Beer Chicken

Here's something to do with the leftover beer that I no longer have the chugging willpower for: make it into a marinade.

Note that this recipe is not to be confused with beer can chicken, to be attempted next summer on the grill.Tried this on the quail and figured drumsticks were about the same size. Honestly, I don't think I'm ever going back to baking chicken, now that I've discovered how much more moist/juicier/faster the results are with the steam-n-sear method. Results: Could have used more salt/spices after the searing. Maybe some kind of rub, before throwing it on the pan, might have solved this issue. Still, the meat itself was unbelievably soft and flavorful, and the prep for this took 5 minutes. I would happily eat this for dinner three nights in a row and not get bored.

Ingredients:
1/2 c beer (I used a toasted lager... I'm partial to dark beers and CF tells me that "toasted" is the new thing in the beer world. Whatever. All I know is that the carbonation acts like a tenderizer & makes for good meat.)
1/4 c (or less) soy sauce
1/3 c chopped red onion
pepper

3 chicken drumsticks
ziploc bag

Directions:
Marinate everything in a ziploc bag for a couple hours. Or a day. Open the next day, steam* for 20 minutes (less if you don't have as much chicken), then sear the drumsticks on a high-heat nonstick pan with some olive oil, onions, and pepper. You can also pop it in the oven for 45 minutes (or until flesh is no longer pink) but that takes forever, and I got places to be.

*I realize that not everyone has a steamer, or is familiar with the art of steaming rather than baking/frying your meat/vegetables. I actually do not have a bonafide steamer (like the one below), but I use something like a circular metal rack w/ wire legs to place my meat on. I make a tray out of aluminum foil (folding the four corners up so that the juices don't leak out) and throw my meat/spices/vegetables in the tray before placing it on the rack, which sits in a 1/2 inch of boiling water. The tray has to be face-up so that the steam can actually work at the meat, otherwise it'll just condense on the foil and you'll sit there for hours wondering what the heck happened. Behold, a vegetable steamer:

Schoolmarm note: Just make sure you don't overfill your pot - you don't want the water to rise above the level of your meat & boil your goodies. You also do not want this to dry out because that will ruin your pan and probably cause some catastrophic burn when you try to lift your pot. So make sure you enough water and peer at least once at what's going on under the lid during the steaming process.