Zen and the Art of Cooking Beer-Can Chicken: The Definitive Guide: the Nation's Best Companion Guide

When this book calls itself "The Definitive Guide", it's not boasting! Easy-to-understand recipes for the best tasting beer can chicken EVER. Lots of recipes for desserts and stuff to go with your main dish of BEER CAN CHICKEN! There's even beer can TURKEY recipes! I have tried almost every recipe in the book with ease and no fail results! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I received my first copy of this cookbook when I bought my " Poultry Pal " vertical poultry cooker. The cooker and the the recipes in the book are excellent. I have purchased several more of each to share with family and friends. I'm working my way thru the book and haven't found a recipe my wife and I haven't liked yet. I'm sure there is one, but we haven't picked it yet. We really like the "Bavarian Kraut Bird" calling for "Hefenweizen" , a german sweet wheat beer as liquid base. The recipe recommends an aperitif of Schnapps, but we like Hard Apple Cider. Enjoy!

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Zen and the Art of Cooking Beer Can Chicken provides the reader with the full cookbook experience. Starting with some information about unique cooking devices that infuse your chicken or turkey with different flavorings, the book then covers several important aspects of beer can cooking, including safety; gas, oven, and charcoal grilling; rubs and marinades; and brining/injections. The book is more than just a list of recipes: It wants the reader to get the full experience, with facts and tips on all aspects of the cooking process.

This book has an interesting name and many potential readers might be wondering exactly what is meant by the term "Beer Can Chicken". This is discussed in the books opening sections, with author Cary Black explaining how the beer can method works and how to prepare a beer can for this purpose. The beer can method of cooking chicken inspired special cooking devices like the Poultry Pal Cooker, described in the book's opening pages, and it forms the basis for other kitchen devices that help to cook chicken in a similar manner. These different cooking tools have slight differences, but they function the same way. They allow the meat juices to trickle down into a pan, combine with the beer (or other liquid) placed in the pan, and then bubble up, back into the chicken. The use of an actual beer can doesn't accomplish this feat as perfectly as an actual cooking apparatus, but the basic idea is the same. This produces a chicken that is flavorful, moist, and tender.

I like the fact that this book includes so many nonpoultry recipes. Most cookbooks of this type would have stuck with the main topic of chicken and failed to mention anything else. But Zen and the Art of Cooking Beer Can Chicken includes recipes for both side dishes and desserts. Author Cary Black wanted buyers of the book to have some good recipes for other foods to serve along with the fullycooked bird, so he added these final two sections to the book. They include vegetable side dishes and other things that are compatible with chicken, along with some tasty sweet foods to finish off the meal.

If you're the type who cooks on a budget, you will appreciate the fact that most of the recipes in this book are simple to prepare and they require only a small list of ingredients. Besides the chicken, it is common to see other requirements like onions, potatoes, butter, pepper, salt, garlic power, etc. The liquid flavor essence can call for ingredients like beer, wine, rum, cranberry juice, soy sauce, etc. As long as you have plenty of spices on hand, along with an assortment of beer and liquor, you should have no trouble rounding up the ingredients for most all of these recipes. The ingredients are relatively few, and they are basic ingredientsnot items that are going to cost a small fortune to purchase.

Overall, Zen and the Art of Cooking Beer Can Chicken is a good recipe book for those who like to cook chicken and who like to discover new and creative ways to make an ordinary piece of poultry taste like something prepared by a gourmet chef. The presentation of the book is much like the printout from a standard word document, and it wasn't designed with the most professional look in mind. But the book, taken as a whole, is quite good. It offers some unique and delicious ways to prepare a chicken or turkey along with some good educational material, side dish and dessert recipes, and basic advice to ensure your meal is one worth remembering.

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Beer can chicken has been a fave at my house for a long time. It was nice to find a book with all the brining and injecting information! No one else has that! The desserts were good and so were the accompaniments. I use this cookbook VERY much and really like it. The cartoons and humor made it a book to cook with that made me smile!

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It's not often that you can read a cookbook strickly for the fun of it, but this is one of those times. This book is not only a lot of fun to read, it also offers practical recipes for the cook in your family. Put it on the shelf in your kitchen and use for all your parties .... we did.