Beer-brined Bbq Chicken

[wildschwein]

I had a magnificent BBQ on the weekend and this beer-brined BBQ chicken was the centrepeice of the Weber. It's easy to make and the smoky, salty flavour is outstanding. It has strong Continental flavour that, oddly, almost resembles lightly salted smoked pork. I served it with some grilled pineapple slices and bananas baked in their skins on the Weber. The recipe went something like this.

Whole 1.5kg chicken, backbone removed
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup sugar
3 bay leave broken up (fresh are best but dry will do)
1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon of dried thyme
1 teaspoon of paprika (smoked is better)
200-250mls of beer (I used a home brewed light brown Canadian bitter ale) Pils or light ales would work well, but feel free to use anything you have on hand.
oil for basting

Method:
Get your BBQ lit and ready to cook. Take the backbone out of the chicken and save it for a stock or feed it to your dog or cat. Open the chicken and flatten out. Removal of the backbone makes this possible. Placing some bamboo skewers vertically and horizontally through the chicken's body helps make it easy to manipulate the chook when it's on the BBQ. In a large bowl combine all other ingredients except the oil and whisk well to dissolve all the sugar and salt. Put the chicken in and work some of the brine under the skin with your hands. Leave for about 30 mins to 1 hour at room temp. This brine is quite strong and doesn't take long to get the flavour into the chicken. To cook, lift the chook out of the brine, discard the brine, and brush the skin side of the chook with oil and put onto the BBQ (over indirect heat if it's hot coals) skin side down. Cook for about 20 minutes and then turn it skin side up. Baste constantly with the oil. Cook for an additional hour and then check to see if it's cooked by piercing a thigh or leg. If the juices run clear you shouild be okay to serve, if there is any trace of pink cook for additional 15-20 minutes and do another juice check. Continue basting. When ready place chook on a board and cut into 4-8 portions through the joints. Enjoy: this was a really special dish. (My girfriend even claimed it tasted like German products we buy from our favourite Continental butcher here in Perth: Dubrovniks).

PS: You can also cook it in an oven if you don't wanna fire up the barbie. Just place it skin side up in a roasting tray and cook at 180C for about an hour and a half, basting from time to time. This method will still be good but won't have the smokey flavour of a chicken cooked over coals.

Serve with a good homebrew or 10.

 

[AndrewQLD]

Sounds nice, but I have to ask, how do you remove the backbone from a chicken? I have never heard of this before.
The smoked paprika is wonderful stuff, I will have to try this at my next BBQ.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[wildschwein]

Thanks for the reply. To remove the backbone is pretty simple: it's called butterflying. It's mainly to flatten the chicken out and give you a more even surface are for BBQing. Whole chooks in the BBQ just aren't the right shape and this makes it easier to cook and work with.

You can use poultry shears or a knife. Turn the chicken on its breast and look at the neck and the parsons nose. Look in the cavity of the chicken and you can also see the backbone and the connecting rib bones, these ribs are what you'll have to cut through. Both of these methods will let you see the line of the backbone and that's what you wanna take out here. If you've got shears just cut down either side of the parson's nose to either side of the neck area. If you've only got a knife it's a bit harder. Place the chook on it's back and place the knife inside the cavity lining it up with one side of the backone. Crunch all the way through one side. You'll be able to open the chicken up now and the other side of the backbone will be accessible. Line up the knife the with the other side and crunck through again. Presto, backboneless chicken.

Here's a video that demonstrates it too. This isn't me just something I found on Google to answer your question a bit better. See How to Butterfly a Chicken. He goes further than I do to because he fiddles around with the breast bone. Good luck, and yes smoked paprika is the goods. You can actually use it to fake smoke foods which is bonus when you don't wanna go to the trouble of lighting up the BBQ.

 

[AndrewQLD]

Great stuff, thanks for the info. Good description of the process too, I don't even need to look at the video :super:

Cheers
Andrew

 

[wildschwein]

Cooked this again this weekend. I added a few cloves of sliced garlic and fresh sage leaves to the recipe above. Putting the skewers through it helps make it easy to turn it over and move it around the grill. Here's a pic

 

[domonsura]

That looks DAMN good. Going to have to try that one for sure.

