A friend of mine told me how great Beer-Butt Chicken is. Apparently you take a chicken and beer flavors it in well, the butt. How can I cook the chicken like that while keeping the beer in the chicken?
chicken – How to Properly Cook a Beer-Butt Chicken for Juicy Results
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I'm not sure if its dangerous, but if you are worried about the can you can get various tools, designed to cook a chicken like this.
Beer Can Chicken has a few tricks to have it turn out amazing as opposed to just average. I always take my thawed chicken and rub it all over inside and out with vegetable oil and pureed garlic (about one large clove). Then I coat the skin with seasonings like salt, pepper, seasoned salt or chicken/poultry seasoning like sage or an \Italian mix; you can use anything the you want. Cajun spice and lemon are also pretty good. The beer has to have some flavour to it, don't use a light beer. Apple ciders (strong bow, perry's pear cider, black thorne) or a white wine/cooking cherry will also do the trick. I use a half a pop/beer can and then stuff the chicken and the bottom tray with onions, red peppers, garlic and celery. The key to crispy skin and moist chicken is low heat on the BBQ, turn one side onto medium heat and put the chicken on the off side with the lid closed for 20 minutes per pound of chicken. Practice makes perfect....chicken.
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Best Answer
If you google beer can chicken, you will find many, many recipes and descriptions.
The basic idea is that you use a half-empty beer can as stand for the chicken, placing the chicken's cavity on top of the can before roasting or grilling.
The idea is that the aroma from the beer will transfer to the chicken, and the steam will help keep it moist.
You can even buy commercial racks to do the same thing without the beer can.
My personal opinion is that both of these ideas are bunk:
Very few if any aromatic molecules will transfer to the chicken, and even if they do, they will not penetrate past the surface
The steam will not keep the chicken moist, as the dryness of the meet is essentially a function only of the temperature to which you cook it, and very little else. If the chicken is cooked to too high a temperature, then the proteins will tighten up and express water making the chicken tough, rubbery, and dry tasting. The minimal amount of steam cannot change this fact.