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I haven't seen many posts on Beer Can Chicken so I thought ya'll might enjoy this one. I smoke cooked 2 4.5 lb yardbirds on Saturday. About 3 oz of apple wood, a good coating of Chicky Rub, including some under the skin. Total time in the 040 was just short of 3 hours. I think the liquid in the beer cans (mainly apple juice) helped bring the birds up to temp quickly.

They came out very moist and tender but I did get the rubbery skin. Not really a problem for me though.

kz

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Slim, you didn’t mention the temperature that you cooked the chicken. I have found that when doing beer butts in my AQ that cooking at 275 degrees and basting with melted butter twice toward the end of cooking helps tremendously with the skin. Also that if the chicken is trussed it will cook more evenly.
Hope this helps.
Tom
Thanks for the input Tom. I set the temp on my 040 to 275 but the display never got that high. The highest that it displayed was 263, at about the 1 3/4 hour mark. I'll admit I didn't put a second probe in to monitor the cooking chamber this time. I guess for some reason I thought leaving the birds untrussed (is that even a word?!) would allow them to cook more evenly, expose more of the skin to the smoke and heat. I'll truss them next time and compare the results.

I was a little surprised at the cooking time. After reading quite a few posts on whole chickens I was expecting more like a 4+ hour cook to bring them up to temp. Question- could having the liquid in the beer cans speed up the cooking time? It seemed like there was quite a bit of steam coming from the vent hole on the Cookshack.

Here is another picture, they were at about 150 (thigh) at this point. I probably could have basted them at this point. I'll put this in my notes too.

Again, thanks for the suggestions.

kz

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Slim, I do not know the highest temp setting on the 040. If it will not go to 275 just set on highest temp possible and keep records from there. As far as the contents in your can speeding the cooking progress, it may help a little but mainly is used for flavor more than cooking. If you want to speed the cooking time try brining. The additional moister in your product will cause the external heat to conduct into the meat much faster and give you a more moist end product. You may find you can shave a hour or more from your cooking time.

Basic Poultry Brine Recipe
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup Kosher salt
1 gal. water
1Tbs. whole peppercorns
1 Tbs. rosemary

Mix ingredients in 1/2 gallon warm water and stir to dissolve sugar and salt. Add rest of water. Place poultry in large plastic bag or other non corrosive container and add brine to cover. Refrigerate minimum of two hours or overnight for best results. Remove from brine,rinse and pat dry with paper towels and allow to air dry in refrigerator for a min of two hours or overnight before cooking. This will help with the skin. If your recipe calls for salt you may want to omit it if poultry is brined.

Trussing your poultry will help keep from overcooking the wings and legs.

Hope this helps. If you have any more questions please ask.
Tom
Last edited by mrt 2

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