# Beer can chicken with mushrooms and asparagus



## Village Idiot (Mar 30, 2009)

My dinner last Tuesday, from my blog:

Everyone has undoubtedly heard of this mythical beast. El Beercanachickacabra. The legendary easiest and bestest way to flip a bird. Any who, depending on your cooking temp, time will vary. I'm not good at providing exact times and temps to cook food with. I just go by the USDA's recommendation and do 170 in the chest and 180 in the thigh. I'll take my bird out about 3-5 degrees before and let it set for a few minutes before I pick it apart. I'll provide guidelines for the cooking impaired. On to the list of *things you need ©*.

*Things You Need:*
One chicken. I usually get a 7-8 pound chicken. Moar meat please.
Beer!
Large pan for the chicken.
A rack (optional)
Mushrooms, baby portabella
Asparagus
Herbs
Very sharp knife™ that will cut through aluminum and that you don't mind messing up.

For this attempt, I forgot to purchase beer at the grocery store, so I ran to sheetz and ended up with a Labatt Blue 24oz. That ended up being a pain. So note to everyone else, regular sized beer cans work best. First things first. Pop the beer can. Drink/pour out all but 3" of beer or so. You want about 1/2-3/4 of a 12oz can remaining in said 12oz can. Then take that very sharp knife™ and cut the top off the can. This very well may turn very sharp knife™ into very dull knife™. Set aside can.

Remove the wrapping from the chicken & remove inside gunk. Done.

Ha ha. Right. Use a knife to cut slits in the skin. Stick your finger in there and move it back and forth to separate the skin from the meat. Then pour whatever seasoning you want in there and rub. This time I used Soy sauce, fish sauce, sriracha, honey, and random herbs like basil and more basil. Make sure you make extra. The rest of this concoction goes in your beer. Just pour slowly as it may cause a big foamy mess.

Now it's time to put the chicken and the beer together to make, beer can chicken! The rack is an amazing device. After the last time I tried to fix one without and ended up burning myself while trying to upright and not so upright chicken in the oven (and 4-5 beers later of course...) I decided that that was the final straw. I still have a nice big scar to remind myself of that night. The rack makes it simple. Insert can into center rack, insert chicken onto rack over can. This can be done without a rack by putting your bird on the can and using the legs for a make shift tripod. This does make it difficult to test the temperatures though as it's very easy to upset an unstable bird. My friend says that all women are crazy after all...and she's one of them.

Ok. Put it in a preheated oven. I'd say 300 degrees. It took about 2 hours for my last one and I kept cranking up the heat.

So when your bird reaches the appropriate doneness; 170 in the chest and 180 in the thigh according to the FDA, remove it.

Here's the tricky part. It's hot. Very hot. I usually burn myself because I'm impatient. You need to remove the bird from the rack and put it some place to cook. The cut the asparagus and clean the mushrooms. Toss them all in a large skillet. Pour the remaining beer and chicken juices into the skillet. It should be a good bit of liquid. Cook it. I put it almost on high and get it boiling and cook until the asparagus and mushrooms are nice and tender. After that's done, drain the juice and save it. I normally pull the meat from the bird then pour and remaining juice onto the pulled meat. This keeps it moist and usually helps prevent the meat from drying, even when reheated in the microwave.

After everything is prepared, stuff your pie hole and enjoy.

That's my version and I'm sticking to it. 

And the photos that accompanied it:


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## kadesma (Apr 1, 2009)

Beautiful chicken..Enjoyed the description, and the pictures
Thanks for sharing
kadesma


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## Village Idiot (Apr 1, 2009)

One of the guys from a photography forum I frequent said the chicken looks like Iron Man's face.


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## heridanu (Apr 10, 2009)

I love the pictures.


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## Callisto in NC (Apr 10, 2009)

Can I ask why there is a trademark symbol after every use of "very sharp knife"??


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## Village Idiot (Apr 14, 2009)

It's my very own very sharp knife™ which is part of Slough Roast© blog. Plus pressing five numeric keys to get one symbol is entertaining...

I take it no one's ever played Monkey Island?


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## ellakav (Apr 14, 2009)

beer can chicken is the bomb and that looks like a recipe I will have to 
give my husband as he is our grill-master.  we always stuff an apple,
or an orange, lemon or lime up the chickens keister.  the meat just
falls off the bone.  I have yet to roast a chicken in the oven that
comes out as juicy as doing it on the grill w/the beer can.  not that
my oven roasted chicken is bad or anything - I'm just sayin'...


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## Callisto in NC (Apr 14, 2009)

Village Idiot said:


> It's my very own very sharp knife™ which is part of Slough Roast© blog. Plus pressing five numeric keys to get one symbol is entertaining...
> 
> I take it no one's ever played Monkey Island?


I think I'm more confused than before.  So only you have a very sharp knife?


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## letscook (Apr 14, 2009)

I have done the beer can chicken without beer 
I did it with a can of 7Up and put slices of lemon, rosemary, garlic  in the can.
Came out great.


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