Sunday Bird

[wmarkw]

Hey all. Smoked a 4+lb whole bird for the first time. I've done plenty of qtrs, and splits but never the beer butt chicken. So being a sunday here and I can't buy beer but only 3.2 in the grocery I got a pounder of key light which ended up not fitting in my beer chicken holder. So that sucked but being such a big can I put the bird on that and did some balancing work to keep it steady in the smoker. I did a basic brine for a few hours and then used my rub. Inside the beer can, I had well beer, some butter, some garlic, more rub and then added some creole butter that I had from an injection kit.

My maverick probe fried out on me a couple of weeks back and my replacement is in the mail. So this was a timed smoke. I did it for about 4 hours and when the drumstick moved easily I knew it was done. I used hickory and basted w/ the creole butter a couple of times. A trick I did with my electric ecb was I didn't use any water in the pan and my temps held at 300*. So I got some decent crispy skin. Bird turned out good but could have been removed from the smoker about 20 minutes earlier. Not dry but the breasts could have been a bit moister. Need that probe before the 4th!! Anywho wordy post and on to the pics.

 

[daboys]

Good looking bird Mark. That's my favorite way to do them.

 

[ronp]

Nice looking bird and meal. I love that two color corn.

 

[richoso1]

The bird's the word. You'll find ways to improve/change almost any smoke, it's all good.

 

[waysideranch]

That bird was dancing........................then you cut his legs off. And ate it. Great looking smoke.

 

[bassman]

Good looking bird! When I do the beer butt, I pare an onion down just to the size of the neck opening and stuff it shut. I think it helps hold in the moisture (just my opinion).

 

[wmarkw]

Thanks for the replies. I did wedge a lemon down there but removed it when I took the bird off the smoker with my tongs. I'm so used to using a temp probe and especially with chicken it made for a nervous smoke. I used caution though but it came out good, just know I can do better next time.

Corn was really good as was the slaw and the wife is in to making some sweet tea lately so it was a good sunday dinner.

 

[dee dee dee]

I've heard of beer-butt chicken but never had it before... hope to try it soon. I also here that it tastes good with Dr. Pepper instead of beer so I'll experiment.