A tasty, wine-soaked variation on our Beer Can Chicken recipe

Our favorite Beer Can Chicken recipe [3] is pretty solid, especially if you're making it on a weekend.

But we planned to grill a chicken for dinner last night and at 7:30 yesterday morning, I found myself realizing that I probably shouldn't drink 2/3 of a beer before work after making a marinade for our bird. (The recipe calls to marinate three chickens with one beer, but we were only making one chicken.)

So instead, I improvised and marinated the chicken in white wine instead of beer, because the bottle could be recorked. I also was out of fajita seasoning, so I used adobo seasoning [4] instead.

The resulting chicken was so good. We enjoyed it wiht a fresh salad made from garden spinach. Here's Milou, trying to inch his way toward the leftovers when we were done eating.

[5] [6]

[7]
Wine-soaked Beer Can Chicken

(To make this recipe for one chicken, just divide the ingredients by three)

3 2- or 3-pound chickens

3 12-ounce cans beer, divided

12 ounces of white wine

1 8-ounce bottle of Italian dressing (I used light Italian)

1/4 to 1/3 cup adobo seasoning

Place each chicken in a large zip-top freezer bag. Combine wine, Italian dressing and adobo seasoning. Pour evenly over chickens. Seal bags and chill eight hours, turning occasionally.

Remove chicken from marinade, discarding marinade. Open three cans of beer. Place each chicken upright onto beer can, fitting into cavity (A can stand made for grilling helps with stability here.) Pull legs forward to form a tripod, allowing chicken to stand upright.

Prepare a hot fire by piling charcoal on one side of grill, leaving other side empty. For gas grills, light just one side. Place food grate on grill. Place chickens upright on unlit side of grill. Grill, covered with grill lid, an hour and 10 minutes or until golden and a meat thermometer inserted in thigh reaches 170 degrees. Carefully remove cans and cut chicken into quarters. Serves 12.