The Best Cornell Chicken With Tips

The Dish Is So Simple That I thought It Would Be Ordinary…Big Mistake!

This is the best Cornell chicken (my new favorite chicken dish) using the original recipe with two changes that really made it great.

So why did I make it?

I had a catering and they wanted rib eyes with sides. I added a second entrée because the rib eye is so expensive and I wanted to bring the price down.

This customer has the best piece of equipment I ever worked on, a Viking gas grill that gets so hot you have to use long tongs. I love lots of heat when cooking. I remembered this chicken dish which is very simple and I could cook it on the grill.

It came out so moist and tasty I made it the next day at home.

So, What Is Cornell Chicken

Cornell chicken is a BBQ chicken with a white BBQ sauce. It is marinated in a herby vinegar emulsified marinade.

The recipe was invented in the 1950’s by a Cornell University poultry scientist to increase poultry consumption to help the farmers in Upstate New York.

What You Need

This is enough for two to four chickens depending if want to use the marinade for your BBQ sauce (recommended, if you are afraid of raw egg don’t be because there is so much acid it will kill the bacteria) there is a trick to make a quick sauce with mayo below.

• 2 cups cider vinegar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs (the original recipe called for on but 2 make a better emulsion)
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt (cut back to 1.5 with tablesalt)
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp poultry seasoning, I used fresh herbs sprig of rosemary, 2 tsp thyme, 1 tbsp fresh sage, 1 tsp oregano (dried)
• salt brine (see below)

The First Big Tip! Brine The Chicken!!!

Make a simple brine of 1 cup of salt to 1 gallon of water. The brine will make the chicken nice, moist, and tasty with a better texture. You should always brine you chicken, and turkey especially boneless skinless chicken breast (only 1 hour) For the science read this.

Cut the chicken in half and remove the backbone. Give it a two hour bath to overnight in the brine. I made a mistake and spatchcocked it the first time and it wasn’t as good because of the constant turning was to rough and the skin pulled off the leg.

Let’s Do It! The Marinade and Basting Sauce

Put the cider vinegar, eggs, salt, black pepper, and poultry seasoning in a blender. Turn blender on high and slowly drizzle the oil in like you are making mayonnaise until it thickens.

Take out a cup. Place the chicken in a gallon bag and pour half a cup in the bag with the chicken and save the other half cup for basting. The remaining sauce can be saved for another chicken and used for BBQ sauce with your meal. Marinate for two hours.

Tip– If you are concerned about the raw egg in the bbq sauce (there is plenty of acid to kill the bacteria) then before you add the egg and oil remove 1/4 cup and mix it with 1/2 cup of mayo for your BBQ sauce.

Grilling

Get a medium high fire going and grill the chicken flipping and basting every 5 minutes until the liquid runs clear or the chicken reaches a temperature of 170 in thickest part of the thigh. You could also bake it.

Tip– point the leg side toward the hottest part of the fire so they cook faster because the breast only need to get to 160 degrees.

What to serve

Serve the chicken with a salad or simple vegetable and one of these great sides

The Best Potato Salad with less mayo

Peruvian Potato Salad a show stopper and a must try

Cold Oil Fries easy simple French fries no double fry

Mac and Cheese with a modern technique

Sylvia’s of Harlem great Cornbread