I’ve heard about Beer-Can Chicken for a while now, and I’ve been wanting to make it for months. Well, my roommate invited a few friends over on St. Patrick’s Day evening, which also happened to be my birthday. We were thinking about grilling burgers or ordering pizza, but I volunteered to make Beer-Can Chicken, and everyone was skeptical but intrigued. Most of them had never heard of it before, and the very idea of cooking a chicken with an open can of beer stuffed into the cavity earned me some eye-rolls (and one very strong vote in favor of pizza). Well, it turned out to be a colossal hit, and I recommend it highly as an easy and delicious meal that’s ideal for parties and gatherings, so you can surprise and impress your friends.
I dashed to the store and bought two whole 4-pound chickens, some chips, and a case of canned beer. Typically I’m a bit of a beer snob (I like dark beers and ales, preferably from Ireland or Belgium, and I almost never buy cans). My one cheap beer weakness is Pabst Blue Ribbon, which I absolutely love, but it’s often hard to find at supermarkets even though it’s gaining popularity in bars that cater to college/twenty-something crowds. Faced with few canned beer selections, I was about to buy a 6-pack of Budweiser for $4.99 when I noticed a 12-pack of Milwaukee’s Best (“THE BEAST”!) for less than a dollar more. I have friends in Miami who love the Beast, but I don’t think much of it. But this was for cooking, not drinking, and a bargain is a bargain!
Dash back home, make some spinach dip to placate our guests. Thaw and drain a package of frozen chopped spinach, microwave a package of cream cheese, add sour cream and Miracle Whip, crushed red pepper, garlic powder, and parmesan cheese, and stir until smooth and creamy. This is based on one of Alton Brown’s recipes, and I will never buy store-bought spinach dip again. Our friends were impressed, needless to say.
Unwrapped the chickens, removed the pouches with giblets and stuff, don’t need those. I set to work making a rub, using:
Extra virgin olive oil (about a cup)
Kosher salt
Black pepper
Garlic powder
Paprika
Cumin
Old Bay
Corky’s Barbecue Dry Rub Seasoning (souvenir from a Memphis trip)
A few other random spices that I can’t think of right now – but feel free to use your discretion. I meant to add some lemon zest, and even had a lemon in the fridge, but totally forgot to use it because I was in a hurry.
I stirred it well, and got to work rubbing it all over my two chickens, inside and out. Don’t forget the insides! Washed my hands, opened two cans of the Beast, and poured about a quarter of each can into a glass for myself and chugged it. Oh boy, that was bracing. You don’t want full cans inside your chicken, to avoid spillage.
Preheated my oven to 350 degrees, put the beer cans on shallow roasting pans to catch drips and spills, and pretty much just worked my well-rubbed chickens down onto them, so they were standing straight up (with the legs facing down, of course). Set the timer for an hour, and voila – perfect, moist, juicy, tender, flavorful chicken, the likes of which I’ve never had thanks to the beer bubbling up and cooking the inside. Everyone was blown away. It really was THAT DAMN GOOD.
Best of all, the two 4-pound chickens cost me about $9 total, and the 12-pack of beers (of which I only used two) was $5 and change. Once you add tax and tip, you’d pay about that much for ONE meal at a casual sit-down restaurant, and that probably wouldn’t include beer! And I fed seven hungry adults. (Of course we had the spinach dip and some snacks and sides too, plus a LOT more alcohol, but that’s beside the point).
You can cook Beer-Can Chicken on an outdoor grill too, but you need a grill tall enough to close with them inside of it, and since you’ll probably want to use drip pans anyway, it wouldn’t be touching the grill itself and you’d probably get the same results from baking it in your oven. I will definitely be doing this again, and for anyone who likes chicken and/or beer, I highly recommend trying it my way. You can adjust the rub however you want, to your taste. For two bachelors, my roommate and I always have a ton of spices on hand, but the above mixture worked wonders.
