Not Beer Can Chicken
Ok. Everybody makes a dang beer can chicken, so I decided that I didn’t want to conform to the man’s way of making beer influenced poultry delicacies.
I got this recipe while looking around AllRecipes from a guy named Clay apparently. This recipe was heavily modified in the way it was done, but I wouldn’t consider it “inspired by” as opposed to “used by and modified”. Either way, let’s get at it.
Here’s the link to his.
To start:
Take a 4-5 lb chicken, and separate the skin from the meat. DO NOT remove the skin, only separate it so that we can rub stuff in it to season it. Please also remember to take out the little giblets inside the cavity of the chicken and do whatever you want with them, they are not used here.
Onto the ingredients for the rub.
In addition to all of the dried ingredients listed in the recipe, finely chop up some fresh parsley, oregano, thyme, rosemary and marjoram and add that to the dried ingredients. Mix well.
Once you have all the ingredients mixed, rub them under and over the entire skin of the chicken. Also, do your best to rub this in the cavity of the chicken as well.
Once successfully rubbed, take the remaining whole fresh herbs and jam them in the cavity of the chicken.
Half a lemon, squeeze out one half of it onto the chicken and jam that in there too along with the unsqueezed remaining half of the lemon.
Once all this is accomplished, salt and pepper the entire turkey lightly and wrap in aluminum foil.
The grill prep and cooking.
Add the charcoal to one side of the grill and on the other side of the grill take a metal pan and add the entire beer of your choice. I used an ale called the Dirty Bastard (Scotch Style Ale) by Founder’s Brewing in Grand Rapids, MI , but that’s just me. Chrystal is a huge fan of Made in Michigan products. Having been born and raised here, I don’t blame her. I don’t like beer (she’s picky) but this made the chicken that much more awesome. According to her, this ale has great flavor for cooking.
Place it directly on the opposite of the coals.
Take the bird and place it on the grill grate directly above the pan of beer, still wrapped in the foil and close the lid.
Let cook until the juices start to flow from the bird into the foil. Once that happens, take a basting brush and brush the top of the bird with it’s own juices every 15 minutes or so.
Cooking time should only take about an hour and a half, but depending on how you like to do it, it could take more or less time.
The bird should turn crispy on the top and a golden brown color after about 30-40 minutes, keep cooking and basting.
The aluminum foil will prevent it from burning over the long time cooking, but I like to remove it once the bird is done (170 degrees internal temp) and char it up nice for about a minute over direct heat before taking it off to rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.
This was literally the best chicken I have ever made, and I even surprised myself.
Enjoy. I know we did.
Here is a pic of kiddo and myself getting reading to bust into this feast!
And here is a pic of our table…all decked out in ready-to-be-eatin’ chicken and our farmers market finds.
Not Beer Can Chicken
Ingredients
- RUB
- 1 tbs onion powder
- 1 tbs salt
- 1 tbs black pepper
- 1 tbs paprika
- 1 tbs cayenne pepper
- 1 tbs garlic powder
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- 1 tbs dried thyme
- 1 tbs dried oregano
- 1 tbs dried parsley
- 1 tbs dried basil
- 1 tbs fresh chopped thyme
- 1 tbs fresh chopped parsley
- 1 tbs fresh chopped oregano
- 1 tbs fresh chopped marjoram
- 1 tbs fresh chopped rosemary
- ____________________________
- Inside cavity
- 2-3 sprigs of rosemary
- 2-3 sprigs of thyme
- 2-3 sprigs of parsley
- 2-3 sprigs of oregano
- 2-3 sprigs of marjoram
- 1 lemon cut into halves
- 1 bottle of beer flavor is your choice
Instructions
- Add the charcoal to one side of the grill and on the other side of the grill take a metal pan and add the entire beer of your choice.
- Place it directly on the opposite of the coals.
- Take the bird and place it on the grill grate directly above the pan of beer, still wrapped in the foil and close the lid.
- Let cook until the juices start to flow from the bird into the foil.
- Once that happens, take a basting brush and brush the top of the bird with it’s own juices every 15 minutes or so.
- Cooking time should only take about an hour and a half, but depending on how you like to do it, it could take more or less time.
- The bird should turn crispy on the top and a golden brown color after about 30-40 minutes, keep cooking and basting.
