When I lived in upstate NY, the local volunteer firemen would grill chicken with this and it was lovely, wonderful stuff. I want to do it on the broiler since it’s over 110F here and no way I’m standing over a grill. So do you recommend marinating the chicken in the sauce first, or just basting, which is the way I recall the firemen doing it. And the recipe I found calls for cooking oil, but what about butter?
I’ve made Cornell chicken a number of times, and, for me, marinating it for 4 to 8 hours or so is the key. Then you’re supposed to baste it every 10 minutes while grilling. I’ve never used butter in mine. The basic recipe is pretty standard: about a cup of vinegar and oil each, an egg, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning (or whatever combination of poultry spices like rosemary, thyme, etc., that you like.)
There’s also a marinade from Buffalo called Chiavetta’s that is a similar idea, but without the oil, and with garlic.
Would olive oil work??
I would use a neutral oil myself. There’s no reason you can’t do it with olive oil, but the flavor will be different.
Thanks!!!
BTW, I do like using the general Cornell chicken idea as a basic starting off point for various grilled chicken recipes. You can play around with using a different acid (like lemon juice, or a mix of lemon & vinegar), different oils (olive oil cut with a neutral oil works well, especially with the lemon flavor), and different spicing (for example, I like garlic and lots of hot pepper flakes or Thai red chiles). It’ll obviously be different than Cornell chicken at that point, but it’ll make great grilled chicken.
Ohh, hot flakes, yay!!!
And I use the lightly flavored OO, so I think I’ll be OK.
It’ll be fine. It might taste slightly different than you remember, but it will be good. Also, use cider vinegar if you can. And make sure that if you do use the marinade for basting, that you are properly cooking it (the sauce) through, as the marinade will have been sitting in raw chicken parts, obviously. I usually reserve some sauce before I marinade the chicken to baste it on the chicken towards the end of cooking time (once the chicken is mostly cooked, and with a clean brush that hasn’t touched raw chicken parts.)
Butter has a tendency to burn at higher (broiling) temperatures. I’d use some sort of oil, depending on what I had on hand.
As others have said, marinate then baste.
Use an oil with a high smoke point for less charring.
I marinate a minimum of 4 hours, up to 24 hours.
I’ve never heard of this before, I’m going to give this a try.
Well, after all this discussion, guess what I’m making for dinner? 
How’d it turn out?? Mine is happily marinating tonite for dinner manana!!!
recipe please
Cornell Recipe (for 4 leg quarters or 4 breast halves):
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup cider vinegar
5 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Combine all ingredients, marinate chicken for at least 4 hours, up to 24.
Grill.
Delicious. I made one half of the chicken with my standard Cornell recipe and the other half with a lemony piri-piri type of thing (olive oil, lemon juice, a little bit of cider vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic cloves, and plenty of Thai red chiles.) Cooked them over a Weber Smokey Mountain, direct fire, about two feet or so from the coals (the official Cornell Chicken recipe calls for cooking on a grate 26" over a direct fire.)
Here’s a picture of them on the WSM.
Here’s a link to the original recipe
1 cup cooking oil
1 pint cider vinegar
3 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 egg
(I screwed up above where I said a cup each oil and vinegar. It’s two parts vinegar to one part oil. Whoopsie. Doesn’t make much of a difference. ETA: I do adjust the salt downward a bit, too, especially if I’m planning a long marinade. If I’m doing a quick 1 hour marinade, I’ll do the full amount of salt. For 4 hours or so, I’ll use about half that amount.)