did my first "beer butt" chicken today.

smokeypete

for no particular reason i couldn't pour the beer down the drain, and i hate drinking warm beer, so it was poured into a drip pan (with the giblets) and the chicken sat in it. under the skin the grated zest of a lemon, juice squeezed on the outside, rubbed with salt free chicken seasoning. the drip pan was placed on fire bricks on the grate, 275 degrees for two and a half hours with a combo of hickory and mesquite chunks smokin' away yielded a fine, succulent, crispy skinned juicy bird. not bad for a first! the drippings will make a good sauce base in the near future, with the fat removed.

gotta-mado

smokeypete,
I also did my first BB Yardbird today, wow, how moist. My error was I did not get seasonings on it. I had intended to make a "baste" and catch it during the last 15 minutes of cooking. I used a thick Irish beer as all the other brands in the fridge were bottles. I donated the remaining beer to the garden. I also did a Spatchcock chicken at the same time with olive oil, chili pepper, and lemon pepper applied to the skin before placing in on the grill. It also was a success with great flavor. My cooking different meats on the grill is slowly expanding. Congrats. on your first BB Chicken!

mad max beyond eggdome

gotta-mado,
what i do is do two bb birds at once. . .i take two empty coke cans, cut the tops off completely. . .add a half can/bottle of beer to each coke can, put in about 1 heaping teaspoon of whatever rub i'm using into the cans, then stick the chickens on them. . .works great, and helps infuse the birds with the beer/rub mixture. . .

gotta-mado

mad max beyond eggdome,
Thanks for the advise, I am slowly making my way around the big "learning curve" of ceramic cooking. Without these forums I would be lost.

mad max beyond eggdome

gotta-mado,
man, most of what i know i learned here on the forum, particularly with regard to 'techniques'. . .the real experimenting i do is with regard to taking things i used to do in the oven or on the stove, and doing them in the egg. . .that is where the true fun is. . .[p]actually, next time i do beer butts, i plan on trying something like a "mikes hard lemonade" in the coke cans instead of beer. . .i figure its, a. a malt drink, b., its alcohol, and c. it has lemon. . .all of which ought to do good in the chicken. .