Beer Chicken

After nearly a week of travel (4 flights within 6 days), I'm finally home...which means I finally get to eat a home cooked meal :)

Tonight's dinner was a hodgepodge of flavors: beer chicken (the beer was a double IPA) with red currant jam, whole grain pilaf with Meyer lemon preserves, and kimchi (which I did not make). This all seems very random, and that's because it was - these were the only things I had in my fridge/freezer/pantry! Still, somehow, the flavors worked.

Beer chicken is one of my favorite ways to prepare chicken because it's so easy. I learned how to make in college, when I essentially didn't know how to cook anything. Beer chicken is as follows: heat a pan with a little bit of oil, season a chicken breast on both sides, brown the chicken for a couple minutes on either side, then dump in a bunch of beer into the pan, enough so the chicken starts to poach and cook in the beer. The liquid keeps the meat incredibly moist. Almost any type of beer will do; I tend to favor microbrews over macro brews (I don't think I would ever use a bud light!), because microbrews already tend to have more flavor and body built in.