If a special blend of rub or marinade is allowed to permeate the freshest chicken available, and holes are punched all around the top and sides of a can of good beer so the bird steams gently as it cooks, the result could be the finest, truly “gourmet beer-can chicken”, if not the very best chicken dish ever! Chickens are raised near Boquete, so we get the freshest chickens delivered to our markets every day.

Just look at the golden brown, beautifully rich and shining color on my birds. The even coating of my special “Bella Poultry Herb” mix brings out the glistening juiciness and flavor of the meat. You can blend you own mix to suit your taste.

Here’s my recipe for Real Gourmet Beer-Can Chicken.

1 whole chicken, cleaned of fat
4 tablespoons your own special poultry herb blend (see my “Bella Poultry Herbs” recipe below)
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
Salt to taste
1 can of your favorite beer, mine is our local Panama beer

Clean, wash and dry the freshest chicken available, rub it inside and out with poultry herb blend and place in a plastic bag to marinate in the refrigerator all day, overnight would be fine. Open a can of beer and drink about 1/3 of it. Punch 6 wholes in the can around the top sides with a “church key” type opener. Drop the crushed garlic into the beer can. Place the chicken, open end down, over the can so that he sits up with his feet set to make a tripod. Set the chicken over medium heat on the top of a barbecue grill, gas or charcoal, close the cover and cook for 1 hour, or until the bird turns golden brown, 165 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. Using large tongs, lift the bird off the grill while using a turner to support the beer can from the bottom. Rest 5 minutes. Hold the beer can with a hot pad and lift the chicken off his perch with tongs. Carve and serve.

This is how I blended the herbs for Bella Poultry Herbs

2 tablespoons sage
2 tablespoons thyme
2 tablespoons rosemary
2 tablespoons oregano
1 teaspoon white pepper, ground
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Place these herbs in a mortar and mull with a pestle until the mix is a fine consistency, which may take several minutes.  You could use a mini-food processor, but you’d miss the enjoyment of grinding it yourself.  Keep your mix in a screw-cap bottle always ready for handy use.

If you or your guests want to get creative, have a wooden spoon and marker available for some artistic fun.

If you are a connoisseur or lover of good food, drink and good fun, this beautiful, luscious chicken is truly a gourmet’s delight.

I served these birds with a juicy potato salad and red Caprese-style tomatoes layered with mozzarella cheese slices and lots of big, fresh basil leaves, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. We enjoyed a bottle of Septima Vineyard Malbec-Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 wine from Argentina, which completed this delectable dinner with friends.

What a lovely evening!
Cora

But wait, that’s what I always made when I lived in Florida – I’m living in Boquete now and that calls for making something “Panamanian”.  When I thought of taking the most popular ingredient in Panama and making it with limes, I could develop my own Key Lime recipe.  Chicken is served in Boquete almost every day – that’s it, chicken!!

I ran out the door to pick up 4 chicken breasts and fresh cilantro at a little store just down the street and I was ready to begin my creation.  The fragrance and taste of cilantro is very important to local cuisine and I had to use some in my new recipe.

A quick skinning and cutting each breast into two pieces, and I began creating the most “gourmet” Key Lime chicken recipe I can possibly make.  I baked the dish in a bright green oven-proof baking dish and served it last night for dinner, much to the delight of the diners gathered in front of our fireplace on our veranda.

A Bellagio Frizzante Dolce White Wine was served to compliment this big, tasty, fragrant, tangy, zesty Boquete Key Lime Chicken, please enjoy it.

Boquete Key Lime Chicken

1 cup Key Lime juice, freshly squeezed

1 tablespoon honey

½ cup water

2 teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon cilantro, fresh if possible

1 tablespoon ginger, peeled, if you have it fresh

3 cloves peeled garlic

3 pounds skinless chicken pieces

Place the chicken pieces into a Ziploc bag and the remaining ingredients into a blender.  Blend until well combined.  Scrape sides, if necessary.  Pour marinade into the bag, close tightly and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat oven 325° F.  Drain the chicken and reserve the marinade.  Arrange chicken in an attractive baking dish and bake for 1 hour, 25 minutes, basting with marinade every 20 minutes.  Garnish and serve in the baking dish.  Makes 4 servings.