A Grilling Experiment
Soda Can Chicken
"Roast Chicken" was on the menu earlier this month and since the resident barbecue chef had some time, we decided to try the "soda can" technique. We couldn't decide which flavor of soda to use, so we tried two varieties - Dr. Pepper and Sprite.
Start by opening the soda can and pouring out about half the liquid. (You'll probably want to just drink it, so we don't recommend trying this on Fast Sunday like we did.) Punch a couple of additional holes in the top of the can.
The next step is to prepare the chicken by rinsing it and patting it dry and then rubbing it with a spice mixture. You could use whatever you want, but we decided on 1 tablespoon each of sugar, salt, black pepper, paprika and Everglade seasoning. That turned out to be the perfect amount for two chickens. Then plop the chicken leg-side-down on the soda can. We used some aluminum foil pie plates just to help keep the grill a bit cleaner.
Take them outside and cook them over indirect heat (that means that on our three-burner grill we lit the center flame and had a chicken on each side) in a closed barbecue for about 2 hours.
We checked them about every 20 minutes. If we were smart, we would have basted them occasionally, but I didn't think of that until just now!
Doesn't that look gorgeous?
It was really quite delicious. And although there wasn't much of a difference, the family consensus was that the Dr. Pepper-flavored chicken tasted just a little bit better.
We didn't drink the remaining soda, just poured it down the sink! (But this picture is really to show you the happy face made by punching the additional holes.)
"Roast Chicken" was on the menu earlier this month and since the resident barbecue chef had some time, we decided to try the "soda can" technique. We couldn't decide which flavor of soda to use, so we tried two varieties - Dr. Pepper and Sprite.
Start by opening the soda can and pouring out about half the liquid. (You'll probably want to just drink it, so we don't recommend trying this on Fast Sunday like we did.) Punch a couple of additional holes in the top of the can.The next step is to prepare the chicken by rinsing it and patting it dry and then rubbing it with a spice mixture. You could use whatever you want, but we decided on 1 tablespoon each of sugar, salt, black pepper, paprika and Everglade seasoning. That turned out to be the perfect amount for two chickens. Then plop the chicken leg-side-down on the soda can. We used some aluminum foil pie plates just to help keep the grill a bit cleaner.
Take them outside and cook them over indirect heat (that means that on our three-burner grill we lit the center flame and had a chicken on each side) in a closed barbecue for about 2 hours.
We checked them about every 20 minutes. If we were smart, we would have basted them occasionally, but I didn't think of that until just now!
Doesn't that look gorgeous?
It was really quite delicious. And although there wasn't much of a difference, the family consensus was that the Dr. Pepper-flavored chicken tasted just a little bit better.
We didn't drink the remaining soda, just poured it down the sink! (But this picture is really to show you the happy face made by punching the additional holes.)
It looks interesting. The picture of both chickens in the grill... well I must not be a grown up yet... I can't stop giggling!
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