First shot at beer can bird!

[Txdragon]

Seeing all the beer can chicken done recently, I had to throw in my 2 cents. This was my first ever and I'm not sure what I really need to improve upon.. Started off with the standard ingredients. I chopped some onion and had some minced garlic to add to the inside of the hen alongside my general rub. Salt, pepper, onion p, garlic p, chili p, paprika, brown sugar.


Rubbed birdy down with a evoo and then applied some rub. When I added the beer can to the chicken, I got some major giggles from the kids. My son asked, "why'd you put the beer up there, Dad?" I said, "You see anywhere else I can put it?" He had no further questions. Then it went on the grill at 300 deg..


Now during the rest. Don't let the color fool ya, it wasn't as dark as in the pic but not burnt in the least. I have made hundreds and hundreds of chickens in my life and probably near a literal ton of quarters and wings; never have I had a juicier chicken than this was. I started slicing the breast and it just gushed out. Then when I separated the legs, OMG!! I heated a slice of breast in the microwave for lunch today and it was still incredibly juicy after the night in the fridge.

[woodenvisions]

Isn't it amazing what a butt sauna does to a whole bird ?!?!?

Looks great man. If u want an even juicier bird, inject a few oz of parmesan peppercorn dressing in the breast just before the rub. I've never used evoo on the skin, just mustard.
Would I be better off using evoo?
I think I'll try it that way.

Also, I once used a Long island iced tea in a beer can and another was Reds Apple Ale.

That was excellent with them.

[Txdragon]

Isn't it amazing what a butt sauna does to a whole bird ?!?!?

Looks great man. If u want an even juicier bird, inject a few oz of parmesan peppercorn dressing in the breast just before the rub. I've never used evoo on the skin, just mustard.
Would I be better off using evoo?
I think I'll try it that way.

Also, I once used a Long island iced tea in a beer can and another was Reds Apple Ale.

That was excellent with them.

I think the evoo is what helped with that color? And believe it or not, the skin was bite through I expected crispy but nope, soft as a baby's whisper. I will check out the injection on the next one. If you look at the pan in the pic where it's resting, you can see after only a few minutes of it sitting, juice had began to puddle up in the pan. (Kinda going to the right side) This was just dripping away from the thighs.

[OldUsedParts]

Looks like you're HOOKED also, TD, that constant internal basting just makes for Juicy Juicy Juicy don't it Welcome to the Club

[Txdragon]

Looks like you're HOOKED also, TD, that constant internal basting just makes for Juicy Juicy Juicy don't it Welcome to the Club

Methinks I'm hooked! I would love to try this with a turkey

[woodenvisions]

[quote="OldUsedParts"]Looks like you're HOOKED also, TD, that constant internal basting just makes for Juicy Juicy Juicy don't it Welcome to the Club

Methinks I'm hooked! I would love to try this with a turkey [/quote]
You should try one as long as you have the dome clearance.
I would suggest you either brine or inject it heavily tho. We did a bird last year, came out pretty good. Not dry, but not as moist as I would like.I had to pull the bud plug and lay it down to crisp it up the last 20 minutes. Next time, I'll up the injection.

[OldUsedParts]

I've done several Gobblers and they are just as good - - - sooooo much better than the dry Oven Roasted Turk BTW, there is a Stand for the Turkeys also. Here's both of my Beer Can Stands and you can see that I wove some wire on the bottom of the Turkey Stand so I could use the regular size. However, the larger Beers like Fosters and others fit perfectly in there.

[woodenvisions]

OUP !!!

Ya know ur wife has been looking for those candle holders for a while now !!

[Txdragon]

OUP !!!

Ya know ur wife has been looking for those candle holders for a while now !!

The lid clearance is my concern, BUT if I set the gobbler on the bottom of the cook chamber on the cook grates for the firebox, and remove a section of my actual cook grate, it should be fine. That will keep the bird in the heat zone while still keeping off the bottom of the pit itself and enough lid clearance I could put the gobbler in a stetson!

[woodenvisions]

[quote="woodenvisions"]OUP !!!

Ya know ur wife has been looking for those candle holders for a while now !!

The lid clearance is my concern, BUT if I set the gobbler on the bottom of the cook chamber on the cook grates for the firebox, and remove a section of my actual cook grate, it should be fine. That will keep the bird in the heat zone while still keeping off the bottom of the pit itself and enough lid clearance I could put the gobbler in a stetson! [/quote]
Sounds like a plan but inject inject inject lol

[OldUsedParts]

TD, I'm not sure what your smoker set up looks like but, as I've mentioned before, on my ECB I simply made some coat hanger elongated "S" hooks to drop the rack down about 4". I also try to buy a small bird around 10#, if I'm gonna beer can it on the ECB. Brineing and injecting might be a good idea but I never have on mine. Another thing that I am never concerned about is the crispness of the skin and I'm sure that's just a preferred taste thing - - - - doesn't mean I won't try it on my next one tho ?

[Tasso-Hunter]

It looks very nice! I've tried to do that recipe a couple of times and the second one I added a bit of curry to the rub...It was simply fantastic! I council you to try with curry and smoking with apple wood. look at:

[OldUsedParts]

That's the best bark I have ever seen on a Beer Can Bird

Yo TD, here is a Turkey I did last year - - - there are some lemons that were squeezed and put in the drip pan along with bacon on top - - - however, I don't think I would do the bacon again.

[Txdragon]

Tasso - That chicken looks awesome!

OUP - My smoker is an OK Joe Highland. With the clucker in there, it was juuuuust touching the top. Imagine somebody 6'4" trying to ride in a Miata convertible with the top closed. That's how the chicken felt, i'm sure. If I remove my main grates and put the firebox grate on the bottom of the cook chamber, i'll have plenty clearance for a good sized gobbler. I certainly feel that brining the turkey would be a fantastic idea for all intents and purpose.

[OldUsedParts]

You betcha and I think I'll do the same in a month or so - - - - gonna be Gobbler time soon