Cola BBQ Chicken — The Fire That Doesn’t Go Out

Late May and the Memphis summer is making its last stand — the temperatures still in the nineties but the light starting to change, the angle lowering, the shadows stretching longer across Deadrick Avenue. I am 60 and the week carried the weight of transition, the way all late-summer weeks do: holding on to what was while reaching toward what will be.

The week\'s main current was mid-august heat. The family moved through the week the way we move through all weeks — together even when apart, connected by phone calls and text messages and the invisible threads that bind a family across distance and time. Rosetta held the center, as she always does, the organizing principle of the Johnson household, the woman who knows where everyone is and what everyone needs before they know it themselves.

I cooked this week the way I cook every week: with intention, with the ingredients at hand, and with the understanding that food made in a home kitchen for people you love is fundamentally different from food made anywhere else. The recipe doesn\'t matter as much as the hands that make it and the table that receives it. I stood at my stove or sat beside my smoker and I made smoked turkey wings, and the making was the medicine, and the eating was the communion, and the cleaning up afterward was the humility that every cook needs — the reminder that the meal is over but the feeding continues, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

I went to bed thinking about the people I love and the food I\'ve made and the fire that doesn\'t go out. The fire is the constant. The fire is the inheritance that Uncle Clyde gave me and that I am passing forward, spark by spark, cook by cook, to whoever has the patience to stand next to me and learn. The fire doesn\'t care about my knee or my blood pressure or the fact that the world is changing in ways I don\'t always understand. The fire just burns. And I tend it. And the tending is the living.

The smoked turkey wings were the week’s medicine — but the fire that made them is the same fire I bring to every bird I put over heat, and this Cola BBQ Chicken carries that same spirit in a form that’s quicker to the table when the summer light is already fading and Rosetta has the family coming in. The cola gives it that sweet, dark caramel backbone that reminds me of Uncle Clyde’s sauce, the one he never wrote down but I can still taste, and tending these pieces on the grill — turning them slow, watching the glaze set — is exactly the kind of standing still that a man in his sixties needs after a week like this one.

Cola BBQ Chicken

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 3 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces (thighs, drumsticks, or a mix)
• 1 cup cola (regular, not diet)
• 1 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional, for heat)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (for grill grates)

Instructions

1. Make the sauce. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine cola, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, black pepper, salt, and cayenne if using. Stir well and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook uncovered for 15–20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat and divide into two portions — one for basting, one for serving.
2. Prepare the chicken. Pat chicken pieces dry with paper towels. Season lightly on all sides with salt and black pepper. Let the chicken rest at room temperature for 10 minutes while the grill heats up.
3. Heat the grill. Prepare a gas or charcoal grill for two-zone cooking: medium-high heat on one side (about 400°F), indirect low heat on the other. Oil the grates with a folded paper towel dipped in vegetable oil.
4. Sear the chicken. Place chicken pieces skin-side down over direct heat. Grill uncovered for 5–6 minutes until the skin develops good grill marks and releases easily from the grate. Flip and sear the other side for another 4–5 minutes.
5. Finish over indirect heat. Move chicken to the indirect heat side. Close the lid and cook for 20–25 minutes, flipping once halfway through, until the internal temperature reaches 165°F in the thickest part of the meat without touching bone.
6. Glaze and caramelize. During the last 8 minutes of cooking, brush chicken generously with the basting sauce every 2–3 minutes, allowing each coat to set before adding the next. This builds a deep, lacquered glaze. Watch carefully to prevent burning — the sugar in the cola sauce will char quickly over direct flame.
7. Rest and serve. Transfer chicken to a clean platter and let it rest for 5 minutes before serving. Pass the reserved sauce on the side for dipping.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 390 | Protein: 32g | Fat: 18g | Carbs: 24g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 620mg