Chicken Meet Beer Can

Another dreadfully hot weekend here in Chicago. The only good thing about this hot sunny weather is that I have not had to cut the grass for about three weeks now. Though there seem to always be other projects that take the place such as sanding and restaining our deck. We could not have asked for any worse weather to take on our desk restoration this past weekend. Needless to say between Friday and the end of Sunday we finished the deck, with only a few touch up areas here and there remaining. We are pleased with the results and look forward to spending more time out in the backyard (if we can only get the mosquitoes to take a hike).

I did manage to finally squeeze in an opportunity to make a beer can chicken on Saturday. I have always wanted to try this after talking to friends and neighbors that swear by this cooking technique. The process is real simple. You preheat the grill until it gets really hot (like 400 - 500 degrees). If using propane or gas, turn off one side of the grill burners.  Then while the grill is hot, you rinse the whole chicken fryer with cool water and dry off with paper towels. Coat the bird with a mixture of olive oil, salt and pepper.  Then take a half full can of beer and drop in a few cloves of garlic. Insert the can into the cavity of the bird. Place the bird on the the side of the grill that does not have the burners going and close the lid. The bird will naturally stand straightup with the beer can and two legs acting as a tripod to balance the chicken.  Adjust the remaining burner that is on so that the flame is about medium to high producing an indirect oven temperature of about 400 degrees fahrenheit. The bird will be done in about 90 minutes or may take five to ten minutes longer producing a safe chicken temperature of 180 degrees.

Here is my finished results:





 The bird came out very juicy. Overall the chicken tasted good. I really did not pick up on the beer flavor. I did taste the garlic throughout the meat and it was good. I don't recommend doing chicken this way all the time on the grill as you will run out propane very quickly since this indirect cooking method takes about an hour and half to complete. I will probably try this again with a much stronger beer next time. I will also stick to the marinated chicken breast method that goes much quicker!

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