Recipes

Beer can chicken with Nam Jim Sauce

Donal Skehan
Fri Aug 26 2016 - 12:00
Serves: 4
Course: Main Course
Cooking Time: 1 hr 30 mins
Ingredients
  • Serves four
  • 2 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 1 x 1.2kg chicken
  • Sea salt and ground black pepper
  • 1 large can of either beer or cider
  • For the nam jim sauce:
  • 1 lime
  • 75ml fish sauce
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • 3 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 2 green chillies, finely chopped
  • 1 red chilli, finely chopped
  • Small handful coriander roughly chopped

It might be easily dismissed as a crude method for cooking chicken, but plopping the bird on an open beer can results in seriously tender chicken, with crispy skin all over.

When the chicken is this good, serve it with a salty, sweet and sour Thai dressing and it needs nothing else. The nam jim dressing, a classic element of Thai cuisine, can be made up to five days in advance and it works wonderfully with meat, vegetables and fish. For the dressing, whisk together the lime, fish sauce and caster sugar. Stir through the garlic, chilli and coriander.

Rub the oil all over the bird and season with a generous pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper, along with a third of the nam jim sauce.

Open the can of the booze and sit the bird on top. It should now be upright, standing to attention.

Stand the chicken on a hot barbecue at 200 degrees Celsius, with the lid down, for about 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until cooked all the way through.

Using a large pair of tongs, remove the bird from the barbecue and then remove the can from the bird and discard. Carve up the bird and serve, with the remaining dressing for dipping.

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