Recipe Corner: Beer Can Chicken

There is never a bad time for chicken. (And there is rarely a bad time for beer.) Who would have thought you could combine the two, not get a buzz, and yet, be completely satisfied? 

I love chicken because it is typically simple to prepare, easy to manipulate, and tastes delicious. Beer can chicken is one of the more creative ways to add flavor to your bird.

This week's recipe comes from Kyle Raybon, Leonard Rayder, and Kevin Keating. They are all roommates and members of the local bowling team, Autobahn, which competes at U.S. Play on Thursdays (I am also a member of this team).

Ingredients

2 Whole chickens

Seasoning Salt (Lawry's)

Can of beer of your choice (Dale's Pale Ale)

The Process

Wash the chicken with cold water. Sprinkle seasoning on to chicken to taste. Place chicken, feet first, on top of the opened beer can so that the chicken and beer can stand on their own. The can/chicken combo will be unstable so make sure it is standing securely.

I used Dale's Pale Ale. You can use Miller Lite, Guiness, Natural Ice, or anything you want. Raybon and crew use Miller Lite tall boys (16 oz. cans).

Set the grill to low-medium heat. This next part gets a little tricky. The positioning of the chicken on the grill depends on how much direct heat it comes in contact with. I learned this the hard way as the bottom of one of my chickens got a little charred. I caught this early, however, and was able to salvage the bird.

Having said that, you are going to want to check and rotate the chicken regularly. Cook for 45 minutes to an hour.

After the chicken is fully cooked, remove the beer can from the chicken. Be careful as the can will be extremely hot.

Carve the chicken and serve as you see fit.

I prepared the meat in several ways. I left the wings and drumsticks as they were. I made two chicken breast filets and pulled the other two breasts to make sandwiches for leftovers. I also pulled the thighs to add dark meat to the sandwiches.

Taste Test

The meat turned out extremely tender. The breast meat was juicy and had wonderful flavor. The wings were a bit dry, but the drumsticks were fantastic. The thighs were delicious and probably my favorite part.

The skin was very flavorful and had a subtle taste of the beer. The skin is inevitably going to char a little towards the bottom, but I feel it adds to the taste. Aside from this black color, the outside of the chickens were a mouth-watering golden brown and smelled of seasoning and beer.

Leftover Quality

From my experiences, chicken is usually good the next day. I bought some Country Oven White Bread so that I could make sandwiches. I heated up the pulled chicken, spread barbeque sauce on it and dug in. As I expected, it was delicious. Obviously, the chicken wasn't as juicy as the day before, but it was perfect for an easy lunch.

Final Grade

Overall, Kyle, Kevin, and Leo's Beer Can Chicken gets an A-. It was very tender and juicy, but it was a little hard to cook.