New Year's Resolution Recipe #9: Beer Can Chicken

Or do you call it "Beer Butt Chicken"?
Either way, I've been meaning to make this for about 15 years and finally got around to it.
15 years is a long time to forget about a recipe and think to do it randomly some Friday night!
Why 15 years?  Well, I once dated a guy named Simon (way back when I was about 15) and his dad told me all about beer butt chicken and I am pretty sure I let out the most ridiculous and not-so-lady-like snort.
I quickly recovered and I never did get to try out that chicken dish and every now and again it floated to my mind and quickly dissolved again.

Anyways, for the sake of something "quick" and not requiring a lot of prep time - I decided to Google search "beer can chicken" and found a variety of recipes!
Whew - it's not some weird dish made by Canadians.

I knew I had a whole chicken that needed to be cooked and I looked online and found that most recipes are for grilling the chicken on a barbecue.
I don't have one and saw some recipes were oven-friendly.
I also don't have one of those fancy wire things to support the chicken upward - I just shimmied the chicken onto the can.

• Pre-heat oven to 200*C.
• Rinse your chicken all over and inside out.
• Pat it dry with paper towel - or else your dry rub won't stick!
• Open a can of beer (I used Carlsberg - since I don't know crap about beers and which is best for inserting into a bird) and pour about 1/4 of it into your baking dish/pan you're going to let the chicken cook in.
• Shimmy that bird onto the can of beer.  (Some people remove the tab - I didn't because nobody told me and I didn't see it online until someone mentioned it after the fact.  I don't know why - but if you want - I guess you could!)
• Rub your spices all over your chicken.
• I used whatever was on my shelf that sounded alright with the word "chicken".  A lot of pre-mixed spices, dried mustard powder, chili powder etc.

• Rub your spices all over your chicken.

• Drizzle some olive oil into your pan if you want.
  Look at "Carl" getting his tan on!

• Let your chicken hang out in the oven for about 1.5 hours or until cooked well based on your meat thermometer. (75*C or 165*F)

• Loosen the chicken from the can and slice it up!
  This is what the can looked like after.

I don't recommend drinking the beer that's left over.

So was it worth a can of beer?  Sure!

I found that it cooked the chicken evenly and because the chicken was propped up - the chicken was nice and crispy and the beer flavour was very subtle.

It was juicy and well received by our guests!

I served this with mashed potatoes, green beans and thyme dinner rolls I made my bread machine whip up for me (I had to bake them) last minute.

Definitely something I'll try again!

:)
BIMU

PS Originally posted here.