I was visiting family back in Maine this summer. Mainers are famous for amassing collections of junk in their yards, which occasionally include some real gems. My brother’s yard is no exception. His eclectic collection includes a Meadow Creek Chicken Cooker that seems to have taken root in the Land. He claims that a bolt of lightning caused the tires to go flat :grin:
The irony is that the chicken coming off this grill keeps getting better every year as the cooker grows uglier (kind of like me?). If you’ve never cooked on a MC chicken cooker you really should put it on your bucket list. Turning a massive grate filled with 30lbs of chicken as the fat drips down onto the coals 18” below is a memorable experience. The smells are fantastic, especially if you are mopping the chicken with a Cornell-style baste. The smoke and steam billowing out of the cooker is a sight to behold! (unless you live in the burbs :roll
. The only downside is that this cooker seems to work best when cooking for a crowd, filled with at least 35-45 pieces of chicken.
BASTING RECIPE
We use a Cornell/Roadside recipe that has been tweaked over the years. Through trial and error, I have found that brining with a simple salt & sugar bath works far better than the typical Cornell-style marinade in keeping the chicken moist since you are grilling over direct radiant heat during the entire cook. The direct set-up is perfect for bone-in dark meat with its higher fat content. The grill needs about 20-25 lbs of charcoal lit with weed burner.
Here is recipe for the baste applied after each turn of the grate (every 5 minutes or so). To ensure crispy skin, we go easy with the baste and grill with lid open half of the time. Also, like any Cornell cook, no basting during last 10 minutes of cook due to the raw egg in the mixture. Total cook time time is about 40-45 minutes. So tasty!
1 cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
1 TBS Kosher salt
1 TBS white sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp poultry seasoning
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp white pepper
½ tsp celery seed
1 raw egg
The irony is that the chicken coming off this grill keeps getting better every year as the cooker grows uglier (kind of like me?). If you’ve never cooked on a MC chicken cooker you really should put it on your bucket list. Turning a massive grate filled with 30lbs of chicken as the fat drips down onto the coals 18” below is a memorable experience. The smells are fantastic, especially if you are mopping the chicken with a Cornell-style baste. The smoke and steam billowing out of the cooker is a sight to behold! (unless you live in the burbs :roll
. The only downside is that this cooker seems to work best when cooking for a crowd, filled with at least 35-45 pieces of chicken.BASTING RECIPE
We use a Cornell/Roadside recipe that has been tweaked over the years. Through trial and error, I have found that brining with a simple salt & sugar bath works far better than the typical Cornell-style marinade in keeping the chicken moist since you are grilling over direct radiant heat during the entire cook. The direct set-up is perfect for bone-in dark meat with its higher fat content. The grill needs about 20-25 lbs of charcoal lit with weed burner.
Here is recipe for the baste applied after each turn of the grate (every 5 minutes or so). To ensure crispy skin, we go easy with the baste and grill with lid open half of the time. Also, like any Cornell cook, no basting during last 10 minutes of cook due to the raw egg in the mixture. Total cook time time is about 40-45 minutes. So tasty!
1 cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
1 TBS Kosher salt
1 TBS white sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp poultry seasoning
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp white pepper
½ tsp celery seed
1 raw egg
