Beer Can Chicken is a BBQ classic. It's a great way to smoke a bird to get succulent and juicy chicken. Plus its fun to cook!
This is a great method to cook a chicken you want to carve and eat it as a whole chicken or pull the chicken for other uses such as enchiladas, chicken pot pie, chicken salad, etc.
Meat Church How To YouTube Video: https://bit.ly/beercanchickenvideo
Ingredients
- 1 Whole Chicken
- Meat Church The Gospel AP Rub (sub our Honey Hog, Honey Hot, Gospel, Holy Gospel or Holy Voodoo)
- 1 beer (I prefer light and cheap for this cook), room temp
- 1 head of garlic cloves
- 1 T, olive oil (sub cooking spray or mayo) to act as a binder
- 1/2 stick butter for basting
- Various herbs for stuffing the can. We use rosemary, thyme & parsley
- Instant Read Thermometer
- Beer Can Chicken throne (you can also just use the beer can but that doesn't always work perfect depending on the size of the chicken and could fall over)
Optional Sauce
- Your fav BBQ Sauce. We use Meat Mitch Whomp.
Prepare smoker or pellet grill
Prepare your smoker at 350. I prefer a medium smoking wood such as hickory or pecan wood, but you have a lot of options with a protein like chicken.
Prepare chicken
Rinse & dry the chicken thoroughly. Apply a binder to help the seasoning adhere. We spray our chicken with Duck Fat cooking spray. Any cooking spray or olive oil will work.
Season liberally with The Gospel. It's a great idea to apply seasoning under the skin as well. Skin is easily separated from the bird during cooking or even when eating. Applying seasoning to the meat will deliver a better tasting bite. See our video above for an example. Also season the inside of the cavity.
Prepare the beer
Start with a room temp beer. Remove the top of the beer with a can opener and remove 1/3 - 1/2 of the beer. It's an even better idea to warm the beer up in the can for a few mins on the smoker. If you cook the chicken with a cold beer it will cause the middle of the chicken to take longer to cook and potentially be dangerous.
Place 1 more T of seasoning in the can. Add garlic and your choice of herbs to act as an aromatic. We use rosemary, thyme & parsley. Place the can in the throne. Then place the chicken on that throne.
The cook
Place the bird upright in your cooker. A 5.5 lb bird will take approximately 90 minutes. Baste with melted butter 1-2 times during the cook. I start at the 45 minute mark. This builds flavors and adds richness and moisture.
If you choose to sauce, apply that in the last few minutes of the cook so the sugar in the sauce doesn't burn. We apply 3:1 Meat Mitch Whomp sauce to clover honey when the chicken reaches 155 degrees internal. This can be checked with your instant read thermometer.
We are ultimately targeting 160 degrees internal in the deepest part of the breast. The chicken will continue to carry over cook another few degrees. When you have reached this temperature pull the chicken, let it cool then remove from the throne.
Carve and enjoy!
