Beer Chicken Barbecue and Roast

I recently heard from friends and family about this apparently new fangled way of cooking chicken that was suddenly the in-thing back in South Africa. It sounded like a really weird way of cooking. Something that could only be dreamed up by guys around a barbecue who've already knocked back plenty of Klipdrif Brandy and Castle Lager! As it turns out this has been a fairly popular method of cooking chicken in the USA for some time already. The method also has a number of colourful names such as Beer Butt Chicken or Chicken on the Throne.

The gist of the idea is you open a can of beer or lager and insert it upright into the cavity of a whole chicken. See why I thought it sounded weird! The chicken and beer is then put on a kettle barbecue and the lid closed. The outcome is supposed to produce a really tasty and succulent chicken.

As no summer has apparently been scheduled for England this year I filed the concept away for future inspection. Sometime in the future when the ever roiling clouds stay away for a whole day never mind weekend. Clearly I'm still smarting from a recently aborted camping trip to Wales thanks to gales and rain!

As it would happen I was visiting a health spa near Oxford this week and stopped at a South African shop enroute to stock up on home grown luxuries. The Taste of South Africa is in Farmoor, Oxfordshire. They ofcourse had stocks of Beerbird lining the counter and so on a whim I bought one.

The product is simple enough, comprising of a squarish metal grill with handles and a short circular pipe in the centre of the grill. A recipe booklet is also included and it lists various tantalising ways of spicing the chicken and even the beer. The beer can also be substituted with soft drinks such as colas, ginger beers etc.

I plumbed for the standard chicken and beer recipe with just a light sprinkle of mixed herbs over the chicken. I reckoned on getting a feel for the basic flavour before experimenting with more exotic recipes. As I don't have a kettle barbecue and the aforementioned weather was still lousy, I used the gas oven. I used a can of Kronenberg 1664 beer, placing it in the circular holder before lowering the chicken onto it. With the oven set at 175° C the chicken and beer went in for 1 and ¾ hours. I was a little worried that the upright chicken was really close to the top of the oven, but it made no difference in the end.

At the end of the allotted time the chicken looked really good. Crispy and honey-brown all over. I lifted it from the beer can which was still three quarters full as the recipe booklet advised it would be. The drip tray I had placed under the grid was full of fat and juice from the cooked chicken. I guess that in itself must be a pretty healthy aspect to cooking like this. After letting the cooked chicken stand for about 5 minutes (I was hungry and couldn't wait the proposed 10 minutes) I started carving. As promised on the box, the meat was super-succulent. The flavour wasn't disappointing either although I had not made any special attempt to marinade the uncooked chicken.

I served the chicken with roast turnips, potatoes, butternut and rice. The critics were my wife and mother, talk about a tough audience. As it turned out they were both impressed by the succulence and taste of the chicken.

I'm now eager to try various recipes as described in the recipe book and some of my own concoctions and will be shopping for a kettle barbecue as soon as those summer sales hit the shelves. Further research also reveals that wine can be used and importantly you can decant whatever liquid you are using into a ceramic jar if you are concerned with the aluminium content of the can. Be sure though that the container you do use is heatproof.

Also check out the images alongside which document the cooking process.