Coca-Cola-Canned BBQ Chicken

Son of a Southern Chef

Beer can chicken used to be all the rage, but I haven't seen it much lately. It's a good way to more evenly cook a chicken on a grill, since the dark meat is closer to the heat, and can be cooked to a higher temperature than the white meat. This recipe uses a can of Coke instead of beer!

We have a stainless steel stand that holds the can and helps keep the chicken more stable, but you really don't need it. The can itself will hold the chicken up all by itself, but you do need a big enough chicken fit the can.

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello
[00:05]: and welcome to cooking the books with
[00:06]: heather today we are working once again
[00:08]: out of lazarus lynch's son of a southern
[00:11]: chef cookbook
[00:12]: and we're making coca-cola canned
[00:14]: barbecue chicken
[00:16]: so you may have heard of beer can
[00:18]: chicken where
[00:19]: you cook the chicken standing up
[00:23]: on top of a can of beer well this is
[00:26]: that except with coke
[00:29]: so i have a regular full
[00:32]: sugar coca-cola i don't know if this
[00:35]: would work with diet
[00:37]: i assume what we're doing with it later
[00:41]: later this is going to turn into a sauce
[00:44]: and that may not thicken the same
[00:48]: with diet like sugar sort of helps
[00:50]: caramelize and thicken a sauce
[00:52]: it may not do the same thing with a diet
[00:54]: or a
[00:55]: zero calorie coca-cola
[00:58]: but if you want to try it go ahead
[01:02]: but we are going to use the the full
[01:06]: sugar
[01:06]: as um why it doesn't say full sugar just
[01:10]: says coca-cola
[01:11]: anyway um
[01:14]: right now we it's the night before we're
[01:16]: going to make it
[01:17]: uh we're going to make it tomorrow for
[01:19]: like lunch time
[01:20]: um and we're making a marinade so we're
[01:23]: going to
[01:24]: leave it in the refrigerator in the
[01:26]: marinade overnight he says
[01:28]: at least four hours up to overnight
[01:31]: so we're gonna do it overnight this time
[01:34]: and so about half of the can of coke
[01:37]: is going in here the other half
[01:41]: can go it's going to go you know
[01:45]: into the chicken to cook tomorrow i'm
[01:48]: going to add a bunch of stuff
[01:49]: to this and whisk it together so uh in
[01:52]: here i actually have
[01:53]: two things i have some dijon mustard and
[01:56]: some
[01:58]: i use grape seed oil it he calls for
[02:02]: canola oil so any sort of
[02:05]: oil that is neutral neutral vegetable
[02:08]: oil
[02:09]: liquid at room temperature
[02:13]: something what you're looking for here
[02:16]: there we go whatever
[02:21]: make sure i get everything else in here
[02:23]: i have
[02:24]: some brown sugar just a little bit not a
[02:26]: whole lot
[02:29]: i have um mustard brown sugar
[02:32]: paprika so this is smoked paprika which
[02:35]: is delicious
[02:36]: and we use a lot and we keep it on hand
[02:39]: and there's quite a bit of it in here
[02:42]: and then i have some chili powder just
[02:45]: sort of the standard
[02:47]: chili powder mix
[02:51]: good enough
[02:54]: i have garlic powder
[03:00]: and then in this one i have kosher salt
[03:04]: a little bit of cayenne pepper and then
[03:07]: just
[03:08]: freshly ground black pepper so
[03:11]: i'm gonna put all that in there and
[03:14]: that's everything
[03:15]: for our marinade and let me just
[03:19]: run through it again that was mustard
[03:21]: dijon mustard
[03:22]: brown sugar paprika oil chili powder
[03:25]: garlic powder salt black pepper and
[03:27]: cayenne and the coke
[03:29]: obviously and we are whisking this to
[03:32]: combine
[03:37]: i smell i smell that smoked paprika all
[03:46]: right
[03:49]: so now we need our chicken
[03:52]: let me clean up just a little bit
[03:56]: my chicken i have pre-prepared well
[03:59]: gotten it ready
[04:00]: it is a rather large sort of roasting
[04:04]: chicken he calls for
[04:05]: a six to eight pound whole roasting
[04:08]: chicken
[04:09]: take the giblets and everything out of
[04:11]: it
[04:12]: um you can do whatever you want with
[04:14]: those or just throw them away
[04:16]: um and we're going to pour
[04:20]: this marinade in here
[04:23]: i'm trying not to make this
[04:29]: this is by the way a two gallon ziploc
[04:32]: bag
[04:33]: uh i knew that
[04:37]: of course i made a mess uh i knew that
[04:40]: it
[04:40]: probably would not quite fit in a one
[04:43]: gallon but he does say to do this in a
[04:45]: zip top bag
[04:46]: um so
[04:50]: pour this in here
