Recipe: Recipes from Talk TKL Chat 6-5-97 (Art's Dancing Chicken and How to Make Sundried Tomatoes)

ART'S DANCING CHICKENS (OR WIGGLE YOUR WEBER)

Dancing Chickens are normally associated with outdoor charcoal cooking, however, I'm sure could be done just as well in an oven. HERE WE GO:

1 (3 lb.) fryer (whole.)
1 can of beer
seasoning to taste

Wash bird and remove giblet sack from inside bird. Season skin to taste. Open beer can and place in cavity of bird,open side up of course. On a charcoal grill with one layer of BLAZING hot coals,place bird on rack balancing on the beer can to where bird appears to be standing up. Close top of grill, (I use a large Weber which you can do three birds on by placing them dancing in the center}. Set vents on top to 20% open. Forget these dudes for an hour and a half and open lid. Birds should be well browned or it may take another 15 minutes. Wearing gloves, remove the birds from grill and take the beer can out. Place the birds on a serving dish. It won't take much carving because the meat will literally fall off the bone. Some of the beer cans will be empty, some will have some brew in them. It doesn't seem to make any difference on the outcome of the bird. I wouldn't drink the leftover beer.

Although I've never tried it, I'm sure you could do the same thing in the over at about 350F for about the same amount of time.

VARIATION:
Take empty beer or soda can,wash clean inside and use red or white wine or anything you chose instead of beer. Art

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HOW TO MAKE SUNDRIED TOMATOES

- Start with perfect, ripe tomatoes- preferably Roma, but cherry or even regular slicing tomatoes will do in a pinch. Cut in half from stem end to blossom end (for Roma or cherry) or in 1/2" slices (for slicing toms). Place, cut side down, on baking sheets lined with parchment paper and sprayed very lightly with Pam. Place in 200-degree oven until dried, turning two or three time in the process, which may take eight hours, depending on juiciness of tomatoes. Store in sterile jars in a cool place, as is or covered with olive oil.

- It is so easy -- we do it all the time. We pick Roma tomatoes, slice
them in half lengthwise, and salt them lightly. Then we put them on one
of those "disposable" pizza pans that you can buy at most grocery
stores. They are made of aluminum and have holes all over them.
We put them in a 150-175F oven and leave them overnight. the next
morning, they should be leathery but not crispy. Some I keep just as
they are, but I also pack some in olive oil with garlic and rosemary.

- I have a quicker way to dry tomatoes than those already posted. It is from "Keep it Simple" by Alastair Little. Take some ripe tomatoes (I use plum tomatoes) and cut in half if small, quarters if large. Using a small knife, remove the pips and pulp so just the flesh is left. Oil a baking tray with olive oil and place tomatoes on it, cut side up. Sprinkle with a little sugar and salt and drizzle over some olive oil (omit all of these if you like). Bake in a 120C (250F) oven until dried but still soft (about 3 hours but depends on your oven). I think this method is quicker than the others because the pulp is removed before the tomatoes are dried and so there is less moisture to evaporate. They seem to have much more flavor than shop-bought sun dried tomatoes.