Brined the chicken overnight with 8 cups of water, some salt, sugar and 24 ozs of light beer. Also soaked some cherry wood chips in a mixture of beer and water. Once the brining was complete I washed the brine off and patted dry. Basted the outside of the chicken with a little olive oil and then add my favorite rub from Dinosaur BBQ called foreplay. It brings a nice cajun flavor I hopped would compliment the brine.
Once the chicken was ready I loaded it onto the beer can chicken roaster my inlaws gave me for christmas a few years ago. I put a little bit of Harp beer and some more rub in the beer can attachment and let the chicken rest for 30 minutes.
Fired up the egg to 400 degrees with the wood chips and plate setter, feet down. About an hour 1:20 on the egg and the breast area was at 165 (have I mentioned how much I love the dual probe thermometer?). Let the Chicken rest for 15 minutes and then carved it up.
The Chicken was great. The brine added a nice flavor profile that went well with the foreplay rub, a little sweet, a little spice and some salt all mixed together. The skin was nice and crispy and full of flavor. We thought overall it was one of our better roast chickens and would be an easy reliable meal for when we have guests over. Definitely something I'll make again, play with the brine, rubs and wood some.
Also something I learned with the dual probe thermometer. There is an order in which you need to turn it on, otherwise the receiver will not pick up the temperatures. You need to run the receiver (the wireless portion you take with you), then turn on the part that the probes plug into. I was about to curse the thermometer and give it an early addition to the trash, but finally researched it (I guess I should have read the directions first). You learn something new every day.
