Monday, July 7, 2008

Beer Can Chicken

How do you get a husband that doesn't like chicken to eat chicken? Cook it with beer! I had often heard people talk about "Beer Can Chicken"... one of my High School friend's families called it "Beer Butt Chicken" which is really an appropriate term.

Sometime after we got married, I decided to give it a try. I had heard that the hardest thing was getting the chicken to stand up on the grill which always made me nervous. I was at Wal-Mart one day and found a little stand that is made specifically for beer can chicken, so I bought it and it's great.

What is so fantastic about cooking the chicken this way is that it stays VERY moist. Even though the chicken takes an hour to cook, its not dry. This is always Ryan's biggest complaint about chicken, that it's dry. Not the case with Beer Can Chicken!

There are probably many ways to season the chicken but this is what I do.



Beer Can Chicken
1 whole fryer chicken (about 4lbs)
1 can of beer, your choice
Tony's Seasoning
Garlic Pepper
Vegetable Oil

Preheat grill so that the coals/flames are on the outside of the grill. Chicken will drip lots of grease so you don't want it on the coals.

Drink (or pour out -- gasp) 1/2 can of beer. Carefully cut open beer can so it has a larger opening. Be careful -- don't cut yourself.



Remove all insides of the chicken and rinse the chicken. Pat chicken down with a paper towel to dry off some.

Rub chicken with vegetable oil, inside and out.

Sprinkle/rub chicken with Tony's and Garlic Pepper, inside and out.

If you have the little stand, place the can of beer in the stand. Place the chicken down on top of the can, so that can goes INSIDE the chicken. The chicken will be standing up-right, with legs at bottom, wings at top.

Place chicken on grill and cook for 1 hour or until it reads 180 on a meat thermometer.



I have no tips on how to cut the chicken up. I just do my best to get the breasts off and then cut off the drumsticks. It's not a pretty sight. I won't be going on any sort of cooking show anytime soon!

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