What exactly is Beer can chicken? Can you do this to a turkey?
Open the can of beer and set the chicken on the can. Put it in the oven sitting upright. The heat boils/evaporates the beer, essentially steaming the inside of the chicken with all that beery goodness. You can buy a little rack to keep the whole thing upright, but a roasting pan should work fine.
I don’t see why you couldn’t do it with a turkey. You may want to use a tallboy can or a can of Foster’s :-\
Click on the following link, Fred. It’s got a recipe and several photos.
I’m sorry, I can’t do that
(picture of 2 cans of Bud)[quote]Wash 2 12-ounce beer cans with soapy water and rinse well. Open the cans and drink half the beer in each.
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Now if that were a CRAFT beer, that would be different
Fred
I’m fairly certain you could do it with craft beer too. But only if it comes in a blue can, otherwise your efficiency will suffer. 
I’ve done it with craft beer by either finding craft beer in a can or dumping out a can of cheap yellow fizzy stuff and refilling it with craft beer or homebrew.
If I was a gambling man…I would say you guys are trying to make a funny. ;D
I never understood this beer can chicken thing. Ive seen it done but I just dont get it. It does nothing to the chicken IMO.
Just roast the bird in some beer and bay leaf and you will get a much better effect.
If you want to cook a great turkey in much less time, and keep it juicy and tender. Split it up the center of the breast and splay it out in a roaster pan in such a way that the breast meat is under the wings and thighs. sprinkle on your herbs spices and beer, a few pats of butter then cover it with tin foil. Roast it till it reaches an internal temp of about 150 then remove the foil and cook it till the skin is golden brown and crispy. After you remove the foil baste it frequently.
Makes for a unique presentation too.
I think that when I do a chicken on the grill, the extra moisture from the beer can really helps. I dunno, mebbe it’s psychological.
And I agree that spatchcocking is a great method for turkey or chicken. It’s the key to a great Fra Diavala (sp?) chicken.
I believe its psychological. I read some interesting articles about tests done to see the effect.
It’s a stand, basically. The beer never reaches a boiling point and just gets nice and warm inside the bird. If I can find the link about the tests I’ll post. One of the great modern myths of BBQ, and my experiments seem to push me in the direction of skepticism, but the more I read the more I think it is truly all in the mind. Which isn’t to say there aren’t some very brilliant and respected “believers”…poor Steven Raichlen wrote a whole book on it, so he’s a bit beholden to it, true or not! 
Very interesting, Nic!
Here it is:
I can’t say it’s too far from my own experiences, personally. Not that I’ve been as thorough as them in testing.
I’ve done this with mixed opinion. Also used apple and orange juice instead of beer.
I helps to plug the neck with an onion or tomato or something though.
If I’ve a whole chicken its going low and slow over pecan smoke
tubercle,
What sort of flavor does pecan wood lend to your chicken? I’ve heard that pecan is a relatively close approximation to pimento wood, which is the wood Jamaicans use to smoke jerk-style meats. I know a guy who opened a caribbean BBQ just outside of the Twin Cities and he uses pimento wood imported from Jamaica. Aside from finding a direct source (i.e., Jamaican supplier), the only pimento wood that I’ve found in the U.S. comes as chips, not chunks.
Pecan is in between hickory and mesquite best as I can describe. I’ve never tried pimento wood so I can’t compare with it.
It’s not as strong as hickory but mild like mesquite with out the sweetness. It’s pretty much a staple wood in the south east for all kinds of smoking. They are everywhere around here. I’ve got six in my yard.
Not only the wood works but the nut shells. I usually get 2 or 3 bushels of pecans from my trees every year so I have plenty shells. If it wasn’t for the squirrels I’d have twice that much :
Mesquite “mild”? I guess it could depend what form and how you use it, but mesquite always to me has the sharpest, strongest flavor of the smoking woods…its very distinct, but I have ruined meat before by using too much mesquite. Now I don’t use it for long term smokes. Once had a brisket come out tasting like I used cigarette butts in the marinade.
Now for grilling steaks mesquite has few equals as a fuel!
I’d like to get some pecan chunks though. Not as common up here.
Deep Fry it. Ready in less than an hour.
You inject the seasonings under the skin.
It’s Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeat!
-OCD
Maybe mild wasn’t a good description. I agree it can be overpowering. I usually use it in the last 30 minutes. I think what I meant was its not as acrid or bitter as hickory can be or at least to my taste. Mesquite has a sweet taste to me also, which is not necessarily bad.
If you have ever used applewood, I think pecan compares to that on the strong/mild scale. If you can find unshelled pecans in your area it has the benefit of having the nuts to make a pie with or roast in the oven with a little garlic salt and the leftover hulls to smoke with. Just soak the hulls in water for about 45 minutes before throwing them in the fire
Ahh, that sounds more like my experiences. Mesquite in moderation has a clean, bright smell that really reminds me of the smell of the southwest, even just the land…but mesquite to excess (say 10 hours straight of pure mesquite smoke!) is worse to me than the same amount of hickory. Hickory is the smoking wood of choice here in KC, but I agree it is strong in that very typical barbeque sort of way.
I periodically do a beer can chicken on the grill. Got a nifty twin bird stand, but have only two birds at once a couple of times.
I typically have to rummage for a can, or just put some beer in an empty coke can from one of my taps. While I have heard that it makes the chicken more moist inside, by the time I am done cooking (about an hour), almost all of the beer is still in the can.
What I think does make this an epicurian delight is the prep and method, not the beer. I typically will oil the bird, crush some sea salt, and sage, or do a french herb blend and carefully rub it in, under and all around the bird. The stand makes for a perfect tool to hold the bird in a good postion, and with a little aluminum foil dircectly under the ass of the bird, I avoid scorching the skin.
Honestly, without a spit, I doubt I would have ever ventured to try to roast a whole chicken in my little grill. But in the end, you couldn’t tell me if I used a Scotch or a Pale Ale with the bird. Maybe an ounce is gone, and likely some of that ounce is lost jostling to impale the bird onto the stand and then taking it off the grill and off the stand.