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A little twist on the Beer Can Chicken. Used Root Beer instead of beer and used it in the brine as well as in the can with some rosemary sprigs. I smoked it with Cherry wood chips and it was quite delicious.
The root beer didnt really affect the flavor of the chicken. I used 1/2 of the can in my brine and the other 1/2 stayed in the can. The brine was your basic salt, brown sugar, root beer, whole peppercorns. Brined it for about four hours and put it in the smoker for about three hours. The wind was giving me fits that day and I had a hard time holding the temp at my target 275 degrees so it took a little longer than it normally would. Once it finally got done (165 degrees) it was nice and juicy and had a great smoke flavor. I kind of agree that the liquid in the can doesn't much matter and your flavor comes from the brine and the smoke so I think I'll stick with the root beer for my chicken and the real beer for me.
I forgot to mention, I mixed some of my dry rub with some melted butter and injected it under the skin and then rubbed the out side with some of the dry rub.