Soda-Can Chicken

I have an addiction. I'm not ashamed. The culprit (gasp)... is cookbooks! Just because I was hearing creepy, suspenseful music in my head while I typed that, you can hear it, right? If not please reread and think creepy, suspenseful music. On a serious note, I do love cookbooks. My favorite bookmobile read this month has been Mr. Food's Quick & Easy Diabetic Cooking. If you're new and don't already know what the bookmobile is... think monthly library on wheels catering to us small-towners out in the sticks. I'm not diabetic, but I do like to feed my family as healthily as possibly. Cutting sugar's always a good option... and mostly I'm not a cookbook snob. I love them all :) My husband's very selective about his chicken. He's not a chicken fan, but occasionally I like to sneak one in on him and I have found several recipes he will happily eat. This chicken fits into the "he will happily eat" category. I had a hard time getting my chicken to stand on the pop can, so when it fell over in the oven I left it with the can still in, but turn on it's side (most of it didn't spill from the can). I ended up with a moist, flavorful chicken everyone enjoyed... except Picky Pants Makayla who wouldn't try it because she didn't like the way it looked. The sauce from the can was wonderful. I think you need to try this one! Enjoy :)

I wanted to get a lovely picture of the whole bird before getting sliced into. It didn't happen. The little hand you see belongs to Chicken Bone herself (a.k.a. Sophie). She loved the chicken so much she couldn't control herself 30 seconds while I snapped a picture and was stealing a wing (she actually cried because it was so tender I couldn't get the legs off without it falling off the bone).

SODA-CAN CHICKEN

1/2 cup barbecue sauce

1 can (12 oz) diet lemon-lime soda, half full

1 TBSP dried basil

2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 whole chicken (3 1/2 pounds)

Remove top oven rack. Preheat the oven to 350. Add the BBQ sauce to the half-full can of soda. In a small bowl, combine the basil, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper; mix well and rub evenly over chicken. Place cavity of chicken over the can so it's sitting vertically on can, then place on a rimmed baking sheet and bake on bottom oven rack 1 1/2- 1 3/4 hours, or until no pink remains and juices run clear (mine fell over, but still cooked wonderfully). Cut chicken into serving-sized pieces and carefully pour the remaining sauce from the can over chicken.