 

[Keifer]

awww sh!t man that looks wicked! Defo have to try that for the bbq, is it just me or does 1/4 cup of salt seem like alot. We have grown up without using salt (or only when needed eg baking bread n stuff), you rekon if you dropped the salt way down it would still turn out ok?
I did get some herbs growing, but the bloody storms have smashed em up. I love cooking with fresh herbs

 

[wildschwein]

awww sh!t man that looks wicked! Defo have to try that for the bbq, is it just me or does 1/4 cup of salt seem like alot. We have grown up without using salt (or only when needed eg baking bread n stuff), you rekon if you dropped the salt way down it would still turn out ok?
I did get some herbs growing, but the bloody storms have smashed em up. I love cooking with fresh herbs

G'dday Keifer,

The salt level may seem a little high but the final product is not that salty. After 30 minutes in the brine the chicken is removed from the brine and ready to cook and the flavour really distributes well into the chicken. The brine is then discarded. Hams and corn beef etc use the same technique but are left in the brine longer to preserve them and hence give quite a deep salty taste. If you feel you need to drop the salt level go for it but it won't be quite the same and you won't get the deep seasoning effect of a full 1/4 cup. In addition the 1/4 cup of sugar actually helps to round out the saltiness a bit. I guess all I would say is don't eat it all the time and a little chicken has a lot of flavour and goes a long way.

 

[AndrewQLD]

G'dday Keifer,

The salt level may seem a little high but the final product is not that salty. After 30 minutes in the brine the chicken is removed from the brine and ready to cook and the flavour really distributes well into the chicken. The brine is then discarded. Hams and corn beef etc use the same technique but are left in the brine longer to preserve them and hence give quite a deep salty taste. If you feel you need to drop the salt level go for it but it won't be quite the same and you won't get the deep seasoning effect of a full 1/4 cup. In addition the 1/4 cup of sugar actually helps to round out the saltiness a bit. I guess all I would say is don't eat it all the time and a little chicken has a lot of flavour and goes a long way.

I made this last night but had to cook it in the oven, fantastic tasting chicken, very tender and not too salty at all, great recipe.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[wildschwein]

That's wicked Andrew, I'm really glad it worked out for ya! Yeah the barbie is good but not essential. In fact, like I said above, the smoked paprika is good for imparting a smoked taste without the need for a barbie.

 

[QldKev]

Mines on the BBQ; hood down sitting on 150c, now should be ready approx 6:15, will let you know how it goes.

QldKev

 

[QldKev]

The chicken was a hit with the family. At first the wife wasn't really intrested in it having beer in it, since we had 2 x 1kg chickens we made another chook with honey and soy; but after she tried it she said we will be doing this once a week, and put the honey & soy version on hold.

Thanks for the recipie

QldKev

 

[mobrien]

I do a very similar recipe and have now trained my butcher to butterfly the chicken for me. The first time I asked, I had to explain step by step what I wanted - butchers are very skilled, so he got the hang of it real quick. Since then I have been trying various rubs and sauces with the same cut, and always the butcher and I talk about the various marinades.

The last time I went in, he was really excited - and says "look in the window Matt" - and now they sell marinated butterflied chickens!

Anyway, try a few different rubs and brines - I can fit 4 butterflied chickens (small) on the weber at once - then you can try a few different things!

M

 

[fixa]

this sounds awesome! going to make this wednesday night. will let you know how it goes...

 

[wildschwein]

The chicken was a hit with the family. At first the wife wasn't really intrested in it having beer in it, since we had 2 x 1kg chickens we made another chook with honey and soy; but after she tried it she said we will be doing this once a week, and put the honey & soy version on hold.

Thanks for the recipie

QldKev

That's cool Kev. Glad it worked out well. Yeah some people think beer in food is odd but in this reipe you may not know it's in there unless you were told. It just blends with all the other flavours so well. I think if wine is good enought to cook with so is beer.

 

[fixa]

Made this last night. Dead easy..

Had to do mine in the oven due to time constraints, but still was a lovely moist tender bird. Next time i'll add some garlic, fresh chilli, and do it on the webber.

Thanks again for the recipe!

PS.. Don't taste the brine solution.. awful, awful stuff... :blink:

 

[wildschwein]

Heh, heh..yeah don't taste it. It does magic to the chicken but it's concentrated stuff by itself.

 

[JSB]

This is one awesome chicken,.....throughly enjoyed by the old man....washed down with a shed load of Oktoberfest, ESB, Dunkel Weizen and Porter.....plus a few bottles of red......Thoroughly recommend it to any one aiming to please !!

Cheers
JSB :beerbang:

 

[fixa]

had this again last night, but done on the webber. Bloody beautiful. I added some garlic and chilli flakes to the brine aswell, and it was Gooooooooooooood!!

 

[Lukes]

wildschwein,
Tried this the other night with some of my stout, no bay leaves, chilli, garlic and chicken legs.
Went into the oven on a rack so it was beer brined oven chicken but was great stuff.
Thanks for the recipe and I will try it on the BBQ this weekend. One lot with dark beer and one lot with pale beer as per the original recipe.

Chicken legs in the brine. Sorry no cooked pics as it did not last long.

- Luke