Beer Can Chicken

[Chef Willie]

Aw right....at the behest of another member I found my pic from the beer can chicken episode with the SmokinIt #3. I found a chick holder, brand new, with basket at a local thrift shop for 5 bucks. I had a whole chick in the freezer to use up and a bag of those sweet mini bell peppers, coupla yukon gold spuds and mushrooms in the back (a little hard to see). I liked the idea of the taters and peppers cooking in the juices that ran off the bird and it workded out great. Took about 3 hours at 250 in the unit. I probably could have let it go a longer but it was dark and time to eat! I must say the breast was very moist and tasty doing it this way so I will definitely be doing this again. Next time I plan to brine the bird as a variation.

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[Grimm5577]

I'm a big fan of beer can chicken, and you will love it even more with a brined bird, I have made it a rule to brine my birds no matter how I cook them.

[UWFSAE]

Has anyone on the board tried fruit beers for beer can chicken?  I'm toying with using Abita Purple Haze or even a Woodchuck Hard Cider as my smoking liquid and trying to compliment it with wood choice ...

[afratki]

Wow, looks great. Seems like 3hrs was pretty short for a whole bird, how big was it?

[swthorpe]

I typically do 5# chickens (not beer can, though) and they are ready within 3.5 hours.  I also brine them overnight before smoking.

[DivotMaker]

OK, I have to chime-in on the beer can chicken thing, for better or worse.     I started using this method years ago on the grill, but could never tell much difference from a "regular" roasted chicken.  I've tried everything from apple juice concentrate to various beers in the can, with really no difference in the flavor.  If you look at a beer can chicken setup, you'll see that the can ends at the top of the chicken!  No matter what you have in the can, it's going to "steam" (if it actually gets hot enough to steam) out the top of the bird!  I say "if it actually gets hot enough to steam" because I've based it on experimentation.  First of all, you take a room-temp liquid and place it inside 4 1/2-5 lbs of cold chicken.  As the can tries to heat, it is still surrounded by cold meat for quite awhile.  I've made multiple holes in the top of the can, and varied the liquid level, all to no noticeable avail.  I've pulled many cans out of a chicken that had no appreciable lesser level of liquid in them.

I think the "posture" of placing the bird on a can, or can holder, is a great way to position a bird for smoke penetration (vertical), but I just don't believe the can of liquid makes any difference whatsoever in the final taste of the bird.  I'm sure I'll catch some flak for this, but I've tried multiple ways to make this work (yes, I was a believer in this).  Now, I see it's just not worth the effort, and will stuff a bird with some onions, apples, and lemons if I want impart "flavor" to the meat - not liquid in a beer can.