Show Notes: Beer Butt Chicken
Check out the preparation for this popular chicken preparation, know affectionately (or not) as “Beer Butt Chicken”.
Truly this is so incredibly simple to do — you take your bird out of the plastic, remove any innards bag, wash it off, then you’re ready to go.
Open a beer, poke it up the SOUTH end of a NORTH bound chicken, and then set your grill to 350. I rubbed olive oil over my bird to crisp-up the skin as well.
The only real trick to this is that, if you’re using a bottled beer with a tapered, long-neck style, drinking end (in other words, NOT a can) it will drift up through the chicken’s neck.
So, as you see in this 2nd picture, you have to get some twine, or string or a hefty rubber band or something and truss-up the lower legs so it will hold around the bottle.
When I put this on my grill (my grill has three burners), I put it in the center, with the side burners on high. That way, the bottle was not directly over the flame. I was concerned that the glass would burst at some point. If you have a can, that wouldn’t be a problem.
Set your bird up on the beer, close the lid, and leave it alone for a good 2 hours. It is amazing; tender; moist; and it doesn’t even taste like cooked beer!!
º Your version of this recipe differs from one or two others I've tried. Most opt for a can, not a bottle. Then there is no need to truss the legs or worry about broken glass in your meat. But then I suppose that if you use a can over too high heat you could end up with molten aluminum up your birds butt. Messy either way. ☺ And you just use olive oil as rub, pretty plain tasting. º