Beer Can Chicken | Something To Love!
0 comment Sunday, April 6, 2014 |

I promised that I would do a beer can chicken on Twitter, on my Traeger Grill, provided I could chase down a non-suspecting chicken. Well, I ran and I ran after one, and "The Chicken Has Landed!", and he, or she, I couldn't tell the difference, is one done dude.
Really, what the "beer can, or chicken throne, roaster" idea accomplishes (whether it is beer, or other liquid, maybe a cool white wine) is to add moisture, lots of moisture to chicken while you are barbecuing it. The results are phenomenal!
And, this has to be one of the easiest, quickest (maybe not that quick) BBQ chicken recipes out there. You are just going to love it. Other folks, like maybe your friends and family are just going to love it!
Ok, The Quicky Overview: You will want to add a quality"barbecue dry rub for chicken" and/or marinate the chicken beforehand, then insert a Chicken Throne (filled with beer, wine) into the cavity of the chicken. Barbecue it in an upright position, cooking an hour and an half, or more until the bird reaches a 190 degree internal temperature. Geez, can this really be all that hard?
It's been pointed out to me by very reputable sources (medical folks that I trust) to use a chicken throne instead of a beer can for health reasons. Hey, you can use the brew, but: the aluminum can and paint on the can, combined with heat, may cause problems to your health, big time.
So what-to-do, what-to-do? Get a chicken throne like below! Pour some beer or cool wine into the holder, but don't fill it up all the way because a lot of liquid will be coming out of the chicken and you don't want a lot of funky things falling all over your cool grill.
So, now you have lot's of brew, wine left. Geez, what are you going to do with it?
Alright, you paid attention to some advice for once in your life and got happily involved with a quality chicken throne...what's next? You have to make sure the throne will fit into the cavity. In other words, get a big enough chicken that has a big enough cavity, dude!
Prepare your "love-of-your-life chicken", maybe around five pounds or larger, by cleaning out the cavity, removing giblets, neck and toe nails. Cut off excess fat and wash the poor thing with cold water. Make sure you pat-dry the entire chicken.
Next, you can marinate and/or add a Rub to the chicken. But, what I did in this particular cooking session is rub extra virgin olive oil on the outside of the chicken, and into the cavity and then I applied the "Rub" ( I listed tons of them at the end of the post).
If you want to marinate it, I highly recommend Catalina Dressing. Pour it generously over the bird, into the cavity. Put it in the fridge over night. Put it in a Tupperware container (see below).
For this session I used a generous amount of Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Magic Rub. You can use any Rub you want. Make sure you apply plenty of Rub into the cavity. Rub it in with your hand and then sprinkle again, but don't rub it in this time.
You can easily use a gas or charcoal grill and get excellent results. However, I barbecued the chicken on my Traeger Grill. I have a built in pan that eliminates the dripping from the grill and runs them into a bucket.
On the Traeger, I ran the grill on High for about ten minutes and adjusted it down to Medium, or 325 degrees. How long do you cook, barbecue chicken on a gas grill? The same amount of time. On a gas grill, cook on indirect heat...light one burner and cook on the other with the hood down on medium heat.
With charcoal, you want a 3-zone split fire. If you don't know what that is, leave a comment on my blog post here and I will answer A.S.A.P, it will save you from having to do a huge cleanup job afterwards.
Cooking time is about one hour and forty-five minutes or 190 degrees on the Traeger for as big a chicken as I did. Make sure you have reached the 190 degree mark.
Using a Chicken Rack, Throne, Vertical Chicken Roaster makes thing simpler. You can purchase one here that will get excellent results for you.
I used a cherry flavored wood pellet when barbecuing. I like the fruit flavor.
I also baked four potatoes while I barbecued the chicken, and for the same length of time. Rubbed them with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkled Kosher Salt on them and then wrapped them in foil.
With very little effort on your part you can follow a simple formula for a super, you made it, Beer Can Chicken that impresses family and friends...and you!

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