I have toyed with the idea of owning a non-gas/charcoal barbecue for a number of years.. just never saw it as  a priority given that we already have a quite decent gas bbq which does a great job.. Fate, however, decided to intervene…

A couple of weeks ago my neighbour cleared out his shed… and among the things he was looking to get offload was his near-new Weber Barbecue. I felt it would have been a tragedy to let such a fine specimen go into landfill.. so I did the noble thing and rescued the Weber from its fate..  I gave it a clean.. and was ready for action..

The question running through my head for a few days was “What would be a suitable dish to try out for my first go with the new beast.. ?” Something known and simple? Standard BBQ fare – chops and sausages? No, the occasion called for something a bit more interesting..  So I consulted my two BBQ cook books – The BBQ Bible and How To Grill – both by Steven Raichlen… and came up with a pearler of an idea – Beercan Chicken! Looking back it was an obvious choice…

The general princple behind Beercan Chicken is that you take a whole chicken, season it, insert a half full can of beer into the cavity, and then cook the chicken – standing upright – over coals for about 90 minutes.  As the beer in the can boils, it is forced through the holes in the top of the can, and spreads throughout the chicken from within – keeping it moist and marinading the bird at the same time. Makes for some visually appealing cooking action…

Turns out it the actual cooking side of things was fairly easy. My biggest struggle was lighting the damn fire.. I have little/no fire lighting experience – probably why I’ve always used gas barbecues. I’m more than a little embarrassed to say that I used a good half a pack of firelighters before I had a fire that would stay alight… But I suppose you have to start somewhere.

The result? … delicious. I would say it was a fairly decent first effort given that I was employing a style of cooking which was new to me. Olivia correctly pointed out that I probably could have taken it out 10-15min earlier.. but it was very tasty – and quite moist. What more do you want?  For those wondering, the beer I used on this occasion was Matilda Bay’s Beez Neez – a honey wheat beer. Very nice.

Visually appealing, both standing up on its rack, and on the plate…

Full set of photos is here.

I would definitely make this dish again… There’s a million ways to season a chicken… and a similar number of liquids you could use to marinade from within.. Guinness, Coca Cola.. Chinotto (hmm, I wonder?)… I should definitely get myself one of these – what a great device..

This initial success with the Weber has also given me inspiration to have a go at doing a nice rack of ribs…. mmmmmmmmm

Apparently Pizza Hut in China do more than just pizza…

Despite being in China where the fried rice is generally excellent.. this was very much what I would expect from Pizza Hut..