Barbecue University with Steven Raichlen; 107; Birds on the Can

This time on barbecue. It's the one. It's the only beach beer can chicken. Dumpling all run on the barbecue. And the long and the short of it. Turkey in way. As a professor which verged on the phone. From the start reading rye resort in the smokin Allegheny mountains of West Virginia. It's Barbecue University with Steven Wright. Barbecue University with Stephen Wright but. Brought to you by.

Weber Stephen Products Company makers of the summit gas grill an outdoor oven series. Weber. And by. Working with. Books for parents kids cooks gardeners and all the people they love. Work. And buy. Royal. Products for backyard barbecues and professional for over 60 years. Royal Oak is an American barbecue tradition. Today the

professor applies the beer can principle. Every few years a new dish comes along that captures the taste of the nation. First it was sushi then tiramisu this year it's beer can chicken. I first saw a beer can chicken at the Memphis in May International barbecue contest. It was love at first by first sight it looked outrageous. It tasted outrageous and it's outrageous Lee. Easy. There. Before we get to our chicken I want to set up our grill and we're going to be using a method called the indirect method of grilling. Now you indirect grill when you're cooking large pieces of food like whole chickens or Turkey or tough pieces of food like brisket and spare ribs and I'm starting with a grill here that has a built in gas starter so pushed the igniter and bring my charcoal my charcoal is in the wire side baskets and I'm using lump charcoal I like lump charcoal because it

burns cleanly and it burns fast. But don't worry if you don't have a gas ignition system because it's easy to light the charcoal when the chimney started the chimney starter is a cylindrical tube that has a partition in the center. The charcoal goes in top. And the crumpled newspaper goes in the bottom and we'll just light this with a match. And it takes about 20 to 30 minutes to light your charcoal. The advantage of a chimney starter is the cylindrical shape helps you light the coals evenly while our colds are lighting. Let's go back to our chicken. So the first step is to open a can of beer and I love any recipe that begins open a can of beer and drink half. Actually we're not going to drink half today. We're going to use half the beer to soak our wood chips and I'm using hickory chips here those who give us a great authentic BBQ flavor. Step number two is to make a basic barbecue rub. I'm making what I call a floor for Rob. It's equal parts

salt and pepper. Paprika and brown sugar. And when I mix the Rob I like to use my fingers to break up any clumps that may be in the brown sugar. So for our chicken a little bit of the rub goes in the main cavity or the south end a little bit of the rub goes in the north end. And we want to put a little bit of the rub in the beer and the beer may foam up this is normal. The drop in the beer helps flavor the chicken from the inside out. The next step is to brush the chicken on all sides with vegetable oil. And I do this for two reasons first of all the oil helps the spice mix add here to the chicken skin. And second of all it will help that the skin crisp. So final step is to sprinkle the chicken on all sides without a barbecue rub. And when you sprinkle it on don't forget to rub it into the meat. That's why it's called a rub. And I'll sprinkle once and then I want to

sprinkle the backside. And rub serve two purposes in barbecue. They are used as a seasoning but the salt and sugar in the rubble actually help cure the meat. Now comes the fun part. We raise up the chicken. With one hand. We insert the beer can with the other. And lower the chicken on to the beer can. Don't worry this bird is feeling no pain. Pull the legs forward. And don't forget to tuck the wing tips behind the birds. So here's our bare canned chicken and you can see why some people like to call this chicken on Brown. Now before we put our chicken on the grill we need to finish setting the grill up for indirect grilling. OK she's the coals are lit and the way you tell the coals are lit is that they are glowing orange and just beginning to ash over. And I will pull one of the baskets of coals to one side of the grill one to the other side of the grill if you don't have these side

baskets just rake the coals into a mound on either side. Adjust the bottom. Vent holes to make sure that they're wide open. We want to put a drip pan in the center. This is very important when you're cooking a fatty food like chicken and then we'll place the grill grate on Tucker's And one thing I love about this grill is that the grate has these little trapdoors these little side panels so you can add more charcoal and add your wood chips. The next step is to put the bird on the grill directly over the drip pan between the two fires not directly over the fire. And then we'll add a handful of wood chips to each side and you'll see almost as soon as I add these hickory chips they'll start smoking and that smoke is what gives you the authentic barbecue flavor and go our wood chips. There we go. And the last step. Is to.

