Grilling Beer Can Chicken

I had always heard about this crazy method of grilling a whole chicken on a can of beer and I admit it sounded a bit quarky, but this has to be the most amazing chicken I have ever had in my life. This recipe comes from the Neely's on Foodnetwork.com. These celeb chefs know their BBQ, so I didn't doubt that the recipe would be good, but it totally exceeded my expectations. The rub is exceptionally good and I've used it on grilled pork chops as well. It is totally the combination of this rub along with the moisture the beer provides during the grilling that makes this bird so darn tasty and juicy. As far as grilling temperature goes, we tried to keep it around 325 F and we used an external meat probe to keep up on the internal chicken temperature.

Ingredients:

4 pounds chicken, washed and dried
vegetable oil
Beer Can Chicken Rub (see below)
12-ounce can of beer

Beer Can Chicken Rub:
2 tablespoons smoked paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder

Method:

For Beer Can Chicken Rub:

In a small bowl mix all the ingredients together and use for the grilled chicken. You can store extra rub mixture in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

For the chicken:

Preheat your grill to medium-high heat.

Rub the chicken and its cavity down with the vegetable oil. Season the chicken with rub mixture, remembering to season the cavity. Pour out 1/4 of the beer and sit the chicken on top of the beer can. (My hubby usually drinks bottled beer so I used a cleaned out soda can and filled it 2/3 way up with beer.)

Place the chicken in the center of the hot grill and cover.

Cook the chicken for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until an instant-read thermometer registers 165 degrees F.

Once cooked, cover loosely with foil and let rest for 10 minutes before carving.