Can gravy be made from beer can chicken?

[pacanis]

I grill my beer can chickens on a pie tin. This pie tin always has a fair amount of liquid in it when I'm through. Can this liquid be turned into gravy? Has anyone here ever done that?
Something about it just doesn't seem right because the chicken isn't cooking in the liquid, as if you were pan frying or oven roasting it, but rather this is just the juice (fat?) from the bird alone that drips off.

What do you think?

[CharlieD]

I don't see why not. You have to use fat for gravy anyway. Might as well use what you already have.

[pacanis]

That's what I was thinking Charlie. I just never heard of anyone doing it, or saving it for later to make a gravy with.

[GB]

When I roast, my bird is not sitting in liquid. It is suspended above, either on a rack or on a bed of veggies. The liquid is the same in roasting as it is in beer can chicken so gravy should work just fine.

[pacanis]

I never roasted a chicken. I thought maybe there was other liquid in there that you use to baste the bird with, not straight chicken renderings.

I think I have a taboo feeling about it. I have no problem pan frying a burger, then putting some butter, flour and beef broth in the pan and making gravy, but lets say I cooked a burger on a George Foreman grill (if I had one). It just doesn't seem right to take that fat that runs into that little tray, pour it into a pan and make gravy with it. To me anyway. Like it's "taboo" or something.

I mean, what's the difference, but it seems like it is different.

Maybe I need to do it once and get it over with (lol).

[GB]

The difference is that with pan drippings from a roast or pan frying a burger you have both fat and fond. With the George Foreman grill the fat drips out, but there is no fond. it is just fat.

[jabbur]

I'd use it for gravy in NY minute! There is no difference from what ends up in the pie tin or the bottom of the roaster. The difference in the burger skillet vs burger Foreman grill is the little bits of meat that stick to the skillet. You get that good beef flavor from those sticky bits that you don't have from a Foreman grill. I agree I would be more hesitant to use that but there really is no reason why it couldn't be used.

[GhettoRacingKid]

when i spit roast my first i put a bread loaf pan under neath it and take the drippings and add it to some chx stock and make a wonderful gravy

[suziquzie]

I do it all the time Pacanis.... I can't make beer can chicken anymore without gravy!

[GhettoRacingKid]

if you put an herb butter under the skin that adds some ncie flavor to the bird and the pan drippings also.

the fat of the butter and rendered skin i use for the roux to thicken it

[pacanis]

Super! So it has been done!

Thanks. It's obviously something I need to get over (lol). I may not make gravy tonight, but I'm going to save the juice in a tupperware container for later!

[suziquzie]

LOL, I have 3 of them... just in case I ever have a gravy cravin'.
DH wouldn;t let me save 1 more.....
big meanie.

[pacanis]

I'm all out of my pork juice containers, Suzi. My father brought me over some sliced pork from a roast last week. I looked at them and thought, what am I going to do with these without any gravy? I put them in the freezer a couple days later, waiting for the day I cooked something I could make gravy with and then I'll use them for an open faced sandwich.
So IMO, you can't have enough of those containers tucked away in your fridge or freezer.

[LAJ]

I toss the excess liquid from my beer chicken. I worry about contamination.

[GB]

Contamination from what? It's been cooked.

[LAJ]

If the drippings are dripping into a pan underneath the bird they may not be thoroughly cooked. Chicken blood in a pan. I am leary. But, to each his own.

[GB]

Why wouldn't they be cooked? The drippings are even closer to the heat source than the bird in the case.

[Kayelle]

Contamination? You have to bring gravy to a boiling point, right?

[pacanis]

Boy, this is an oldie.

Yeah, if there isn't contamination from roasting it in the oven, why would there be contamination from "roasting" it on top of a grill with the lid down? It's basically the same method.

That said, I still don't pour the juice from a beer can chicken into a pan and make gravy from it. No idea why not. I don't use the drippings from a smoked Italian chuck roast either. Maybe some day

[CraigC]

Originally Posted by LAJ

If the drippings are dripping into a pan underneath the bird they may not be thoroughly cooked. Chicken blood in a pan. I am leary. But, to each his own.

If there is blood in the drip pan, the bird isn't done. I believe most folks us an indirect cooking method and an instant read thermometer. If the chicken is done, the drippings are as well. Plus the fact that your thickener won't reach full potential until it boils.

Craig