Beer-brined BBQ Chicken

wildschwein · Post by **wildschwein** » Monday Jul 09, 2007 4:22 pm

I had a magnificent BBQ on the weekend and this beer-brined BBQ chicken was the centrepeice of the Weber. It's easy to make and the smoky, salty taste is outstanding. It has strong Continental flavour that, oddly, almost resembles lightly salted smoked pork. I served it with some grilled pineapple slices and bananas baked in their skins on the Weber. The recipe went something like this.

Whole 1.5kg chicken, backbone removed
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup sugar
3 bay leave broken up (fresh are best but dry will do)
1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon of dried thyme
1 teaspoon of paprika (smoked is better)
200-250mls of beer (I used a home brewed light brown Canadian bitter ale) Pils or light ales would work well, but feel free to use anything you have on hand.
oil for basting

Method:
Get your BBQ lit and ready to cook. Take the backbone out of the chicken and save it for a stock or feed it to your dog or cat. Open the chicken and flatten out. Removal of the backbone makes this possible. Placing some bamboo skewers vertically and horizontally through the chicken's body helps make it easy to manipulate the chook when it's on the BBQ. In a large bowl combine all other ingredients except the oil and whisk well to dissolve all the sugar and salt. Put the chicken in and work some of the brine under the skin with your hands. Leave for about 30 mins to 1 hour at room temp. This brine is quite strong and doesn't take long to get the flavour into the chicken. To cook, lift the chook out of the brine, discard the brine, and brush the skin side of the chook with oil and put onto the BBQ (over indirect heat if it's hot coals) skin side down. Cook for about 20 minutes and then turn it skin side up. Baste constantly with the oil. Cook for an additional hour and then check to see if it's cooked by piercing a thigh or leg. If the juices run clear you shouild be okay to serve, if there is any trace of pink cook for additional 15-20 minutes and do another juice check. Continue basting. When ready place chook on a board and cut into 4-8 portions through the joints. Enjoy: this was a really special dish. (My girfriend even claimed it tasted like German products we buy from our favourite Continental butcher here in Perth: Dubrovniks).

PS: You can also cook it in an oven if you don't wanna fire up the barbie. Just place it skin side up in a roasting tray and cook at 180C for about an hour and a half, basting from time to time. This method will still be good but won't have the smokey flavour of a chicken cooked over coals.

Serve with a good homebrew or 10.

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Monday Jul 09, 2007 6:21 pm

believe it or not, here's another one i want to try

i've previously done the beercan-inside-the-chicken with it standing up in a weber, and that was deliciously moist, but this takes it a step further with the flavour additions.

oh, to have more free time!

wildschwein · Post by **wildschwein** » Monday Jul 09, 2007 6:49 pm

Oh yeah, I've seen a video demonstration of that. I think the guy called 'em "dancin chickens' cause they sit up on the cans which are up their cavity. Haven't tried it myself, but will one day!

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Monday Jul 09, 2007 10:52 pm

i'd dance too if i had a can up my cavity.. i'd be bloody ropable.

ryan · Post by **ryan** » Tuesday Jul 10, 2007 9:56 am

you`ll need to get your head out first before that can goes up there.
{just a joke}

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Tuesday Jul 10, 2007 6:47 pm

i wish you'd stop looking through my bathroom window. creep.

ryan · Post by **ryan** » Wednesday Jul 11, 2007 6:04 pm

oh all right! If you`re that self conscious about it, I promise I`ll never look again

wildschwein · Post by **wildschwein** » Sunday Jul 15, 2007 12:50 pm

Cooked this again this weekend. I added a few cloves of sliced garlic and fresh sage leaves to the recipe above. The metal skewers make it easy to move it around the grill. Here's a pic

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Sunday Jul 15, 2007 2:20 pm

what was the citrus there? and what for? was it eaten as-is?

wildschwein · Post by **wildschwein** » Sunday Jul 15, 2007 2:28 pm

Yeah we usually chuck some lemons or oranges onto the grill when we're bbqing. In this pic they're slightly under-ripe navel oranges. They're just for juice to squeeze on the meats when we serve up the food. When you grill citrus like this you get a lot of juice out of them and the flavour is slightly roasty, smokey and carmelized. A lemon is probably better to use in most cases (and a touch sweeter when cooked), but we didn't have any on hand at the time. Try it out: it goes really well with grilled fish or chicken, and is great with steaks and sausages too.

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Monday Jul 16, 2007 12:18 pm

That looks damn tasty! Will have to try the bbq lemons.

Green Horn · Post by **Green Horn** » Sunday Aug 12, 2007 11:22 am

mmmm beer can chicken!!

Not mine but my old man did one for Christmas last year and it was bloody nice

Cheers,

Mick