- The aluminum foil will prevent it from burning over the long time cooking, but I like to remove it once the bird is done (170 degrees internal temp) and char it up nice for about a minute over direct heat before taking it off to rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Got leftovers?
Make your own chicken stock.
Or, how about homemade chicken noodle soup?
To warm for soup? How about homemade chicken dumplings!?!
Would you believe that I have never made a beer can chicken before? I need to live a little bit more LOL. But I do like your recipe. It sounds super flavorful!!
Me either to be honest. We just don’t really keep cans of beer in the house. Once in a while I visit the local shop where you can pick a 6-pack of single bottles from various vendors. For the most part, I am a Guinness girl. This is so easy!
Well I have never thought to scoot the skin and apply seasoning and put it back. The skin is my favorite part and removing it to me is just wrong. LOL What a super recipe. Thanks so much for sharing.
Awesome recipe. It looks great and I can tell from the smiling faces it must have looked and smelled good in person!
You officially have my mouth watering! I’m going to have to try this next weekend – yum!
Please let me know how it turns out if you do!
Your chicken looks delicious! Unique way to grill the chicken – sharing with my hubby – he is the griller!
Thanks so much! I hope you guys like it.
I love the seasonings you used! I’d love to recreate this!
We have been experimenting with different beer flavors and spice combinations. I highly recommend Summer Shandy. Ohhhh yum !
Thanks for this recipe. I love chicken and this looks like it tastes so good. I love all those ingredients!
thanks,
Mitch
Thank you.
I always get nervous cooking a whole bird because I’m afraid it will come out dry. I will have to try your recipe sometime.
Thats the beauty of using the beer. The liquid steams and flavors.
YUM! I love all those spices… this is making me so hungry and it’s only 5am!
Oh way too early for looking and beer can chicken.
This looks delicious. I’ve never cooked with beer before, my husband has but never chicken. This looks like something my whole family would enjoy!
You could use this method for any type of meat really. We did this with some ribs a short time ago.
I have never tried beer can chicken but I have heard it is just delicious. I will have to try it. Thanks for the recipe (and thanks to Clay for inspiring you).
If you make one, please come back and let me know how it works out for you!
Yum i can smell that from here lol.But seriously that looks and sounds really good.Thank you for the great recipe.
Thanks for stopping by!
I have never heard of a beer can chicken- but this sounds better anyway! I bet the house smelled amazing while it was cooking!
Oh I wish! Husband cooked it outside the pole barn across the yard! We have 2 acres so it was a bit away. The garage is full of garage sale stuff.
Everything looks great, and it looks great on the table too. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Thank you for your kind comment!
This looks really good and something my family would eat and like. I have never had the beer can chicken but this looks fabulous and I most likely will give it a try.
It is so easy Pam, that I hope you do.
I’ve never made beer can chicken before. Your dinner looks delicious. Now I want to go make a chicken!
I hope you give it a go sometime Ann.
I’ve never made beer can chicken but that doesn’t surprise me because I don’t like beer. The green beans look fantastic!
I am not much of a beer fan. I prefer Ale (Guinness) and even a good Mead. Beer is fun to cook with though because you get the seasoning, but not the fizz.
I never thought of putting lemons in with the chicken. I’m so going to try that later this week.
Its so tasty!
That looks good. I will have to try it sometime.
I hope you enjoy it!
I’ve never actually made a beer can chicken.We always have whole chickens in our freezer though and we’re always looking for new recipes.
I have been buying them from the farmer and they have so much better taste. We tend to keep whole ones around because everyone likes a different part of the bird. This makes it easy to feed the family.
Ok, wow…the insides looks so tasty! I bet it was super juicy too
It may have been my favorite chicken!
i’ve never made beer can chicken. That looks yummy though
I really like how moist it keeps the chicken.
We call them drunken chickens where I live and we love them, the beer gets the meat so tender, but sometimes we opt for a can of soda instead. I do like your No Beer Can recipe, I find changing things up is fun too. The same old thing can get boring. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the tip on the pop! My lightbulb just went off!
Ok so this looks really good and I have bookmarked the recipe. The first shot of the chicken looks like it is going to get up and walk.
Hahahah. I know. Everyone was so hungry so I wasnt able to get many photos.
Will add this one to my must try list. We love cooking whole chickens.Thank you for linking up to the Bloggers Brags Pinterest Party. I have pinned your post to the Bloggers Brags Pinterest board.
I hope you enjoy.