This recipe comes from Cook's County Magazine and has become my favorite way to do chicken on the grill. The recipe is long, but most of it is an explanation of how this works and is a fascinating look at how professionals test and design recipes. The actual cooking is simple.

Barbecued Beer-Can Chicken by Jeremy Sauer for Cook's Country Magazine

Beer-can chicken is a barbecue-circuit trick that's been around for years. The beer can is placed inside the cavity of the chicken and acts as both stand and steamer. The dry heat of the grill attacks the chicken from all sides, rendering the skin to a crackly crunch. Meanwhile, the beer steams happily away on the inside, ensuring especially moist meat.

Or at least that's how things are supposed to work. But if you cook a whole chicken directly over hot coals, things can get ugly real quick. Unless cooked with indirect heat, drippings from the chicken can cause unwelcome flare-ups and char the skin. To make room for the upright bird, I placed it in the center of the grill and banked coals on the sides. Now I had an empty space below the chicken and radiant heat to brown the bird front and back. After adding some soaked wood chips to the coals, I had even heat, lots of smoke, and enough room on the grill to cook two small chickens at once.

With the fire under wraps, it was time to start piling on the flavor. I saw the beer can as my workhorse, capable of pulling triple duty, not only as a stand and steamer but as flavor container. By itself, the beer didn't provide much more flavor than plain water, but a few crumbled bay leaves added to the can did the trick, infusing the meat with potent herbal flavor.

Now that I had the smoke from the grill and the flavorful steam from the can, it was time to spice things up. I knew from past experience that certain seasonings perform better under fire (some spices taste worse when subjected to heat, while others taste better), so I  turned to five with a definite affinity for barbeque: black pepper, cayenne, paprika, salt, and sugar (light brown tasted best).

Next I wondered how to achieve cracklin' crisp chicken skin. I tried oiling the chickens before rubbing on the spices, but these birds ended up flabby and flavorless. I tried patting the chicken dry with paper towels before rubbing on the spices, and this time I rubbed them not just on the skin but under it and inside the chicken cavity. This was a big improvement, although the skin was still turning out a bit on the thick side, especially around the thighs.

Hoping to help drain the excess fat, I used a skewer to poke holes all over the skin. This worked perfectly, rendering out the fat in those hard-to-reach places and leaving an extra-crispy skin. An unexpected benefit of this technique was that the skewer captured and deposited small amounts of the rub deep into the meat -- in essence, the skewer was injecting seasonings into the chicken, making for a full-on flavor invasion.

The final step was to make a quick glaze with beer, ketchup, vinegar, and sugar. The glaze was tasty, but after I added some of the spice rub and a couple splashes of hot sauce, it was great. I applied the glaze about 20 minutes before the chicken was finished cooking (any earlier and it might char), and when I lifted the lid off the grill, these birds looked amazing and tasted even better.

The following is a recipe for 2 chickens, serving 4-6. Look for chickens that weigh between 3 and 3 1/2 pounds; if they are significantly larger, you may have trouble fitting the lid on the grill.

Spice Rub:

1 Tablespoons packed light brown sugar

2 Tablespoons paprika

1 Tablespoon salt

1 Tablespoon black pepper

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Glaze:

2 Tablespoons packed light brown sugar

2 Tablespoons ketchup

2 Tablespoons vinegar

2 Tablespoons beer

1 teaspoon hot sauce

Beer and Chicken

2 (12 ounce) cans beer

4 bay leave, crumbled

2 whole chickens (3 to 3 and 1/2 pounds each), patted dry

4 cups wood chips

For the spice rub: Mix all 5 rub ingredients in a bowl.

For the glaze: Place all glaze ingredients plus 1 Tablespoon Spice Rub mixture in a bowl. Mix.

For the rest: Measure out 1 cup beer from each can. Use this beer as part of the ingredients needed for the glaze. Add 2 crumbled bay leaves to each can. Place the beer can on a solid surface. Grabbing a chicken leg in each hand, plunk the bird cavity over the beer can.

Use a church key can opener to punch holes in the top of the beer can; this will allow the maximum amount of steam to escape. Loosen the skin on the breasts and thighs of the chicken by sliding your fingers between the skin and meat. Massage the spice mixture on the skin, under the skin, and inside the cavity. Using a skewer, poke the skin all over to render as much fat as possible.

For Charcoal grill:

Soak wood chips in a bowl of water for 15 minutes (make sure the water covers the chips). Light large chimney starter filled with charcoal briquettes (about 90 coals) and burn until charcoal is covered with a fine gray ash. Place 13" X 9" disposable aluminum roasting pan in the center of the grill. Pour half of the coals into piles on each side of the pan, leaving pan in the center. Scatter wood chips evenly over the coals, set cooking grate in place, cover and let grill re-heat for 5 minutes.

Transfer the bird-on-a-can to your grill and place in the center of the grate, balancing the bird on its 2 legs and the can like a tripod (see photo above). Cover and grill until skin is well browned and very crisp, 40-60 minutes. Brush with ketchup glaze and grill, covered, until the thigh meat registers 170 degrees (about 20 minutes longer). Remove from grill and let rest for 10 minutes before carving.

For Gas Grill:

Soak wood chips in a bowl of water for 15 minutes (make sure the water covers the chips). Place chips in small aluminum tray and place tray directly on primary burner. Turn all burners to high and close the lid, keeping grill covered until the last wood chip begins to smoke (about 15 minutes). Leave primary burner on high and turn off all other burners. Transfer the bird-on-a-can to a cool part of the  grill, balancing the bird on its 2 legs and the can like a tripod (see photo above). Cover and grill until skin is well browned and very crisp, 40-60 minutes. Brush with ketchup glaze and grill, covered, until the thigh meat registers 170 degrees (about 20 minutes longer). Remove from grill and let rest for 10 minutes before carving.