Poulet biere au cul

That's French for 'beer butt chicken', a method of roasting a chicken impaled up the fundament with a half full can of beer so that the beer vapourizes slowly and keeps the inside of the bird moist and tender. It means setting the rack low as the bird is standing vertically.

Thinking about trying it and wondered if anyone here had done it and if so whether it was a worthwhile cooking method.

[Jenise]

I did it so long ago I only remember thinking "so what". To me it was just a novelty for men who love standing around a barbecue holding cans of beer and making crude jokes. There are better ways to roast a moist chicken; starting with brining.

We very often use a vertical roaster -- the durable equivalent of the beer can. If you use a strongly scented marinade it works well. (Yes, there is the macho thing but not in my house.)

It's this one: https://techelectronic.ca/shop/blazin-chicken-roaster/

I did it on grill a couple of time (drinking wine and telling subtle jokes), but haven't in years. It was good chicken, but not so good to become my go-to. But would consider doing again as a fairly easy way to roast and keep moist outside with minimal effort. Can't really see doing it in oven.

I tried it with wine, and with beer. Like Jenise, so what! I get much better flavors roasting a whole chicken, sitting on a bed of onions, or lemons, and using good marinades. Especially love spatcocking the chicken to cook flat. I also like to stuff the chicken with garlic cloves, lemon wedges, and rosemary sprigs.

I've heard this technique called "chicken on a throne". The whole chicken for Thai Volcano Chicken is cooked this way. For the Thai dish the chicken is rubbed with a seasoning mixture before being grilled vertically with a beer can up its cavity. Afterwards the beer can is removed and the chicken is stood upright on the serving dish on its butt. Some high-proof whiskey is poured into the cavity and is set alight. That's the volcano bit.

-Paul W.

OK, so not going into my 'try me' recipe folder. Thanks for the feedback.