Next up on my 2021 Bucket List? Make Beer Can Chicken for the first time! If you've been following my blog, you know that I made a wish list for the rest of 2021 filled with small things I've always wanted to do or try, but up until this point had always put off. A few years ago, one of my girlfriends suggested we make beer can chicken for Thanksgiving dinner, since it would just be the two of us. I had never heard of this before, so I was very intrigued!
The great thing about beer can chicken is (in theory) it is incredibly easy to make, and will always produce a juicy and tender chicken. All you have to do is take your favorite can of beer, drink about 1/3 of it, then place a whole chicken on it so the beer can cook into the meat from the inside. You can cook it in the oven, like we did, or on the grill.
So we tried to do this for Thanksgiving the one year...however, I was in charge of putting the chicken on the beer can, and as this was my first time ever dealing with a whole raw chicken, I had no idea chicken parts were included in a plastic bag inside the chicken...so yup! Plastic melted all over our chicken and we had to have something else for dinner!
Ever since then, I had always wanted to try it. I didn't feel comfortable cooking the chicken directly on a beer can (not completely sure what, if any, harmful chemicals would leech from the can and into the meat), so I bought this AWESOME beer can chicken holder on Amazon that's made of high quality, non-toxic & non-chemical, stainless steel.
For the chicken rub, we decided to use this recipe as a foundation, and tweaked it with what we had in our cupboard:
2 Tablespoons of Smoked Paprika
2 Tablespoons of Pink Himalayan Salt
2 Tablespoons of Onion Powder
1-2 Tablespoons of Garlic Powder
1 Tablespoon of Brown Sugar
2 teaspoons of Oregano
2 teaspoons of Ground Black Pepper
1/2 teaspoon of Chili Powder
We washed and patted dry our chicken, I TRIPLE-checked that there was no plastic bag of innards inside the chicken, poured about 2/3 of our beer into the canister, and then plopped the chicken on top and rubbed it down with olive oil.
Now, I definitely messed up in that you should absolutely season the chicken first before putting it on the canister. As you can imagine, I had a hard time trying to rub the seasoning on the raw chicken without it all falling off and making a mess. Most of the seasoning ended up all over my hands and the floor instead of the chicken (I went back to the recipe instructions and yup! There it was right there: season the chicken first, then put it on the beer can, haha!). Whoops! So in the photos you'll see areas on the chicken where the seasoning clumped up. However, it still tasted great!
You want to make sure you get the seasoning in all the crevices, and apparently you can put herbs and spices right into the can with the beer so those flavors can cook into the chicken, too! We poured 1/3 of the beer into the roasting pan, so more beer could cook right up into the chicken.
For the oven temperature, we saw some articles say 375 degrees for 45-55 minutes, and some say 425 degrees for over an hour, so we decided to put it at 400 degrees and check it after an hour. I put a layer of aluminum foil under the roasting pan for easier clean up later.
While the chicken cooked, we decided to enjoy some beer and grill some corn on the cob. I left some butter out to soften at room temperature, and made a little honey butter and garlic herb butter to spread on the corn with dinner. It was our first time grilling corn on the cob, but it was a very easy process. I de-husked the corn, brushed them with olive oil, and then my boyfriend cooked them on the grill at medium-high heat, turning them every few minutes, until they all had a nice char on all sides (about 11 minutes total).
The last addition to our dinner? Potato Salad!! I am a huge fan of good potato salad. I tend to improvise the portions that go into my dressing (I always adjust for taste), since I usually don't pay attention to the amount of potatoes I cook for it, but the recipe is pretty easy! Just peel & chop your potatoes, and put them on the stove in water until it boils (I boil them for about 11-13 minutes or until they're fork-tender). While you're waiting for that to happen, you wash and prep what will go into the salad. I like to put bacon, hardboiled eggs, celery, and red onion. For the dressing, I usually do:
1.5 - 2 cups of Mayo
1 Tablespoon of Yellow Mustard
1 Tablespoon of Dijon Mustard
1/2 - 3/4 cup of Sweet Pickle Relish
1 Tablespoon of White Wine Vinegar (apple cider vinegar would work, too)
Dill, Salt & Pepper to taste (I usually add a bunch of salt. I love salt!)
Garnish with a sprinkle of Paprika
Whenever I make this potato salad, I like to make it either the day before or that morning, because the potato salad always tastes better when it's had the chance to sit for a few hours in the fridge!
The Final Result
The chicken looked like the sugar was starting to burn at the top after about 50 minutes, so we checked the temperature and the chicken was all done! We pulled it out of the oven and let it rest for a few minutes, and then went to work hacking off the meat. Hopefully after a few more tries making this chicken for dinner and turkey for Thanksgiving, my boyfriend and I will get better at carving birds!
The chicken really did taste incredible. I especially loved the seasoning on the skin; it was the right amount of flavor and crispiness, while the meat was so moist and juicy! Apparently you can use a variety of other drinks instead of beer to make beer can chicken (some recipes called for Sprite or Dr. Pepper, while others just placed chicken stock into the canister with some sprigs of rosemary and garlic), we decided to have fun and try the Belching Beaver Me So Honey beer. We didn't taste much of the beer specifically in the chicken, but regardless, the chicken was delicious. It was the perfect summer weekend dinner!
Another fun thing to try on my 2021 Bucket List: completed!
**To make this entire dinner gluten-free and dairy-free, swap out the beer for a GF beer, champagne or soda, and swap out the flavored butters for the corn with ghee (though we tend to stay away from dairy, we use organic, grass-fed butter regularly. To see why grass-fed butter is a healthier alternative than regular butter, click here).
**Beer Can Chicken Holder: I chose this Amazon product not only because it's free of toxins or harmful chemicals, but because all the reviews mentioned how easy it is to clean, and they're right! Other products had to be thrown away after one use because customers either couldn't get the lid off or ingredients burned onto the canister, making it impossible to clean. This one was very easy to clean after we used it. Just make sure the dots at the top of the can line up with the top, or else the top will be hard to get off.
***Full disclosure: this blog post contains affiliate links that may be commissionable.
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