Aug 31

Meat & poultry

Roasted Chicken on beer can

Like a Sumo guy ready for the battle, like an astronaut waiting for the ignition of the rocket, like a king in its throne… this chicken will give its best in this recipe! If you have never heard of it, you are probably making funny faces to the screen right now and wondering… Whow is it possible? Is this a serious recipe? Can the bird be well roasted? Is the can full or empty?

Well, to tell you the truth, I’ve known about the Roasted Chicken on beer can for a long time but never tried it. Today I made up my mind and followed nearly all the instructions of the recipe that shows at the  Modernist cuisine books. Hey, this is not a joke, these are the best cook books ever! So I knew it was going to be a complete success… but… here are the pros and cons:

• The chicken was a bit too big for my oven’s size. Recipe talks about a medium size bird and mine was 1,600 Kilos which I think is medium. When trying to adjust it to the can, it was hard to stay balanced and seated on top of it. Maybe it would be a good idea to place the bird on top of a wider glass jar. The purpose of the can is to drain and keep inside all the juices of the chicken while is getting roasted.
• Once the chicken is set over the can and placed inside the oven its top touches the oven’s ceiling.
• The original recipe doesn’t ask for more ingredients… not even salt! Maybe if we place some thin slices of truffles between the skin and the meat it would improve the flavor. But I didn’t try this time.
• Also, it doesn’t mention which kind of chicken should be used. I went for a Rural one raised in liberty. Its meat is harder and the roasting time should be increased.
• When the recipe asks for a second time in the oven with top temperature, I rubbed some lard over the chicken so that it would be more savory, but it provoked some smoke… so this is not recommendable.
• In sum, the outcome was fantastic, the way of roasting it enhances the chicken’s flavors and it comes out with a crispy skin and tender and delicious tights and breasts; but it’s very unconfortable to manage and it takes a long time: nearly 5 hours.

You have probably seen in the internet that now it’s not advisable to wash the chicken before cooking it, it seems that instead of taking the germs out we spread them all over by washing the bird. So, I didn’t wash it :D. I hope the heat did the work ;D.