Beer Butt Chicken, Anyone?

Nothing says Mother's Day like a good old "Beer Butt Chicken"!

Dave kindly offered to cook dinner for the family tonight. He wanted to make something nice, so he asked me what was on hand in the Vollmer kitchen. The only good meat that was defrosted (i.e., not hot dogs or 1/2 a package of bacon) was a whole roaster chicken.

"So, what can I do with it?"

"You have many choices, you can roast it whole, or cut it up into pieces and bake/sautee up 1/2 of the chicken. Or....

I've wanted to try a Beer Butt Chicken for years!"

"Hey! Anything with 'Beer' in the name of the recipe is all right by me!"

(At least it wasn't "Anything with 'Butt' in the name of the recipe....")

A colleague/friend from when Dave and I were stationed in Ohio and in Florida, named Ben Kowash, was the first to introduce me to the concept of stuffing a can of beer up a chicken's backside and grilling it to perfection. I remember him and I discussing cooking on several occasions, and he was quite the chef. He made pad thai sauce from scratch! I don't even do that!

Since today was a pretty stormy day, we checked online for oven-roasted options, and found several. This is the one we adhered to the most. We sprinkled Old Bay seasoning on the skin, with the little kids, we didn't want to go for anything too spicy. (Who said Old Bay was just for seafood?) So instead of grilling the chicken, we put it upright in our oven (rack at the lowest setting) for about 1 1/2 hours at 375 degrees F.

Oh my goodness, the chicken was GOOD! I don't think I'd ever experienced a juicier, more tender chicken breast in my life!

So Ben, if you happen across this posting, thanks for putting the idea in my head, although it was about 6 years ago!