Cover. The Grill. And we want to adjust the top then holes to obtain a temperature of about three hundred and fifty degrees now covering the grill. Always cover our grill with indirect grilling covering the grill creates the convection effect holds in the smoke. That will turn your grill into a barbecue. Some people say Well doesn't the chicken tip over and some clever barbecue buffs have devised some chicken roasting devices so here we have the chicken n which is a metal frame that holds the beer can upright chicken roaster and this baby is called the chicken up and this is great for people who may like wine with barbecue instead of beer. All you do is open the wine I'm using some Johannesberg Riesling put it in the smoking cylinder. And that way our chicken will smoke roast over wine instead of beer. Well let's see how our chicken is doing. Boy that is smoking just beautifully. And you know what if it starts to Brown too much at the top Remember heat rises. You can

just put a an aluminum foil pashmina over the top of the chicken. That will keep it from browning too much. Cooking time here is going to be about an hour to an hour and a quarter. After about an hour you may need to replenish the coals just lift up that trapdoor you can add a few more wood chips and that's it. This is about the easiest kind of BBQ I know how to make. Well it's been about an hour and 15 minutes so let's check our chicken. Then you can see the smoke has really given it a futile golden brown color. Now the three ways you can test for doneness and the first is you can kind of wiggle the leg and feel it move loosely in the joint and the second is you can insert a skewer and the juices that come out should run clear. See those are unclear but the best way really is to use an instant read thermometer inserted into the deepest part of the thought but not against the bone. We're looking for about a hundred sixty one hundred seventy degrees so this baby is cooked. And now we

need to take it off the grill. And this is pretty easy really. You just grab the chicken by the can with one hand steady the top of the other pan. And it goes right on our plate. And the way you take it off the can is this. You grab the can with one set of tongs you grab the bird with the other you just twist the bird and lift it lift it right off the can as you see here. OK and we'll put it on the cutting board. Boy that chicken is so annoyed it's actually squirting. And when you serve it you want to serve it with the breast forward. Not the canned side forward. So it looks outrageous. It tastes outrageous and it's outrageously simple. Beer can chicken. The French have this fancy shhh Mancy dish called duckling. Well we've taken a little American ingenuity and a very tall can of beer and of course our grill

to create a beer can duck. Now the first step is to empty your can of beer you can drink it. You can have your friends drink it. And then we're going to fill the can with freshly squeezed orange juice. Or you could use our own soda. And Garang mine yeah. Now we've kept something French This is a French the Cure made with cognac and wild oranges. You can add a little bit we can add a little bit more. We want to fill the can about halfway OK the next step is we're going to take a strip of orange zest. This is the oil rich outer rind of the yarn and add it to our can. And finally I'd like to cut the r in half. You'll see why in a minute. Next thing you need is the duck. Now duck is a great bird to make on the grill but it's very fatty. So the first thing you want to do is inside the duck there are pockets of fat in the base of the duck. So we want to pull all those pockets of fat out. And the next thing we want

to do is trim off some of this next skin which is also very fatty. And in order to help the duck fat drain out I'm going to take a sharp implement I'm using a carving fork here and I'm going to prick the skin all over. Now note that I'm pricking the skin. I don't want to prick the meat just the skin. And last of all if you turn the duck over there are pockets of fat right behind the thought. So I'm going to make a slit in each pocket of fat as you see here and this will help the fat drain out. OK step number three. We want to season the inside of the duck with a little coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. And we did the nether end so let's do the upper end as well. A little salt. A little freshly ground black pepper. And the next step is to paint the dark skin with extra virgin olive

oil not the olive oil will go really nicely with the orange and it will also help the duck skin Chris. So we'll paint the duck over with the olive oil. And finally to reinforce our nge flavor we can rub the duck with a cut on each yank. Read that book and you know what you can even put a squeeze of orange juice right in the cavity and the last step will be to season the duck on the outside very generously with salt and pepper. Again I'm using pour salt and freshly ground black pepper and get in there and rub those seasonings right into the duck. Ok that's why they can't rub. Salt pepper. And now we're ready for the final step. And that is the beer canning of the duck will hold the beer can with one hand and lower the duck on to the can you can see the Tallboys just the right height. And pull the legs forward so the ducks sit stabling.

