Beer-Butt Lessons Learned

[Guest]

Howdy,

I have been smokin with the WSM for about a year now and have pretty much got ribs, butts, & brisket figured out after extensive training from this website and its awesome Quers. But, I had not tried beer-butt chicken until tonite.

I have been dreaming about purchasing a 22.5" kettle of some sort for several months because of the great reviews it gets for cooking chicken. I already have a smokey joe which serves fine for one steak at a time, so a new, fancy, shiny, huge grill would probably only be used for chicken. So, I decided to try the WSM at a high temperature for the first time just to compare.

I filled the ring half full with unlit charcoal and then added a fully loaded weber charcoal starter that was almost completely fired up. I only put 3 VERY small chunks of hickory on top and then assembled the smoker with an empty water pan.

My goal was to cook for approx 1.5 hours at 325F until 160 in the breast and 180 in the thigh. The chickens (2) would be on the lower grate of the smoker for the entire cook.

I just bought the chicken tonite (young 3# chickens) so I only put a penzey spice rub on one and lemon-pepper on another. The beer was mixed with onion, garlic, and rub (ala Chris's awesome tutorial on this website)

Once the smoker hit 325F, I put the chicken in the cooker. Moving those chicken around is fairly tricky so I will be buying a holder. The smoker immediately dropped to 250F and stayed there for 30 minutes.

My timetable was getting seriously crimped so I started to gently open the side door and GENTLY blow on the coals. I didn't seem to disturb too much ash but this also didn't have much effect on the temps either. Three tries created spikes of only 5 degrees each.

My chickens internal temp was moving up fairly fast but my smoker temp was still only 285F after 1 hour. I decided to turn each chicken so that they would cook evenly. Wow, even more problems with moving those infernal birds once their incredibly hot!!!!!

I had the lid off for at least 2-3 minutes while getting my chicken standing upright again and situated the way my dumb-a%$ needed them. Once I got the lid back on my smoker was at ....326F...

I love this WSM!!!!!

I'm so used to freaking out everytime that I open the lid for even 5 seconds that I lost touch with the largest way to increase temperatures on this thing. Once the WSM was at 325F, it stayed there consistently as well.

The chicken came off after 1 hour and 45 minutes, only 15 minutes behind for dinner. They were incredibly moist and tender with very crunchy skin on the thigh and leg. I could not tell much difference between each rub and I would use a different spice in the beer cans next time. But for a first try, I was very happy.

My lessons learned are as follows:

1. no need to cut the top off the beer, just use an old-school can ventor to poke several holes in the top

2. no more babying the fire, just put the chicken on at 350F and leave the lid off for 3-5 minutes, while chicken temp stablizes, then close it up. Use lid opening technique to get the temp back to 325F

3. buy a holder for the beer can and chicken, way too much work to keep these things uprite and steady

4. rethink needing a kettle to simply cook beer-butt chicken, the WSM seems to perform well at high temperature, once it is tended properly.

I am sorry for the length of this post, but I have learned so much knowledge from this website and its many members, and this is my small attempt to return the favor.

If anyone has any recommendations please let me know so I can keep tinkering with this fun recipe.

Thanks,
Troy

 

[Susan Z]

Thanks for the post, Troy. I haven't tried beer can chicken in the WSM, but I might just give it a shot. Actually, maybe I'll do a beer can duck since last time I had a heckuva grease fire in the kettle that blackened the poor thing beyond recognition.

 

[Tom Ferguson]

I did a beer butt chicken last week on the WSM. It was my first beer butt chicken. I did it a little differently in that I took the water pan completely out and cooked the chicken on the top rack.

I used one Weber chimney full of coals, fully fired up before they went in the cooker. Got to 325 fairly quickly and held there well, after adjusting the bottom vents.

I used a couple chunks of pecan wood for some smoke flavor.

Took a little over an hour and I was very pleased with the results.

After putzing with that beer can thing though, I think I'll be doing most of my chickens butterflied. Much easier to apply the rub and much more consistant cook due to relatively even thickness. I mean the beer can stuffed up the chicken's butt is cute and all, but it just seems like a novelty to me.

Usual Disclaimer: The above represents only the writer's opinion and is in no way intended to influence anyone's decision to cook beer butt chicken. Just enjoy the experience.

 

[Randy Lilleston]

I did one up a couple of weeks ago and had no trouble keeping the bird stable. I did spritz it once or twice during cooking to keep the outside moist, but that was it. Came out wonderful and super-juicy. Doing a couple this weekend -- one with beer, one with mojo criollo -- as part of a huge massive cookout.

Tip: When I futz with the bird at all -- especially when putting it on and taking it off of the grill -- I just put on a pair of neoprene gloves and grab the critter.

 

[Wesley S]

As recommended here to me use a soup can instead of a beer can. Much more stable and for those of us who don't drink beer out of a can a whole lot cheaper /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

 

[Guest]

I did beer can chicken last week-end as well. I used a full Brinkman Water pan and smoked with Oak and applewood. I used the Memphis rub from Stephen Raichlin's "Barbecue Bible."

The temp in the WSM stayed much lower than 350 I had it vary from 220-240. The cook time was about 4 hours. I'm pretty sure that this is due to the full brinkman water pan. I'll start with hot water next time (or perhaps none at all).

In any case, the chicken came out delicious. The skin was a nice mahogany color and the meat was moist with a nice smoke flavor..

I cooked the chicken on the top grate.