Barbecued Chicken with Yellow Mustard Sauce

If you fancy a proper US-style barbecue this weekend try this brilliantly easy recipe from chef Brad McDonald's book Deep South: New Southern Cooking

Brad writes: "You’re going to fall in love with this Carolina- style sauce. I really like its tanginess with the chargrilled chicken skin. It also stands up well to the charred spring onions, which make the perfect garnish for this dish. (Keep any left- over mustard sauce in the fridge – it’s great with sausages.)

Barbecued Chicken with Yellow Mustard Sauce
Serves 4–6

1 free-range chicken, about 1.5kg (3 1⁄4 lb)

100ml (3 1⁄2 fl oz) olive oil

50g (1 3⁄4oz) BBQ rub (see below)

12 spring onions (scallions), trimmed but left whole

a little vegetable oil

sea salt

For the yellow mustard sauce:

250g (9oz) French’s yellow mustard

120ml (4fl oz) cider vinegar

85g (3oz) light soft brown sugar

1⁄4 tsp paprika

1⁄4 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1⁄4 tsp cayenne pepper

1⁄4 tsp freshly ground
black pepper

First spatchcock the chicken: put it breast-side down on a board and, using a pair of poultry scissors, cut out the backbone. Turn the bird over and press down gently on the breast bone, then splay the chicken open. Season with salt on both sides. Make a paste with the olive oil and the BBQ rub and coat the bird all over with it. Leave to marinate for 3–4 hours or overnight.

Place the bird skin-side down on a barbecue grill and cook over a medium heat until tender and cooked through. Turn once and move to a lower heat if nec- essary to prevent scorching. If using a thermometer to check the temperature, pull the bird off the heat at 65°C/150°F. Leave to rest for 15–20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the sauce: put all the ingredients in a pan and bring to the boil, stirring constantly with a whisk.

Toss the spring onions in enough vegetable oil to coat, then place on the barbecue and cook until lightly charred.

Carve off the chicken legs and thighs, then carve the white meat from the bone. Brush the sauce over the meat. Garnish with the grilled spring onions and serve with the rest of the sauce on the side.

For the rub:

125g (4 1⁄2 oz) paprika

15g (1⁄2 oz) onion powder

15g (1⁄2 oz) garlic powder

15g (1⁄2 oz) chilli flakes (red pepper flakes)

15g (1⁄2 oz) crushed black pepper

7g (1⁄4 oz) dried oregano

Mix everything together, use what you need for the recipe and keep the rest in a sealed jar

What to drink: Personally I'd go for a craft beer like a pale ale or IPA with this but you could go for a fruity red like a merlot, grenache or tempranillo or a not-too-oaky chardonnay if you prefer a white

From Deep South by Brad McDonald (Quadrille £25) Photograph © Andy Sewell

Beer-Can Chicken - the best way to barbecue a bird!

One of the recipes in my book An Appetite for Ale for which I have the greatest affection is Beer-Can Chicken. Actually, I say recipe, but it’s more like a technique.

The basic idea is to prop a whole bird on a beer can and barbecue it. Sound impossible? In fact it’s ridiculously easy.

The only slight snag is that you need a kettle-style barbecue with a high enough domed lid to take the bird upright. You’ll also need a medium sized chicken (about 1.3-1.5kg/3lb-3lb 5oz), a couple of teaspoons of a good quality spicy rub like a jerk or Cajun seasoning (I like the ones made by Seasoned Pioneers and the South African brand, NoMU) and a small 330ml can of beer. Which doesn't have to mean lager - there are loads of great beers in cans nowadays.

Rinse the chicken inside and out and dry it thoroughly with kitchen towel. Remove any surplus fat from the carcass and sprinkle the inside of the chicken with about 1 tsp of the spice mixture, rubbing it in well. Sprinkle another teaspoon or so of the rub over the chicken and rub that in too. Leave the chicken to marinate for half an hour or so while you fire up the barbecue.

Pour half the contents of the beer can into a glass (cook’s perk!). Lightly oil the can and lower the chicken onto the can so that it stands upright propped up by its legs. Set the can on the barbecue rack and cook over an indirect heat for about 50 minutes to an hour until the juices run clear when you pierce the leg with a skewer. Holding the can with a pair of tongs very carefully remove chicken from the can and set aside on a carving tray. Rest for 5-10 minutes then carve and serve with a barbecue sauce or a salsa.

