I cooked a chicken...

...and it was hard on both of us. 

I like to bake things and I make casseroles, but I don't usually cook meat. That's TB's job. He is a great cook, but he really doesn't get hands-on with meat that much either. We've never cooked a turkey or roasted a chicken. Nikki gave us a Chick-Can roasting tool and a recipe for rootbeer chicken, and I was totally up for trying it. TB was skeptical that I could do it. ("What are you going to do, just buy a whole chicken? Do you think there are gizzards and neck and stuff in there?" Yes and yes.)

So I cleaned out the gross stuff (as in, I dumped all the inside stuff into the garbage can. Someone or something at a chicken processing facility actually cleaned it out.) I broke the little guy's wing twisting it backward the way the instructions said. Then the real insult came when I set the thing on top of the can of rootbeer. It looked like a little cheerleader chicken. Ikey couldn't stay in the kitchen with this lively little chicken. I rubbed the chili powder-based herb mixture on it and Ikey really freaked out when he saw my red hands. ("WHAT is that on your hands? GROSS!") I made him take a photo. 

 I put the fella in the oven because I don't know how to run the grill. TB was shocked when he came home to a cozy roasty-smelling house, but I think he was kind of proud of me. Then he looked in the oven at this BIRD catching some rays in there and was slightly horrified. 

He was not psyched to carve it up. I'll admit it was tricky. I didn't know where to start. This little guy still had a can of rootbeer where the sun don't shine. So I didn't watch TB's process, but he managed to serve it up while I made rootbeer bbq sauce (good!). We all ate a lot of juicy chicken. Ikey didn't want to touch a drumstick. Jovie tore right into one. Here's her "review":

We think beer can chicken tastes great. We would love to eat one again. Please cook it and plate it up for us and when it resembles something you'd see in a restaurant more than something you'd see on a farm, we'll be right over. We'll be vegans until then.