Cooking: Beer Butt Chicken

While we were up at the Sunshine Coast we tried making Beer Butt Chicken from Jamie Oliver's latest book, Jamie's America. It is one of those recipes that grabs you for its novelty, and frankly being a bit absurd.

Essentially you sit your chickens onto open cans of beer, the idea being that the beer steams the chickens while cooking to keep it moist and give it flavour. It also brings a big smile to your face while cooking it and comments from anyone who passes by the BBQ while you are cooking.

We were surprised that the beer hadn't evaporated away when we took the chickens off the BBQ. We weren't using direct heat underneath the bird (which is recommended when roasting a joint), but perhaps this would have helped.

Did the chicken taste like beer? The chicken was very moist, but I am not sure it it really tasted of beer. Eating the chicken on the bone was the most flavoursome and it had the biggest effect here, if anywhere.

A good party trick and worth doing to impress your friends when you have them round.

Method:
- Open your cans of beer and drink about half their contents.
- Sit the chickens on the beer cans and place on your BBQ (or in the oven).
- If you are using a BBQ you want to make sure you can close the lid.
- Roast for the same length of time / at the same temperate as you would for a usual roasting joint.
Very easy! Jamie Oliver suggests creating a rub for your bird with a few herbs and spices, we just went for a bit of salt and pepper.