LSD Chicken

Ha!

Anyone ever heard of Owsley Stanley? In paleo circles, he's known as "The Bear" — a complete carnivore – in his 70s, now, who thinks all plant matter is toxic (it is, to a degree, but we're evolutionarily adapted to most of it — grains and legumes excluded — which is a good reason to mix up what you eat vegetable / fruit / nut wise and employ intermittency to simulate seasonal availability). All plant matter naturally contains anti-nutrients & toxins per the logic of natural selection; It couldn't be any other way, but it's a pet peeve of mine when certain folks essentially anthropomorphize plants as an explanation for the phenomenon. I'll save that for a future post.

Anyway, his fame is that he cooked the best lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in history. A half a kilo. A. Lot. Tiny micrograms will blow your mind, though, I've yet to experience it personally. Perhaps; one day. He was also the sound man for The Grateful Dead throughout their long tenure.

But let's get back to chicken. At this point, I'm loath to look up the link, but he's notorious on the high-fat carnivore forums, when he explained himself at length a couple of years ago. I read the whole ordeal, and one of the things I took note of was his chicken recipe.

Here goes. We need more than just chicken, so for that, I rely upon my neighbor Julie's method. Olive oil, on a baking sheet, in the oven until the tips get brown and crunchy. You can do it ahead ot time. It's just as delicious cold; same stinky pee.

That's ready to go in. Just some olive oil, salt, pepper. The other thing is the butter mixture. It's got lots of garlic, some rosemary, and an — this is my doing, not Owsley's — entire jalapeno with seeds, minced & crushed. Fear not.

Step two. Get under the skin. I have particular skills in that endeavor. Ask anyone.

Be gentle — oxymoron alert! — and you can actually get at the legs and other bits without doing a lot of damage. Here it is, ready to go in, with the butter mixture spread all over under the skin. In addition, Bea sliced me up a lemon, paper thin, with rind, and that got shoved in there as well. Owsley would not approve. The residue on my hands got spread over the exterior.

In the meantime, asparagus comes out, ready to make our pee stink.

Once the chicken came out (400ish, an hour), I fired up the broiler on high, tuned the chicken over, did three minutes on the back, then turned it over again for three minuted on the front.

And we're done. I served with knives and a spoon to get at the butter mixture in the pan.

The carcass is in the crock pot. The soup will be fabulous.