Food Friday: Oven Beer Can Chicken

Alex & I have wanted to try beer can chicken for a long time, so when we got a beer can chicken holder for Christmas, we gave it a try right away. And it was delicious. 

We followed a rub recipe from Michael Symon of The Chew, but changed it a little based on what we had in the house. 

Oven Beer Can Chicken

4-pound whole chicken
1 12-ounce can of light beer (we used Stella, because that's what we had)

Dry Rub:
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic salt
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon Trader Joes's 21 Seasoning Salute (this is a blend of tons of seasonings)
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
pepper
Juice of 1 lemon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix all of the dry rub ingredients in a small bowl. 
Once the chicken has been cleaned, including the cavity, squirt lemon juice on the inside and outside of the chicken. Rub the rub mixture over the outside of the chicken. 
You can refrigerate the chicken for a few hours if you'd like. We skipped this step and it tasted great. 
Fill beer can holder with beer and place chicken over the holder, legs down. 
Place chicken in oven, then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. This will give the skin a nice initial crisp. After an hour, check the chicken's internal temperature. Once it reaches about 165 degrees, it should be done. 
Take the chicken out of the oven and let it sit for about 10 minutes, then serve!

The chicken turned out very moist and full of flavor. It's great with some veggies, like mashed potatoes and carrots or a green salad and rolls.

We used the leftover chicken for chicken noodle soup, which is a great way to use leftover chicken. This is my favorite chicken noodle soup recipe, from Tyler Florence. 

If you give this a try, let me know how it turns out!