Simple Beer Can Chicken
Pigasso Farms was at the Hudson Farmer's market last weekend, and in addition to asking Rob to bring a pork shoulder for some memorial day weekend smoking (can't wait), I picked up a whole chicken, roughly 4 1/4 pounds. Cooking laziness got the better of us that weekend, so we brought it back to Brooklyn not knowing how we'd prepare it. It was a 90 degree scorcher in town on wednesday, and i had grilling on the mind. So out came Steven Raichlen's book on beer-can chicken and the festivities began.
I actually didn't use anything from Steven's recipes... but did consult on timing and approach. I used a dead simple rub of olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic, and sat the bird on a half-full can of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Grilled on the gas weber with indirect heat for about 1 hr and 40 minutes (should have talken it off closer to 1 hr 20 minutes), and prepared a simple vinaigrette with a lemon, a tablespoon of cilantro, and a clove of minced garlic. Chopped up the chicken (i love the method of removing the breast entirely from the bird, and then slicing into steak-like strips), and then i drizzled the vinaigrette over everything, and served alongside Lori's balsamic greens with avocado, carrot, and shaved parmesan.
Results were decent, or maybe better than decent. Flavor on the chicken and vinaigrette were perfect. dark meat was very moist, white meat was bordering on dry but you couldn't call it dry. I should have stopped cooking 20 minutes earlier, but aside from that it was top-notch. Super easy too... i'll make it again for sure. The Pigcasso chicken was good.... though i didn't notice anything totally amazing here. 18 bucks for a whole chicken is not cheap, but there is always that piece of mind that they are decent to their animals. Which honestly can go a long way in this cook's opinion.
