Cor­nell Chicken Bar­be­cue Sauce

This recipe appears in a vin­tage book­let handed to me by Baker’s widow Jackie. Its title: Bar­be­cued Chicken and Other Meats. There are also detailed instruc­tions with draw­ings show­ing how to cre­ate the Baker-designed bar­be­cue designed for his cook­ing method. It can be accessed online here.

I have used this recipe with some suc­cess. How­ever, the chicken that resulted was a pale imi­ta­tion of the delec­table birds cooked by Jeff Stansted, Baker’s son-in-law, at a char­ity bar­be­cue in North Lans­ing ear­lier this month. He admits the method works much bet­ter when grilling large quan­ti­ties of chicken on the Baker-designed dou­ble grill. For the real thing, it’s worth vis­it­ing the New York State Fair held annu­ally in Syra­cuse in late August where the fam­ily has oper­ated an eatery called Baker’s Chicken Coop for more than 60 years. Here, it is known to many as “State Fair Chicken.”

This recipe makes enough bast­ing sauce for 5 whole chick­ens but can be halved. Jeff insists that small chick­ens work best — 2 1/2-lb birds are ideal. The Baker method involves remov­ing the back from each chicken (i.e. but­ter­fly­ing them), then split­ting each chicken in half lengthwise.

Heat char­coal in bar­be­cue until flames and smoke dis­ap­pear but coals are still hot. Turn chicken with tongs about every 10 min­utes, bast­ing with each turn. Cook until wing sep­a­rates eas­ily and meat is cooked through, about 1 hour. You can douse flames which may flare up from drip­ping fat with a water bottle.

1 egg
1 cup veg­etable oil
2 cups cider vine­gar
3 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp poul­try sea­son­ing
¹⁄₂ tsp pep­per

In large bowl, whisk egg. Add oil; whisk again. Add remain­ing ingre­di­ents; whisk together until com­bined. Store left­over sauce in fridge.

Makes enough for 5 small chick­ens (10 halves).

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