How to incorporate cannabis into your next backyard barbecue

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Summer has finally arrived and, with it, barbecue season. If you’re a medical marijuana patient, there’s never been a better time to learn how to incorporate cannabis into your next grilling session.

Swade Dispensary, with four locations currently open in the St. Louis area and one more in the works, will soon offer a new product perfect for those backyard barbecues. Later this summer, an alcohol-free, cannabis-infused beer called MOHI will launch in all Swade dispensaries.

Highly sessionable at 5 milligrams of THC per can, the MOHI brew is not only perfect for sipping while grilling, it’s also an inventive way to make your own THC-infused beer can chicken. “It tastes just like beer but won’t give you a hangover, and it will make for a really juicy chicken with a bit of the hoppy flavor,” said Jack Haddox, director of dispensary operations.

The chicken is cooked similarly to any beer can chicken recipe, but it’s crucial to keep the temperature at about 240 degrees. “That allows the THC to vaporize and infuse the chicken without overheating and destroying the THC,” Haddox said. “You can just pop the top on a can of the beer and then put it inside a whole chicken. I use a charcoal grill and keep it off direct heat, cooking for about four to six hours until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.”

Because MOHI contains just 5 milligrams of THC, it won’t make for a highly medicated chicken, but Haddox said you could easily up the dosage, if desired, by grinding cannabis flower and adding it to the beer before cooking the chicken. “If you have a gram of cannabis flower that’s labeled 20% THC, it equates to 200 milligrams of THC that would disperse throughout the chicken,” he explained.

It’s also easy to infuse barbecue sauce with THC using cannabis flower. “You first must decarboxylate the flower for at least 30 minutes in the oven (on 240 degrees) to activate the THC, then you can just grind it and add it to any barbecue sauce, which usually masks the herbal flavor,” Haddox said. “I’ve also cooked ribs like I normally would, but then top them with a cannabis-infused butter.”

To infuse butter, decarboxylate the cannabis as explained above, then mix with butter and simmer for two to three hours on low heat, then strain with a cheesecloth to separate the flower from the butter. Once you have infused butter, you can incorporate it into any recipe that calls for butter, such as cookies or brownies, though the lower the temperature it’s cooked in, the better so as not to burn off the THC.

THC and CBD mocktails are another great way to include cannabis at a barbecue. “The amend 1:1 tincture has a light minty flavor that pairs really well with a mojito-inspired mocktail for maximum relaxation and full vacation mode,” said Melissa Khan, director of marketing. "We don't recommend mixing THC with alcohol, so if you're imbibing in alcohol, it’s best to stick with CBD, like BeLeaf Life’s Oils. And if you're including THC in your barbecue, then mocktails are your best option.”

For more information, visit swadecannabis.com.

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This advertisement is intended only for Missouri medical marijuana patients. Medical decisions should not be made based on advertising. Consult a physician on the benefits and risks of particular medical marijuana products.