This is such a classic and popular main dish. Easy to do for a special or impromptu dinner party. Everybody loves it and you can double the dish by just preparing and cooking two chickens in about the same amount of time it would take you to do one.
Grilled Beer Can Chicken
The ingredients you need aren’t exotic either. Just a chicken, a can of beer and the rest of the recipe is things you’d have in your kitchen.
First clean your chicken and take out the innards and cut off the wingtips if you want to. It’s not necessary though. Clean it with lots of running water in the sink then pat it dry with paper towels.
The Naked Bird
A day or two before you make this, brine the chicken overnight. Brining will season and flavor the chicken all the way through and ensure that the chicken will stay moist after grilling. Even if you over-grill a little. But, this easy dinner party recipe is so fool-proof, you don’t have to brine if you run out of time or just don’t want to mess with it. The chicken stays moist anyhow.
A basic recipe for a 3 lb chicken would be: 3 qts. Water, 1 cup Diamond Crystal Kosher salt, 1 cup sugar. Dissolve and put in a big container. I also flavored mine with a couple of lemons & limes squeezed, 2 bay leaves and a few cloves. The brine and chicken were put in a stockpot and refrigerated overnight.
Floating the the Brine
Remove the chicken from the brine and dry it with paper towels again. Make a rub to flavor the skin. Or you can use a commercially prepared rub. If you want a super easy dinner party recipe, just use a store bought rub. There are plenty to choose from in the spice section of the supermarket. Massage the rub in all over the chicken and sprinkle some in the cavity. This time, though, I softened some butter, flavored it with various spices, salt, cayenne, paprika, chili powder and slathered it all over the chicken and under the skin.
Slathered with seasoned butter
Open a can of beer; pour out (or drink) half. Ram the can into the cavity of the chicken and balance the bird on the can and it’s two legs.
When your grill is hot, either turn off one side of the grill or place the chicken on some heavy-duty foil so it’s not cooking directly over the heat. Using charcoal…just push the coals to one side with a long spatula before you balance your chicken on the non-coals side.
Chicken sitting on the Beer Can
Cook the beer can chicken about an hour and a quarter. Use an instant read thermometer to make sure the breast is at 165 degrees before you pull it out, cover it loosely with foil to let it rest for 20 minutes and then dig in.
Standing on the can, the chicken cooks evenly with a perfect, crisp skin. And if you want to, you can use some other liquid besides beer: apple juice, lemonade, Coke—even just water. It will still be delicious with crackly skin and tender meat to the bone.
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