The Kitchen Whisperer

So this past weekend it was 9,000 degrees in the ‘Burgh with 852% humidity.  Um Yeah me.. NOT!  Friggen mother nature must be ticked off at the ‘burgh to put her hell wrath fury upon us.  All I know it was too damn hot to cook or grill but sadly we needed to eat.  And since I’m a snob we rarely eat out. I don’t mean to be but if I’m paying someone to cook me a meal I expect it to be amazing.  Regardless if it’s $5 or $50, the quality of the meal should be great.  At least that’s how I feel.  Unfortunately I rarely get a meal that meets my expectations.

But what’s funny is if I’m at a friend’s house or someone’s house and they cook for me then I love that.  Why? Because there is passion and a love that’s put into the food where you don’t get that at a restaurant.  It may not be the prettiest or even the best tasting BUT the fact that someone put effort into a meal means more to me than anything. I’ve learned over the years to not offer up suggestions while they are cooking.  I will if asked but part of being a great chef or cook is watching and learning.  Maybe someone seasons differently or cooks a different way.  It may not be incorrect; just could be a way I hadn’t thought of.

Now if I’m at your house and you ask for help I would LOVE that!  I’ll always ask if there anything I can do because I genuinely do love to help but if it’s your house, your kitchen.. your rules and you’re the chef!

So back to this sweltering hell fire that had settled over the ‘Burgh… I had chicken out but there was no way in hell was turning on the oven or the bbq.  No way, no how!  If Mr. Fantabulous wanted that then my dear husband was eating cold cereal.  Well if you recall the other day as I started cleaning my kitchen, I came upon my bajillion crockpots.  I decided then to not only make the banana bread in one crock but to also make some type of chicken in the crock.  I saw that I had some slider buns leftover so the simple thing to make was shredded chicken.

Apparently I’ve been on some type of booze kick (which is odd as I rarely drink – literally I drink once a year at Halloween), I wanted to make some type of drunk chicken.  I wasn’t sure out tequila would turn out in the crock so I looked for other stuff.  AH HA.. beer..

Yuck.. I hate beer. No, really I HATE beer!  It all tastes the same (quit shaking your heads and telling me it doesn’t cause it does… to me).  See Mr. Fantabulous is a HUGE beer snob and of course every new beer he gets I am required to try.  I honestly think he had that put into our wedding vows.  So I oblige by taking a sip (we’re talking teensy weensy OMG it’s touching my lips sip). Almost immediately I make that face. By now you all know THAT FACE I’m talking about. I’m talking about my infamous Squinched-Up-7-Year-Old-This-Is-BUTT-NASTY-OMG-I’M-GONNA-DIE-face! *shudder*

But… when you cook with beer it doesn’t quite suck.  It actually puts a really great undertone flavor that you can only get from slow cooking it.

Now what’s shredded chicken without BBQ sauce, right?  I mean really!  So I just decided to mix to two together and cook it low and slow.

The end result… Pretty friggen AWESOME!  I mean the beer taste is there but it’s mellow and just adds a smooth undertone flavor.

Now truth be told, Mr. Fantabulous didn’t like but BUT it’s because he doesn’t like chicken with bbq sauce. Pay no attention to him.. he’s odd   *I* loved it… a lot!  I mean REALLY a lot!