The point about the whole exercise is that the beer creates steam inside the chicken making the flesh wonderfully moist and the fat runs down the skin, basting it and making it beautifully crisp. I promise you it will be one of the best chickens you’ve ever tasted!

What to drink: Given that you’ll probably be serving it with an assortment of salads and relishes I’d serve it with a robustly hoppy pale ale or IPA. Or a rum punch.

10 great beer and food matches for summer

Picture © Brent Hofacker

Courgette and feta fritters with yogurt

For those whose courgettes (zucchini) just won't stop producing here's the perfect way to use them from Tom Hunt's lovely book The Natural Cook.

Tom runs a restaurant in Bristol called Poco which is based on making the best of what's available in the market - they don't have a fixed menu just cook from what's good on the day. The book tells you how to do the same.

Tom writes: "These are a wonderful Greek classic. They are easy to make, incredibly moreish and keep well, so can be made ahead, then reheated.

Serves 4 as a starter

200g courgettes

extra virgin olive oil

1 spring onion, finely sliced

3 sprigs of dill, chopped

9 mint leaves, roughly chopped

70g feta, crumbled

1 small egg, lightly beaten

2 tbsp plain flour

6 courgette flowers (optional)

light olive oil

80g Greek yogurt, to serve

For this recipe, pick the very freshest, crispest courgettes. Give them a wash, take a box grater and turn it on its side. Run the courgette along the grater, creating long strings of it. Keep going until the courgette loses its rigidity, then finely slice the leftover piece with a knife.

Spread the courgette spaghetti on a clean tea towel and leave for five minutes, then fold the tea towel on top and pat it dry.

Transfer to a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients, except the courgette flowers (if using), oil and yogurt.

Mix well and season with pepper; you probably won’t need much (if any) salt, as the feta is salty. If you have courgette flowers, stuff them with some of the mixture. Place a heavy-based frying pan over a medium heat with a glug of light olive oil. Drop a small piece of the courgette mixture into the pan to test if it is hot enough: when it sizzles, the pan is at the right temperature.

First fry the stuffed courgette flowers, if you have them. Then drop large tablespoons of the rest of the mixture into the pan. Whether cooking flowers or fritters, allow them to colour to a light brown on one side, then flip and colour on the other.

When cooked, remove from the pan and rest on a clean tea towel or kitchen paper to absorb excess oil.

Serve with Greek yogurt, or make tzatziki by adding a little finely chopped cucumber, crushed garlic, extra virgin oil, lemon juice and seasoning to it.

What to drink: These need something light and fresh - and following Tom's philosophy, local. A crisp English white wine, a dry cider, or homemade lemonade would all be good choices in Bristol. Elsewhere think Sauvignon Blanc, Portuguese Vinho Verde or a dry rosé. Or a witbier.

Extracted from The Natural Cook by Tom Hunt (Quadrille, £20). Photograph: Laura Edwards.

Gin and cucumber sorbet

If you're looking to mark World Gin Day this weekend why not rustle up this refreshing gin and cucumber sorbet which was created by Simon Dawson of Bell's Diner in Bristol.

Gin and cucumber sorbet

(makes about 12 scoops)

200 g caster sugar

200 ml water

35 ml glucose syrup

1/2 tsp salt

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

16 mint leaves

2 cucumbers

100 ml gin (we use Beefeater)

Put the sugar, water and glucose syrup in a pan over a medium heat and bring it to the boil, stirring occasionally.

When all the sugar has dissolved, remove the pan from the heat, add the salt and lemon juice and zest and let it stand for five minutes.

Slice the mint leaves very finely and add to the syrup in the pan. Pour the mixture into a bowl, let it cool a little then cover and put it in the fridge overnight.

Peel and roughly chop the cucumber and blend in a processor until smooth. Add the pulp to the syrup mixture, strain through a fine sieve then add the gin.

Churn in an ice cream machine or pour into a shallow container and freeze, stirring with a fork from time to time to break up the ice crystals. It’ll take about 24 hours to freeze properly in a domestic freezer.

In the restaurant we serve the sorbet with a dash of frozen gin - generally Portobello Road. We also recommend it with a gimlet.

© Bell’s Diner & Bar Rooms 2014