Aluminum Can Chicken

Wash the chickens well, pat dry and coat with oil on all sides.

Mix together ingredients for dry rub and split the rub between the chickens, coating each well.

Choose your beverage. The friend whose recipe I began with used apple juice and it’s a nice, no-nonsense flavor that doesn’t disagree with the dry rub. I emptied 2 cans of Diet Coke and filled them half full each of apple juice.

Preheat your grill to 350º, allowing for indirect heat (if you have three burners, use only one and three for cooking). If you have a 2-burner grill, turn off the one that isn’t necessary for gas flow.

Invert one chicken with legs down — place carefully over one of the beverage cans and place over the “off” burner on the grill, placing the legs like a tripod to balance the chicken. Repeat with Chicken Number Two.

Close the grill and leave it alone for one and a quarter hours. Check for doneness with a thermometer probe in the thigh (not against a bone) for 180º, or pierce the meat and see that the juices run clear.

Remove cooked chickens from grill, remove the cans and allow birds to stand 10 minutes before carving.