REVIEW: Broil King Imperial™ Chicken Roaster

This is the fourth of five reviews & giveaways we are conducting as part of the Summer Grilling Review & Receive Series. At the end of this report are all the details of how you can win the item we are field testing this week. Be sure to read the rules.

Another staple of the Cave people’s menu is our Juicy Beer Can Chicken. We love how a half-full beer can stuffed up the derrière of a pullet slathered in spices can produce some of the tastiest, tenderest, toothsome farm fowl we’ve ever eaten. The outside is crispy and, if you add some wood chips into a smoker box, full of barbecue flavor. While the inside remains juicy, succulent, and scrumptious.

Though, the process of making this delectable dish can be fraught with pitfalls. If you don’t have a beer can chicken stand (which can be a pain in the butt to clean), the whole thing can easily tip over spilling beer into your grill and ruining your main course. You also need to remember to place a drip pan under the bird, or your grill will be filled with renderings and subject to a major flareup, or even full on fire. Plus, removing the can from the bird can be a real challenge, as can cleanly removing the drip pan from the BBQ. That’s where the Broil King Imperial™ Chicken Roaster with pan promises to be a major step up in the world of suds-steamed poultry.

When you remove the chicken roaster from the packaging you, once again, immediately notice the solid construction of the heavy-duty stainless steel Broil King seems to utilize in all of the grilling racks, roasters and tools they make. Along with the base pan and beer can holder, you’ll find instructions which include a beer can chicken recipe and a note that this grilling accessory is washable by hand or machine. Of course, we opted for the hand wash option when we were done putting the Broil King Imperial™ Chicken Roaster to the test and found that it was easily brought back to a pristine state with warm soapy water and a soft scrub sponge.

Next, the pan and beer holder must be threaded together. According to some early reviews of this roaster on the Broil King website the screw was prone to snap off if tightened too much. While we feel that those individuals probably tried to lock it down tighter than a lug nut on an Indy car, Broil King claims to have had some manufacturing issues with that part that have now been corrected (they even offered to send them the new version, gratis). To be sure, we tightened it down pretty snug and had no snap off. However, since you will be removing the beer diffuser each time for cleaning, and the bird shouldn’t be spinning in a counter-clockwise rotation while cooking, it really doesn’t need to be overly secured.

One of the things we really like about the Broil King Imperial™ Chicken Roaster is the fact that you can pour your brew (or wine, or juice, or …) directly into the diffuser. With all the health concerns these days about aluminum leaching into our bodies, the stainless steel beer holder no longer makes that issue a worry. The venting at the top of the holder also helps disperse the steam more evenly inside of the hen. We used to poke holes into the top half of the beer can to achieve the same result … a step we no longer need to take. That said, because of the heavyweight steel employed, we found it was important to make sure your liquid was at least room temp when added in order to get the steam going in a timely manner. Also, any chicken under 4.5 pounds will probably have some problem fitting over the diffuser. We used a 4.75 pounder here.

Another great feature is being able to load the pan with fresh fruits to ad flavor complexity to your fowl. For our test we added Fuji apple slices and black grapes. The entire thing was easily loaded into our Broil King Baron 440 Grill, which readily could have accommodated another of the loaded 9.5″ square roaster pans over the two center burners – turned off for indirect cooking. A mere 80 minutes later, the chicken was roasted to perfection, easily removed from the grill with the oversized 10 millimeter handles, and then effortlessly separated from the beer holder. It came out so moist and flavorful the Cavekids couldn’t eat it fast enough.

So, if you are a fan of beer can chicken, or would like to give this delectable dish a try, the Broil King Imperial™ Chicken Roaster is a grilling tool you will certainly appreciate. The ease it adds to the process, alone, makes it worth the price of admission. Add in the health benefits, eco-friendliness, and amazing results and this Broil King grilling accessory has earned a spot on your BBQ tool roster.

MSRP – $46.95, seen online as low as $42

Cave Club Rating: 5 Clubs

Cave Club Scale
5 Clubs = The Missing Link
4 Clubs = Rock Solid
3 Clubs = Better Than Sharp Stick
2 Clubs = Not Fully Evolved
1 Club = Should Be Extinct

WANT TO WIN A BROIL KING IMPERIAL™ CHICKEN ROASTER?
This Friday 8/28/2015, one lucky person will win their own sample of the Broil King Imperial™ Chicken Roaster! To enter, you’ll have to read the above review here on the C3 blog and comment below with the words “I WANT ONE” by 11:59:59PM PDT this Thursday 8/27/2015.
Want additional entries? It’s simple! Gain an additional entry when you “Like” Caution: Caveman Cooking on Facebook, and another each when you follow us on Twitter and Instagram. You’ll also gain another entry when you “Like” Broil King on Facebook, and another each when you follow them on Twitter and Instagram. Plus, one more entry by “Sharing” our Facebook link to this week’s review of the Broil King Q-Lite™. Of course, if you already like or follow us on those sites you will automatically receive those entries … just let us know your names on those sites in your comment below. That’s 8 total entries up for grabs to give you a a better shot of winning. Be sure to read the contest rules.
Good luck!
THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED! See who won.

©2015 Caution: Caveman Cooking/UHearMe, Inc. All rights reserved. This review originally appeared on the Caution: Caveman Cooking blog at http://cavemancooking.net authored by Caveman. This recipe may be shared and reprinted as long as this entire copyright message accompanies it.