Beer Can Chicken Device Review

Well, I searched all topics and didn't find anything about this, so here goes.

I got a new cooking contraption for Christmas - basically a wire frame for cooking Beer Can Chicken. I guess everyone has run across this cooking technique in one form or another, and some people consider it too gimicky to bother. I've made this many times and really like the way it keeps the chicken moist (even if the beer really doesn't impart any flavor to the chicken). I have had some minor problems with the chicken wanting to tip over, even if I brace its legs on the grill.

So tonight I tried out the "frame" or whatever it's called. It doesn't cook the chicken any differently than the standard BCC approach, but it really adds some stability, so I think it's worth the effort.

I didn't have any beer in a can, so I opened a nice Pilsner Urquell and poured half of it into an empty sparkling water and dumped the extra beer down the drain (just kidding!).

The chicken was excellent. So was the beer.

Welcome JMatz!

That's a fine looking chicken there. How much did it weigh and how long did it take to get it done and looking so swell?

Good thing you were just joking about the beer...

Antonius

Hmmm... approx 3.5 lbs., cooked for 45 minutes to a temperature of 165 degrees, climbing to 170 while resting off the grill.

Funny - it looks just like the rotisserie chickens at Dominick's. But I swear I really cooked it at home!

Funny timing. I was just having a rant tonight on the way to dinner about how ppl are selling beer can chicken "devices". I always thought the concept behind beer can chicken was to take an incredibly cheap item (pop a can of Bud, drink half of it, and use the half-full can) to promote a possibly better cooking method for a whole chicken. Basically one shoves the half-full can of beer up the chicken's lower cavity and sets it over a grill. I found it funny that people were selling "devices" to allow you to do - at a much greater cost - what the half full can of Bud was already allowing you to do. I have no axe to grind nor do I have any financial interest in any brewery, Bud included, but I simply don't see why one would need something more than the beer can that the technique was named for.

I've got a fundemental problem with beer-butt grilling/smoking of poultry. The objective is to add flavors and moisture by virtue of the can with various spices and liquids inserted in the body cavity of the bird. But the can prevents smoke and heat from passing through the body cavity, interfering with the major objective of grilling/smoking. For me, the name of the game is exposing as much of the bird as possible to heat and smoke. I think the best tasting and moist chicken comes from either butterflying (spatchcocking) or using a Spanek-type vertical roaster. I prefer to spatchcock if I'm grilling, and use the Spanek if I'm smoking in the offset.

You can always introduce different flavors like beer by marinating, injecting, basting, etc.

Bill/SFNM

I've found the beer can method makes a very moist bird, which is still quite smokey and flavorful - it does cook for nearly an hour. There is plenty of surface area in the bird without worrying about the cavity, which tends to be protected when a bird is roasted whole by any method.

I just started grilling last year, so I may try the butterfly method. But really no complaints at all about the flavor of the trusty ol beer can. And depending on the beer, I can usually taste the beer in the chicken.

Now that I have tried both methods (can in chicken butt and can in device and device in chicken butt) , here are my observations:

- The chicken tastes the same either way
- Beer in the can does not add any flavor to the chicken
- The chicken is more moist than when I just plop the bird on the grill
- Stability is the main advantage of using the device/frame/thingy
- Having to clean the device is the main disadvantage

Maybe I can modify it for use in the garden or something

Beer-can chicken: popular classic based on science

Modernist Cuisine explains why beer can chicken works wrote:There are solid scientific reasons that chicken really does roast better in a more upright, lifelike pose than when it is flat on its soggy back. And by adding a couple of extra prep steps to the technique and taking your care with the temperature, you can get the best of both worlds: succulent, juicy meat and crispy, golden brown skin. On top of all that, you get to drink the beer! The chicken doesn’t actually need it.