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Biggest Heat Beads® Cook Off

The Heat Beads® Team is still licking our lips from last week’s fabulous Biggest Heat Beads® Cook Off as part of Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea – a national fundraising initiative for the fight against cancer.

Staff were divided by their respective departments into three teams with each tasked to cook one course. Competition was fierce and recipes closely guarded until the very last minute. Code words were used in the weeks leading up to the cook off whenever the competition was discussed within the office walls. No, we certainly weren’t taking any chances.

After a morning of cutting, mixing, rubbing, smoking, tasting and assembling, special guest judge Terry McEvoy of Spithouse presented the results as follows…

1st place – Sales & Marketing’s Beer Can Chicken, Potato Wedges & Asparagus
BeerCanChicken

2nd place – Finance’s BBQ Baked Baby Pavlovas
Pavlovas

3rd place – Warehouse’s San Choi Bao
San-Choi-Bao

And yes, all dishes were cooked over Heat Beads® BBQ Briquettes.

Tips on Beer Can Chicken from the winning team:

– Use a dark ale beer. We couldn’t find any in a can, so each of us had to swig an entire can of coke at 9am and use the empty cans for the recipe. It certainly woke us up!
– Put a couple cloves of crushed garlic in each can, along with some paprika, dry mustard and onion powder.
– Give the chickens a rub down. We used a rub of paprika, dry mustard, cayenne pepper, allspice, salt and a touch of lemon rind.
– Make sure to add a little smoke. This gives the chickens a fabulous golden brown colour and the subtle smoky flavor that set this dish apart from the rest. We used a couple handfuls of grape vine chips soaked in water.
– Invest in a meat thermometer. You don’t want to go cutting into the chicken and losing the juices to see if it’s done. 80 °C is the ideal temperature for chicken.

Not only did the team have a fabulous time, but we managed to raise funds for an initiative we all feel strongly about! It’s never too late to do your part. Find out more about the Biggest Morning Tea or make a donation at www.biggestmorningtea.com.au

Were you one of the many who hosted their own Biggest Morning Tea? We’d love to hear about it on Facebook, but don’t forget to LIKE us first!

P.S. Be sure to check out the rest of our Cook Off photos in our Facebook photo album.