A few weeks ago we had family visit from out of town. In preparation for their visit we bought a 12 pack of Coca-Cola. We had a wonderful visit but no one drank any Coke. What in the world were we going to do with all that cola? Then I remembered a Peg Bracken recipe I could use in this instance – Coca Chicken.

Coca Chicken

2 to 3 pounds of chicken
3/4 cup of ketchup
1 cup of Coca-Cola

Place the chicken in a casserole dish. Warm up the ketchup in the microwave. Add the cola to the ketchup and stir. (It will be fizzy.) Pour the fizzy ketchup over the chicken. Cover and bake for 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Take off the cover and bake for another 40 or until done. The sauce will no longer be fizzy and will in fact be quite tasty.

If you want to go the extra mile (it really is worth the effort, believe me) you can reduce the sauce. You do this by waiting until the chicken is done. Then move the chicken into another baking dish and put back into the oven. (Either reduce the oven temperature or turn it off totally.) Pour the sauce from the casserole dish into a pan. Bring the sauce to a boil. About five or ten minutes of boiling should leave you with a thicker, richer barbecue sauce. Spoon it over the chicken when you serve it.