And then we'll talk our wings back. We'll just bring the dog over to the grill. And we're going to be indirect grilling the duck. So I've set my grill up. For indirect grilling. I've got the outside burners lit on high. No heat over the inside burner. And because Duck is such a fatty bird I put a drip pan on the grill and I'm going to grill the duck on the drip pan and we can place a place here right here in the drip pan. Just make sure it's sitting stable and of course you want to use a grill that is tall enough to accommodate a duck. Now beer can chicken beer can poultry is great for any kind of poultry but it's especially good for duck because when you roast a duck in a vertical position all of the fat drains off and there's a lot of fat in the duck. This will produce a half to one cup of fat. And this is no secret of course to the Chinese who roast their Peking duck in a vertical position. The cooking time when our duck is going to be about an

hour and a half to two hours I'ma close the grill to create the indirect grilling. Well it's been about an hour or so let's check on our duck. And you can see here boy this is a beautiful color. Now a couple things I can do. I'm going to reprint my duck with a carving fork. And this will help release a little bit more of the fat. You can already see how much fat has accumulated in the roasting pan. I like to cook my duck a little bit more well-done than the French looking for one hundred eighty or a hundred ninety degrees. I think that gives you the tenderest and most crispy skin. And we're up to about a hundred and fifty degrees now so I'm saying we need about another half hour on the Duck. In the meanwhile no beer can bird of any sort is complete without a barbecue sauce. And while many Americans think of barbecue sauce as being red sauce I'm going to make an orange sauce. So I have here

apricots that have been soaked in orange soda orange juice and chicken stock. I soak them for about a half an hour until they were soft and then puree the mixture and next I added orange marmalade lemon juice and brown sugar so we have the sort of sweet and sour thing going in the sauce. And finally I'm just going to finish the sauce by adding a little Granmar And yeah I love that sound. You know what Mark Twain said. Too much liquor is just enough. Now I'm going to cook the sauce right on the grill with the duck and we'll get a little cross exchange of flavors going here so we need about another half hour on the Duck. So let's check on our duck. And look at that the Wings are loose the color is beautiful golden brown. So she's ready to come off the grill. Now I'll just grab the duck. By the can and move it to my cutting board here this is a very healthy way to prepare duck. Now comes the only real tricky part. We're going to remove the duck from the beer cans we want to grab the beer can

with one set of tongs. And you know what you need to you can actually loosen it with your hand the duck holder right off. And then we'll just place the duct on the platter. Now let's not forget about our sauce. On the sauce has simmered in it's beautiful thick. By the way. What didn't I do. I didn't put the sauce on the Duck while it was cooking. Now a lot of guys out there have trouble distinguishing between Brill and Bert. And one of the big problems is you put the barbecue sauce on too early. So I'm going to add the sauce right at the end and I'll just ladle it over look at that. Ladle the sauce over the duck. We can serve the rest of the sauce on the side. Look at that. You know. Let the French have their duckling all wrong. I'll take beer can duck any day. A little imagination can be a dangerous thing. Once you understand the concept you can be or

can any bird and I mean any bird first time I saw those jumbo sized can of lager. I thought Thanksgiving. As for this six ounce can of pineapple juice. Well I knew quail was never going to be the saying. Let's start with the big guy. You know the drill. Open the can. Drain out half the lager which you can drink or use to moisten your hickory chips. Then with a church key opener will just poke a few extra holes to fluster steaming and make sure the can is open. As for our turkey this jumbo sized can will work for a 10 to 12 pound turkey. Now the challenge to barbecuing Turkey is to keep it from drying out. And I brought out the heavy artillery here. This is a Cajun injector It's like a giant hypodermic syringe and I have made an injector sauce it's a mixture of chicken stock melted butter and lemon juice and Cajun seasoning and you fill the injector just like you would a hypodermic needle. You see

I'm going to draw the injector sauce up into the canister into the syringe. And then we'll inject our turkey. I like to go deep into the breast which is traditionally a part that dries out. And we can add a little bit more injector sauce to this side. Put a little bit more injector sauce in this. You can see how I'm plumping up the breast. Finally a little more injector sauce in the back. Now you know how fond I am of Rob's and this rub is sort of poultry Rob will use the poultry seasonings oregano sage time salt pepper and paprika. Once again I like to mix the ingredients for the rub with my fingers to break up any clumps.

