Beer butt chicken? Yes, it could be the next big thing

Canton Repository (Ohio) ^ | July 3, 2002 | Jim Hillibish

[ResistorSister]

Beer butt chicken. No, it’s not a summer series on cable TV.

Many of us love hitting a culinary trend in full stride. How about two? It happened on our patio last Saturday night.

Cass, a friend of my wife, got a bunch of peeps to raise as his own free-range chickens. Free range is a huge trend. The chickens happily trot around, doing things like chickens used to do, before chicken factories.

Free-ranging grows chickens that grandma remembers, chickens that taste like the birds of the 1930s. The rap on free range is that the fowl can be stringy (the exercise creates birds that look like Arnold Schwarzenegger) and they have a lot of dark meat.

As the peeps grew, Cass discovered that most of them were roosters and not the coveted hens. You don’t want to eat a bird that lives only for sunrises and sex.

So, he went to a farmer on Shepler Church Road SW and traded five roosters for two fresh, nicely dressed free-range hens. “Dressed” in the chicken world actually is undressed — no feathers.

My wife wound up with the chickens, for 5 bucks, a steal.

I immediately noticed these were not your usual grocery-store roasters. These characters had huge legs and were heavy hitters. There was almost no fat. I’d say my fridge never experienced such nice chickens.

The sudden wealth of chickens screamed “party time,” so on short notice, we assembled six likely chicken eaters, not a hard task in our neighborhood.

How to cook them? These birds deserved more than my usual recipe. Then I remembered one of my dialysis nurses talking about her husband’s “beer butt chicken,” the chicken’s, not her husband’s.

The problem with grilling chicken is the side closest to the coals always will be overdone unless you do some grilling gymnastics. You need one of those expensive rotisseries to do them right. Or two cans of brewski.

You mount a bird upright on your grill by inserting a beer can up its rear end. The can and its two legs then form a tripod on the grill.

You drink a few swigs from the can, leaving enough beer in there to steam the inside of the bird. This creates a wonderfully juicy chicken on the inside, and perfectly browned outside. It’s similar to roasting in a costly convection oven.

I did my chicken-enhancing rub to marinate the fowl. Then I fired up my kettle grill, letting the coals gray to an even heat.

Then I greased the beer cans (you don’t want a stuck can in a butt) and mounted the chickens. They looked like two soldiers standing at attention on the grill.

Finally, I soaked some apple wood and threw that on, to create the smoke.

The chickens were perfect in 90 minutes, covered. Unlike the usual barbecue, these were evenly browned all over. The six of us tore into them like there was no tomorrow.

We noticed none of the free-range bad rap here. The birds were mostly white meat, and were incredibly moist and tender. We had nothing left but two scorched beer cans, a pile of clean bones, six satisfied customers and two happy dogs.

My neighbor Dennis, not easily overwhelmed, remarked, “This is the best chicken, ever.”

The cooking process creates a wealth of conversation. Our birds suffered (were the butt of) a number of beer-butt jokes, none of which is repeatable in a family newspaper.

This one is a happy keeper all around and will not lay an egg on your party.

BEER BUTT CHICKEN

2 whole roasting hens, washed, giblets removed

2 12-ounce cans of beer, washed and oiled

4 cloves garlic

2 cups wood chips (hickory, mesquite or apple), soaked

Chicken rub:

1/4 cup kosher salt

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons paprika

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Dash of chili powder

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Mix the rub with a fork, then massage it into the birds, inside and out. Place in plastic bags and refrigerate for at least four hours.

Pour out a third of the beer (into your mouth). Add two smashed cloves of garlic to each can. Oil the cans and mount the birds, drumsticks down. This takes three hands, one to hold the can and two to mount the bird.

Bring your covered grill to an even heat. Stand the canned chickens upright, forming a tripod with the legs and beer can. Throw on the wood chips. Stick a meat thermometer into the breast, not touching a bone. Cover and smoke. When the thermometer reaches 200 degrees, they’re done. This took about 90 minutes with ours. Then prepare for a stampede to your patio table. Serves 6.

[glock rocks]

charcoal with foil wrapped chunks of soaked mesquite (about the size of a hardball).
it looked just like the picture at the top. there was none left over.
i gave it a dry rub of 4 tbsp brown sugar mixed with 2 tbsp of Emeril's Creole Essence just before i put it on the grill.

Essence (Emeril's Creole Seasoning):
2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme

Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container.

Yield: about 2/3 cup

[goodieD]

a similar recipe can be done in the oven. I use a dry rub on my chicken and let it sit covered for 2 days in the fridge. I place the open beer can in a pan and place the chicken over it as far as I can get it. Then roast for 1 and a half hours at 350. Yummy! I just use a small typical whole fryer, about 3 lbs.

[mlmr]

If you want to raise good chickens raise Cornish Crosses. YUM