Rotisserie Chicken On A Cool Day

I’d been wanting to cook something on a spit for a while and decided this was the day – never mind that it was 30* outside or that snow flurries were predicted for the evening, I wanted to do this.  It happens we had a chicken in the freezer and Bev suggested she really liked beer can chicken and I had to explain this was all about the spit.  We also had asparagus and romaine that we needed to cook, so it was an entire meal on the grill.

For the chicken, I just rubbed with oil and used Bev’s favorite Wolfe Citrus Rub inside and out added it to the spit and tied the legs and wings.

I can’t recall the last time I cooked chicken or anything else on the spit, so I had to do a little research to get an idea for cooking time and one to one and one half hours seemed to be the general advice.  I used the infra-red burner on the grill back for most of the cook, but it wasn’t getting the job done quickly enough – windy, 30* temps and snow flurries a likely contributor. 

I swapped the infra-red for the regular grill burners so the heat would rise past the rotating meat and when it was close to the temp I wanted, I tossed on the asparagus and romaine.

In the meantime, Bev made some Hollandaise Sauce using this recipe from Ina Garten

Roasted Asparagus with Hollandaise – asparagus part omitted.

12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)

4 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 pinches of cayenne pepper

Directions

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan. Place the egg yolks, lemon juice, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 3/4 teaspoon pepper and cayenne in the jar of a blender. Blend for 15 seconds. With the blender running, slowly pour the hot butter into the blender and blend for 30 seconds, until the sauce is thick. (You can leave it in the blender at room temperature for up to 1 hour. If it is made in advance, add 1 tablespoon hot tap water and blend for a few seconds before serving.)

Pour the hollandaise sauce over the warm asparagus and serve.

Bev said it was the easiest she’d ever made, but she missed the UNSALTED butter part and then added one of the 1½ tsps. of salt before realizing it was too salty.  Fortunately the asparagus was under salted and it worked okay.  It was also pretty tangy and used twice the amount of lemon as a similar recipe from Tyler Florence.  While the technique is a keeper, the actual ingredients will need to be adjusted for our taste.

Here’s my plate and it satisfied my current cook-on-the-spit need.

The leftovers made a delicious omelet which I made by sauteeing the chicken and asparagus to reheat, then I stirred in some of the hollandaise which also provided the salt for the dish.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Ham & Cheese Sandwich

Two years ago: Frozen Lake - Now This Is Cold For Around Here

Larry

1/2/12 meal date