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Redneck
Tipsy Chicken
Some folks like to call it BeerButt Chicken
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Mark Hoolihan opened a Southern Humorists' discussion about
cooking when he said:
"My wife heard of this way to barbecue a chicken by setting it on a can of
beer on the grill... This must be a southern idea. Anyone help me out
here?"
"I have heard of cooking a chicken on a beer can. Waste of beer."
replied Ben Baker, who has never wasted anything he could eat or drink.
Of course, if you want to know something about barbecue, just ask a group of
southerners. It wasn't long until Carrie English came up with a recipe:
"Drink 1/4 of the can of beer, and drink four more beers while you fire up
the grill. Coat the chicken with butter, olive oil, or more beer and set
it the gobbler on the 1/4 empty beer (very pessimistic when it comes to my
beer). Grill for about an hour and voila - the masterpiece is ready."
Pamela "knows-her-chicken" Klein has a slightly different version and
even listed the ingredients - both of them.
1 nice chicken
1 can beer
"Brine chicken for about an hour in about 1/4 salt in enough water to
submerge. Remove chicken and pat dry, season with pepper and fresh garlic, rub
on a lot and push cloves under the skin and into the meat. Make sure you have
removed all the bits from the inside of the chicken then insert the OPEN can of
beer into the large opening where stuffing would go. Make sure the chicken is
balanced, tie the wings next to the body and either grill or bake until juices
run clear. The beer helps keep the meat moist and adds a nice flavor."
Phil Jones came up with a more unique method guaranteed to be favored by college
students, bachelors, and street people.
"Seems like a lot trouble. Personally, I'd buy a six-pack, drink five of
the beers, and then just pour the last one over some KFC."
We scratched our heads and pondered over what to call this recipe so it didn't
sound like a northern hoax to Barbara Madden, " who thinks beer-butt
chicken is a yankee trick."
"Most people call this Beer Butt Chicken but I agree- we could think of a
much better name," Frank G. Van Atta mumbled. Unfortunately, most of
the perfectly good names suggested were censored out by Net Nanny, who is a
prig.
Hungry for barbeque chicken and tipsy on beer, the Southern Humorists all rushed
off to backyards to fire up their grills and report back to the group on the
results:
Ern Grover had the earliest report. "Caution. Open the beer tab.
Don't ask." He didn't bring back any samples. We don't know
why.
Carrie, with a wild look in her eye, added, ". . .the chicken
has been known to tip over. I mean, a beer can only hold so much. A
4 pound chicken carcass can be a bit much. And if you spill the beer, you
risk the alcohol abuse comments."
We wondered if that's why it was being called "Tipsy Chicken" but
decided it was for other reasons.
Mark Motz also had less than perfect results, "Note to self: Open
beer can and drain before grilling. I forgot once, and invented the first
orbiting roaster." We here at Southern Humorists wish him a speedy
recovery.
Pamela, possibly after sampling one of the ingredients, said. "I saw this
method described in a grilling supplement to the Naples, FL newspaper back in
May. Bill and I tried it as soon as we got home - the hardest part was
getting a single can of beer because we drink bottled beer. "
Beth Jacks reported, "We do this a lot at my house. Beer butt chicken is
delicious and worth the effort -- which ain't much." We immediately voted
to have our next cookout at Beth's house. Don't tell her. We
want it to be a surprise!
Karin Vingle regrets she could not report back in person, but she did send
us a note from her hideout, rumored to be some place in Iraq.
"I decided to try a variant of your Beer Butt recipe on my ex husband. It
was great fun inserting the can and although I can't say for certain whether the
beer improved the flavor, as he was already fairly well self-marinated, the meat
did seem quite especially juicy (although the high fat content of my ex could
have something to do with that)."
In spite of all the wonderful suggestions on how to grill chicken - or maybe
because of them - Mark Hoolihan responded, "Thank you all for the advice on
the chicken and catfish. I think we'll do the catfish this weekend."
Cookout adjourned.
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