce pot, I added half bottle of beer with a squeeze of honey and ketchup. I allowed this to simmer for a few minutes under low heat. Then, this was drizzled on chicken parts about 20 minutes before the end of cooking time. This helped to create an aromatic and succulent sauce that co-mingled with the root veggies. Everything was happy and smelled amazing.
At the last five minutes into cooking, oven temperature was increase to 400 degrees so as to provide a more caramelizing effect of the honey, hops, and malted barley. Guys, I served my drunken roasted chicken and potatoes with the other balance of Heineken beer. Oh, I was on cloud nine.