gettin ready to do a beer can chicken (or two) and some ribs

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WildFireEric

Senior Cook
Joined
Jun 18, 2007
Messages
292
Location
Sterling, VA
Hey all,
Hopefully you can offer your 2 cents while i'm out at the store. Should be firing up the WSM in an hour or two. Amy's not too much into smoke on her chicken, so I was thinking of either pulling the chicken and serve it all mixed up, or delaying the chicken about an hour on the WSM, that way the ribs get more smoke and hopefully less on the chicken. Today, I don't feel too technical, like putting cheesecloth on the bird or anything. maybe foil for a little bit?

Any advice is good. Otherwise, her loss is my gain. Also, will 2 birds fit on the top rack standing up in their respective beer cans? I've only seen a few Internet pictures and looks like 12oz. I'll buy some 16oz and 12oz just to be safe :)

Thanks in advance.
 
Eric, when you foil the ribs hopefully your smoke wood will be exhausted and you will only be cooking over charcol. Put the chicken on then and let the heat rip a little, try to get the WSM up to 300- 350 degree range. The ribs will not have to go on for a long time at that temp wrapped in foil. You can remove the ribs when they are done and put them back on while your birds are resting, to glaze them and tighten them up a bit. And yes, 2 birds fit without a problem on one rack. Don't forget the pictures.
 
Revision: just chicken this trip - forgot the ribs

Thanks Nick. I appreciate your advice. Since I have no ribs (long story), I'll focus on chicken today. I'll try doing it like I did the Thanksgiving turkey (although the turkey was brined and these chickens aren't but may have been injected???) I'll hope the beer does the moisture trick.

I'm assuming 1 chunk of cherry should be alright? These are only 4lbs chickens, so I'm guessing that should be a good compromise. Nick, you were thinking that the charcoal itself should be good enough? Would that do much for it or would one wood chunk help it much? Thanks.

btw. starting the chimney now, so will be rubbing my chickens soon.
 
the beer can technique will provide all the moisture you need.
One chunk of cherry ain't gonna hurt nuttin. It's not as strong
as hickory
 
The dome temp seems to have staled at 231 degrees. Within the first few minutes after putting the chickens in, it rose rapidly to near 200 and then slowed down. I have half the ring filled with unlit charcoal and a full chimney of lit charcoal poured on top evenly over the whole ring. OK. in the time it took to type this, it's risen to 240 degrees. all vents are 100% empty water pan. I understand the beer will provide the moisture. Will that limit how hot the WSM will get in any way? I'm only using Kingsford, I don't have any lump on me. Still at 240, so I guess it will rise slowly as the chickens warm up? it's about 40 degrees with 5mph wind. Thanks...
 
OK, this WSM has maxed out at 312 and then has dropped to 307. I haven't touched it. Are there any tricks to get this up to 350 or is Kingsford not really capable of doing that alone in these things? thanks.
 
Update:
Got interrupted and made things worse. Took the chickens off the beer cans. They cooked unevenly because they were touching. So each bird had a breast touching and that didn't get near done. the rest appeared near done, but at different times. one I took off near 165 and the other one has readings in the 170s. I let the first bird rest wrapped in foil and the other one cooled a bit too because of the lid off when my neighbor started yakking at me. I ended up putting both birds in separate alumin pans and wrapped in foil with beer. Current dome temp with new hot coals is 289 (up from 200 for the last hour) and 145 in each breast (in the beer pans).

I'm assuming the beer will braise the chicken now, rather than steam it? and the breasts still need to hit near 165 to be done? I hope they stay moist or i'm gonna get real frustrated.

Other than brining them beforehand (cheap insurance) and cooking with them not touching, is there any advice for me to do this right next time? thanks...
 
Beer Chicken Porn








All n all, a learning experience. Amy actually cooked something in the time it took to get this done and didn't feel like eating these guys. Will enjoy with rice tonight and maybe in a sandwhich. Cheers !!!
 
Larry Wolfe said:
Eric, the birds look outstanding!! Nice and moist!

Thanks Larry.

This turned out much better than if I had simply put chicken parts and liquid in a pan or foil in the oven and forgot about them for half a day. They tasted good and moist, but I was afraid they'd dry out so I added some of the juice/beer to them before I put in the fridge. Will see tonight.

One odd comment or food for thought. Last night on Andy Griffith Show (TVLand), Oppie broke Aunt B.'s prized rose that she was going to enter in a contest. Andy was at a loss of words to break the news to Aunt B. So he kept saying things like 'we got our health, we got enough money to live on, we got our pep, good weather' but he never mentioned good bbq. I think they should have thrown that in. Amy went balistic on me after that. Not only did she say I'm weird or something, but she made fun of my first trip to Red, Hot and Blue. I picked my pork sandwhich apart and tasted each piece by hand with no sauce and no bread. Almost like judging it. So she's thinking I'm going to extremes now. Oh, by the way. I went to a judging class last weekend, so I'm now certified. Yeehawww.
 
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