Beer Can Chicken Question

Uncle Phil

Well, tonight everyone voted for Beer Can Chicken.
Found a few ideas here, but have a question regarding indirect or direct cooking?
Seems a drip pan would be in order and possibly the plate-setter with legs down?
Appreciate any comments or suggestion on how you do your Beer Can Chicken.[p]Thanks.
Uncle Phil

Unknown

Uncle Phil,
Set up the grill for indirect grilling, placing a drip pan in the center. If using a charcoal grill, preheat it to medium. If using a gas grill, place all the smokinchips.com wood chips in the smoker box and preheat the grill to high; then, when smoke appears, lower the heat to medium.

RRP

Uncle Phil,
I've done them both ways and prefer direct at 300 to 325. Shoot for 170° breast.
BTW you'll know it's done when the bird looks like he wants to shake your hand!

Unknown

Uncle Phil, I usually go direct at 325 for 2 hrs cranking it up to 400-450 at the end so the skin is crisy to my liking. Peace...

mad max beyond eggdome

Uncle Phil,
i did a 7 1/2 pound oven stuffer roaster last night. ..i go with an inderect set-up (grid over inverted plate setter with drip pan on the plate setter). ...add a couple of teaspoons of rub (i use dizzy tsunami spin) right to the beer (easiest way to do this is take an empty can, cut the top completely off, then refill with about 2/3 beer. ..this allows two things 1. easier to add rub to the beer, and 2. the top will be easier to get into the chicken cavity cause you can 'pinch' it if you need to). . ..i then go for about 325 - 350 dome temp. .. depending on size of the bird anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 hours to finish. ..let the temps go up the last 15 - 20 minutes to help crisp up the skin. .. .[p]last night's took about 2 hours cause of the size but it sure was yummy. . .

RRP

Uncle Phil,
If you really get into beer butt chicken - and it has a taste of it's own from the internal self basting there is one problem. The beer can can be unstable and you can knock it over. What I switched to are "Willies Chicken Sitters" for both a regular bird and also the smaller versions for Cornish game hens. As you'll see in the pix below it has a broad base making it nearly impossible to knock over and also serves as more area to heat the liquid content for the self basting. OTOH maybe I'm a clutz, but on two ocassions I spilled the beer can contents down between the outer shell and the fire box making a real mess that had to be taken apart on cleaned - yuck!
[ul][li]at least one source for Willie's Chicken Sitters[/ul]

mad max beyond eggdome

RRP,
i couldn't agree with you more. ..while i've never had a regular beer can stuffed bird fall over on me, you do have to be careful. .. i found a couple of metal beer can holders with a wide base (and you slide the can right into them, with the chicken then sliding on top of the holder. . .very stable, and a whole lot easier to remove the bird from the holder after its finished than trying to remove a hot can full of beer from a chicken's butt. ..i found mine at a local hardware store that also sells a lot of weber grills. .. well worth the investment. ..

Unknown

mad max beyond eggdome, Here is a pic of the beer can chicken rack mad max is referring to. Peace...[p]

mad max beyond eggdome

FatBack,
yep, that's exactly what i have, thanks for posting the picture. . .they work great, particularly if you have smaller birds that need their 'butts' stretched to get over a beer can. ..the holder provides a very firm base for doing this ... i've used it from anywhere from 4 pounders up to last night's 7 1/2 pounder. . ..works great and cleans up easy. ..