Beer Can Chicken (1993)

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   The recipes are straight-forward and easy to follow, and to the author's credit, _there is not a single recipe for beer can chicken!_  Hallelujah!
--FIERY FOODS & BBQ (magazine), February 2004, pg. 46, col. 1 (www.fiery-foods.com).
   (Review of MASTERING THE BBQ: A COMPENDIUM OF BARBECUE RECIPE AND KNOWLEDGE by Michael H Stines, Cape Cod, MA: Cape Cod Barbecue, 2003.)

BEER CAN CHICKEN--25,200 Google hits, 646 Google Groups hits


   Hallelujah?  Doesn't "beer can chicken" taste great?  Isn't it less filling?  At the risk of offending true BBQ Gods, here goes.


(GOOGLE GROUPS)(Earliest hits--ed.)
Nearing Nirvana!
... Pacific NW. Just wanted to pass along our thanks for all your help.
Tomorrow we try beer-can chicken! Thanks again! We'll be lurking.
alt.food.barbecue - Sep 26, 1998 by Stan Orchard - View Thread (1 article)

Re: I want crispy skin on my roast chicken
... 7. Place "beer can chicken" on a baking sheet. 8. Bake upright on the
lowest oven rack at 350 - 375° for 1 hr. 15 min to 1 hr. 30 min. ...
rec.food.cooking - Aug 25, 1995 by Bob Patton - View Thread (20 articles)


(FACTIVA)
The Ritz of pits/Houston brothers smoke the competition
STEVEN LONG
Staff
1,757 words
25 June 1993
Houston Chronicle
2 STAR
1
English
(Copyright 1993)

TALK about your tall Texas tales, did you hear the one about the four Houston boys who beat the oil bust with a barbecue pit?

Well, way back in '73, four brothers - Wayne and Lawrence Whitworth and their half-brothers, Raymond and Dickie Hartis - decided to make a go with a sheet-metal business. Sheet-metal parts were in high demand at the time, being used to make parts used by an oil industry going like gangbusters.

Every now and then, they'd mold some of that sheet metal into a barbecue pit for their friends. These weren't your run-of-the-mill pits; they were heavy-duty setups made of high-quality parts and custom-designed.

Well, word of those pits spread and spread, even though the boys weren't exactly giving them away. To tell the truth, those pits were pretty pricey.

So when the day came that the oil patch went and dried up, the boys focused their attention on those BBQ pits. In 1983 they opened up a retail store. They called it Pitt's & Spitt's.

Today, their pits are smoking around the world - Australia, England, Ireland, Saudi Arabia and Germany. They still call for a chunk of change - from $395 for an ordinary charcoal grill to $3,600 for an ""ultimate'' pit with an upright smoker, a small trailer and double gas burners.

""They can go to $35,000 or up,'' said Wayne Whitworth, who is CEO of Har-Whit, the corporation for Pitt's & Spitt's. ""The sky is the limit. It just depends on what you want on it.

""The most expensive one we ever sold - I can't give out the (exact) price on it - but it was about $55,000,'' he said. It went to a Houston man who Whitworth prefers not to name. ""We've sold a lot of them for from $18,000 to $20,000. They have a lot of special stuff on them.''

Last year, the firm, which has 40 employees, sold 500 pits worldwide. There is hope to expand to franchises in other cities.

""Right now, we are having hell just staying up with our own sales,'' Whitworth said.

It all started 20 years ago with a $1,200 loan from the Houston Fire Dept. Credit Union. Wayne Whitworth and his half-brother, Raymond Hartis, worked for the department, while Dickie Hartis and Lawrence Whitworth were in the sheet-metal business. The money was used to start their own sheet-metal place.

Business was good until 1983. It was then that their hobby took on more import.

Their entry into the pit business as a sideline to their sheet-metal business was not entirely by happenstance. The brothers had gained some small acclaim at barbecue cookoffs. They called themselves ""The Pitt's and Spitt's Brothers,'' and they were often winners.

Like most Texans, the brothers, who share the same mother, had grown up around barbecue.

""Our stepdad taught us the concept of smoking,'' Wayne Whitworth said. ""He was a great barbecuer.''

So it was this combination of know-how, materials and misfortune (the oil bust) that cast the brothers into the barbecue arena.

""Our old man raised us that everything worth doing is worth doing perfect,'' Whitworth said.

Still, there were some doubts.

""I didn't think people would pay the price which such a well-made pit would demand,'' he said.

He was wrong.

""We just shipped two (smokers) to the president of Ukraine,'' Wayne Whitworth said.

But the president of the former Soviet republic isn't the only head of state to cook on a Pitt's and Spitt's setup.

A few years ago, the brothers shipped a $1,025 model to a remote address in Maryland called Camp David. George Bush has long been a backyard barbecue fan.

When Bush left the White House, he invited Whitworth to his home here in Houston.

""Me and my brother Raymond gave him a few helpful hints,'' Whitworth said, including how to smoke a chicken.

""It's called beer-can chicken,'' Whitworth laughed. ""You fill a beer can with about a half can of beer and a half can of water, throw in some chopped onion and some spices, then insert the can in the chicken's cavity.''

The bird is then perched upright on the can and slow-smoked. The brew in the can keeps the meat moist.
(...)


(FACTIVA)
  Hog-Wild in Memphis
Steven Raichlen
Special to The Washington Post
3,249 words
1 June 1994
The Washington Post
FINAL
e01
(...)
BEER CAN CHICKEN

(Makes 4 to 5 servings)

This offbeat recipe makes the most succulent barbecued chicken I've ever tasted. The secret: An open can of beer is inserted into the cavity of the bird, which is cooked upright. Besides being incredibly tender, the bird makes a great conversation piece. The recipe comes from the Bryce Boar Blazers of Texas.

4-to-5-pound chicken

FOR THE DRY RUB:

1 tablespoon seasoning salt

1 tablespoon garlic powder

Salt and black pepper to taste

TO SMOKE:

1 jar of Cajun Injector+ seasoning (optional)

1 can of beer (the Blazers use Budweiser++)

1/2 to 1 cup mesquite chips, soaked in cold water for 1 hour

Remove any fat lumps in the cavity. Wash chicken well; blot dry. Combine the dry rub ingredients and season the bird inside and out.

If using Cajun Injector, load the syringe and inject 1 tablespoon sauce into each breast, leg and thigh.

Pop the tab off the beer can. Using a "church key"-style can opener, make 6 or 7 holes in the top of the can. Spoon any remaining dry rub through the holes into the beer. Stand the chicken upright and insert the beer can into the cavity. Spread out the legs to form a sort of tripod, so the bird stands upright.

Place the chicken in a smoker or a grill set up as a smoker (see instructions at the bottom of Page E10). Smoke-cook the chicken for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or until fall-off-the-bone tender. Serve the chicken upright on the beer can on a platter.

+ Note: Cajun Injector is a bottled basting mixture. If unavailable, you can use the Crispy Critter basting mixture below or omit it entirely.

++ Budweiser does not officially endorse this use of its beer or beer can.

Per serving: 1102 calories, 122 gm protein, 5 gm carbohydrates, 60 gm fat, 17 gm saturated fat, 486 mg cholesterol, 1784 mg sodium


(OCLC WORLDCAT)
Beer-can chicken :
and 74 other offbeat recipes for the grill /
Author: Raichlen, Steven.
Publication: New York : Workman Pub., 2002
Document: English : Book