Ingredients: |
Ingredients: 1 can (12 ounces) beer
1 chicken (3½ to 4 pounds)
2 T All-Purpose Barbeque Rub (recipe below) or your favorite commercial rub
2 tsp vegetable oil
You will also need:
2 cups wood chips or chunks (preferably hickory or cherry), soaked for 1 hour in water and/or beer, then drained.
Vertical chicken roaster (optional)
All-Purpose Barbeque Rub:
¼ cup coarse salt (kosher or sea)
¼ cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup sweet paprika
2 T freshly-ground black pepper
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Directions: |
Directions:All-Purpose Barbeque rub:
1. Put the salt, brown sugar, sweet paprika, and pepper in a small bowl and stir to mix. (Your fingers work better for mixing the rub than a spoon or whisk does.)
2. Store the rub in an airtight jar in the refrigerator. It will keep for at least six months.
Beer-Can Chicken:
1. Pop the tab off the beer can. Pour half of the beer (¾ cup) over the soaking wood chips or chunks, or reserve for another use. Using a church-key style opener, make two additional holes in the top of the beer can.
2. Remove and discard the fat just inside the body and neck cavities of the chicken. Rinse the chicken inside and out under cold running water and then drain and blot dry with paper towels. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of the rub inside the body cavity and ½ teaspoon inside the neck cavity. Drizzle the oil over the outside of the bird and rub or brush it all over the skin. Sprinkle the outside of the bird with 1 tablespoon of rub and rub all over the skin. Spoon the remaining 1½ teaspoons of rub into the beer through a hole in the top of the can. Don't worry if the beer foams up.
3. If cooking on a can without a vertical roaster, hold the bird upright with the opening of the body cavity at the bottom and lower it onto the beer can so the can fits into the cavity. Put 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.
4. If cooking on a roaster, position the bird on the roaster according to directions. (I have a roaster that fits into the cavity of the chicken with room for the beer can to fit under the roaster. With that type of roaster, you may have to push down hard on the chicken when positioning it on the roaster to get it to sit low enough to fit under the lid of the grill.)
5. Tuck the tips of the wings behind the chicken's back.
6. Set up the grill for indirect grilling and preheat to medium. If using a charcoal grill, place a large drip pan in the center. If using a gas grill, place all the wood chips or chunks in the smoker box and preheat to high until you see smoke , then reduce the heat to medium.
7. When ready to cook, if using a charcoal grill, toss all of the wood chips on the coals. Stand the chicken up in the center of the grate, over the drip pan and away from the heat. Cover the grill and cook the chicken until the skin is a dark golden brown and very crisp and the meat is cooked through (180 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of a thigh, but not touching the bone), 1¼ to 1½ hours. If using a charcoal grill, add 12 fresh coals per side after 1 hour. If the chicken skin starts to brown too much, loosely tent the bird with aluminum foil.
8. If cooking on a can, remove the bird from the grill by grasping the can with tongs and transferring the bird in an upright position to a platter.
9. Let the chicken rest 5 minutes before carving. |
Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: This recipe is from a book entitled "Beer-Can Chicken (And 74 Other Offbeat Recipes for the Grill", by Steven Raichlen, that was a birthday gift from my son-in-law, Marty Hensel. We have enjoyed this recipe many times at the lake.
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This recipe for Beer-Can Chicken (a.k.a. "Butt Chicken") is from