Grilled Drunken Chicken with Rosemary and Garlic Potatoes

How do you make a chicken “drunk”??  Stand it straight up on a can of beer…and get ready for the most flavorful and moist chicken you’ve ever tasted!  If you’ve never tried this recipe on your grill…TRY IT!  (I’ve made as many as FOUR birds at one time for our friends in Florida…Proof below!)

DRUNKEN CHICKEN with ROSEMARY & GARLIC ROASTED POTATOES
1 whole chicken
1 can of beer
2 Tbsp olive oil
dry rub of your choice (my recipe follows)
fresh herbs of your choice
1 onion quartered (to stuff in the bird)
1 onion diced into large dice (to mix with potatoes)
2 heads of garlic
1 fresh lemon (any citrus fruit will do)
Fresh cracked pepper & Kosher salt
Red potatoes, quartered  (enough to feed your brood)

METHOD
Several hours or even the day before you plan to cook your chicken, rub the whole chicken with olive oil and sprinkle a generous amount of dry rub all over and inside the bird.  (Click here for my recipe called Meemaw’s Magic Dry Rub.) Place in a plastic bag in a shallow pan in the refrigerator and allow the rub to tenderize the bird.

WHEN READY TO GRILL
Open beer and drink half of it  (I LOVE to cook!)
Then stuff 3-4 unpeeled garlic cloves, fresh herbs, some quartered onion and several slices of lemon into the can with the remaining beer.  (I usually use fresh basil, fresh rosemary, Italian parsley and thyme)

If roasting potatoes with the chicken, find a shallow pan or sheet pan that will fit on your grill.  Spray pan well with non-stick spray. Wash potatoes and cut into halves or quarters, depending on how big they are. 

DRY THEM WELL and toss them onto your roasting pan with just enough extra virgin olive oil to lightly coat them.  Toss in the diced onion and 8-10 cloves of peeled garlic.  Then toss in any combo of finely minced fresh herbs, a little dry rub, and salt and pepper. 

Arrange potatoes leaving a hole in the center of the pan for your chicken.  Set the herb-loaded beer can in the center of the pan and stuff some of the quartered onion, several garlic cloves and lemon slices inside the chicken cavity and the neck cavity.  Then carefully pull the “stuffed” chicken down over the beer can so the chicken is literally “standing up”. 

Tuck the wings behind the bird and position the legs to keep the bird from tipping over.  Place on a pre-heated grill on med-high heat for about 1 hour.  You will need to check every 10-15 min. to see if the bird needs to be turned a quarter turn each time to brown evenly, and you may need to adjust the heat on the grill.  If I’m only cooking one or two chickens I may turn off the grill on one side (or put on very low heat) and put the chicken on that side of the grill to keep it from getting too brown before it’s had a chance to cook through.

It may take 45 minutes to cook…or it might take 1 1/2 hours, depending.  When the chicken is 10 degrees from finished (use a good meat thermometer) remove carefully from the beer can and wrap the bird in tin foil for at least 10-15 minutes to allow juices to redistribute. (Two pairs of kitchen tongs work best for this job.)  And discard the beer can, being careful not to spill contents onto potatoes.  (I know this all sounds complicated, but once you master this technique you will NEVER want to eat chicken cooked any other way!  TRUST ME!) 

The fat from the roasting chicken drips onto the potatoes and gives them an amazing flavor.  So go ahead…call your friends and turn on the grill!