Chicken Series: Beer-can Chicken

Hi All,

As you know we have started Chicken Series, so we are going to add some chicken-related recipes. Today we are going to make Beer-can Chicken. 🐔

Beer-can Chicken is a barbecued chicken dish and method of indirect grilling using a partially-filled can of beer that is placed in the chicken’s cavity prior to cooking. It has been suggested that the dish possibly originated in the U.S. state of Louisiana. So let’s start today’s recipe. 😋

Beer Can

Ingredients📝

  • 1 recipe spice rub (or use your own recipe)
  • 2 bay leaves, crumbled
  • 1 12-ounce (slightly more than a 330ml can) can of beer
  • 3-4 pound (1.5 – 2kg) chicken (dressed)

Directions🍳

  1. Poke holes all over chicken to let fat run out during cooking.
  2. Rub chicken thoroughly with spice rub: inside and out, and then under skin as far as you can reach
  3. Set aside chicken.
  4. Remove upper racks from oven.
  5. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
  6. When oven preheated, take a healthy drink of the beer, leaving about 9 or 10 ounces.
  7. Crumble bay leaves into beer, in beer can.
  8. Insert beer can firmly into chicken cavity.
  9. Place chicken upright in shallow heatproof pan.
  10. Bake chicken upright until thickest part is 165°F (73°C) , an hour or an hour and a half.
  11. When removing chicken from oven, keep upright.
  12. Rest chicken upright 15 minutes before removing beer can.

Tips, Notes, and Variations💡

  • A disposable drip pan will save you a lot of cleanup (and a lot of flares on the outdoor grill).
  • This is really best on a charcoal grill, on medium heat.

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