Steve's beer can chicken adventure

Oven beer can basics, can, steaming liquid spice rub, chicken, cast iron pan

OK, after all this talk of beer can chicken, I decided that I hadn't had it in a while, so instead of going to Home Depot, I went food shopping instead.

Since I was making this, I decided to show people how to make it, so I simplified the process. No complex spice rub or anything like that.

I bought a 3-4 lb chicken, with Wick Fowler's 2-Alarm Chili spice mix.

This is the quickest way to get a spice rub without having to buy spices and fumble around. It has a nice mix of spices and optional heat. I tossed the spices together, which have nice, allied flavors. Instead of making my own, or toasting the spices, which I could do, these finely ground spices are designed to be cooked with for hours, so there was no need to do anything more. I also like Fowler's because you can control the salt and it doesn't have tons of MSG in it, but you can use dried salad dressing, fresh herbs, or any mix you like, but for the first go round Fowler's or another premade spice mix cuts down a lot of the effort needed for making a rub. Some of you might add sugar, but I really don't like to add it to rubs because it burns and you don't need black crusts here.


spice rub in plate



placed on lowest rack in oven


Cooking in oven. I was checking it, my oven doesn't have a glass door.:) 


I cut the chicken open to get at the can, which is hot and filled with hot, smoking liquid 


The barbecue sauce made from the spice mix, mustard, catchup and cider vinegar. I also added in some of the steaming liquid.

So as you can see from the shots, I coated the chicken in the spices, poured some hard cider into the can, with some spices, shoved the can in the chicken, and na hour later, you have the best chicken possible, crispy skin, tender meat, even the breast. I soaked up the greasze and used the drippings as the base of my barbecue sauce. The cast iron pan and drippings make for the base of a trememdous sauce. But you cn also cook potatoes like this, and actually serve a rather nice, fancy baked chicken meal without letting anyone know your secret. It's usually done as a barbecue or grilled dish, but there's no reason that you can't use it for a dinner party with oven roasted potatoes and asparagus. And the beat part is that it cooks really quickly.

Why is this such a great dish? Because it is simple and really hard to screw up. Really, really hard.

posted by Steve @ 12:23:00 AM