It’s been call everything from Drunken Chicken, Beer Can Chicken, Chicken on a Throne, to Beer Butt Chicken and my personal favourite - Beer in the Rear Chicken. Regardless of what you call it, anyone who has made this dish will agree, it tastes amazing.

Beer can chicken is very easy to make. Getting the chicken on and off the grill is the tricky part. Fortunately, manufacturers like Webers have developed more sophisticated pans for the chicken to sit upright. You just pour some beer in the tray’s opening. Stands can be purchased anywhere from Canadian Tire , Amazon.com to Dollarama.

Clean up is easier if you spray your beer can or holder with PAM and make sure there is a foil plate underneath the chicken to catch the drippings (spray this with Pam as well).

Getting Started

Set up the grill for indirect grilling and preheat to medium or heat up the oven to 350F

3 1/2 to 4 lb roasting chicken

2 tsp vegetable oil

1 - 12 oz can of beer

Barbecue Rub (from the Barbecue Bible’s Website)

• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 coarse salt (kosher or sea salt)
• 1/4 cup sweet paprika or smoked paprika (if you want it spicier, use hot paprika)
• 2 tbsp fresh ground black pepper

Mix the four ingredients in a bowl using your fingers.

To prepare the chicken, remove the neck and giblets from the body cavity, rinse inside and out and pat dry.

Brush oil all over the bird. Sprinkle 1 tsp of rub inside the body cavity and 1/2 tsp inside the neck cavity. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp of rub over the outside of the bird.

Open the beer, and either drink half, or pour out half out. Take the remaining 1 1/2 tsp of rub and pour into the beer can. Don’t worry if it foams up.

Take the chicken and place the body cavity over the beer can. Pull the chicken legs forward to form a sort of tripod, so the bird stands upright. The rear leg of the tripod is the beer can. If cooking on a roaster: Fill it with the beer mixture and position the chicken on top, following the manufacturer’s instructions. Tuck the tips of the wings behind the chicken’s back.

Cover the grill and cook the chicken until the skin is a dark golden brown and very crisp and the meat is cooked through (about 180°F on an instant-read meat thermometer inserted in the thickest part of a thigh, but not touching the bone), 11/4 to 11/2 hours.

I use oven mitts to remove bird - this is the hardest and messiest part, which is why I will likely break down and buy a stand like weber’s. Let the bird rest for five minutes and serve.

There are many variations on this recipe, and the CottageLife’s forum has lots of great tips from other cottagers who have tried it.

Cheers,

Julie

PS Our photo today is from the VirtualWeberbullet.com

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 25th, 2007 at 8:15 am and is filed under Barbeque. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.