Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Tempt my Tummy Tuesday. Beer can chicken.






You might be thinking......What the heck is beer can chicken? Well The basic process is to take a half full can of beer with the top cut off. Place it where you are going to be doing the cooking and then place the chicken over it so that the beer can is inside the chicken. Since it's advent, people have begun adding all kinds of spices and extras to the beer to make it more flavorful. Generally, you will see garlic, cayenne, diced onions, or cumin added but you can use almost anything you want to.

So why does this work so well? First of all, you are adding a source of moisture to the chicken that keeps it from drying out. Second, you are adding beer. Now, more than the fact that beer is good, the yeast and malt found in beer reacts with the chicken, particularly the skin, making it thin and crispy while the meat remains juicy. But you don't have to use beer. You can make this with wine or Garland Rome suggested to me using crab boil, which works really well.


Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 3 hours

Total Time: 3 hours, 20 minutes

Yield: Serves 4

Ingredients:

  • 1 whole chicken
  • 1 can of beer
  • 2 tablespoons chopped onion
  • 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 3 cloves garlic minced

Preparation:

Preheat smoker. Wash and trim chicken. While the smoker heats up, open the beer and drink half and only half. With a can opener, cut the top of the beer can off. Add onion, vinegar and garlic to beer. When the smoker is read place the beer in the middle of the rack. Carefully place the chicken over the beer standing up. You might need to get a little creative to make it stand up properly. Make sure the beer can is completely covered by the chicken. Smoke chicken for about 3 to 4 hours or until the skin is a dark tan and the meat is pink and juices run clear.

1 comment:

Judy@cutest-little-things.blogspot.com said...

LOL about only drinking HALF the beer!! Sounds good - bet my hubby would like this!

Judy@cutest-little-things