[05:08]: all right i'm gonna close it up
[05:12]: and try to get as much air out of it as
[05:14]: i can
[05:24]: [Applause]
[05:28]: and now make sure that is closed
[05:32]: because he says to i'm going to take
[05:34]: this off
[05:35]: um to massage it into the meat and
[05:38]: skin even make sure it's inside
[05:42]: the way i put my chicken in there
[05:46]: i made sure to pour it sort of into the
[05:49]: cavity
[05:50]: that forms and there we have it
[05:54]: um i will probably leave it like
[05:57]: this uh in the refrigerator but i will
[06:01]: probably turn it over at least once or
[06:04]: twice so that the chicken
[06:06]: sort of all of the sides
[06:09]: get as much marinade as they can
[06:12]: but that is it for tonight this is going
[06:14]: to go in the refrigerator for like i
[06:16]: said
[06:17]: 4 to 12 hours
[06:21]: our chicken has been in the refrigerator
[06:23]: overnight about 14 hours so we want to
[06:25]: eat this
[06:27]: in an hour and a half two hours so we're
[06:29]: getting ready
[06:30]: to put this on we're going to cook it on
[06:32]: our smoker
[06:33]: um you could cook it in the oven finding
[06:36]: a space where it will
[06:38]: be you probably will have to have your
[06:39]: rack at the very bottom
[06:41]: good luck with that um you could do it
[06:44]: on a
[06:45]: on a grill if you're using a charcoal
[06:47]: grill or a gas grill with multiple
[06:49]: burners he says you want indirect heat
[06:52]: you want your grill to be at about 350
[06:56]: so medium heat indirect if you can do it
[07:01]: we have a smoker that we can just set to
[07:03]: a temperature
[07:04]: so that's what we're going to use a
[07:06]: little bit of a smoke uh
[07:07]: texture smoke flavor to this so a little
[07:12]: different than just grilling but it'll
[07:13]: be fine
[07:14]: um so i'm gonna take the chicken
[07:18]: out of this bag and we have this thing
[07:22]: you do not need it it makes the can this
[07:25]: is
[07:25]: a half filled can it's a different one
[07:27]: but pretty much the same as
[07:29]: the one we used for the marinade
[07:32]: and it just fits right in here it makes
[07:34]: it a little more stable
[07:36]: you can just put the chicken on top of
[07:39]: this can
[07:39]: it will be fine i'm going to use my
[07:42]: hands
[07:42]: because otherwise yeah a uh
[07:46]: um tongs and stuff would be much harder
[07:50]: just use your hands and wash them well
[07:51]: afterwards
[07:52]: so i'm gonna take the chicken out of my
[07:55]: marinade but we're gonna keep the
[07:56]: marinade because we're going to use that
[07:58]: to make a sauce later
[07:60]: which means it has to go back in the
[08:01]: refrigerator and try to get as much of
[08:03]: the marinade
[08:04]: out of here as possible and then i'll do
[08:07]: this
[08:08]: facing you guys so you can see it
[08:12]: just put that can
[08:16]: into the chicken's cavity
[08:21]: and there you go it'll just sit right up
[08:25]: and he says to tuck in the wings if you
[08:27]: tuck them back like that that way they
[08:29]: won't um burn as easily
[08:33]: and there we go we're going to put this
[08:34]: on our smoker
[08:36]: for an hour and 10 minutes to an hour
[08:38]: and 15 minutes you can check the
[08:40]: internal temperature of the thigh and
[08:42]: make sure it's at least
[08:43]: 165 and it'll be
[08:46]: all done we'll be back in just a little
[08:49]: bit
[08:49]: to make the sauce the barbecue sauce
[08:52]: that we're going to serve with this but
[08:54]: other than that that's
[08:55]: uh that's it for the chicken and we'll
[08:57]: make a sauce in just a bit
[08:59]: okay my chicken is almost done it's
[09:02]: taken a little bit longer i think we're
[09:03]: going on towards an hour and a half
[09:05]: now from when we put it on
[09:11]: backstage man but it's time for us to go
[09:14]: ahead and get the sauce made i'm not
[09:16]: going to show you cooking it because
[09:18]: really it's very simple
[09:19]: you bring it to a simmer and you simmer
[09:21]: it for 15 minutes
[09:22]: and i've got a bunch of other stuff
[09:24]: because we have some company and we're
[09:25]: gonna have
[09:26]: lunch and i just you know i'm gonna have
[09:28]: a lot going on and so
[09:29]: filming at the stove is not in the cards
[09:32]: for today
[09:34]: so i have the reserved marinade from the
[09:37]: chicken
[09:39]: that i'm going to carefully pour into
[09:44]: carefully as i can given who i am
[09:48]: pour into here
[09:52]: and all we're going to add to this is a
[09:54]: little bit of ketchup
