Beer Can Chicken

Barbecue baron Paul Kirk has been making beer can chicken for years. The author of Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue Sauces, he has won numerous cooking awards (most of them for barbecue dishes), including seven world championships.

Kirk joined CBS This Morning to demonstrate how to prepare beer can chicken.

The dish is an outgrowth of barbecue cuisine, he says. The chicken stands up on the grill, supported from the inside with an actual beer can. The advantage to cooking this way is that you can fit more than one chicken on the grill at a time.

The beer can is actually one-quarter full with beer. As the grill heats up, the beer inside begins to simmer. Some beer evaporates through the mouth of the can. This moisture helps cook the chicken from the inside out (a convection effect), keeping it moist.

Seasoning is another key element. Kirk uses a dry rub for the chicken comprised of various complementary flavors. The following recipe can be used to season chicken, pork or brisket.

• 1 cup sugar (white cane or beet)
  
• 1 cup salt (1/4 cup each of seasoned salt, celery salt, garlic salt and onion salt)
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup of paprika (for color)
  
• 2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup of chili seasoning
  
• 2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup of black pepper

For those who want to put a signature flavor on their rub, pick three favorite spices and use a teaspoon or less of each, Kirk says. Try allspice, ground dry mustard or sweet basil, he suggests. For a little fire in the taste, he recommends cayenne pepper. Once mixed, the dry ingredients are rubbed all over the outside of the bird.

Slow cooking with indirect heat keeps the chicken moist on the inside even if the outside becomes crispy. The grill is prepared as a two-way heating system whereby one side is filled with heated charcoal and the other side (the cooler side) has a water pan (sitting flush against the hot coals).

The dry-rubbed seasoned chicken is placed upright on the cooler side of the grill with the can of beer (one-quarter full) inside its hallow cavity. The lid is then placed on the grill. The smoke and heat created by the hot and cooler forces of the grill work together to slow cook the chicken.

Cook the chicken at temperatures between 230 or 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Most gas grills have thermometers. If yours doesn't, check the chicken every 45 minutes to an hour and use a meat thermometer to determine when it's done.

If the juices run clear, then it's done. If you're using a meat thermometer, it should read between 160 F to 165 F when the chicken is done. It takes about three hours on a charcoal grill.

Some refer to this dish as "drunken chicen" or "beer butt chicken." Actually the beer inside the can provides just a hint of flavor. Most people can't pick up the hops taste from the beer. Don't use a whole can of beer because it may take too long to heat, Kirk says.

You don't always have to use beer to cook chicken this way, Kirk notes. He suggests alternatives like Dr. Pepper, Coke or Pepsi.

For more barbecue tips, try bbqsearch.com.

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