Beer Can Chicken

 

Feel free to use my homemade barbecue rub, https://potpourrioffrugality.blogspot.com/2025/05/bbq-rub-for-any-meat.html, and your favorite canned beer. I don’t drink beer so I use a can of Coke or Sprite instead.  I love this recipe. 

Serves: 6

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups mesquite wood chips

1 (4- to 5-pound) chicken

4 tablespoons of dry barbecue rub

1 (12-ounce) can of beer or Coke

Instructions

About 1 hour before you’d like to begin grilling, place the wood chips in a bowl and cover completely with cold water. Let them soak for at least 1 hour.

Remove and discard the fat just inside the body cavities of the chickens. Remove the package of giblets and set aside for another use. Rinse the chicken, inside and out, under cold running water, then drain and blot dry, inside and out, with paper towels. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the rub inside the body and neck cavities, then rub another 1 tablespoon all over the skin of the bird. If you wish, rub another 1 1/2 teaspoons of the mixture between the flesh and skin. Cover and refrigerate the chicken while you preheat the grill.

Set up a grill for indirect grilling, placing a drip pan in the center. If using a charcoal grill, preheat it too medium. If using a gas grill, place all the wood chips in the smoker box and preheat the grill to high. When smoke appears, lower the heat to medium.

Pop the tab on the can. Using a “church-key”-style can opener, make 6 or 7 holes in the top of the can. Pour out the top inch of liquid, then spoon the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons of the dry rub through the holes into the can. Holding the chicken upright, with the opening of the body cavity down, insert the can into the cavity.

When ready to cook, if using charcoal, toss half the wood chips on the coals. Oil the grill grate. Stand the chicken up in the center of the hot grate, over the drip pan. Spread out the legs to form a sort of tripod to support the bird.

Cover the grill and cook the chicken at 250 degrees until it falls off the bone tender and the internal temperature reads 165 degrees, about 2-1/2 hours. If using charcoal, add 10 to 12 fresh coals per side and the remaining wood chips after 1 hour of cooking.

Using tongs, lift the bird to a cutting board or platter, holding a large metal spatula underneath the beer can for support. (Have the board or platter right next to the bird to make the move shorter. Be careful not to spill hot beer on yourself.)

Let the bird stand for 10 minutes before carving the meat off the upright carcass. (Toss the can out but save the carcass to make bone broth.) Serve.

Elizabeth Kilbride is a Writer and Editor with forty years of experience in writing with 12 of those years in the online content sphere. Author of 5 books and a Graduate with an Associate of Arts from Phoenix University in Business Management, then a degree. Mass Communication and Cyber Analysis from Ashford University, then on to Walden University for her master’s in criminology with emphasis on Cybercrime and Identity Theft and is currently studying for her Ph.D. degree in Criminology. Her work portfolio includes coverage of politics, current affairs, elections, history, and true crime. Elizabeth is also a gourmet cook, life coach, and avid artist in her spare time, proficient in watercolor, acrylic, oil, pen and ink, Gouche, and pastels. As a political operative having worked on over 300 campaigns during her career, Elizabeth has turned many life events into books and movie scripts while using history to weave interesting storylines. She also runs 7 blogs that range from art to life coaching, to food, to writing, Gardening, and opinion or history pieces each week. 

 

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