Page 121 - Barbecue Chicken Made Easy

stick together. Spill hot beer and fat on bare legs and feet in sandals and your July 4 will be spent in the emergency room.
How'd you like some plastic in your chicken? Brewers do not test the plastic liners inside the can at cooking temperatures, and the ink on the outside of the can is not likely food grade. We asked the folks at Anheuser-Busch, maker of Budweiser and other popular beers. They said “There are many recipes that cooks have been passing around for years that use beer to flavor chicken, and some of them suggest using an actual can of beer in the cooking process. While many people swear by these methods, and apparently they produce some delicious results, it’s not one we endorse or recommend, since we don’t design our cans for this purpose. We do, however, recommend many recipes using beer and for cooks to be creative with beer in many other dishes as well.”
The final exam
Meathead and his wife tasted all the chickens that he cooked in his experiments and paid especially close attention to the areas around the shoulder. They could find no trace of beer flavor. Prof. Blonder also tasted the birds he cooked side by side and found no beer flavor. Since we published our myth busting analysis of Beer Can Chicken, others have verified our conclusions:
Doug Hanthorn, the very clever fellow behind TheNakedWhiz.com also set out to test the beer can chicken concept and came up with similar data.
Michael Chu, the author of the excellent website CookingForEngineers.com tested the Poultry Pal, a device that is supposed to improve on the beer can. He came to the same conclusion.