To instead of brushing the bird with oil we're going to use melted butter and I'll just paint it all over the bird first on the breast side. And then we'll turn the bird over do it on the backside just brushing a butter helps pris the skin. Let me turn the bird over here. You could also use extra virgin olive oil or you could even use walnut oil or sesame oil for an exotic flavor. Now we'll sprinkle the bird with our rub. We want to just poke the bird on all sides first we do a little sprinkle. Rub the brush into the bird. That's why it's called a run. Let's turn the bird over. And we'll rub the breast side it's really important to get this side rubbed well so the bird roasts evenly and seasons evenly.

We do in a kid we get the top here. That's great. Now the for the next step I need a little help from my friend so Ricky come on over here. Hi Ricky it's David. Ricky is the director the Greenbrier cooking school and Ricky I'm going to lift the bird I want you to bring the fosters. Sure you can overthink a little bit though I don't know you. That's we will just leave the rest of the beer in there. OK and I'm going to lower it. And there we go right to seat it. Yeah. Just have to seat it just right. OK now let's move on to our quail Ricky would you hand me that quail place. A slow night over here this little guy over there. And I'm also going to need the pineapple juice. Oh right. And I'll tell you what I don't want to drink in the beer but on Iraq I don't I said with a pineapple yeah now I know that's not his style so I will pour this soft. OK. Now how are we going to get this little quail on his big wooden which were big but I know they're probably laws against this in West Virginia. Anyway I'm going to make a little cut

on one side of the backbone on the other side of the backbone. And then I want to brush the quail on all sides like Rush the Cantu. Yeah yeah we'll do that in just a minute I want to brush the quail on all sides. With sesame oil. This is oil maced made from roasted sesame seeds. OK and we will boil the can this is important because it's kind of a tight fit when you make your canned quail. Next thing I want to do here is just season the quail. On all sides of salt. And a little bit of our freshly ground black pepper. And then finally you can see Yup you hold that for me this just sits. Just right on the Alcan So there we have quail on a throne. And here are some other quail ready to go in the grill. I have a turkey is roasting already so let's take a look. Where's. Oh now how's that baby going to look on your Thanksgiving table. Looks great. So what do you say we try this. I think that's a good idea to have a piece of that skin here.

We. Don't really get it now. Ricky if you'll bring that platter over let's take big bird poo off the grill care. He's having and we got him over. To the center here. All right let's take a look at our quail. OK. So our quail been cooking at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes and you can see that they are they're just looking beautiful too and the leg Wiggles freely in the joint So those are cooked. So let's pull those off working time. He's like yummy. Yeah. Line them up like little soldiers here. There you go marching off to the dinner table. OK. So here you have it the long and the short. Oh and beer can chicken for the sense that doesn't it.

I think Ricky tell you what let's have a leg. I'm going to take this one. And you take that. OK. That's about the size of your give me another one of those quail eggs. They're just too cute. Ben thank you. Cheers. On. That's not how these my good friends. President. Karzai. That's it for this time. See you next time at barbecue use. All the recipes from today's show. And this season of BBQ you are contained in Stevens award winning book how to grill this 512 page volume is filled with more than a thousand dollar photos. Plus step by step instructions for 150 recipes. As well as tips on grills here seasonings and sauces that will heat up in a backyard barbecue. How to grill can be ordered online by credit card. To learn more about barbecuing and grilling visit our website at w w w

dot BBQ you dodge any. Barbecue University with Stephen Wright but. Brought to you by. Weber Stephen Products Company makers of the summit gas grill an outdoor oven series. And by. WORKMAN. Books for parents kids cooks gardeners and all the people they love. WORKMAN. Many newts many occasions would be by Robert Mondavi. And by. Roy only.

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