[09:57]: again if you're going to do sugar free
[09:58]: they do make no sugar added
[10:01]: ketchup with um
[10:04]: that's my that's my timer to go check my
[10:06]: chicken again
[10:07]: um that has i think splenda in it
[10:10]: instead of sugar
[10:11]: it's still a little higher in carbs but
[10:13]: because tomatoes
[10:15]: but um lower than regular sugar so you
[10:18]: could try that
[10:19]: let me know in the comments down below
[10:21]: if you do try to do this
[10:22]: in a less sugar version and how that
[10:24]: turns out i'd love to know
[10:27]: but so i'm gonna go put this over
[10:31]: medium yeah we're gonna
[10:34]: bring it to a boil and then just bring
[10:35]: it down to a simmer so i'm probably
[10:36]: gonna bring it to a boil medium medium
[10:38]: high
[10:39]: i'm a little impatient and then take it
[10:40]: down until it's just simmering
[10:42]: for about 15 minutes or until it's a
[10:44]: thickness that you like for barbecue
[10:46]: sauce
[10:47]: and then we'll be done and i'll show you
[10:49]: what the chicken looks like when i take
[10:50]: it off in just a minute
[10:60]: on this episode of cooking the books
[11:01]: with heather you watched me make
[11:03]: coca-cola canned barbecued chicken
[11:06]: from lazarus lynch's son of a southern
[11:09]: chef
[11:10]: cookbook so
[11:13]: i made this and we had some guests and
[11:15]: one chicken was enough to feed
[11:17]: four adults and two children because it
[11:19]: was a really large chicken
[11:21]: hours took um
[11:24]: at least i think an hour and a half to
[11:28]: cook on our smoker it says it was about
[11:31]: 350 so
[11:32]: it just took longer than the recipe said
[11:34]: you know for us
[11:35]: your experience might be different
[11:37]: depends on your setup and everything
[11:39]: i did start checking it after an hour
[11:43]: a little over an hour and one side of
[11:45]: mine was cooking a little bit
[11:46]: faster than the other so i just sort of
[11:48]: rotated it and and
[11:50]: tried to keep them cooking evenly that
[11:52]: way for the last half an hour
[11:55]: um for us i enjoyed that it was a very
[11:59]: different flavor for the barbecue sauce
[12:02]: it was
[12:02]: the smoked paprika was really uh
[12:05]: prevalent
[12:05]: um one of our guests did say she could
[12:08]: tell a little bit
[12:09]: she could feel a little bit of the heat
[12:10]: i didn't feel any but so it really i'm
[12:12]: sure depends on
[12:13]: your heat tolerance um i'm sure my
[12:16]: husband would think there was absolutely
[12:17]: nothing in it but there's only just a
[12:18]: little bit of cayenne pepper in it so
[12:20]: if you prefer something really spicy you
[12:22]: can definitely up that
[12:24]: if you don't you can leave it out i'm
[12:26]: sure it would be fine
[12:27]: i did could barely detect that it was
[12:29]: there at all in the end product
[12:31]: um so i
[12:34]: did feel like the chicken itself needed
[12:37]: some more
[12:38]: salt but i also felt like if there was
[12:41]: more salt in the marinade then the
[12:44]: barbecue sauce would have been too
[12:46]: salty so i'm not sure how i would
[12:52]: deal with that maybe salt the chicken
[12:54]: especially on the skin and on the inside
[12:55]: before i put it
[12:56]: in the smoker after i take it out of the
[12:58]: brine i don't know
[12:60]: so if i make it again i'll probably make
[13:02]: a few alterations just you know to our
[13:04]: preference but
[13:05]: it was it was really juicy it was
[13:07]: delicious the skin was crispy
[13:09]: i liked the sauce um so
[13:13]: all in all we liked it it's a great
[13:15]: method and it's
[13:16]: it has a really pretty result i think
[13:19]: the chicken is beautiful and
[13:21]: a little brown from the from the grill
[13:23]: or the smoker or even the oven
[13:26]: and yeah i think i think we enjoyed it
[13:29]: it was it's pretty easy and you don't
[13:30]: really need
[13:32]: the special gadget that we had honestly
[13:35]: just the can is fine the special gadget
[13:37]: just makes it a little bit
[13:40]: um more stable so
[13:43]: i prefer to use it if we're gonna do
[13:45]: that sort of thing but
[13:47]: anyway if you don't have it it is fine
[13:49]: and other than that you just need
[13:50]: the chicken and you can put it in your
[13:52]: oven or the grill
[13:54]: or a smoker very versatile
[13:57]: so if you enjoyed watching me make this
[14:01]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
[14:02]: subscribe button and come back and watch
[14:04]: me make something else next week