Cornell Chicken Perfected

After screwing up the Cornell Chicken I made last week but liking the results of the marinade, and figuring out a better way to grill chicken with out so many flare ups, here is the recipe I will use to make Cornell Chicken from now on:

Cornell Chicken

Chicken:
2 quarts water
3 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1/4 cup salt
2 (3 1/2-to 4-pound) whole chickens , halved -or- chicken pieces *you can use boneless skinless chicken but I think this tastes much better with skin & bones

Marinade divided down for just 1 chicken: 

2 2/3 c water

1 1/8 c cider vinegar

1/8 cup salt

Sauce:
1 tbsp ground poultry seasoning
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup cider vinegar
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tsp rubbed sage
1 tsp rosemary
1/2 cup olive oil

Directions:
1. For the chicken: Whisk water, vinegar, and salt in large bowl until salt dissolves. Add chicken and refrigerate, covered, for 1 to 3 hours. Do not marinate longer than this or the flavor is too strong.

2. For the sauce: Combine poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, vinegar, mustard, sage, and rosemary; whisk together.

3. Preheat grill with all burners on high for 15 minutes, then turn all burners to medium-low.

4. Remove chicken from brine and arrange on grill skin-side up baste with sauce. Grill, covered, until chicken is well browned on bottom and meat registers 120 degrees, 25 to 30 minutes, basting with sauce halfway through cooking. Flip chicken skin-side down and baste with sauce. Continue to grill, covered, until skin is golden brown and crisp and thigh meat registers 170 to 175 degrees, 20 to 25 minutes longer. If chicken flares up a lot when cooking, turn one side of the grill burners off and place the chicken on that side. The heat from the other two burners will cook the chicken with out the flare-ups. Then at the end turn all burners on to crisp up the chicken.

The original Cornell Chicken recipe called for an egg to emulsify the sauce, this recipe uses Dijon mustard, and in my opinion tastes even better than the original recipe.

Some history on "Cornell Chicken" Cornell-style barbecue chicken, sometimes referred to as "State Fair chicken," traces its origins to a Cornell University professor of animal science, Dr. Robert C. Baker. Baker's original purpose was not necessarily to create a culinary delight, but to simply help New York poultry farmers sell more birds.

In the first half of the 20th Century, chickens were raised primarily as a source of eggs, and often they were not slaugthered until they reach a dressed weight of 4 or 5 pounds. Birds of this size were considered "fryers," any bird larger than this was a "roaster." Dr. Baker reasoned that if a market could be developed for a bird with a dressed weight of 2 3/4 to 3 pounds, poultry farmers could send their birds to market sooner, increasing their turnover. Thus the "broiler" with an optimum weight of 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds per half.

For Dr. Baker's scheme of sending chickens to slaughter sooner to work, he needed to come up with a use for the smaller birds. The chicken barbecue filled the bill nicely. All that was needed was a tasty barbecue sauce recipe.