Brant's Brined Beer-Butt Bird

Brant Warren

Ingredients

• 1 roaster chicken
• Equal parts paprika and dark brown sugar	• Add a little cayenne pepper
• 2 qt water	• Mix in whole basil to taste
• &#189 Cup salt
• &#189 Cup honey	• Mostly beer
• &#188 Cup red wine vinegar	• Some red wine vinegar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon	• Even less Worcestershire sauce
• 3 or so whole bay leaves

Instructions

Brine
Leave chicken in refrigerator while preparing the brine mixture.
Combine brine ingredients and bring to a boil over high heat.
Remove from heat and stir down any foam.
Chill the mixture (warm water may spoil the chicken???).
Clear chicken cavity and wash.
Place chicken in brine mixture, breasts facing down.
Add water to cover the chicken and stir.
Cover and refrigerate for 12 hours.

Marinade
Discard brine mixture.
Rinse chicken thoroughly and pat dry with paper towel.
Apply dry rub between skin and meat By starting at the bottom of the front of the chicken, the skin can by gently separated from the breasts. Try not to tear the skin.
For a prettier finished chicken, wipe off any dry rub on the outside of the skin, and lightly rub the skin with butter.
Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, place in a plastic bag, and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Bring Egg to 275 degrees.
In a chicken sitter, combine the beer-butt mixture ingredients. Do not overfill.
Set sitter on a drip pan, and set the chicken on the sitter.
Using a Polder in the thigh, cook at 250 - 275 degrees until 180 degrees internal. The breast should be about 170 when the thigh hits 180.

Notes

NotesAt EGGtoberfest 98, my 7-pounder was done in a tad over 2-½ hours, though at home it has taken up to 4 hours (*shrug* don't ask me why!). I started with four small chunks of hickory and a handful of sugar maple chips, and added another handful of sugar maple chips after about an hour and a half. I did not soak the wood first.

Number of Servings:

Time to Prepare: