Poached and Grilled Whole Chicken : Guinness Beer Glaze : Grilled Leeks and Bell Peppers

… that was a long title…. but certain recipes require long winded descriptions or at least this one does because it’s awesome. Sometimes I get lucky in the kitchen and things turn out the way I imagine… sometimes I don’t. Plenty of kitchen disaster and drama in the past, but not this time. This was pure awesomeness. I love chicken. The happy kind. The ones allowed to run free until they… well, they get butchered. And it is for this reason that when cooking them or any animal, I try to do it as responsibly as possible. Minimize waste and I try to pay close attention to temperature and time.

 Anyways… back to the awesomeness of chicken. For this recipe I decided to poach it and grill it since it’s summer time and all. If you haven’t tried this before, I’d say, give it a shot, chances are, you’ll never look back. If you own sous vide gear, go for it, but if you don’t and you have a pot, a thermometer and some patience, you won’t regret it.  The glaze was inspired by the super popular guinness glazed chicken wings at The Tilted Kilt Sports Bar in Long Beach, this is not an add (this blog is add free anyways), their chicken wings just happen to be awesome.

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Ingredients:

1 Whole chicken… obviously.
2 Leeks, halved lengthwise and rinsed in water
2 Big red bell peppers, halved, seeds removed
Any other veggies you feel like grilling.
1 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp Champagne Vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste.

The Glaze:

1 440ml can of Guinness Draught beer
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp Tamari
1/2 Tbsp Rice Vinegar.

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Poaching and grilling the chicken. Preheat your grill at this point. You need it super hot. Fill a large (only large enough to fit the chicken) pot with water and add enough salt to make the water really salty. Could be about half a cup. Over medium heat, bring the water to about 60C-70C (140F-158F). Do your best at keeping the water within this range. Make sure your chicken isn’t frozen but cold out of the fridge is fine. If frozen, thaw it first. Add the chicken to the pot. Allow the water temperature to come back to the proper range and poach for about  45 mins. The juices will not run clear, but no worries, it’s all good. Remove the chicken from the pot and transfer to a clean sink. Dry with paper towels. On a cutting board, butterfly it cutting down the sternum bone with a big sharp knife. You could butterfly it before poaching if that’s easier. Grill both sides for about 8 mins per side. You should brush the glaze over the chicken a few times during this process and then one last coating while the chicken rests. Remember, the grill has to be at it’s hottest setting for this whole procedure to be awesome. You can also use a brick or a heavy cast iron pan to press the chicken against the grill.

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The veggies. Pretty simple, just char them on the grill along with the chicken. They might require extra time. Leave them to grill some more after removing the chicken. Once you get nice char marks, remove. Place in a bowl. Add the olive oil and the vinegar plus salt and pepper to taste. Toss everything and done.

The Guinness Glaze. Reduce the beer until you have about 1/3 of a cup left over medium stirring constantly. Add the rest of the ingredients and reduce to a syrup consistency over gentle heat. This reduction is a bit tricky because of its dark colour, it’s pretty easy to burn it. Stir is the key word here.   You can add more sugar to your taste and make it more sticky this way. Make the glaze ahead of time. Even a day or 2 before needing it. You will need about an hour of your time attending and stirring a simmering pot, so don’t rush it or try to grill your chicken while also trying to make this unless you have help from a hungry loved one.

IMG_8202ciao ciao, hope that was fun!

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11 comments

  1. What a beautiful plate of food!!! Love the grilled leeks, especially! I don’t know if my husband would donate one of his Guinnesses for this, but the photo might convince hime!!! Wonderful.

  2. Lovely as always Paul and perfect for the summer grill!.I do prefer to butterfly or portion the chicken before poaching or cooking SV when I do something like this. A quick questions, where did you get these plates? They look very nice

    1. Thank you Enassar! The plates came with the apartment I’m renting here in Vancouver. I took them for granted for a while, but now I realize that they actually photograph well. I prefer using white plates, but every now and then, some color adds to the mix, specially for comfort food dishes. I just bought a few plates that I wanna try to feature in the next round of posts. I hope they photograph as good as they look. Love my new plates. Never thought I could say something like this 🙂

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