This is a basic recipe that stands up a chicken on a beer can and allows it to roast in the oven or grill. Allegedly, the unique chicken placement lets the beer flavor and steam the inside dark meat, keeping it moist, while allowing a nice even roast on the outside white meat portions. We'll test that out and see what happens!
Dan's Version and Comments
Rubbed and ready
Standing on the beer can.
Veggies added to roast. Would suggest cooking them separately to ensure chicken gets roasted evenly.
Roasted. Looks ready! (PS. We both need heat thermometers.)
Roasted sweet potatoes. Top with parm because you can.
To be quite honest, I don't see the point of the beer, other than keeping the chicken moist. What would be interesting to see is whether using a can of coke makes any difference, I wonder...
What is most important about this dish is to properly rub down the chicken. I used butter instead of oil and rubbed it down with thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper.
Aside from the the moistness of the chicken, however, this dish really wasn't that great. Chicken in my opinion is really made by the sauce that accompanies it. Since this chicken had no sauce unlike our Moroccan chicken dish, it was rather bland.
The real showstopper were the potatoes and the vegetables. I mixed sweet and regular potatoes and covered them in some canola oil and sprinkled them with paprika salt and pepper. Have to be careful when grilling them though, they can burn quickly. Also, in the same dish I cooked the chicken, I added broccolini and chopped carrots. Nothing fancy with the vegetables, the juices from the drippings of the chicken is all you need.
Mo's Version and Comments
Thyme, PBR, and Chicken. So simple.
Take several glugs of beer before placing the chicken on top. Man, this cooking stuff hard.
Channeling Clint Eastwood. Get off my lawn!
Chicken upright, kind of like a tripod. Use a flat, uncrowded pan for even heat flow.
After 1.5 hours. No thermometer? Test doneness by poking a knife through the thigh- if the juice comes out clear then your roast should be done.
Very moist. America.
Great with roast veggies or as leftovers like chicken salad.
I really liked this recipe. It made for an especially moist roast chicken. Nothin' wrong with some humble roast chicken!
So as Dan discussed, it's been thoroughly debunked that the beer has a flavoring or steaming effect (more on that here). What is well established though is that standing up a chicken helps keep the inside moist and better exposes the skin to heat. Roasting the chicken flat would leave the underside unexposed to direct heat and dry the inside. This is definitely the style I'll be roasting poultry in the future.
Instead of beer cans you can use racks and special stands. But I still recommend cans-- it's more fun. And American.
Some other tips for roasting chicken:
-Use a meat thermometer! This will best control doneness of meat.
-Tuck in the wings so they don't burn. Here is a useful method.
-Pat your chicken dry before seasoning.
-Loosen the skin from the meat before roasting. This will help it crisp more.
-Be liberal with your rub. We used simple herbs but feel free to use a BBQ style rub.
Great learning experience and ridiculously easy. Give it a shot using your charcoal grill this weekend. Let us know how it goes.
