There are pictures of a dead, headless, featherless whole chicken in this post. Just letting you know in case you’re not cool with that.
I’ve been wanting to try grilling a “Beer Can Chicken” for a while, but Mr. Nodakademic doesn’t like beer or food cooked with beer. So I was a little wary of wasting a whole chicken only to have Mr. N dislike the flavor.
But when I saw this post, I knew I had to finally try the recipe…
…Because she didn’t use beer.
She used orange soda.
Everybody likes orange soda. Around here though, we don’t have San Pellegrino (at least, it’s not easily-sourced). We have Shasta Pop. (We have Sunkist and Crush too, but the beauty of Shasta is that you can buy single cans of it for 50 cents each. Woot!)
Anyway, I got my can of orange pop and my chicken and set a date to…shall we say… mingle them.
On the morning of their… um… encounter, I rubbed my chicken with a mixture of spices. I can’t tell you exactly, but I know my rub contained garlic powder, cayenne pepper powder, ground black pepper, basil, jamaican jerk seasoning, and a pinch of celery salt among other things. I let it sit like that pretty much all day.
Then right before cooking, I decided to smear some teriyaki sauce on it. I figured the orange pop would make it taste — well — orangey, and I tend to associate orange chicken with Asian dishes. So Teriyaki sauce would be a great compliment, right?
As suggested in the recipe I was mocking, I used a can-opener to half-cut the top off the can (rather than poking holes in it with a knife). I also took several gulps of soda, so the can was about 2/3 full when the chicken was placed over it.
Well… teriyaki sauce was probably not the best idea.
See, teriyaki sauce has sugar in it. And when you cook sugary glazes (at 350 degrees for an hour), they burn up. So our chicken was looking pretty crispy by the time it was done.
But on the inside, it was good. Really good. So good that I didn’t take any photos of it after we carved it up. We just ate it. (Not all of it, but a good portion of it!) I should note that ours did not have a strong or even noticeable orange flavor to it. (Perhaps that’s ’cause I used cheap generic pop instead of Italian Aranciata? Hmm.) But it was still a very good chicken.
A++ would eat again.
Late-20s yuppie, professional techie, terminal student. I probably live farther north than you do. (
Ooh, so glad you tried the chicken molestation recipe, and it looks gorgeous! I’m very jealous/impressed with that fancy contraption you have to hold the can — is that a special beer butt chicken holder or a DIY contraption you can teach me to make?
BTW, I did some online research and apparently some very dedicated griller did an experiment where he made the chicken with a can of beer, a can of something else (wine? soda?), and a can of water, and it basically all tasted the same. I think the liquid just steams the chicken from the inside, but doesn’t leave much of a flavor. I tried it once with wine, though, and it didn’t taste nearly as good.
Good to know about the flavor!!
That contraption is an honest-to-god Beer Can Chicken stand. I bought it somewhere years ago I think, and this was its maiden use. They are really, really cheap:
http://www.amazon.com/Old-Smok.....B000XE63M2
Thanks for the inspiration!!
This sounds yummy! I got to say, the photo with the chicken on the stand makes me laugh, looks so funny. I was also going to ask about the chicken butt stand but Amanda beat me to it. Thanks for the link. :) When I get a chance to try this out I’ll link you.
OH HELL NO. Those are some of the grossest pics ever! haha
Hey there! I featured your sunroom on my blog today! Thanks so much :)
When I saw the word Shasta it caught my eye. My cat’s name is Shasta and her sister is named Pepsi (the shelter named them). Anyways, the recipe looks great. I looked at the poor cat after he got into the polyurethane. Quick thinking!
I found your blog after looking at Lindsey’s Better After.
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