How to make Beer Can Chicken on the Grill

Let’s fire up the grill and whip up one of the best-grilled beer can chicken you’ll ever eat! So juicy, full of flavor, and incredibly easy to make! Winner, winner, 5-star chicken dinner!

There’s just something special about firing up a grill. Whether it’s charcoal or wood, in my Big Green Egg or my Cedar Creek Sculptures Santa Maria Asadera, I find it so genuinely relaxing.

Beer Can Chicken is SO Easy

This is one of those recipes that you can throw together in a few minutes, put on the grill, and chill out for close to an hour and a half. Now, typically, when I make recipes like this, we’re all outside, sitting by the grill and just relaxing. And more often than not, I’ll have both grills going – one for the longer cooks like this and the other for quick snacks – like sliders or whatnot.

WATCH: How to Cook Beer Can Chicken

Grab Your Ingredients

The beauty of this recipe is you can go with your favorite beer (or non-alcoholic drink) plus pretty much any veggie that can roast for over an hour. Since I had teamed up with Sierra Nevada for this post on Instagram, I went with their Hazy Little Things IPA.

• Chicken – go with 4-6 pounds whole roaster, cleaned
• Beer – 12 ounces for the chicken and, well, however many more you want to drink
• Orange – peeled and segmented
• Seasoning – I went with Big Green Egg’s Citrus & Herb Seasoning
• Thyme – fresh works best here
• Veggies – I went with medium-sized red potatoes and these huge Brussels Sprouts

Since creating this recipe, I’ve used a few of their other beers, soda, chicken stock, and other drinks.

How to prep Beer Can Chicken

1. Pour the beer (3/4 of it) into the ceramic roaster and put it in the metal drip pan. To the roaster, add the orange and thyme.

There’s No Nice Way To Say This…

So I’m just going to come up and say it… Stick the chicken roaster into the butt of the chicken.

And yes, I giggled like a 12-year-old little boy as I typed that.

1. Place the chicken over the roaster and push it down so the chicken stands up.
2. Liberally coat the chicken with seasonings.
3. Add the veggies to the bottom of the pan and drizzle the chicken & veggies with the olive oil.
4. Pour the remaining beer into the pan with the veggies.

How to cook Beer Can Chicken

Make sure the veggies and chicken are all coated, and take the whole thing out to the grill.

1. Place the chicken on the grill, close the lid, and roast for 1.5 hours or until the internal temp is 165°.

2. Remove the chicken/pan/chicken roaster from the egg, tent the chicken loosely for 10 minutes, then carefully remove the chicken from the roaster and carve.

How to Cook Beer Can Chicken in the Oven

This recipe is too amazing not to show you how to make it in the oven!

1. Preheat the oven, lowest rack to 400F. Follow all of the instructions as written, but instead of putting it on the grill, place it in the oven.
2. Bake for roughly 60-90 minutes or until the internal temp is 165F.
3. Remove from the oven, tent loosely, and then carve.

Beer Can Chicken Recipe Substitutions

• Liquid – as I mentioned above, you can use any beer, but you can also use apple juice, soda (coke or root beer is incredible), other booze, chicken stock
• Seasonings – try to pair whatever you are adding to the liquid in the chicken roaster with the seasonings
• Veggies – parsnips, carrots, radishes, and whole onions all work amazing in this!

Beer Can Chicken Grill FAQs

I’ve put together a few FAQs to help guide you so you are set up for success even before you make the recipe!

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• Homemade Salisbury Steak
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• Hoagie Roll

Beer Can Chicken Recipe (Grill)

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Let’s fire up the grill and whip up one of the best-grilled beer can chickens you’ll ever eat! So juicy, full of flavor, and incredibly easy to make! Winner, winner 5-star chicken dinner!

• Author: TKWAdmin
• Prep Time: 10
• Cook Time: 1.5 hours
• Total Time: 2 hours
• Yield: 1 whole chicken
• Category: bbq, grill, chicken, meal prep
• Method: bbq, grill
• Cuisine: bbq, grill, chicken, meal prep

Ingredients

• 1 4-pound whole chicken, cleaned
• 1 12-ounce can of Sierra Nevada Hazy IPA or beer of choice
• 1 orange, peeled
• 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 3 Tablespoons Big Green Egg Citrus & Herb seasoning
• Olive oil for drizzling, roughly 3 Tablespoons
• 1 shallot peeled and sliced
• 6 medium Red potatoes
• 6 larger Brussels sprouts

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Instructions

1. Light up your grill. Once the coals have caught and have stayed lit, place the convEGGtor, and legs up into the grill, and place a grate on top.  You want to grill this for indirect heat. Heat the grill up to 350°F.
2. While the grill is heating up, pour the beer (3/4 of it) into the ceramic roaster and put it in the metal drip pan. To the roaster add the orange and thyme.
3. Place the chicken over the roaster and push it down in place so the chicken stands up. Liberally coat the chicken with seasonings. Add the veggies to the bottom of the pan and drizzle the chicken & veggies with the olive oil.  Pour the remaining beer into the pan with the veggies.
4. Place the chicken on the grill, close the lid, and roast for 1.5 hours or until the internal temp is 165°.
5. Remove the chicken/pan/chicken roaster from the egg, tent the chicken loosely for 10 minutes then carefully remove the chicken from the roaster and carve.

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