Cornell Chicken Recipe (2024)

As a Cornell grad who spent many hours in Baker Hall (not sure it was named after Prof. Baker), I'd love to make this - and it sounds very tasty. But I live in a condo: no outdoor grill. Please advise me how to cook Cornell chicken in an ordinary oven.

I'm from upstate NY (originally) and we made this all the time. I always use raw chicken..if you parboil you lose lots of flavor....and the marinade doesn't permeate the chicken as well.The trick is a grill on low heat..and baste every 8 minutes with the marinade. Best grilled chicken ever!!

Can this recipe be made successfully in a regular oven?

I’ve been making this for decades after getting the recipe from a Central New York native. Quick tip: parboil (20 min.) the chicken pieces (preferably thighs) in the morning, let them cool, then add them to the marinade and refrigerate for the rest of the day. Then the grillmeister basically just has to warm them up and get the grill marks on them, maybe a total of 8 minutes. Leftovers make incredible chicken salad.

Hate at me if you like, but I've always made this with a cup/250ml of Best Foods/ Hellman's mayonnaise thinned out with 1/2 cup/125ml Sherry vinegar along with the poultry seasoning and the salt and white pepper. MY secret is to add 1 teaspoon of Liquid Smoke, everything goes into a Ziploc bag, and I marinate it overnight or longer. Oven bake on a baking sheet and then slap the chicken (I use only thighs,) on a cast iron ridged skillet for char marks. Make the juices left into gravy. Thanks, Mom

At the carnivals of upstate NY the firemen use a mop to baste the chicken

We beat the egg, add oil, beat again & then whisk in the rest of the ingredients. We also make extra marinade for basting. We use bone in breasts, and marinate for 2 days. Never fails to be tender & delicious!

I use a whole bird, submerged in the sauce and then prop it up on a beer can chicken stand. Whole bird=juicy bird.

Born in Utica; graduated from Cornell. Never have I ever heard of Utica Greens being served with Dr. Baker's BBQ chicken. Both are sublime dishes though. Utica Greens is an appetizer. The chicken is served with salt potatoes -- a Syracuse thing --, a roll and butter, and an ear of corn. Baker's Chicken Coop at the New York State Fair was the place to go until it closed. The recipe works at home too.

Haven't made it yet but can I do this in the oven under the broiler?

We beat the egg first, then very slowly add the oil while whisking the egg to make an emulsion. You’re essentially making mayonnaise. Then add the seasoning, and finally add the vinegar. Keeps the marinade from splitting. Unfiltered cider vinegar makes the nicest golden brown crust on the grill. We use this for chicken kebabs, all the extra surface area is great with the marinade.

Can this be baked instead of grilled? Thank you!

My dad has been grilling this for years after his dad taught at Cornell and learned the recipe. He used balsamic vinegar instead and it’s amazing.

You can also freeze the chicken in the marinade. The chicken soaks up more flavor and is very tender.

It should not be a problem because the basting marinade is getting cooked along with the chicken--including 15 to 20 minutes over high heat at the end, during which time you are not adding any more of the marinade. All of the marinade that you put on the chicken will be fully cooked, so no worries.

Cooked according to recipe except that I kept out enough of the marinade to baste the chicken. I'm from the school of not basting with the liquid chicken. or any other poultry, has been used as a marinade.The chicken is delicious and is now in my rotation of favorite recipes.

As an outsider to this tradition, I have to say that putting an egg in the marinade sounds revolting to me. From someone who has actually made this, can you explain how it works and truly why is the egg in it? Thank you.

Chicken tasted great, but this was quite a time consuming dish just to have great tasting chicken.

Chicken was tender and moist, but bland.

This recipe sounds very similar to Maryland Eastern Shore chicken. I a!so add Old Bay as a seasoning in addition to what this recipe shows.

I still use Accent (MSG.) Been eating it every Summer for 65 years now. Watkins Glen NY native.

Prof Baker educated my dad at Cornell and this is the summer food of my youth. Whether hundreds of chickens at the Rotary Club annual bbq or a family summer evening in the backyard, it’s perfect. Only needs fresh corn on the cob and a salad. Perhaps a potato salad if one is feeling peppy.

The bbq chicken of my Northeastern PA childhood, looked forward to every summer when the local firemen's organization offered it up as a fundraiser. My memory has them cooking it on heavy grills set over firepits, long and slow, and basting with mops dipped into pails of the marinade. The best ever. To those asking if you can make it in the oven, sure. Although it won't be AS good as if given a long grilling,the marinade will take you a ways towards that great flavor. Do use apple cider vinegar

Delicious!! Cooked by recipe.

Added three cloves of garlic in the marinade. Blended in a nutribullet. Yum! Also added a pound of ground Turkey for day-of cooking while the chicken sits.

This was delicious. Because of the container I used, I had to make a little extra marinade to cover the parts. Oh, and I chopped some garlic into it because, why not? The skin was crisp, the meat tangy and moist. I highly recommend this recipe.

An Ithaca native, the recipe is right. You can still smell it at all the small towns in central NY in summer. No one I knew marinaded the chicken (the logistics for a fire hall fundraiser would be prohibitive) but just basted on the grill. But the marinade is a good addition and something I do now. Oven works well, and on a grill I cook the chicken off heat at first before finishing over the coals to slow it down. And additions/changes like Belinda's look good but they're not Cornell chicken.

You can bake at about 425F on a sheet pan with parchment paper (for easy cleanup).

Marinate for 24 hours. Seriously. That's what the recipe I downloaded says. And it makes a huge difference. Also indirect heat for the whole time, flipping and brushing with sauce every 10 minutes.

A delicious and nostalgic recipe. This was reminiscent of the grilled chicken we used to eat on the Eastern Shore of Maryland on the way to the beach when I was a kid.