My favorite way to prepare a chicken is roasted with garlic butter and wine (check out my Roast Chicken recipe here), but in the summer, Beer Butt is always our go-to. The beer can method steams the inside of the chicken and the result is juicy delicious chicken 😋, making it a favorite in our household. We’ve been known to smoke or grill our beer butt, but today’s recipe features oven roasting since we have the A/C cranking 👍 and I want to create a yummy gravy with the chicken drippings because Dave is creating his crispy potatoes.

Today I’m keeping it easy with butter and olive oil under the skin and a smoky dry rub on the outside of the bird. In the base of the roasting pan I’ll add ~20 ounces of beer, 1 cup of chicken stock, 1 onion and 4 cloves of garlic and throughout the cooking process, I’ll baste the bird to create extra crispy skin and that will also to build the gravy base.

Lucky for us. we invested in beer butt chicken holder and boy does it makes the leveling and stabilizing so much easier 👍

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, about 5 pounds in weight
• 1TBS of unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1TBS of olive oil, I used extra virgin
• 1 can of beer, use what you have on-hand and if you prefer you could also use a seltzer water or soda
• For the dry rub:
  • 1 1/2TBS of brown sugar
  • 1TBS of dry mustard
  • 1TBS of chili powder
  • 1TBS of sea salt
  • 2tbs of cumin
  • 1tbs of ground pepper
  • 1tbs of paprika
  • 1tbs of garlic powder
  • 1tbs of onion powder

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

2. Combine the butter and olive oil together and create a paste.

3. Combine all your dry rub ingredients together in a mixing bowl.

3. Remove the giblets from the inside of the chicken and pat dry the bird (inside and outside) with paper towels.

4. Using your hands (with or without cooking gloves), gently get under the skin of the chicken. Now add your butter/olive oil paste under the skin and rub the bird down with the paste.

5. Now time for begin adding your dry rub to the bird, add a quarter of the dry rub to the inside of the chicken. Note: Continue to season the outside with your dry rub if you do not have a beer can holder.

6. Once the inside has been seasoned, place the chicken on the beer can and tuck the legs into the holder. Now season the outside of the chicken with your remaining dry rub.

7. Roast your chicken for 20 minutes at 450 degrees, then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and continue cooking for about another 40 minutes or the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. Note: I basted my chicken throughout the roasting to build my gravy and it took about 2 hours of total cooking time to reach 165 degrees.

8. When the chicken is done, allow it to rest for ~15 before craving.

9. Serve with a roast potatoes, salad or veggies. Enjoy and cheers 🍻