Beer Can Chicken

Ah yes! hhhmmmm......beer. To quote Homer Simpson! I found this to be the most fool proof way to cook a chicken and really have amazing juicy chicken. I looked on the Internet last night to get an idea of what people are doing to cook their beer can chicken. Not much to say. Chicken, rub, beer, oil. That is basically it! Now I will walk through the first ever beer can chicken and definitely not the last that I cooked hours ago on the BBQ.

I took the chicken out of the fridge and remove any unwanted organs. Washed the chicken in cold water and patted dry with a paper towel. I took out my beer can chicken stand which is a dish about 2 inches deep and has a 3 legs to support the chicken and hold the beer can. Awesome little invention I must say. Now hear come the first and best part. Open a can of beer and drink half. Yes! Drink before we get into the cooking but this is prepping believe it or not! I added 3 cloves of garlic to the beer which I read would give it some flavour. I also read to place chopped course onion up in the top of the chicken so it sits on top of the beer can. This also gives it flavour. Place the beer can into the dish and place the 3 legs into the slots so they clip in. I guess the beer can will hold up the chicken but I had the dish so I'm using it! Rub some olive oil on the chicken and then apply your favourite rub or make one up that smells good! Preheat the BBQ to around 350 degrees with one side on only. I guess mine was about there but can't say for sure. Once the temperature gauge on your BBQ has settled after about 10 minutes place the chicken over the side of the BBQ that has no heat. We are cooking indirect baby!! Cook between 60-90 minutes. I also basted the chicken after 30 minutes with butter. Then again at an hour but took the drippings from the pan and basted with them! Oh yeah...that pan came in handy alright!!! When you think it is done then take it inside to cool down before you try to remove the chicken from the beer can. Very hot can and pan!! Rip that chicken off the can and dig in!!

Now the chicken was incredibly juicy and I stabbed it with my BBQ fork and clear juices squirted out of it like a woman having an orgasm...or so I hear!! LOL. I also gave it a little cut to make sure the chicken was cooked. I would have used a thermometer if I had one for meat but that will be my goal tomorrow when I run around doing errands! I cooked an 8-10 pound chicken and it was about 90 minutes or so. I also turned the chicken when I basted at 30 minutes, 60 minutes and then it was every 10 minutes until the 90 minutes. Now this chicken was very moist but not much flavour. I used an epicure spice called red garlic which is very tasty on the skin but doesn't get into the meat. I will be injecting a marinade next time to see what that is like. The girls loved the chicken and we did also. No complaints but now it is experimenting time since I did a pretty good job on the beer can chicken. Now to try injection to see what that might do!!!

More to come....

Summary:

1 - 8-10 pound whole chicken
1 - can of Miller Genuine Draft
1/2 - cooking onion
2 - Tbsp olive oil
3 - cloves of garlic
many - dashes of red garlic spice over chicken

A must try and if I would have known how amazingly easy this was I would be cooking all my chicken like this!!

Cheers!!