Friday, October 15, 2010

Oven Roasted Beer Can Chicken

Remember me blogging about getting a beer can chicken roaster from CSN Stores a while back? Well, there was a sale for whole chickens (only $5 for a huge chicken!!) at our local grocery store, so we figured we will try making Beer Can Chicken for dinner last week. Traditionally, Beer Can Chicken is cooked over an open grill but since we live in an apartment, we just made ours in the oven. It turned out to be be really good. It's so simple to make, you just have to check this recipe out!
Start off by removing all the giblets from inside the chicken. You can save the giblets to make gravy for the chicken if you want to but I just threw mine away. Rinse the chicken in cold water and then pat it dry with some paper towels. Next, spray on some vegetable oil onto the chicken and then put on your favorite dry rub. There is no prize for guessing what I used, since I use it all the time in most of my cooking. Yup, Chef Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Magic Rub. It's the best! :D
Make sure you rub on the seasoning on both the outside as well as the inside of the chicken. Once you have done that, place the chicken in a large Ziploc bag. As you can see from the picture, our chicken was way too large, so we had to use two...LOL! Allow the chicken to marinade for at least a few hours but we left it to marinade in our refrigerator for about 24 hours.
Now, it's time to set up the beer can chicken roaster. It's fairly simple actually. All you need is a deep baking dish and the beer can roaster. If you do not have a beer can roaster, you can use an actual beer can. Just cut open the top of the beer can, pour out about 1/3 of its content and set it in the middle of the baking dish (just like how I placed the roaster).
Next, pour in your favorite beer. I used Yuengling cos Kevin happened to have a six pack of that sitting in our refrigerator. I am not a huge beer drinker but I find Yuengling to be pretty decent :D Yeah, so just fill the beer can roaster up. You would need probably about half a bottle of beer to fill it up. If you are using an actual beer can, you can of course skip this step (since the beer can is already filled with beer :P).
The next thing you need to do is to place your chicken onto the roaster. Just set it upright, just like how you see in the photo. If your chicken is too large (like ours), it might be a little bit tricky to get it to stand upright properly. It's all about balance. Try moving it around a little, it should stand relatively well after a few tries.
Then, pop it into a 350F oven and set the timer for 2 hours.
Remove the chicken from the oven when it's about half way through it's cooking time (around the 1 hour mark). Baste the entire chicken with melted butter. This is to give it color as well as to make the skin extra crispy. Yummmy stuff!! This is the only time you would need to baste the chicken. Your chicken won't dry out because of the beer that is keeping it all juicy and moist. Pop the chicken back into the oven for another hour. While you are waiting for the chicken to be done, sit back, relax and enjoy the remaining half bottle of beer :P
We bought Perdue's Oven Roaster Chicken, so it comes with a built it thermometer. Once it pops up, you know that it's done. If your chicken doesn't come with a built in thermometer, all you need to do is stick a thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh. When it reads 180F, you know that its done! Allow the chicken to rest for about 10 minutes before removing it from the beer roaster. Be extra careful when you remove the chicken cos the beer will be really really hot. Carve the chicken and it's ready to be served! Doesn't it look yummy? The skin was really crispy and the meat was oh so moist. I cannot believe something so simple can turn out to be so good. You should try it, it's totally awesome!

6 comments:

kailey2004 said...

Where do you find the Chef Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Magic Rub? It sounds interesting and that chicken looks so delish. I havent tried beer can chicken yet.. Maybe I should suck it up and try it.

Charlene n Kevin said...

You can pretty much get it at any grocery store. In fact, I even saw it in Kmart a couple of weeks back! :D If all else fails, you can buy it online at their website.

aahhh-CHEW!!! said...

YUMMY!!! ... that leg of roast chicken looks real delicious, Charlene!!! ... if you ask me, you can open up your own little restaurant, specializing in home cooked food!!! ... ahahaha ...

Charmaine said...

Interesting method to roast a chicken. I had never heard of this before. Thanks for posting the photos. That chicken leg looks crispy and juicy. Yum!

Charlene n Kevin said...

Chew: Thanks!! Hahaha no ler, my cooking is just good enough for my dining room, still not up to restaurant standard yet :P

Charmaine: Yeah, this is an awesome way to roast chicken. The beer (you can also put fruit juice in there) just keeps the chicken really moist. Also, it browns all around and most of the fat drips to the bottom of the pan. Really really good.

Twilight Man said...

OMG your chicken was really big like a turkey! Sure boh, you didn't use a Turkey? LOL....
This beer ingredient is something new to me to share with my friends. Here they used Guinness Stout or Coke for a long time.
Your roasted chicken looked very nice!