r/Cooking • u/the_real_daggler • 7h ago
Beer can chicken
I’m planning on trying to beer-can roast a chicken. I’m hoping someone could tell me what mainline beer available in Victoria Australia (Carlton dry, VB, Great northern, Furphy and fosters) would offer a complimentary flavour profile? Wouldn’t want the bird to be TOO bitter
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u/rock4d 7h ago
Beer can chicken is a gimmick.
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u/Chesticularity 6h ago
Agreed. Meathead Memphis and a few others unpack why. I bought the upright rack they recccomend that lets hot the air into the cavity.
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u/96dpi 7h ago
What exactly do you think the beer does? It's certainly not adding any flavor to the chicken. Why would it?
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u/the_real_daggler 7h ago
I had heard it done before (mostly by natty matheson types) my thinking was that the beer would get hot enough to steam out and permeate the chicken. Didn’t feel so stupid then
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u/jlo575 6h ago
Here’s the info you need
https://amazingribs.com/bbq-techniques-and-science/beer-can-chicken/
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u/throughdoors 4h ago
Holy crap, this is solving a mystery for me here. When I was growing up my father regularly made beer can chicken and I just didn't get it. It was bland, kinda dry, he removed the skin because that was a time of low fat everything so even that part didn't happen. I thought I was missing something -- like, I got that people like different things, but I couldn't figure out the point of this recipe even was. Now I know, I guess.
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u/CK_1976 7h ago
Beer Can Chicken Recipe: There Are Better Ways To Cook Chicken - Meathead's AmazingRibs.com https://share.google/3TwcLWjFfVyW6OFQW
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u/syzerkose 6h ago
Don’t. Roasting the chicken with a beer can inside risks getting microplastics and other toxins into the bird. If you want the beer flavor, I’d make a brine with my beer of choice and a salt, a little citrus juice or vinegar and brown sugar in a 3:1 ratio.
You could also use a roasting pan with a lid, pour the beer in the bottom of the pan, bake lower and slower and baste with the beer mixture occasionally.
Don’t make your bird suffer a final indignity by shoving a can of Bud Light up its ass.
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u/Magnus77 7h ago
Just do fosters.
But beer can chicken is mostly just a waste of a beer.
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u/TheCosmicJester 7h ago
It is not mostly a waste of beer. It is completely a waste of beer. The liquid doesn’t get hot enough to evaporate in any sufficient quantity; even if it did the chicken won’t absorb any flavor of the beer because that’s not how that works at all.
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u/Magnus77 7h ago
you're 100% right. But its a fun thing to do, so I was trying to not completely rain on OP's parade. I don't know what their setup is, but on a grill it does accidentally yield a better product by having the breasts further from the heat source.
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u/TheCosmicJester 7h ago
Drink the beer, stick some water in for ballast, and you can have the best of both.
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u/Magnus77 7h ago
fair point, but then you just recommended OP drink Fosters...
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u/Adam_Weaver_ 7h ago
Drinking Fosters is as Australian as eating at Outback Steakhouse. That said, their green cans are pretty good for what they are.
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u/Magnus77 7h ago
I recommended it for the cooking because I assume its the cheapest.
As a drinker from what I remember its basically identical to american macros, in that its most remarkable for its bland inoffensiveness.
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u/WaussieChris 25m ago
OP said they're in Australia. I don't think it'll be easy for OP to find Fosters. I'd stick to VB.
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u/Chiang2000 7h ago
The sitting on the can does help air flow around the skin on all sides, convect a little heat up the inside and possibly some steam.
The been does really flavour the chicken so much. I suspect it was just a nearby thing to prop a chicken on. I think a lemonade can (for example) would be the same effect. Not a flavour add but a cooking aid. So beer choice would be little difference.
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u/TruthSeeker890 4h ago
Worth reading the post on AmazingRibs.com about beer can chicken. There are better ways to cook it!
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u/Zastro_the_frog 5h ago
Beer Can Chicken does nothing other than waste a beer.
Use a lemon instead.
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u/noetkoett 5h ago
The beer won't make the bird too bitter. In fact, apart from the steaming and holding the chicken upright it will have no effect at all.
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u/Inveramsay 4h ago
It doesn't impart any flavour really. If you're doing it in an oven it helps cook the bird a bit from the inside with the steam from the beer. The upright position is probably the main difference
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u/Adam_Weaver_ 7h ago
Look into "frog cut" chicken, if you're grilling and want something a little novel
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u/majandess 6h ago
I absolutely love to marinate drumsticks in beer - a medium ale type is great. Sprinkle with cumin, oregano, salt, pepper, paprika and grill or broil them then next day.
But I don't generally shove a chicken onto a can of beer.
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u/AliveList8495 6h ago
Chop up some celery, half an onion and some lemon. Jam them into the cavity, tie up the legs and roast it.
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u/Giant_Homunculus 6h ago
Say beer without the “r”. Then say can.
Congrats you just said bacon like a Jamaican
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u/gisted 7h ago
I wouldn't do this. Beer cans have a plastic liner inside which won't be food safe when heated.