The Ultimate Beer Can Chicken Recipe

The Ultimate Beer Can Chicken Recipe

 

Beer can chicken is guaranteed to be juicy, succulent and packed with flavour every time. Choose the best quality whole free range chicken, your favourite beer and serve up with roasted vegetables for the perfect chicken dinner with a twist!

 

The Ultimate Beer Can Chicken Recipe 

What is Beer Can Chicken?

 

Chicken is arguably the nation’s favourite meat. It’s versatile, easy to prepare and packed with flavour. But as much as we enjoy it, it can get a little repetitive - so it pays to seek out a more interesting recipe to reignite your passion for chicken!

 

Beer can chicken is a great way to bring a new lease of life to the staple meat we all know and love. Also known as “beer butt chicken” the clue is in the name here, with an open can of beer being inserted into the cavity of the chicken before cooking.

 

This method of cooking isn’t just a novelty, the beer can allows the chicken to cook upright for an even cook with optimal heat circulation. During cooking, the beer also evaporates inside of the chicken, helping to keep it juicy and tender throughout.

 

 

What Can I Serve My Beer Can Chicken With?

 

We recommend serving your beer can chicken with oven roasted vegetables, which will cook in perfect timing with your roasted chicken.

 

This recipe suggests Mediterranean vegetables which become caramelised and flavourful as they roast. However, you can use whichever vegetables you have in the fridge or which need using up.

 

As long as you roughly chop your vegetables into the sized pieces they will cook evenly and be ready when your chicken is!

 

 

The Best Beer for Beer Can Chicken

 

Whichever beer or lager you use for this recipe, you will get the same juicy and tender meat as the steam from the beer circulates within the chicken.

 

For the added bonus of extra flavour and a wonderful aroma, we like to stick to the same rule we use when cooking with wine – if you wouldn’t drink it then don’t use it in cooking! Use a decent quality beer which tastes great alone and can bring its own unique flavours to the table.

 

You can even use your leftover beer and the juices from the chicken to make a rich ale gravy. Simply sauté a large white onion before adding a tablespoon of flour, 500ml liquid (beer, chicken juices and chicken stock) and a bay leaf – then simmer until thick and saucy.

THE ULTIMATE BEER CAN CHICKEN RECIPE WITH ROASTED VEGETABLES

 

INGREDIENTS

 

Chicken

  • 1 whole free-range chicken (around 2kg)
  • 1 can of beer or lager
  • Olive Oil
  • Salt & Pepper

 

Roasted Vegetables

  • 1 aubergine
  • 1 red pepper
  • 1 yellow pepper
  • 1 red onion
  • 2 courgettes
  • 200g cherry tomatoes
  • 4 cloves garlic

 

Choose your Rub (whichever you prefer)

 

Sweet & Spicy

 

  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon hot chilli powder
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon brown sugar

 

Aromatic & Herby

 

  • 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary leaves (1 sprig)
  • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (1 sprig)

 

 

METHOD

 

  1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F and remove your chicken from the fridge, allowing it to reach room temperature
  2. Next, prepare the vegetables – top and tail the aubergine and courgette and roughly cut into even sized pieces, then deseed the peppers and peel the onion before cutting into similar sized pieces
  3. Add all the vegetables including the whole cherry tomatoes and whole garlic cloves into a large and deep-sided baking tray, drizzle generously with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and mix well
  4. Place the tray of vegetables onto the lowest shelf in the oven, these will take around 15 minutes longer to cook than your chicken
  5. Next, prepare the rub for the chicken by combining your chosen rub ingredients in a small bowl with around 3 tablespoons olive oil
  6. Place your chicken onto an overproof dish and drizzle with the rub, using your hands to ensure all the meat is coated – save a little of the rub to drizzle inside the chicken
  7. Open the can of lager or beer and pour one quarter into a glass, place the open can onto the centre of the baking dish and carefully lower the chicken on top of it – so that the can is mostly in the cavity and the chicken can stand upright
  8. Place the chicken into the oven on the shelf above the roasted veggies, allow to cook for 1 hr 20 minutes – or until the juices run clear and the meat is piping hot throughout (use a thermometer if you can)
  9. Remove the chicken and vegetables from the oven and carefully remove the can from the chicken, cover the meat with foil and allow to rest
  10. Find the garlic amongst the vegetables and squeeze the flesh out of the skins, discard the skins and add the roasted garlic back to the vegetables
  11. Carve the chicken and serve up with a generous spoonful of garlic roasted veggies – enjoy with a sip of the remaining beer!

 

 

 

Thomas Joseph Butchery Free Range Chicken & Organic Vegetables

 

All good dishes start with great ingredients. Make your beer can chicken the best it can be with an Organic, Free Range and slow grown chicken. Our chickens roam freely in an extensive environment where they take life at their own pace and enjoy a natural diet, enabling us to bring you the very best in flavour and quality.

 

Our Whole Anglais and Packington Free Range Chickens are the perfect blank canvas for the sweet & spicy chicken rub, or you can choose our Herb fed Chicken to perfectly compliment the aromatic herb rub.

 

Serve up with our Organic Veg Variety box to take the guesswork out of which veggies to choose whilst making the most of fresh, seasonal produce direct from the farm. The only thing we can’t supply is the beer!