I always use use the beer can method, and will continue to use it, in spite of this idiotic article.
This article is clearly click bait, condemning a method that many people use and like with specious reasoning, and ignoring the positives of the method, even after listing some. Most of the negatives that are listed have to do with beer/flavor penetration through the cavity, so as long as you take it for a given that like the other methods there will be no beer/flavor penetration there is nothing wrong with this method. And as KRJ wrote, the reasons the article list as dangerous cons are only a problem for someone who should not be around fire or sharp objects to begin with.
My reasons for using (and loving) BBC:
-A beer can up the chickens butt essentially becomes a vertical roaster, which the article praises (I doubt that the decrease in airflow through the chicken cavity - which the article states isn't great to begin with- would provide better heat transfer than the aluminum in contact with the cavity walls).
-I don't like owning single use gadgets, and even less buying them, especially when there are other items in my house that can do the same thing- in this case buying one, or several vertical wire roasters, and finding room for them in my kitchen (and remembering where that place is), when at most times I have several empty cans in my recycling bin, and always several full ones that I wouldn't mind cracking and drinking. Why would the answer to a method that works using what you already have be buying a gimmick that does essentially the same thing?
-Using the beer can method allows me to get 3 chickens at a time on my 22" Weber- try that with spatchcocked birds. Even vertical roasters usually (always) take up more room, so they wouldn't allow 3 to cook at the same time either.
-The beer can method allows me to put the chickens on the grill and walk away to cook everything else for dinner at what ever temp I want (as long as you know your grill). While of course cooking cut up pieces of chicken will afford the most control, it also takes the most work to ensure that nothing burns. Even spatchcocking requires turning the chicken to brown the interior (and if you don't, is it really an improvement?)
-This method, with 3 birds placed in a ring, breasts facing in, and charcoal in a ring on the outside cooks the chicken perfectly with browned crispy skin and both breast and thigh cooked perfectly without any work after the initial placement. This can also work with two chickens.
I understand that everyone will have their favorite method for cooking chicken, I just think that BBC is a valid method that makes damn good chicken for very little work and with no cost as long as you don't expect it to do what other methods don't do either.
Give it a try before you rule it out!
