The new ALDI extensive beer selection and our homemade BBQ recipe #ad

We were compensated for this post. Having said that, we love to grill out and we really like beer, thus all thoughts are our own.  I am a kitchen sink cooker. By that I mean I use rough estimates when cooking and love to experiment with new tastes. I like our go-to BBQ chicken recipe, but am always on the hunt for something new. With a little tweaking I created a groovy new BBQ chicken recipe, plus I picked up some specialty beer from ALDI and got cooking.

First off, we really do shop at ALDI. Every week it’s the place where we get our staple items. Over the course of two plus years it’s saved us just over $2,500. Really, I just checked with my wife who keeps the books for the family-that is how much we’ve saved.  “Wow, that grocery bill sure was high”, she said after we spent $110 at another place when we were on vacation the other week.  Secure in the fact that I’ve been saving the family money, I could proceed to create a new BBQ flavor for me on the grill.

I like things that are spicy, but not death-hot, I need to eat 10 crackers to make my mouth cool again. To that end we used Sriracha hot sauce because it has a similar spice feeling as a banana pepper. You can feel the heat, but it quickly subsides and won’t melt your face.

-1 pound Kirkwood Chicken Breast Strips

-1/2 C. Fusia Sriracha Sauce*, or something hotter if you so like.

-1 avocado

-1/2 C. Casa Mamita Mild Salsa

-1 T. Stonemill Essentials Garlic salt

-1 onion, chopped

-1 T. Cilantro, chopped

-1/2 C. Specially Selected Thai Sesame Lime Dressing*

-1T. Berryhill Honey

Prep Time: 2 hours (includes marinating)

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 4

Combine everything but the avocado, honey and salsa into a small mixing bowl. Pour enough hot sauce over the chicken to cover it completely. Take the honey and drizzle a series of skinny lines back and forth over the chicken. Let it sit for a couple of hours.

During this time you can do something constructive like work on an Excel spreadsheet, mow the lawn or paint your neighbor’s mailbox. We did one of those things and then sat on the back porch with a beer. In our case we had the Revolution Harbor Amber Ale and Kinroo Blue Belgian White Ale.

Beer recap: we like craft beer. Much like the way we cook, we like to keep things familiar, but different and distinct. The extensive beer selection at ALDI met those requirements and more than satisfied the price point that we were used to for beer.  Click here to check availability at your local store. Available while quantities last. Items may not be available in all stores. Labels may vary by location. Prices may vary due to state and local laws.

The Revolution Harbor Amber Ale tasted like beer, the first time we had beer….many years ago. It also reminded us of some great ales that we had recently, but at a higher price point. We had a similar reaction to Kinroo Blue, which is great with a slice of orange-thank you very much.

By now it was time to cook. We prepared the grill and when it was hot enough the meat was added. In our case we used chicken strips, so they didn’t take long to cook. As you can see from the photo we also cooked some burgers for the wife and kids who might not be game for our experimental cooking.

Once the chicken had cooked we poured some salsa over and topped it off with a slice of avocado. Sprinkle just a dash of salt on top of everything and it’s done.

The first thing I tasted was the honey. Immediately after that I tasted the heat. But, because this was a quick heat, it subsided and a bevy of Asian influences (from the salad dressing), plus the spices jumped in to the taste bud fun. It ended with the salsa and avocado and it was awesome!

It was ridiculously simple to prepare, had enough spice and kick to make me happy, yet was complex and flavorful enough for my wife.

The chicken wasn’t spicy enough to warrant drinking a beverage, but I did. The specialty beer at ALDI is good beer. It’s beer that makes your taste buds stop, just for a moment to appreciate what’s happening. For example when I tried the Folded Mountains Pale Ale the beverage seemed to divide into two parts when I drank it.

The ale type elements were tasted first, followed by the slightly bitter bits that slowly crept up the back of my upper palette. This is the kind of beer that I normally had at a local pub, but now I was in our kitchen nook with the wife and kids. Make sure to check out ALDI on Facebook for more recipes and information on their extensive beer line.