Grillin' With Wolf: Beer Can Chicken

Thursday night Atlanta, GA will host the Techmo Bowl. While Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate, Georgia Tech's annual contest against Georgia is their biggest game, we're quickly building a great rivalry. The winner of this game will be the Coastal Division champ just as it has been since the ACC expanded. Hopefully you guys will be able to make it to Atlanta to tailgate this beautiful Thursday night (high is 58 degrees btw). While you are cracking jokes about the university that brought you Jeff Foxworthy, fire up that grill and use the extra time you have to make something exceptional. Here is my recipe for beer can chicken.

Ingredients

• Whole Chicken
• 12 oz Can of Beer
• Paprika
• Brown Sugar
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 Medium Onion
• 3-4 Cloves of Garlic

Drink half a can of beer. Then using a key or knife punch holes in the top. Rub down a whole chicken with a four part rub of paprika, brown sugar, salt, and pepper on the skin and underneath it. Put a little of the rub into the beer can and cut the onion in half. Put the garlic, half onion, and the beer can into the chicken opening (the can may be hard to fit in the chicken but work it in there and it will eventually fit). Use the chicken's legs and the can to create a tripod so that the chicken stands straight up on an indirect heat grill. I like to split the charcoal on both sides of the grill so that I do not need to spin the chicken while it is cooking. A 5 pound bird should take around 3 hours to cook at 300 degrees. If you want to smoke it then add wood to your coals and keep the heat around 250. Regardless, you are aiming for an internal temperature of 175°F to be safe. Once you remove the bird let it rest 10 minutes before carving. As always, bring lots of napkins!