BCC ???


 
J

John Furdyn

TVWBB Pro
Just came home with a 7 lb. roaster chicken on sale at local weis market $.79/lb.

Now what ? Never did Beer can chicken before.
Any ideas about how long at what heat etc. I would have prefered, a smaller bird but that was the smallest one they had. Think I'll shoot for 325-350 lid. Any info/advise appreciated. Thanks John
 
Yeah, not a fan of large chickens. I prefer them under 3 lbs but not over 3.25. I cook at 400-500, depending.

At 350 you're looking at 2-2.5 hours. Actual cooktime will depend on actual cooktemps and the temp of the bird going in. I don't beer can chicken (never saw the point) but if you wish to there's nothing hard about it. You'll likely need to use the lower grate. Make sure it's balanced well.
 
I did 2 BCC last night. I don't know what each weighed, but the 2 were 11 lbs. The smaller one on the lower grate touched the top grate (had to "smoosh" down). The 2nd nearly touched the lid. Next time I will try just flat on grate, with water/beer and whatever in water pan, I don't see why that wouldn't work just as well, and work will for your 7 pounder. While that is large for a chicken, it would be small for a turkey, perhaps check out whole turkey procedures?

I still don't have good thermometers or temp control, but I cooked roughly between 225 and 300, upper range most of the time. It took 6 hours! I used lump charcoal and had to restoke at about 4 hour mark, ended up with some black on the skin, but I don't eat the skin. Chicken was amazing! Fall off the bone tender, more juicy than you can believe!

I happened to have some stuff in the fridge that needed to get rid of, so to the water pan, I added beer, lemon, orange, apple, onion, garlic, and some celery leaves. I basted the chicken with beer. Not sure if any of that contributed, really don't think the basting had an effect. I will definitely be doing this again!
 
Bruce
Thanks I think I'll just lay the chicken down on the top cooking grate, put some onion and celery, in the cavity apply the rub of course and cook it. how bad can it be. I'll try BCC with a smaller bird another time. john
 
I do chickens in the kettle but have used the WSM for them many times. I just sit the chicken on the grate. No water in the pan (foil it though).

You can ice the breast(the linked post plus the few below), if you wish, which can be helpful to even cooking but it is not essential. I usually mix some softened butter with seasonings and work it under the skin, between the skin and the breast meat, right on the meat. (Gently loosen the skin first, with your fingers (extend your reach with a spoon, bowl down), starting from the neck end. Work the butter onto the breast meat, both sides, then turn the chicken, if necessary, and do the same thing from the large cavity side if you weren't able to quite reach it from the neck side.) I then lightly oil the ouside of the bird and season it all over. Inside the cavity I season as well and often toss in a quartered onion, say, with several crushed garlic cloves and maybe a lemon half or two.

If I am going to ice the breast, I do the skin/butter thing first, about two hours before cooktime then ice the breast. Just before cooktime I quickly oil the skin, season, chuck whatever into the cavity, and pop the bird into the cooker.

If I don'tice the breast, I prep the bird about an hour-90 min before cooktime so it doesn't go in cold.

If I use wood it is just one small piece.

That's my way. Pretty simple.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I happened to have some stuff in the fridge that needed to get rid of, so to the water pan, I added beer, lemon, orange, apple, onion, garlic, and some celery leaves. I basted the chicken with beer. Not sure if any of that contributed, really don't think the basting had an effect. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Basting with a water-based baste (which beer is) cools the surface and slows cooking a bit. For it to be effective as a flavor addition basting needs to pretty frequent. You can finesse this by concentrating the flavors in the baste first, accomplished by reducing your base in a pot on the stove first, to remove excess water and concentrate flavors.

Items in the water pan flavor the steam, not whatever you're cooking. Flavor volatiles are too disperse to have an effect on the chicken. Lemon, orange, apple, etc., can go right into the cavity and will flavor better from there.
 
Kevin

thanks I'll try the seansoned softened butter idea you described quie well I' might add. Also have just 1 large onion that I will quarter for the cavity as well. well i'm going to put it on about 1:30 pm so I'll take it out and season butter it about 12 oclock. thanks again all, again you guys make us who are still learning do a better job. John
 
Good points and suggestions. Thanks for the tips! I will try just a couple of additions to the cavity next time.
 
Kevin

Could you please explain, "icing the breast", I'm not familure with that process. i assume it's to slow down the cooking process of the white meat, but how does one go about it. Thanks, john
 
John,

Sorry, blew an engine air line in the middle of the SW Ariz desert. Just catching up now.

The link in my post above explains icing the breast. (Here it is again.) Read the post linked to, plus the next few posts below. It is an easy process and can be worth doing in some situations--large chickens, turkeys, and/or when cooking might be uneven for whatever reason(s).
 
Kevin

Sorry to hear about the blown engine.

Sorry I missed the link in your first post, I was reading everything you said about the seasoned softened butter and I missed the icing link.

I have to tell you the seasoned softened butter rub on the breast, sure helped flavor and I suppose moistine the breast meat. I also put a large onion quarterd, in the cavity.

My cook went very good, I don't think the chicken could have come out much better. I cooked until about 165 ish in the thigh, then because of timimg for supper, I foiled the bird in a paper lined cooler ala Butt style. The meat just fell off the bone and was nice and moist as well as tasty. I just didn't think it could come out as good as it did, especially a large bird like that. thanks again for your help, next time maybe I'll try icing.
John
 
Great! I'm glad it went well.

Fortunately I didn't blow the engine, just a line from the charge air cooler to the intake manifold. No turbo with that blown so I limped 40 miles at 25-30mph. No part available but the mechanic was able to rig me something.
icon_smile.gif
Just $175 and a chunk of time.
 
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