Before and after...

My two children are both wonderful cooks, this morning I phoned Chris to ask him for his 'chicken with beer' recipe. This is it.

Take 1 can of beer (speckled hen or similar) not lager, take the top off the beer, drink half the can, wrap the can in foil then shove it up the chickens bum. Stand the chicken (and can) in a large pot, making sure it won't fall over (the chicken, not the pot). I threw some celery, onion and carrot into the bottom of the pot, cook in a moderate oven until the chicken is tender. The hard part is removing the can from the chicken without burning yourself, it needs two of you and a good pair of oven gloves.

Use some of the juices to make the gravy, don't make the mistake I did and use all of them the gravy tasted very bitter. The chicken is so tender you cannot carve it, you just have to take it off the carcass in chunks.

We had this with potatoes roasted in goose fat, sage and onion stuffing and cauli. Lovely.