Beer can chicken

This summer in Wellington has been a good one. We have managed to break our barbeque curse and have now graduated to having barbeques when it's windy - but not raining! We had a spontaneous barbeque today with friends who wanted to sample our legendary beer can chicken. There are plenty of recipes around and many are similar. We have had a lot of success with this one off the chicken roaster label. It would probably also work in the oven but it's a much more fun way to feed lots of people by barbequing it. We fed seven people by adding baked potatoes, garlic bread, grilled onions and boiled corn on the cob all on the barbeque and a making salad to go with it.

All you need is a chicken roaster stand. Our one came from Canada and looks like this one, although we bought another one with a slightly different design from a local hardware store for about $8.

Beer can chicken

Ingredients

• 2 T garlic powder
• 1 T ground cumin
• 1 T ground coriander
• 1 T paprika
• 1 T salt
• 1 T ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 lemon, zested
• 1 x ~2 kg chicken
• 1 x 350 ml can of beer

Method

1. Mix the ingredients for the spice rub until they are well blended. Use a basting brush to rub spice rub all over the chicken, inside and out.
2. Open the beer and remove (drink!) about 100 ml. Place can in roaster. Sit the chicken on the roaster so the legs are at the bottom and the wings are at the top. [Optional: marinade in the fridge for 1-2 hours and reapply baste 1-2 times.]
3. Heat a gas or charcoal grill to a medium/high heat. Put a drip pan below the grates. Stand the chicken on the grill and cook over indirect heat for about 2 hours or until the juices run clear. 

Beer can chicken
with baked potatoes for company