It's colder than a witches patootie in Washington today. Cold temps, strong wind...and all I can think about is grillin'.
My favorite thing to grill is also one of the easiest and tastiest things to grill--Beer-Can Chicken. It looks great, it looks funny (I admit), and it's one of the best things you can ever, ever put in your mouth. I wish I had some right now.
BEER-CAN CHICKEN Number of servings: Not enough.
INGREDIENTS
One chicken, whole.
2 or 3 Tablespoons grillin' spice. I use Emeril's Essence, to be honest.
About six ounces of beer.
One beer or soda can--that is, one 12-ounce American can.
GRILL PREP
Yes, grill. Any monkey or girly-man can turn on a propane grill and get the heat juuust right and not screw it up...Propane isn't grilling! Girly-men have no sense of adventure! No balls! If you don't have a charcoal grill, I forbid you to continue reading, girly-man!
Real men will be using indirect heat to cook the chicken, which, technically means you won't be grillin' BUT you will be using your grill and making fire and smoke and all of that stuff that scare girly-men.
1. Prep your coals. I use a chimney starter (two, actually) and you'll want to as well, since you'll have to replenish the coals while the chicken is cooking.
2. Get the chicken prepped while the coals ignite. It's a fast prep, so you should have time after the chicken is prepped to drink some beer while you're waiting for the coals to get hot.
3. When you're ready to cook the chicken, put a drip pan (I use disposable aluminum cake pans) in the center of the coal tray, to catch drippin's from the bird. The coals will go on each side of the drip pan. Notice the chicken isn't directly over the hot coals? That's why it's called indirect grillin'.
4. ADVANCED GRILLERS ONLY: Sure, you can smoke your chicken with some smoke. If you know how, I don't need to tell you. If you're a beginner, you soak the wood in water for about ten or fifteen minutes so it'll smoke and not catch fire, then you put the wet wood directly on the coals.
5. You'll have to replenish the coals at least twice, about every twenty minutes, so be sure to have a safe place to start more coals. Weber makes optional hinged cooking grates to make the coal-replenishent part of the operation a helluva lot easier. My Patio grill has a hinge in the middle, so I have to take the chicken off, lift the grate, and replenish the coals this way. It's a Zen exercise for me.
CHICKEN PREP AND GRILLIN'
1. Open a beer. Drink half of it (you gotta love a recipe that starts like that!). If you don't drink, non-alcholic beer is fine, or you can use lemonaide, or RC Cola, or Dr. Pepper, or even water if you want. Just as long as you have about six ounces of liquid. While cooking, the liquid will steam up and help keep the chicken nice and moist.
2. Get your chicken. Remove the gizzards and neck and other crap outta the chicken, and save the necks for crabbin' and the gizzards for your rats, or throw 'em away. Whatever the hell you wanna do with 'em is fine with me.
3. Wash the chicken in running cold water, then pat him dry with paper towels. Set aside briefly.
4. Get your beer can and make sure it's about half-full. Or half-empty. Whatever.
5. Use an old-fashioned can opener to put two or three more holes in the top of that can, then add about a tablespoon of your grillin' spice. NOTE: If you're using a carbonated liquid, it'll foam up when you add the spice, so be sure to do this outside or over a sink or something that can get wet.
6. Shove that can up the chicken's butt! If you enjoy this part, I don't need to know about it. Stand him up on your workspace, using the can and his legs to form a little chicken tripod.
7. Rub the chicken all over with the grillin' spice. You'll need at least a tablespoon, and probably two. Lift up the wings, and get the spice under the wings. Get some spice underneath the skin, and on his back and his legs and all over him. This part you should enjoy, but don't tell anybody.
8. After you've rubbed your chicken, tuck his wings behind him so he looks like he's takin' a whiz. Take a picture, because, quite frankly, I think he looks funny as hell.
9. If your coals aren't ready, drink a beer. You've earned it.
10. When the coals are ready, distribute the coals evenly on each side of the coal grate, and put a drip pan in the center. Put on the cooking grate and stand your chicken up in the middle. Close the lid.
11. Check the coals every fifteen or twenty minutes. You'll have to replenish the coals as he cooks (about half of a chimney starter's worth of coals on each side) while he cooks.
12. After about an hour, start checking for doneness. The most accurate way is with a cooking thermometer: stick it in the chicken near the thigh (don't touch the bone!) and your chicken is done when it reads 180 F. If you don't have one, pierce the chicken in a couple of places--any liquid that runs out should be clear. The least accurate way is with the chicken-leg shake: Jiggle the leg and if it moves freely, it's done.
13. Present Mr. Beer-Can Chicken to your guests. Take a picture, and have fun getting the beer can outta his butt, being careful not to let the hot liquid in the can spill all over your hands and burn you.
14. Dig in. Serve with some more beer and grilled corn (you can find the recipe in the extended entry).
Victor grillin' some beer-can chicken
Oh, baby. Beer-can chicken...I can taste it now...
GRILLED CORN
1. Pull back the corn husks, but don't pull 'em off! Tie them together with some butchers string (or sometimes you can use some thin strips of corn husk) so you'll have a little handle. Pull off the silk, though.
2. I normally spray it with some olive oil and nothing else; I know some recipes say brush it with spiced butter (butter softened and mixed with paprika, chives, cilantro...whatever you feel like mixing it with). It's entirely up to you.
3. Put it right on the grate, turning every so often. You might have to put a piece of foil underneath the handle, to keep the husks from burning.
4. WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T WRAP THE CORN WITH FOIL! First of all, that steams the corn, it doesn't grill it. Second of all, you don't get nice grill marks on the corn. Finally, only girly-men cover their corn with foil.